Freshman congressman Larry Kissell scores big victory in recovery package

CONCORD — Larry Kissell walked into his newly-opened district office in Concord and started shaking hands.

But he's used to it by now.

After spending nearly a year on the campaign trail and defeating the incumbent, Robin Hayes, a Republican from Concord, the freshman congressman is more than just learning the ropes in Congress.

His textile trade protection amendment, dubbed the Kissell Amendment, extended federal purchasing rules the Department of Defense has been working by for more than 60 years — to purchase uniforms that are 100 percent made in the United States — to the Department of Homeland Security.

"Homeland Security said they found it to be burdensome," Kissell said in an interview in his district office Tuesday, "but we made the statement that we were going to expand the effort to put common sense in the bill."

The bill — the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — made it through contentious partisan wrangling in Congress — with no Republicans voting for it. President Barack Obama signed it into law Tuesday in Denver.

The congressional delegation from the Old North State, from both sides of the aisle, shepherded the amendment through the process, with Republicans Howard Coble and Sue Myrick endorsing it — despite voting against the overall stimulus package.

The North Carolina textile industry, which lost about 10,000 jobs last year, hailed it as a way to keep jobs and tax dollars in the country.

The American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition estimated that about 21,000 jobs could be created as a result of the Kissell Amendment.

"When you see a retail meltdown that we are seeing in manufacturing sector," said Cass Johnson, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations, on a conference call Tuesday afternoon, "even a small amount of work can mean the difference between plants staying open or staying closed."

For Kissell, it's a rare victory for a freshman congressman. New members of Congress, most of the time, are the last ones to be heard around the committee table or on the floor of the House. But these are desperate times and the freshmen congressional class had to hit the ground running from day one.

"We were sworn in and the serious work started the next day," Kissell said. "But we wanted to be a part of the serious work. You just have to run a little bit faster and shout a little bit louder."

At the open house, about 150 people jammed into the tight hallways in the basement of Gibson Mill to meet Kissell. There were supporters and campaign workers, there were fans, there were city and agency officials — Public Health Director Fred Pilkington, Kannapolis Mayor and Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Misenheimer and Randy Cauthen and City Manager Mike Legg, Concord City Council members Ella Mae Small and Hector Henry, and City Manager Brian Hiatt, among others.

They came to stand in the impromptu receiving line and shake his hand, to make themselves seen and to ask for money. At least that is what Locust Mayor Harold Greene did.

"We need money for a new city hall," he said. "I'm very pleased to see what's happening with the stimulus package."
Greene said Locust is applying for grant money through Stanly County to expand wastewater infrastructure that will hopefully come from the stimulus package.

"We're ready to go," Greene said. "We just need the money."

A lot of cities and towns are in the same situation. Concord is facing a budget shortfall this year. Kannapolis can't move ahead with infrastructure projects for the North Carolina Research Campus. Kissell carries these, plus the thousands of hard-luck stories he hears along the way, when he comes to the 8th District and back home to Biscoe.

"You can't even begin to count all of them," said Tom Thacker, Kissell's district director.