U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn made a visit to DeKalb County on Tuesday, May 31, as part of her 95-county statewide tour. Blackburn visited the DeKalb County Courthouse, where she met with local leaders who voiced their concerns about everything from gas prices, school funding, and even farming costs.
“We love doing this and getting to meet our local elected officials, chamber of commerce, and school officials to find out what’s going on and what they need and how we can best help,” Senator Blackburn said. “It’s all teamwork.”
When asked what she was hearing were the biggest issues facing Tennesseans, Senator Blackburn said it was funding for law enforcement and infrastructure. “The big issues seem to be about drugs in the county and the presence of Fentanyl, roads and infrastructure, water, broadband, and resources for schools.”
“Of course economic development is always a big issue and DeKalb County is doing great,” Blackburn continued. “The economic growth in the county is great, and we’ll continue to work with the county and make certain that the resources to meet that growth are going to be available.”
As far as economic issues facing America, Senator Blackburn said that restarting the U.S. energy sector would go a long way.
“What we need is to keep the emphasis on is restarting American productivity in energy. If we would restart the energy sector, that would go a long way in dealing with the inflation issue and the price at the pump. The price of gas, of natural gas, the price of electricity, all of that has gone up.”
“Also, when you look at the regulations, Biden had done 69 regulations in his first year, and most of them were aimed at restrictions in the energy sector,” Blackburn said. “Compare that to Trump’s presidency, in four years he did 22 major regulations, and in his first year he took 1,600 regulations off the books.”
“The pipeline [Keystone] would have been finished by the end of 2022 if Biden hadn’t have stopped it,” Blackburn continued. “When you talk to people in Alaska, they want to be able to drill in the area. Biden has taken that offline. People on the Gulf Coast want to drill offshore, but that has been taken offline. Gas is estimated to go above $6 a gallon by the end of August.”
Another issue Senator Blackburn addressed was safety in schools and the gun debate. “We want to make sure that technology is available in the schools and that it is safe. Fencing and the hardening of those components. What we have to realize first of all is that you can’t take away everyone’s second amendment rights. There are some things that need to be done. There is money in the pipeline for the elementary and secondary school fund. There is $100 billion. That should be used to harden schools.”
“Secondly,” Blackburn continued, “you need to make sure that juveniles that have a record that that record is not expunged when they turn 18. Law enforcement need access to those records.”
“Third, anyone who is severely mentally ill should not be allowed to buy any kind of weapon or firearm.”
In 2018, Blackburn became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Tennessee, defeating former Democratic Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. She took over as the state's senior senator in January 2021, when outgoing Senator Lamar Alexander retired.
