TRANSKRİPT 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:06.014 --> 00:00:10.683
Welcome, listeners, to the QBS Express, the ACEC Kansas podcast.
00:00:10.683 --> 00:00:12.916
I'm your host, Executive Director Scott Heidner.
00:00:13.743 --> 00:00:16.483
We have a lot of things that are special about today's podcast.
00:00:16.483 --> 00:00:20.563
We're normally doing audio only, but today we have video because we're being
00:00:20.563 --> 00:00:24.363
hosted by our friends at ACEC National in D.C.
00:00:24.983 --> 00:00:29.263
And don't usually have a co-host, but today our ACC Kansas President,
00:00:29.263 --> 00:00:30.763
Rob Crewson, has joined me.
00:00:31.063 --> 00:00:36.233
And together, we're extremely excited to welcome United States Congressman from
00:00:36.233 --> 00:00:38.110
the great state of Kansas, Derrick Schmidt.
00:00:38.434 --> 00:00:41.413
Congressman, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me on, Scott.
00:00:41.413 --> 00:00:45.163
Appreciate it very much. Absolutely. Once upon a time, the Congressman had joined,
00:00:45.835 --> 00:00:51.513
an ACEC Kansas podcast years ago, and apparently the experience was survivable
00:00:51.513 --> 00:00:54.443
as it came back. I had forgotten that. No, I'm kidding.
00:00:57.785 --> 00:01:02.360
Well, Congressman, I appreciate your giving us some time tonight to talk to us.
00:01:02.673 --> 00:01:05.953
You might just, most of our members, I think, are familiar with your background
00:01:06.191 --> 00:01:08.453
and the support you've shown our industry.
00:01:08.453 --> 00:01:12.623
But you might step back and give us at least the click of this version of your
00:01:12.623 --> 00:01:17.253
career service at the state level, even in industry, right? And you're practicing
00:01:17.253 --> 00:01:21.673
professional in the day. And so we are kindering spirits that way.
00:01:21.673 --> 00:01:23.062
But you might touch on those things.
00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:27.425
Well, I was born in a long cabin somewhere on the frontier in the 10 to 100.
00:01:28.035 --> 00:01:33.723
Maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe not. I'm quite that granular as that. Maybe more true.
00:01:37.463 --> 00:01:41.343
Very good. No, we've had the chance to work there a long while.
00:01:41.343 --> 00:01:46.253
I, uh, I, uh, I came up as a staffer, both, uh, in our congressional delegation
00:01:46.253 --> 00:01:49.043
and then put a governor for a while and litigated for a little bit for the state
00:01:49.043 --> 00:01:53.083
And then did a, did a long run in the state Senate in 10 years ago.
00:01:53.083 --> 00:01:56.503
That's when we first got connected on policy issues. We were there for the,
00:01:56.764 --> 00:02:00.578
that'd been the O2 transportation bill in Kansas, I think. And also the,
00:02:00.833 --> 00:02:04.536
as I recall, the bailout of the transportation bill with the gas tax adjustment.
00:02:05.597 --> 00:02:09.701
It's about that year. I may be off by a year at Airbidden. And then in 2010,
00:02:09.701 --> 00:02:12.101
I went over to the AG's office, thanks to the voters. They were nice enough
00:02:12.101 --> 00:02:17.601
to let me do that. Spent three terms there, 12 years, and ran for governor and
00:02:17.601 --> 00:02:19.839
lost in 2022. Thought I was done.
00:02:20.182 --> 00:02:25.111
My wife would point out, went up and got a real job with a paycheck that actually
00:02:25.111 --> 00:02:26.371
had a little more heft to it.
00:02:27.414 --> 00:02:31.551
Was practicing law for Hush Blackwell. I was a partner at Hush for that year
00:02:31.551 --> 00:02:34.542
and a half or so, and thought I was done with voting service.
00:02:35.745 --> 00:02:38.991
And then our congressman decided to call it quits somewhat abruptly.
