2024 Hero of the Year: Congressman Thomas Massie

“Got to be in it to win it.”
~ Old street saying

By Catherine Austin Fitts

U.S. Representative Thomas Massie has been “in it to win it” since entering Congress in November 2012 to represent Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District. For his fearlessness about diving into the middle of the DC “swamp” and rolling up his sleeves to get things done, we have chosen him as Solari’s 2024 Hero of the Year.

There are many reasons to admire and celebrate Congressman Massie, not least of which is the fact that he “walks his talk.” As one of a dwindling number of federal legislators (eight Senators and 23 Congressmen) who are also farmers or ranchers, the MIT-educated Massie (with degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering and over 30 patents to his name) lives on the Kentucky farm where his wife Rhonda grew up, in an off-grid house that they built using stone and timber harvested on the premises. The entire Solari team was deeply saddened when Rhonda Massie passed away in July 2024.

We recommend Massie’s video Off the Grid and his interview with Tucker Carlson (both posted below) in which he describes the adventure of building his home and his family’s off-grid lifestyle. Also described are his experiences in local government, including the story of how he replaced the hot water heater at the county jail, and his real-deal take on tactics used by an aggressive Washington lobbying group—something we all need to hear and understand. I tell parents to invite their kids to sit down and watch these two videos, which offer many insights about how to build a successful career based on a love of learning and trying things.

In Congress, Massie is an effective member of the Rules, Judiciary, and Transportation & Infrastructure Committees—but agriculture and food freedom are where his heart lies. Consider his persistent sponsorship, every year since 2015, of the vitally important PRIME Act. Massie conceived of the legislation (which would allow direct-to-consumer intrastate sale of custom-slaughtered and processed meat) while talking with Tennessee state senator Frank Niceley at Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm. In 2023, he also introduced an amendment to the Agriculture Appropriation Act that would have prohibited the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from spending money to regulate the distribution of custom meat. The PRIME Act, with Massie and Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) as lead cosponsors, made it into the 2024 version of the House Farm Bill.

Other noteworthy actions related to food freedom include:

• Massie’s strong support for either defunding or repealing the USDA’s 2024 rule that requires mandatory electronic ID for cattle and bison in interstate commerce
• His introduction of the Interstate Milk Freedom Act (2014) to prohibit federal interference with the transport of raw milk between states where its sale or distribution is legal
• His introduction to the 2023 Agriculture Appropriation Act of an amendment that would have banned federal money going into research on transgenic edible vaccines
• Strong support for Indiana Representative Victoria Spartz’s 2023 Agriculture Appropriate Act amendment to defund so-called “checkoff” programs (which allow the federal government to collect approximately $1B in mandatory fees annually from U.S. commodity farmers)

Rep. Massie also has a brand of gumption that is unparalleled in the halls of Congress. In March 2020, he forced lawmakers to return to Washington during the Covid shutdowns to establish a quorum for the vote on the CARES Act. Earning criticism from both President Trump and Speaker Pelosi, Massie stated, “I was just trying to get things to work like normal.” His call for a recorded vote failed; the CARES Act passed by voice vote, leaving no record of how each individual Member voted.

As head of the Second Amendment Caucus, Massie has been an influential voice on gun rights. In September 2024, he introduced the National Constitutional Carry Act (HR 9534), which would prohibit state and local governments from imposing civil and criminal penalties on individuals eligible to carry firearms in public; the legislation also would invalidate existing state or local laws, statutes, regulations, or restrictions that criminalize or penalize the carrying of firearms in public. In addition, he has introduced bills to repeal the federal Gun-free School Zones Act of 1990 and to allow 18- to 20-year-olds to purchase handguns from holders of a Federal Firearms License.

Massie has little patience for Big Government and Big Money, which has led him to introduce bills to:

• Audit the Fed (introduced every year since he joined Congress) and “end the Fed” (2024’s HR 8421)
• Eliminate the Department of Education
• End taxpayer-funded congressional pensions
• Prohibit government spending on programs that censor Americans’ free speech (2024’s HR 8519)
• Exempt tips from income or employment taxes

Loyal to his roots as an inventor and founder of a successful tech start-up, he also introduced legislation in 2024 to reverse harmful changes to patent law and restore a “first to invent” standard that protects America’s inventors.

I had the opportunity to meet the down-to-earth Congressman Massie when we both spoke at a 2024 Rogue Food Conference cosponsored by Joel Salatin and John Moody, conferences at which Massie has been a highly popular and entertaining returning speaker. Clearly, he understands the importance of maintaining a “state of amusement” as a counterbalance to the daunting tyranny we are facing. I regularly learn a lot from Massie’s excellent—and very funny—social media presence.

At that conference, I did take the opportunity to remind Congressman Massie of one thing. We do not want to be overly hasty about “ending the Fed”—not until we’ve gotten the $21 trillion back!

Congressman Massie is in the midst of the greatest rough-and-tumble political environment of our day—he is “in it” with hard work, intelligence, and Southern charm. Every time our Solari Hero of the Year for 2024 wins another legislative or media score for freedom, we all win, too.