Congressman David McKinley met with representatives of the agricultural community in Mineral County on Friday, discussing a variety of issues including overregulation, infrastructure and the tax code.

Following the meeting, McKinley told the News Tribune he has conducted 21 such meetings over the course of the past year as he strives to keep in touch with the concerns and issues with which his constituents must cope every day.

One of the biggest issues the Congressman emphasized was government overreach and over-regulation which touches many aspects of everyone's lives, from taking control of water-filled ditches on a farmer's land to declaring there's too much CO2 in the air to be able to locate an industry there.

He also spoke about how government tends to formulate its regulations with big cities in mind, because their denser population affords them larger representation in the House.

Rural America, he said, is being overlooked as the government caters to the big cities.

A need for better infrastructure was stressed, so that farmers can move their products to market.

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