00:02:38.991 --> 00:02:42.671
I had little kids and life just sort of caught up with him and said,
00:02:42.991 --> 00:02:46.211
well, maybe I'm not done. So here we are and been doing this now about a year
00:02:46.211 --> 00:02:47.922
and a half and thoroughly enjoying it.
00:02:48.253 --> 00:02:52.551
Well, I appreciate that. Yeah, very good. I want to take a moment to just say
00:02:52.551 --> 00:02:56.939
thanks for a few things, and most of these are from the past.
00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:00.332
But A, it doesn't mean we've forgotten. We still appreciate them.
00:03:00.332 --> 00:03:05.932
But B, I think just as importantly, these are policies that are going to come up again, again, again.
00:03:05.932 --> 00:03:10.642
So I think by recognizing some of the efforts in the past, we're also appreciating
00:03:10.642 --> 00:03:15.012
the fact that we have somebody from the delegation with awareness in support
00:03:15.012 --> 00:03:16.298
of these things moving forward.
00:03:16.856 --> 00:03:22.442
The first one is not a policy issue, but one of the things we're proudest of
00:03:22.442 --> 00:03:24.674
is we have an emerging leaders program.
00:03:25.231 --> 00:03:29.622
And that happens every year. We have 20 young-ish professionals,
00:03:29.622 --> 00:03:35.272
got a mid-career, and we asked you, my gosh, a thousand years ago,
00:03:35.272 --> 00:03:39.313
it seems like, if you would come and give the government affairs presentation.
00:03:39.713 --> 00:03:44.962
It is a sacrifice to do it. It's a time commitment, and it takes a real effort,
00:03:44.962 --> 00:03:50.872
and you said yes, and just never stopped saying yes. Yeah, you're trying to get rid of it. What?
00:03:52.552 --> 00:03:58.332
My gosh, he's still going. Come on. Come on. No problem-less.
00:03:58.332 --> 00:04:02.772
No, when you switched from Senate to Attorney General, I thought for sure, well, it was a good one.
00:04:03.232 --> 00:04:06.722
And you still said yes for years and years, all the way until you came to D.C.
00:04:06.722 --> 00:04:10.425
So let it not go unnoticed how much we appreciate that.
00:04:11.033 --> 00:04:15.830
Your name is still comes up with all of our ELB brands. It contributed a lot
00:04:15.830 --> 00:04:17.096
to the program and we're great.
00:04:17.281
Load full transcript
--> 00:04:19.070
Cool. Thank you. I appreciate it doing it. It was a lot of fun.
00:04:19.070 --> 00:04:24.060
And yeah, you know, in case folks don't know, Scott often plans ahead and he
00:04:24.060 --> 00:04:27.940
would typically contact me or my office or usually both.
00:04:27.940 --> 00:04:30.680
He would put in a request with the office and then he would see me and just
00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:37.120
mention it to me about January to, to commit to a time and day in September
00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:39.245
to come talk to the leadership group.
00:04:39.686 --> 00:04:44.011
And I think we almost always did. You might not have done it in January.
00:04:44.640 --> 00:04:48.760
We appreciated the foresight, too. Thank you. Thank you. See,
00:04:48.760 --> 00:04:51.280
I was hoping I was going to say no at some point, but I didn't get it.
00:04:52.760 --> 00:04:57.350
Your staff was always incredulous. I was getting that far ahead of time.
00:04:57.350 --> 00:05:02.420
You're also very popular. Oh, my gosh. Well, on a policy perspective,
00:05:02.420 --> 00:05:05.300
there are two things in particular that throughout your career,
00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:07.872
you've been very supportive of them that are very meaningful to us.
00:05:08.405 --> 00:05:14.200
And one is infrastructure of all kinds. Transportation is the most evident of
00:05:14.200 --> 00:05:18.223
that because it takes up such a large part of the budget and it's more press.
00:05:18.810 --> 00:05:21.747
But you've been supportive of the infrastructure across the board.
00:05:21.747 --> 00:05:25.767
And I know we've talked in the past when you're a child of southeast Kansas,
00:05:26.127 --> 00:05:31.110
you have a richer appreciation of infrastructure, I think, than a lot of folks do.
