When Trent Kelly arrived in Washington, D.C., to take his seat as Mississippi District 1 representative in the House, he didn’t get the committee assignment he most covets.
That’s nothing new for a freshman Congressman, of course. In Kelly’s case, the available slots were even fewer because he entered Congress in mid-session after winning a June special election to replace Alan Nunnelee, who had died in office in February.
“When I got to D.C., there were only spots open in four committees,” Kelly said during a town hall meeting Thursday at the Caledonia Community Center. “I don’t even remember exactly what they were, but I wound up with a spot on the Agriculture and Small Business committees.”
The agriculture committee, Kelly said, suits him well.
“I’m proud to be on the agriculture committee because from what I have learned, 36 percent of this state’s economy is based on agriculture or is agriculture-driven. It’s probably even higher in north Mississippi.”
The committee appointment he still covets as he goes into his first full term as a representative is a spot on the armed services committee.
“Given my 30 years in the military, that’s a committee I’d love to serve on,” he said. “But I’m happy with the assignments I have.”
Noting a group of about 30 Caledonia High School students in the 75-person gathering, Kelly used his situation to encourage the young students.
“The way I look at it is I want to do the very best job I can on the committees I’m on,” he said. “For you young people, the most important job you have is the one you have now. Do well in that job and doors will open for the next job.”
Sworn into office on June 2, the former district attorney in Tupelo, said he entered the post with a sense of awe.
“The first day I was there, it kind of hit me,” he said. “I started thinking of all the great people who came before me. I didn’t really feel like I had the pedigree to be here. But then I began to think that it must have been the same way for them, too, and I realized that all of the work I had done before were really a preparation for this.”
What has also been surprising to Kelly is the difficulty the decisions he is routinely asked to make.
“You know, when you see something about a bill on TV, you just get a sound byte and it seems pretty simple,” he said. “But once you get there, you realize there are no easy votes. At least, I haven’t found it to be that way.
“For example, the Export-Import Bank. A lot of people call it crony capitalism, so that’s an easy vote, right? But then you realize that if you vote against it, those jobs at Taylor Machine Works in Louisville and Caterpillar in Oxford go away. Now, it’s a different story. That’s just one example.
“So I pray and scrutinize every word of every bill and try to get as much information as I can. No matter how you vote, you realize you are going to make about half the people mad, so at the end of the day, I ask myself one question: What’s best for the people of north Mississippi? I vote based on that.”
Another big change, Kelly noted, is nature of his role.
“As a Colonel or a battalion commander and later as a district attorney, I made the decisions,” he said. “I could make it happen. Now, I’m one of 435.
“It stinks,” he said, laughing.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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