{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-confronts-biden-director-over-admins-hostile-takeover-of-missouri-family-farms/", "Hawley Confronts Biden Director Over Admin\u2019s Hostile Takeover of Missouri Family Farms", "2024-07-10", "2024", "2024-07", "Republican", "Senate", "MO", "Josh Hawley", "H001089", "www.hawley.senate.gov", "hawley", "https://www.hawley.senate.gov/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "In a Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs hearing today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) pressed Eric Beightel, the Biden-appointed Executive Director of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council, on his agency\u2019s endorsement of the Grain Belt Express. This green-energy transmission corridor is set to cut across Missouri, confiscating farmers\u2019 land in its tracks while failing to adequately compensate landowners.\n\n\u201cWhy is it a good idea to go over the heads of the people of Missouri and give this expressway\u2014which is being developed by a private company that\u2019s making probably billions of dollars on it as they take farmers\u2019 land\u2014why is that a good idea?\u201d asked Senator Hawley.\n\nWatch the full exchange here or above.\n\nSenator Hawley also made Director Beightel aware that the Grain Belt Express is highly controversial throughout Missouri and farmers in the state strongly oppose the construction of it.\n\n\u201cOn behalf of the people from my state, I think it\u2019s outrageous that a private corporation can take this kind of land. We\u2019re talking about a massive corridor right across the central part of Missouri. We\u2019re talking about taking land from farmers whom whose families it has been in for generations,\u201d Senator Hawley continued. They don\u2019t hire lobbyists. They don\u2019t appear before your agency\u2014clearly.\n\nSenator Hawley has repeatedly gone to bat for Missouri farmers against the Biden Administration\u2019s hostile takeover of family farms.\n\nLast November, Senator Hawley sent a letter to Invenergy CEO Michael Polsky, demanding the private company make commitments to operate in good faith, as well as adequately compensate landowners affected by the Grain Belt Express construction campaign.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:32:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hawley.senate.gov/hawley-confronts-biden-director-over-admins-hostile-takeover-of-missouri-family-farms/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4960537664592266, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}