00:05:31.591 --> 00:05:39.172
But it's also a district where voting for new revenue is, well, not an easy vote either.
00:05:39.551 --> 00:05:45.157
And you always did a great job of finding ways to be supportive of infrastructure,
00:05:45.157 --> 00:05:48.677
even with the pressures you have from your constituencies about the revenue side.
00:05:49.042 --> 00:05:53.586
Again, really appreciate your commitment in that area since it's, it's awesome.
00:05:53.807 --> 00:05:56.047
Yeah. Well, you've kind of appreciate it. It was, you know, it is,
00:05:56.347 --> 00:06:02.057
we, the Kansans understand that you got to invest in capital today in order
00:06:02.057 --> 00:06:03.877
to have what you need tomorrow.
00:06:03.877 --> 00:06:07.817
They get right for lots of reasons, not to stereotype everybody in Kansas as
00:06:07.817 --> 00:06:11.397
a farmer, but we are an agricultural state and we have those roots and folks
00:06:11.397 --> 00:06:14.457
understand you got to plant now and be patient in order to harvest later.
00:06:14.457 --> 00:06:17.627
And that, that's, that's true certainly in investing in infrastructure.
00:06:17.627 --> 00:06:21.977
And we still work on that a lot, even in this role.
We have a lot of communities
00:06:21.977 --> 00:06:26.877
on trying to help them upgrade bridges or road projects, just did one of those
00:06:26.877 --> 00:06:28.813
in Junction City, came through.
00:06:29.312 --> 00:06:34.022
Water plants, sewage treatment plants, hospital buildings, university buildings.
00:06:34.812 --> 00:06:36.931
We still get it. So, there's a lot to say to that.
00:06:37.268 --> 00:06:40.102
Well, it's funny you should mention Junction City. We have a,
00:06:40.468 --> 00:06:42.042
we're listeners, we're out in D.C.
00:06:42.542 --> 00:06:46.933
There's a series of events we have, and there's a short reception we'll go to after this.
00:06:47.305 --> 00:06:52.362
We have a couple members that I think intend to bring up Junction City and a word of thanks to you.
00:06:52.822 --> 00:06:55.962
Go ahead and get up there. Yes, absolutely. Well, the last thing,
00:06:56.262 --> 00:07:00.282
lest this feel like a gravy train of thank yous and appreciation.
00:07:00.758 --> 00:07:03.442
Here it comes now. Here it comes. This is the big one. Yeah,
00:07:03.442 --> 00:07:07.122
this is it. Do you want to say more? No, no, no. I ain't even spelled it.
00:07:10.522 --> 00:07:15.742
Well, as our listeners all know, our biggest issue and the one that is the most
00:07:15.742 --> 00:07:20.131
important to us is procurement, and it's the use of qualifications-based selection
00:07:20.566 --> 00:07:21.992
for design professionals.
00:07:21.992 --> 00:07:26.432
But as a licensed attorney, I know you work in a similar world where most of
00:07:26.432 --> 00:07:29.975
those arguments transpose from one profession into the other.
00:07:30.376 --> 00:07:34.492
And it's not something that comes up often, and it's not often what it does.
00:07:34.492 --> 00:07:37.751
It's not often in the form of an actual statutory change.
00:07:38.024 --> 00:07:44.002
But you have shown a great appreciation for the public policy reasoning for using QBS.
00:07:44.816 --> 00:07:49.732
And it's hard to get legislators to invest in that enough to even really know
00:07:49.732 --> 00:07:52.044
what it is. So we're appreciative of that too.
00:07:52.521 --> 00:07:55.102
I appreciate it very much. I mean, you want to get the best deal for taxpayers.
00:07:55.102 --> 00:07:58.872
The best deal isn't always the cheapest price. That's obviously a factor every
00:07:58.872 --> 00:08:01.110
single time, but it's not the only factor.
