River supporters in Missouri, Illinois and Iowa are working together to get the kind of comprehensive flood control on the upper Mississippi River that has been used on the lower Mississippi for more than 85 years.

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, met Friday with members of the Upper Mississippi, Illinois, Missouri River Association to announce the effort to “work regionally” on river issues. In a letter sent this week, Graves and four other members of Congress called on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to work on a comprehensive flood control plan and river management plan.

“We’ve got $250,000 that’s being appropriated,” Graves said.

He wants to get to the point where funding is closer to the $300 million a year that’s spent on the lower Mississippi.

Graves said one of the big problems now is that disparate funding levels are used in the upper basin and coordinating priorities for the betterment of the entire basin would be a better course of action.

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A.T. Still University, along with local residents, received a visit from one of Missouri’s elected officials to Congress.

U.S. Congressman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) stopped in Kirksville on Thursday to tour A.T. Still University and meet with local residents for a town hall discussion.

While on ATSU’s campus, Graves visited the Inter-Professional Education Building, where he toured the School of Dentistry and Oral Health and the Human Patient Simulation Center.

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U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-6) introduced legislation on Thursday, March 10, forcing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deport illegal immigrants living in America on expired visas. H.R. 4726, the Preventing Illegal Visa Overstays Act, would withhold pay for the Secretary of DHS until the Department enforces standing visa laws.

“This week we tragically saw what can happen when we fail to enforce immigration laws,” Graves said. “There are 12 million illegal immigrants in this country – drawing welfare benefits, sending their children to public schools, and pushing down wages for American workers – but the problem extends well beyond amnesty and open borders.”

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A pilot with a commercial rating and more than 3,000 hours of flight time, Sam Graves co-chairs the General Aviation Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. He helped found the annual Wing Nuts Flying Circus, an annual airshow in his hometown of Tarkio, Missouri, and is restoring a 1943 Beech AT-10. He talked to Air & Space Editor Linda Shiner in October.

Air & Space: Why did you see a need for a congressional General Aviation Caucus?

Graves: When I got to Washington [in 2000], I noticed that there are so many people who are regulating aviation who don’t understand it. And in Congress, there were very few people advocating for aviation. And you have people out there who have medical issues related to pilots’ licenses and are trying to sift their way through. Or they have certification issues, or problems with their local [Flight Standards District Office]. When they would go to their member of Congress, there was very little understanding of what the problems was, or what the regulations are. That’s how I got started doing this stuff, and trying to help…

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Congressman Sam Graves, R-MO, visited Jefferson City Thursday to keynote the Missouri Chamber of Commerce’s Conference on Transportation. Graves served as the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Small Business for six years before terming out of the position. He now serves as Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, where he is hosting the federal transportation funding debate.

“We’ve got our our own funding issues in D.C.,” Graves told the conference attendees. “We have to figure out long-term funding proposals and how to fund transportation projects in the future.”

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U.S. Rep. Sam Graves said regulatory overreach is more than a nuisance — it’s a threat to the separation of powers set up in the U.S. Constitution.

Graves, a Republican from Tarkio, was in Canton on Wednesday for a town hall-style meeting with constituents at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Mo. He said the Obama administration has directed federal agencies to create rules that failed to pass in Congress.

“We’re seeing this particularly with the EPA,” Graves said.

Congress did not approve a proposed law a few years ago that would have allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to control waters outside of navigable waterways. But the EPA now is seeking the power to control water not only in navigable waterways, but also “next to a jurisdictional water” or near a “significant nexus.”

That broad and vague wording is intentional, Graves said.

“It would give them the power to control any water, anywhere,” he said.

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