That communication is the key to getting things done in America, Washington and Limestone County was the thrust of Rep. Dale Strong’s “Washington Update” Jan. 25 in Athens.
When that doesn’t happen, you get the current federal political climate, he said.
“The Republican Party has failed to communicate to the American people the accomplishments that have happened” during the past year, said the freshman congressman representing Alabama’s 5th District, which includes Limestone County.
“I mean, how do you get stuff done if you’re not talking,” Strong told a roomful of business, town and county leaders during a breakfast Q&A hosted by the Athens-Limestone County Chamber of Commerce.
Answering that question, and several others posed by Wes Coleman, the chamber’s civic and governmental vice chair, Strong touched on current issues including small business, the Southern border, securing land within the United States, illegal drugs and the role his alma mater — Athens State University — and other local educational institutions play in supplying the workforce of North Alabama.
Held at Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives on Pryor Street, the venue was in line with Strong’s political wheelhouse. Since being elected to the office in November 2022, he has served on committees for House Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Space and Technology.
But a question out of the gate about the main obstacles to the success of small businesses, such as those that populate Athens and Limestone, got a quick answer: “Two things,” Strong said. “Government overreach and inflation — those are the two. … When government gets involved, that’s when the problems start.”
Pivoting from Main Street to the border, Strong’s list of problems grew exponentially as he recounted several of his visits there, learning firsthand about the challenges of illegal immigration (consisting of people not just from Mexico, but “from 160 countries”), drug trafficking (“for every drone we send up at the border, the Mexican cartels have 17”), sections of a of a border wall formerly in storage (“at a cost $350 million to American taxpayers”) and significant U.S. lands purchased by those from other nations (“380,000 acres of our land are owned by China”), including some parcels near military installations.
But accomplishments more proud than those are happening in Limestone County, Strong said.
The “growing success” of institutions such as “Athens State, Calhoun and Wallace” are crafting a technically savvy workforce ready for the challenges of North Alabama’s — and North America’s — industrially computerized needs.
“Athens State is playing a pivotal role in North Alabama in getting us graduates,” the congressman said.