00:08:01.711 --> 00:08:05.132
You know professional services generally they're not a commodity right that's
00:08:05.132 --> 00:08:09.031
true the practice of law it's true the practice of engineering it's not a commodity and so,
00:08:09.495 --> 00:08:13.142
you want qualifications you want outcomes you want proven abilities you want
00:08:13.142 --> 00:08:17.802
the best possible design at the lowest possible price not just one of those
00:08:17.802 --> 00:08:23.432
two factors and so appreciate it yeah absolutely well i'll quit reminiscing about uh,
00:08:23.912 --> 00:08:27.612
golden days and things you've done in the past and let rob ask you about the future.
00:08:27.612 --> 00:08:29.769
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Congressman.
00:08:30.140 --> 00:08:33.442
We might move to what's maybe on the docket for infrastructure.
00:08:33.442 --> 00:08:35.712
I mean, we talked a lot about funding. Sure, that's important to us,
00:08:35.712 --> 00:08:39.772
but we just talked about some other things are maybe regulations,
00:08:39.772 --> 00:08:43.722
taxations, things like that. And so anything down the near horizon that our
00:08:43.722 --> 00:08:45.332
members might be curious to hear about?
00:08:45.773 --> 00:08:49.552
Well, it's always, it's continual. It doesn't just, it doesn't just end,
00:08:49.552 --> 00:08:51.322
especially in the regulatory world.
00:08:51.322 --> 00:08:57.212
We've spent generations building out this federal behemoth, and we chip away
00:08:57.212 --> 00:09:01.452
at it, but you're not going to just dismantle it, and nor perhaps do you want
00:09:01.452 --> 00:09:04.416
to just dismantle it, but you do want to trim it wherever you can.
00:09:05.312 --> 00:09:08.181
And modernize it. And so, that's a continual process.
00:09:08.571 --> 00:09:11.912
You know, I think I'm pretty optimistic we still have a shot at getting a service
00:09:11.912 --> 00:09:16.028
transportation bill done this year. I realize the days are getting thin.
00:09:16.548 --> 00:09:21.025
But there are several factors suggest maybe we can still do that.
00:09:21.025 --> 00:09:23.913
And a lot of us have really pushed for that for a lot of good reasons.
00:09:24.655 --> 00:09:30.541
From the industry side, certainly having the certainty of not a gap is important.
00:09:30.744 --> 00:09:33.455
I mean, Congress went three years overdue on the farm bill.
00:09:34.103 --> 00:09:37.955
And we now have a farm bill extender out of the house. We got about 75% of it
00:09:37.955 --> 00:09:42.155
done and signed into law a year ago in the summer, tucked into the so-called
00:09:42.155 --> 00:09:45.811
beautiful bill or the reconciliation bill. So a lot of the big farm stuff is in there.
00:09:46.049 --> 00:09:49.457
But a lot of other parts didn't get done in there, couldn't for procedural reasons.
00:09:49.933 --> 00:09:53.135
So we still need to do the rest of the farm bill. And it's three years out of
00:09:53.135 --> 00:09:54.991
date. We got it out of the House. We're waiting for the Senate.
00:09:55.276 --> 00:10:00.721
I say that because we want to avoid that problem in the transportation world,
00:10:01.028 --> 00:10:02.495
service transportation world.
00:10:02.495 --> 00:10:06.895
And, you know, to get a next service transportation reauthorization in place
00:10:06.895 --> 00:10:11.205
before the current authorization is gone and there's a gap, it's not just helpful
00:10:11.205 --> 00:10:12.788
to the industry, although it certainly is.
00:10:13.258 --> 00:10:16.875
It is
helpful to the taxpayers because you can get certainty and get planning.
00:10:16.875 --> 00:10:20.895
Folks that are going to be doing the work can sort of right-size their expectation
00:10:20.895 --> 00:10:23.190
and deployment of their assets, resources, and talents.
00:10:23.649 --> 00:10:26.345
And whenever you create risk and uncertainty, the cost goes out.
00:10:26.345 --> 00:10:28.449
And in this case, it's taxpayers who pay that bill.
