Congressman Jack Kingston visited Valdosta Tuesday, on a “food tour” to locations including South Georgia Pecan Company, Johnson Distributing Company, and the Coca-Cola Bottling Company as well as to attend the 2008 Federal Legislative Overview Lunch.

Kingston began his tour with the South Georgia Pecan Company at 10 a.m. Equipped with the latest technology in shelling, electronic sorting, and metal detection equipment available, the plant currently has the capability to shell 160,000 pounds of pecans per day.

“As a member of the Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee, I'm interested in anything related to food production and with over 100 employees here at the South Georgia Pecan Company, I am interested in learning more about their imports and exports as well as USDA programs,” said Kingston.

Following Kingston’s visit to the South Georgia Pecan Company, the Congressman toured the Valdosta Coca-Cola Bottling Company, the oldest bottling company in the state.

At the 2008 Federal Legislative Overview Lunch, Kingston was the keynote speaker for the Chamber’s annual lunch held at the James H. Rainwater Conference Center. During the lunch, Kingston provided a legislative update and participated in a live question and answer session with the audience. Kingston also addressed alternative energy and conservation, housing relief, affordable health care, immigration, ADA restoration, and Moody privatized housing.

“At this time, a memorandum has been issued to work with Hunt Pinnacle as the contractor, and an amendment is in the process of being passed for the Air Force to set up a hotline to inform sub-contractors of the status of the Moody Family Housing project. We have requested a report of the project's status by Aug. 1," said Kingston. "We will continue to keep this in front of the Air Force, and the amendment sends a clear message that will hopefully keep things moving forward."

The provision, contained in a military construction spending measure, would require the Air Force to establish a single point of contact to provide information to all concerned parties until the sale of the project is concluded and the initial development phase is completed. In addition, it calls on the Air Force to resolve the disputes as quickly as possible and to address, to the maximum extent possible, the concerns of those parties not directly involved in negotiations. It also requires the Air Force to report on the status of the Moody Project by Aug. 1.

The military construction spending bill, which contains the provision, was passed unanimously by the full House Appropriations Committee and must now be taken up on the floor of the House and Senate before being signed by the President into law. While that may take some time, Congressman Kingston indicated that the inclusion of the provision will provide him with a basis for pressing the Air Force for faster action.

In reference to alternative energy discussed during the question and answer portion of the lunch, Congressman Kingston discussed that the elimination of Saturday mail delivery will save $84 million as well as the impact of the 25 percent of the world's oil used by Americans.

"If we begin to drill offshore at ANWR, I believe we will see oil prices drop because it shows that America has intention," Kingston said.

Kingston discussed the effort to reduce the number of uninsured Georgians without placing taxes or mandatory fees on business and the creation of tax incentives for those who purchase their own healthcare insurance to promote affordable healthcare among other solutions.

"While the fence is helpful in some situations, the solution is complying with federal and state employment laws and e-verify, which has a five second return and a 95 percent accuracy rate," said Kingston in reference to problems associated with illegal immigration. "To me, that's a start."

Kingston spoke about two personal accounts of health disability that have happened to his family and his concern as to how for the vague definition of disability will offer assistance to persons with conditions that "substantially limits a major life activity".

"The expanded definition of ‘disabled’ is broad, and I was one of 17 individuals who voted no. Legislation that redefines the current standard would dramatically increase the number of disabled employees and severely impact the employer from assisting the severely disabled employee."

At the close of the 2008 Federal Legislative Overview Lunch, in honor of Winnersville, Kingston was presented with a football autographed by Valdosta State University Coach David Dean.