JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Saying he was both “alarmed and aggravated,” Sen. Doug Libla, R-Butler County, promised constituents he will double-down on efforts to curtail “unelected bureaucrats from the state and federal government,” in a recent letter to his hometown paper in Poplar Bluff.
Libla said that state and federal agencies were interfering in citizen’s lives at an all-time high, and that he would do whatever he could to stop it. It started with the Department of Revenue last year, when Libla and many of his Senate colleagues took issue with the state department scanning and retaining personal documents when issuing new licenses.
“They just promulgated these new rules with no oversight, none,” Libla said. “They end up punishing citizens. And a bureaucrat, who is going to be moving around a lot and doesn’t have to be elected, they don’t care if they occasionally skirt the line, but I do.”
The Department of Natural Resources also ended up on Libla’s radar for its handling of the Doe Run mining lawsuits and the environmental damage involved. Libla said that Doe Run has done a phenomenal job of cleaning up damage caused by a previous company, but the DNR and the Environmental Protection Agency don’t seem to be satisfied.
Speaking of the EPA, Libla has taken issue with the latest round of rules proposed about wood-burning stoves. The EPA is currently considering adopting new rules prohibiting or heavily regulating the use of wood-burning stoves for heating homes. Libla’s district, the poorest Senate district in Missouri, has lots of families relying on wood-burning stoves, he said.
“The next thing you know, [the EPA] goes from proposed rules to just enforcing it with no oversight,” Libla said. “It’s easy to forget that lots of people live differently than you, and your rules can make their lives impossible to maintain. I can’t allow that.”
While he was at it, Libla took a shot at the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, although he hoped the addition of his former Senate colleague, Ryan McKenna, as director might change that.
“Here is a department that is far too lenient about allowing frivolous lawsuits to be brought against a company,” Libla says. “The Department will pay for a lawyer for an employee, but the business has to defend itself. We need to reign in these lawsuits, which costs business so much money and make them afraid to come to our state.”
Libla said he largely blamed term-limited lawmakers and self-involved bureaucrats for the new sea of regulations he sees as threatening his constituents. But he added that department directors could change the culture of their workforce and better serve the state.
“Many departments, including some of the ones I mentioned, they do good work,” Libla said. “I don’t want to discourage or speak against the hard work they do, but I think there’s also a problem with the culture at some of these places with transparency and openness. Those changes can start at the top. Employees take cues from leaders and the department directors need to be real leaders for us.”
Libla said he would fight hard for a bill moving through the legislature declaring the EPA’s wood-burning rules null. He told constituents he’d end the scanning practice at DOR (a recent House amendment would end the practice as well and was approved earlier this week) and promised to keep the federal government as far away from the Ozark National Scenic Riverways as possible, which he said, “belong in Missourians’ hands.”
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