00:10:28.681 --> 00:10:33.785
I'd rather spend a dollar on improving bridges, roads, and railroads than to
00:10:33.785 --> 00:10:37.215
spend 70 cents on that and 30 cents on, you know, helping the folks that do
00:10:37.215 --> 00:10:38.415
the work mitigate the risk.
00:10:39.095 --> 00:10:42.935
Right. Yeah. Well said. Well said for sure. Yeah. Not everybody appreciates
00:10:42.935 --> 00:10:48.805
how much certainty in planning plays a role in what our members do in the communities
00:10:48.805 --> 00:10:51.970
they serve and maximizing the tax pay the dollar.
00:10:52.097 --> 00:10:54.905
Absolutely. Absolutely. Most valuable about that's the goal.
00:10:54.905 --> 00:10:57.915
No doubt. Absolutely. Well, let me ask you this.
00:10:58.795 --> 00:11:02.985
You and your staff have been extremely gracious in the time allotment you've
00:11:02.985 --> 00:11:07.503
given us, but we don't want to wear out on welcome. So let me maybe close with this.
00:11:07.790 --> 00:11:12.185
On a more personal level, you had so many years of service at the state level,
00:11:12.185 --> 00:11:16.129
two different roles, you've already gone through one pretty substantive transition,
00:11:16.634 --> 00:11:23.037
But I have to imagine going to D.C. is probably even a more substantive transition in a lot of ways.
00:11:23.495 --> 00:11:27.356
Share with our listeners anything that you think they'd be interested in that
00:11:27.356 --> 00:11:31.069
has changed in your life, moving from the state to the federal level.
00:11:31.622 --> 00:11:35.596
Well, my office is 1,200 miles from my house, and that has more implications
00:11:35.596 --> 00:11:39.496
than you think about, right? You can't just run out and do things with constituents
00:11:39.496 --> 00:11:41.863
or friends in the evening because you're not there.
00:11:42.656 --> 00:11:46.446
And you have to build it all in transit time and and and all the life stuff
00:11:46.446 --> 00:11:47.928
that comes with that that's a big deal.
00:11:48.836 --> 00:11:52.996
You know 435 which is the number of members of the u.s house that is a big number
00:11:52.996 --> 00:11:56.636
of people that's a lot of people that's a decent sized auditorium in a lot of
00:11:56.636 --> 00:12:02.778
our communities and i think i've maybe underestimated how much the sheer size of the house,
00:12:03.364 --> 00:12:07.806
influences how you have to operate to be effective in the house you know this
00:12:07.806 --> 00:12:10.510
is a relationship business it's a trust business and.
00:12:11.340 --> 00:12:14.513
I still turn on the television from time to time and see a member of the House
00:12:14.513 --> 00:12:16.923
of Representatives talking and say, I had never seen that person.
00:12:16.923 --> 00:12:19.694
I don't know who it is. I never heard their name. I don't know anything about them.
00:12:19.949 --> 00:12:25.783
And yet I work with them because it's just a big and fracturing place in terms of the daily schedule.
00:12:25.783 --> 00:12:29.243
And because we're 1,200 miles from home, we're all gone on the weekends back
00:12:29.243 --> 00:12:33.343
home and you don't have the time here in Washington to sort of build those relationships.
00:12:33.343 --> 00:12:36.964
And so I'm still learning on that front.
00:12:37.395 --> 00:12:41.583
You have to make accommodations for those facts in order to be able to do the
00:12:41.583 --> 00:12:46.201
fundamentals, which are based on relationships and trust. And we're making progress,
00:12:46.671 --> 00:12:49.243
but that's been a bigger transition than I expected.
00:12:49.564 --> 00:12:55.253
Do you find taking an idea from conception to conclusion, I know the perception
00:12:55.253 --> 00:12:56.873
is, the perception I have is
00:12:56.873 --> 00:13:01.493
that typically it takes longer at the federal level than the state level.
00:13:01.493 --> 00:13:04.743
Do you find that to be true? Yes, it is. And especially, you know,
00:13:05.283 --> 00:13:08.372
near the end of my time in state service, I've been around a long time.
00:13:08.715 --> 00:13:12.139
You've built up the relationships and the trust. You need to ever burn people.
