Washington, D.C., has been an adjustment for Rep. Eric Burlison, the 7th District’s freshman congressman, from the tumultuous votes for Speaker of the House to extending his weekly commute to work.
Burlison, the first new face of southwest Missouri on Capitol Hill since 2011, sat down with Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce President Matt Morrow for their Public Policy Speaker Series on Feb. 23.
Chamber members from the business community, city government and local candidates gathered to hear Burlison reflect on his political career and describe the transition from Jefferson City to D.C.
Burlison recalls political upbringing, sticks to his principles
Burlison reminisced about his beginnings in politics, which began with an interest developed from divergent views in his household growing up. His grandfather was an active member of the Democratic Party, his grandmother was Republican “through and through,” and his “crazy” Libertarian uncle was a city councilor.
“My family always talked politics, and it was bare-knuckle fighting at Thanksgiving,” he said to the audience.
As he developed his political philosophy, Burlison became involved with several campaigns. Burlison said he became known as the guy who would build websites for free for candidates, with skills that later translated into his career in the private sector as a programmer at CoxHealth and, eventually, Cerner, which is now owned by Oracle.
His political career began when he was first elected state representative for Missouri’s 133rd district in 2008. After terming out of the General Assembly’s lower chamber in 2016, he won the state senate seat for District 20.
Instead of seeking re-election, he took a shot at the 7th Congressional District, as 12-year incumbent Billy Long unsuccessfully campaigned for U.S. Senate. Burlison triumphed through a crowded Republican primary and handily carried the general election.
In his short time spent in Washington D.C., he has heard his fair share of feedback from constituents. While he stressed the importance of constituent services and that his office is finding ways to expand and streamline them, Burlison emphasized that he will continue to vote based on the principles he campaigned on and was elected on.
“Some people think that you're supposed to be individually the collective will of your district, and I'm going to challenge that as a concept,” Burlison said. “To me, the way I've always viewed myself is that I have a particular set of values and beliefs and principles.”
He specifically mentioned the hundreds of calls his office received from 7th District constituents in opposition to his votes for Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, and that many instead wanted Burlison to throw his support behind Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
“I’m a product just like Coca-Cola,” Burlison said. “And when you buy this product, you’re going to get these particular values. This is my position, this is who I am, this is what you can trust. Now, on a particular day people may want 7UP, but I’m not going to change myself to 7UP. I believe that you're elected and trusted by your district to make the best decisions with the knowledge that you have, apply it to the product or the brand or what you sold people as what your values are.”
Ukraine, U.S.-Mexico border, technological innovation among top discussions in Burlison’s first term
Burlison thinks the U.S. should be putting more focus on military strength and the “situation” at the southern border. He said cartels controlled the border and that the use of parole for immigrants, which allows recipients to be eligible for work authorization while awaiting a visa, has been overused under the Biden administration and “is clearly not working.”
“There is not a single person that will cross the southern border that does so without the permission of the cartels,” he said in an interview with the Daily Citizen.
While acknowledging that the U.S. has a responsibility to NATO allies and that “we all hate [Vladimir] Putin,” he is skeptical of the amount of financial assistance the U.S. has provided Ukraine amid their ongoing war with Russia, and where that money is being spent.
He is especially wary of a potential misuse of those funds due to corruption scandals that have recently plagued the Ukrainian government.
“I want to have accountability of the end products that end up in the field,” he said.
Amid all the problems and challenges that he gets a hand at addressing in Washington, Burlison sees opportunity in evolving technologies.
“What does inspire me is some of the innovation that's been occurring in the last few years,” he told the audience. “I’m a tech nerd…The kinds of things that are on the frontier, whether it's AI or some new discoveries that have occurred I think could really change the way that you and I live.”
Burlison said that these new technologies shouldn’t cause people to be afraid, or think that it will displace jobs, but that it is simply going to change the way we do things.
While Burlison has co-sponsored more than two dozen pieces of legislation, he has only sponsored one bill himself, H.R. 450, which would repeal the National Firearms Act of 1934. The NFA mandated registration and established a tax on the manufacturing and transfer of certain firearms.
The bill has only been introduced and was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. It has not yet been discussed in a hearing, and Burlison said “we’ll see” in regards to the future of the legislation.
“I went up there thinking of bills that I wanted to file, and then there's somebody that's already filed them,” he said in an interview. “…In D.C., they have this attitude that if somebody's already filed a bill, you don't want to take their territory.”
Burlison praises staff, looks to build relationships with new colleagues in D.C.
Burlison expressed gratitude for the team he has been able to assemble both in D.C. and in his offices across the 7th District. He has compiled a staff that has a blend of private sector and government experience, including former Missouri state representatives Jered Taylor and Steve Helms.
“I’m very blessed,” he said. “…We have a great team.”
He said that Sam Graves, who has been the Congressman for the 6th Congressional District since 2001, hosts a “refreshing” monthly lunch meeting for the Missouri delegation of legislators to talk about “Missouri stuff.”
Burlison is a staunch Republican and former member of the now-disbanded Conservative Caucus in the Missouri State Senate, which helped contribute to a divisive legislative session in 2022, despite Republican supermajorities in both chambers.
However, he has sought to build relationships with his Democratic counterparts in Missouri, and said that Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (MO-5), a Democrat, is a “great person to get to know.”
He also said that there are a lot of bipartisan issues that “have nothing to do with your party or politics” that he enjoys working on.
One of the biggest challenges Burlison has encountered in Congress is becoming familiar with the rest of his 434 colleagues in the House.
In an effort to build relationships, he said he bought 250 Bass Pro hats to give as gifts to all of the Republican representatives both as a “thank you” for them welcoming him as a freshman Congressman and to express the importance to the company in his district, where Bass Pro is headquartered.
