In the News
Laurel Impact: Chamber of Commerce hosts networking event featuring US Congressman Mike Ezell
Laurel, MS | Kristie Reddoch,
January 10, 2024
The Jones County Chamber of Commerce hosted a special First Friday Networking event on January 5th featuring US Congressman Mike Ezell to kick off the new year. The event provided an opportunity for its members and potential members to meet and network with one another as well as offered a presentation regarding information about the Chamber itself and the value of membership. Congressman Ezell also visited with attendees and shared more about his accomplishments in Washington D.C. “I’ve been in office now for a year,” stated Ezell. “I’m glad to be representing you in Washington. It’s an honor. My staff and I, so far, this past year have been able to help over 1,000 people with their various issues with the federal government.” He then went on to share some of those accomplishments. “One of the most rewarding things that I’ve been able to do is recover some medals for a WWII veteran who was 100 years old. We went to his birthday last year in Covington County and gave his medals back. “We passed the H.R. 1 which was The Lower Energy Costs, which we passed back in March. It’s now sitting over at the Senate which would open it back to the American way of digging for oil and open these pipelines and those kinds of things which I think are very important. “We also passed H.R.2 which is the Secure the Border Act. It has been one of the most comprehensive border protection acts, but so far, we have not had very much progress in stopping the flow coming across that border. “We had $30 billion sitting in unspent Covid funds that we were able to get back. We also were able to give our troops and our fighting men and women in the military a 5% pay boost which has been the biggest one they’ve had in decades. We’re supporting the Israelis over there and they’re fighting the Hamas. We’ve also been able to do some things to fight some Covid fraud that has been out there. “Some things that I’ve really been working hard on is to try to do something with VA and our veterans. I’ve been able to write some legislation that supported men and women in law enforcement. “We were able to pass the Serve Act. When our military, national guardsmen are called up for duty and if they’ve been enrolled in Community College, some of these areas they’ve lost their credits when they were called up for duty, so we were able to cut that loophole to be able to make sure that our men and women in our national guard when they’re trying to get a higher education don’t lose their college credits. “We were able to pass the Fast Pass Act to speed up some of the processes to help with getting our goods back and forth to our different vendors and different people across the country as we’ve had some issues over time during Covid and some of the other problems that we’ve had with our major ports and some of the problematic things such as backlogs in the transportation, getting of goods back and forth. “One of the other things I was very proud of that we’ve been able to do, we cut some loopholes out in the postal service. As we’ve all seen, the dangers with the flow of fentanyl, we were able to cut some loopholes out and the federal government has kept the Chinese from being able to send so much of that fentanyl through the United States Postal Service which was just a loophole that we were able to find and cut that out. Very proud of that. “I sponsored over 140 bills since I’ve been in office between Agricultural and Rural Healthcare and try to help public safety and crime. “We passed the National Defense Protection Act for our Military. I think it’s so important that we really get out there and support our military right now. It’s a tough time to be in the military, to be in any sort of public service, so we’ve got to support our men and women in uniform. They put their lives on the line every day. “Something else that was a social issue that I took issue with early on last year was there was a Biloxi VA put up a gay pride flag which should not have been flown out in front of a military facility. We were able to get that down. Had a lot of complaints about that flag being flown down there. “We’ve been able to deliver over $3 billion to our districts supporting jobs and communities from Waynesboro to Pearlington.” Ezell also spoke of the efforts to get a Post Office in Poplarville following the collapse of their old post office building and then summed his speech up by underlining the heart behind all these works and more. “I want to serve you. That’s what we’re about. We’re about serving you. That’s the priority that has been day one in our offices of public service. Our office is about service.” Ezell stated how his background as a law enforcement officer and his family’s careers in education have given him insight into the life of regular people whom he aims to serve. Following Ezell’s presentation, the director of the Chamber, Chris Tullos, then gave a presentation providing more insight regarding the Chamber itself and the benefits of membership therein. “As we’re kicking off this year, we definitely wanted to make sure we did a little bit of a reset, make sure we explain some the benefits, make sure you understand what you’re getting out of the Chamber and what the Chamber is all about.” He then explained more about the Chamber. “The Jones County Chamber of Commerce (Jones County Economic Development Support Group) was created in 1983 to promote business growth and job creation for the community’s benefit. The Support Group is a 501(c)(6) non-profit entity that shelters the Jones County Chamber of Commerce and carries the registration under the National Chamber of Commerce directory. We’re a non-profit, and we were created to aid the Economic Development Authority, or EDA, which is the umbrella that the Chamber falls under. The EDA helps recruit new businesses and large industries. “The Chamber was created to support the EDA considering we are private money, we can help where the public money cannot. So, we make sure we stay well within what we need to be doing. All the membership money that we collect, we aid with the EDA in their efforts and then we want to be able to turn around and give that return on investment back to the members by doing them programs like this and other things.” He also shared the new mission statement recently adopted by the board of directors which states: “The Jones County Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to driving economic growth and fostering a stronger, more vibrant community by championing pro-business initiatives and offering valuable membership incentives for our diverse network of businesses.” More opportunities like this to connect and network with other chamber members occur on the first Friday of every month. For more information about upcoming events as well as the Jones County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Authority, visit jonescounty.com. |