00:13:12.261 --> 00:13:15.453
I mean, if I went to a Republican in the legislature, even when I wasn't in
00:13:15.453 --> 00:13:18.923
the legislature and hadn't been, you know, went as attorney general and said,
00:13:18.923 --> 00:13:21.120
this is a good idea. It's not going to cause you any problems.
00:13:21.433 --> 00:13:23.623
This is a good idea. Here are the problems it's going to cause you.
00:13:23.623 --> 00:13:26.403
You go to the Democrats and say, I think this is a good idea.
00:13:26.403 --> 00:13:30.082
Here's why we need to do it. Here's how your folks are going to view it to the best of my knowledge.
00:13:30.476 --> 00:13:33.362
They knew I was going to shoot straight with them. Right. And,
00:13:33.512 --> 00:13:38.387
and so you could do that and help people get in the position to assess and act quickly.
00:13:39.127 --> 00:13:44.241
It's a lot harder here. Bigger body, less opportunity to build and use that trust.
00:13:44.662 --> 00:13:49.332
Just a slower process. And so, yes, that's certainly true. Other things got
00:13:49.332 --> 00:13:52.113
that kind of along those lines, although a different point.
00:13:52.902 --> 00:13:57.822
You know, no disrespect to the coffee shop quarterbacks. We've all been there,
00:13:57.822 --> 00:14:00.972
right? Where you sit around with your buddies and your friends and you either
00:14:00.972 --> 00:14:03.852
drink coffee or you drink something else, or maybe you smoke something waffle.
00:14:03.852 --> 00:14:04.762
I know you like to do that.
00:14:05.522 --> 00:14:10.012
I'm glad you said that. Yes. And you know, you solve all the world's problems
00:14:10.012 --> 00:14:13.442
and by gosh, this is what, you know, if I were, here's, I mean,
00:14:13.442 --> 00:14:18.283
the reality is you're not going to show up as a brand new member, very junior in service.
00:14:18.788 --> 00:14:23.844
And be at the center of the discussions on the great issues of our time.
00:14:23.844 --> 00:14:26.983
You'll have your vote and you'll advocate on behalf of the people you represent,
00:14:27.424 --> 00:14:32.398
but you're not going to be the fulcrum that gets those 435 people lined up and moving.
00:14:32.740 --> 00:14:35.674
And if you try to be, you're going to wind up with your name in the headlines
00:14:35.674 --> 00:14:38.394
and people out of the country have heard of you and nobody here trusts you because
00:14:38.394 --> 00:14:41.844
it's clearly, you know, you're building about yourself, not about trying to
00:14:41.844 --> 00:14:44.808
get something done, which is a little different than the Kansas dynamic.
00:14:45.191 --> 00:14:47.716
But there are things you can do that on right from the start.
00:14:47.908 --> 00:14:52.474
Smaller matters, issues that are important to constituencies back home that
00:14:52.474 --> 00:14:56.227
the district need to represent, not the big headline issues of our time,
00:14:56.679 --> 00:14:59.374
but important issues for the district you represent.
00:14:59.374 --> 00:15:02.566
And we've really worked over my first year in office, really,
00:15:02.954 --> 00:15:07.194
to figure out which is which, which of the things I really have the ability
00:15:07.194 --> 00:15:10.338
at this position at this time, this level of seniority,
00:15:10.791 --> 00:15:14.144
to influence, and which of the issues I just have to make my position known
00:15:14.144 --> 00:15:16.997
and cast my vote on behalf of my people and move on down the road.
00:15:17.484 --> 00:15:20.944
And then we're spending more time on that first group because we can get some
00:15:20.944 --> 00:15:24.834
of those things. We've gotten bills signed into law. We've gotten bills through
00:15:24.834 --> 00:15:27.617
both chambers, signed by the president, inactive.
00:15:27.872 --> 00:15:30.954
They're not going to set the world on fire, but they do make the difference
00:15:30.954 --> 00:15:32.226
for some of the people we represent.
00:15:32.447 --> 00:15:36.487
So try to figure out where you can actually make the difference and deploy your assets.
00:15:36.731 --> 00:15:40.664
I'll say this too, and if you want to apply it on this, please do,
00:15:40.664 --> 00:15:45.177
but we cannot expect you to. one of the things that I'm not sure everybody understands,
00:15:45.554 --> 00:15:49.432
and it's more true for us at the federal level than it is at the state level.
00:15:50.047 --> 00:15:52.834
We don't call on our delegation all that often.
00:15:53.031 --> 00:15:57.827
We really don't. I mean, we want supportive, simple things like service transportation
00:15:57.827 --> 00:16:03.927
bill. We had some tax reforms a few years ago, but we don't just flippantly use that connection.
00:16:05.348 --> 00:16:09.313
But when we do, as often as not, it's not legislation.
00:16:09.626 --> 00:16:12.897
It's regular, yeah, agency stuff.
00:16:12.897 --> 00:16:20.367
And what we find, excuse me, what we find is that our delegation over the years
00:16:20.367 --> 00:16:25.487
through many iterations in the delegation have been a tremendous asset to the
00:16:25.487 --> 00:16:27.009
state and to our industry.
00:16:27.520 --> 00:16:31.367
In terms of just create a fictional scenario.
00:16:31.367 --> 00:16:35.279
But the Department of Interior puts out a procurement for engineering services
00:16:35.639 --> 00:16:39.105
and it's asking for a price. It's a violation of QVS.
00:16:39.447 --> 00:16:42.637
Something like that. Or they're proposing something like that.
00:16:42.637 --> 00:16:46.887
We can go to members of our delegation and say, hey, can you just pick up the
00:16:46.887 --> 00:16:49.356
phone and, you know, call somebody over there.
00:16:49.698 --> 00:16:52.997
Ninety percent of the time, it's not an intentional thing.
00:16:52.997 --> 00:16:57.947
It's some communication, but they might take your phone call faster than they would take ours.
00:16:57.947 --> 00:17:02.547
And that's been a source of tremendous benefit to us over the years.
00:17:02.547 --> 00:17:06.887
And if you have thoughts about the difference between that state and federal
00:17:06.887 --> 00:17:10.127
level with certain law enforcement groups. Yeah, I think that's true.
00:17:10.547 --> 00:17:14.307
And the fundamentals were the same, state and federal.
00:17:14.307 --> 00:17:17.817
It's, again, back to the idea of relationships and also just the knowledge of
00:17:17.817 --> 00:17:22.477
who to try to reach on a given matter, which is not as simple as it sounds.
00:17:22.477 --> 00:17:25.627
Okay, these are not, you know, these are not schoolhouse rock governments.
00:17:25.627 --> 00:17:28.893
There's a lot of nooks and crannies and a lot of agencies and departments and
00:17:29.160 --> 00:17:32.557
secretaries and assistant secretaries and deputy assistant secretaries and legislative
00:17:32.557 --> 00:17:34.277
people and program people.
00:17:34.277 --> 00:17:39.277
And you can spend a lot of time and not make a lot of progress if you're talking
00:17:39.277 --> 00:17:43.527
to the wrong folks on the wrong matter. And so cutting through that really matters.
00:17:43.527 --> 00:17:48.843
And to your point, can make more difference in some cases than passing the law. And...
00:17:49.745 --> 00:17:54.092
So that's, that's a big part of it and a big, a big area where,
00:17:54.092 -->
00:17:58.032
you know, the state and the Fed differ also is the Fed's just much bigger.
00:17:58.699 --> 00:18:02.262
It is just a much bigger government. And, you know, in the state,
00:18:02.262 --> 00:18:07.780
you can, you can be about two degrees of separation from almost anybody in state government.
00:18:08.144 --> 00:18:11.682
If you're, you know, if you've been around for a while, you're a senior legislator,
00:18:11.682 --> 00:18:14.032
office holder, somebody, you know, gets to the lobbying world,
00:18:14.032 --> 00:18:15.992
just somebody who has those relationships.
00:18:15.992 --> 00:18:19.392
You can be about, I can call you and you will know the person.
00:18:19.392 --> 00:18:22.102
I will know to call you and you can call that person, or I'm going to call you
00:18:22.102 --> 00:18:25.342
instead and you can call that person and you can get to where you need to be
00:18:25.342 --> 00:18:27.871
here. It's there are more degrees of separation.
00:18:28.385 --> 00:18:35.282
And I think there's also more of a culture of using the size of bureaucracy
00:18:35.282 --> 00:18:40.136
to sort of obfuscate responsibility. I think perhaps it's intentionally done sometimes.
00:18:40.669 --> 00:18:45.679
And so, you know, figuring all that out, navigating it can really matter.
00:18:46.986 --> 00:18:50.536
That's what, you know, I came up in the Dole days, back in the 90s,
00:18:50.536 --> 00:18:56.166
where you said Dole was a political leader, and then, and it was one of Dole's
00:18:56.166 --> 00:18:59.836
great strengths, right? He had been around long enough.
00:19:00.131 --> 00:19:05.626
There were Dole staff alumni in almost every agency of the federal government.
00:19:05.626 --> 00:19:08.326
Some of them were political appointees, some of them were careerists who had
00:19:08.326 --> 00:19:12.826
burrowed in, but it was almost two degrees of separation.
00:19:12.826 --> 00:19:17.776
If Senator Dole needed to contact the decision maker on a particular RFQ or
00:19:17.776 --> 00:19:20.864
a particular regulation or whatever in the department of whatever,
00:19:21.555 --> 00:19:25.665
there was probably a person that he or his senior people knew they could call,
00:19:26.067 --> 00:19:28.916
who in turn could connect with the right person, would know who the right person
00:19:28.916 --> 00:19:29.793
is, could connect with them.
00:19:30.144 --> 00:19:33.268
We lost a lot of that when Senator Dole retired and, you know,
00:19:33.268 --> 00:19:35.686
it must have been a long time and people would know him. We had some of it with
00:19:35.686 --> 00:19:39.846
Senator Roberts, but there's a role that all of us in the.
00:19:42.546 --> 00:19:46.539
You know, that's a little bit of a gap. And so we all work to try to fill it.
00:19:46.764 --> 00:19:48.346
We're sort of spoiled in the Dole days.
00:19:50.186 --> 00:19:54.506
I think that's well said. But as you talked about Dole's two degrees of separation
00:19:54.506 --> 00:19:58.356
in November, it's absolutely true. Yeah. And not something you can generate
00:19:58.356 --> 00:20:00.046
in four years, in a few years.
00:20:00.706 --> 00:20:03.376
Right. But that's another conversation for another day. Well,
00:20:03.376 --> 00:20:06.746
I tell you what, you've been so generous with your time and thanks to you.
00:20:06.746 --> 00:20:10.386
The listeners can't see them, but we have some members of your team here with
00:20:10.386 --> 00:20:12.462
us that have been so helpful in putting this together.
00:20:13.146 --> 00:20:17.663
Appreciate all of you and appreciate the public service to Kansas.
00:20:18.453 --> 00:20:23.989
And most of all, I appreciate the fact that I can say QBS to you and your eyes don't face over them.
00:20:24.549 --> 00:20:29.169
That makes you a great American and a great legislator. It's an old fashioned shopping channel.
00:20:34.049 --> 00:20:34.449
Dan,
00:20:38.649 --> 00:20:42.039
half our listeners will laugh. Yeah. What? Yeah, we are grateful for your public
00:20:42.039 --> 00:20:44.937
service. Thank you for making time to your year. It's always nice to spend time.
00:20:45.193 --> 00:20:48.239
Rich, everybody. Thank you very much. You thank you. Thanks for having me on.
00:20:48.239 --> 00:20:52.369
Listeners, thank you for joining us for another episode of the QBS Express with
00:20:52.369 --> 00:20:54.273
our special guest, Congressman Derek Schmidt.
00:20:54.406 --> 00:20:57.059
Stay tuned, and we'll see you on the next episode.