His seven grandchildren, aged from 2 to 17, were never old enough to cast a vote while Luetkemeyer was in Congress, but they will learn about his official activities with time.

“I want them to know that grandpa made a difference,” Luetkemeyer said.

The 72-year-old congressman, who usually arrives on Capitol Hill in the early morning during session weeks, said he plans to sleep in a little later and address the general upkeep of his quiet farm, leaving behind the pressures of solving national banking issues and addressing threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party.

He’s stepping away from power, prestige and decades of service on the national stage — and he’s doing it at a time when he was considered a front-runner to be elevated to an even more prominent position in Congress.

Since he was first elected to Congress in 2009, Luetkemeyer has helped pass legislation to preserve community banks and has chaired a powerful financial subcommittee, dealing with issues such as bank regulation.

He is among 45 of the 435 House members who have announced they are not seeking re-election in 2024, according to Ballotpedia.

He’s represented Missourians in a sprawling district that stretches from St. Louis to the Lake of the Ozarks to Boonville. His district’s border includes part of Columbia: practically everything south of Broadway.

Sitting in front of his desk adorned with family photos and mementos in the Rayburn House Office Building this summer, Luetkemeyer told the Missourian that he intends to step out of the political ring completely; he has no lobbying aspirations.

“I’ve been a public servant for the last 26 years. I’ve done my time. I participated and represented folks,” Luetkemeyer said. “So I think it’s time for me to step back and be somebody who’s supportive of somebody else who wants to take that job.”

Luetkemeyer said it’s his belief that he hails from the smallest town of anyone in Congress: St. Elizabeth, located 30 miles south of Jefferson City with a population of 341, according to the town website. While this presented a distinctive set of challenges during his time in Congress, an old-fashioned mix of hard work and determination overcame them.

But before Luetkemeyer nestles into retirement, he has to finish up his committee work.

He serves on the House Financial Services Committee, bringing his prior experience as a bank examiner for the state of Missouri and a loan officer and vice president at the Bank of St. Elizabeth, a family institution founded by his great-grandfather.

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The announcement of his retirement in January was somewhat of a surprise, St. Louis Public Radio reported, because Luetkemeyer was seen as a leading candidate to succeed Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-North Carolina, in the next Congress as the top Republican on the committee. Being home with family and retirement trumped that, Luetkemeyer said.

Reuters once called Luetkemeyer “Wall Street’s favorite congressman,” describing him as responsive to bankers’ complaints that excessive regulation was hurting the economy.

McHenry dubbed him “the champion for community banks.” He credits this title to Luetkemeyer’s time in multiple leadership roles in the House Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance and International Financial Institutions.

Ranking subcommittee member U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Ohio, described Luetkemeyer as a “dedicated public servant and scholar in Financial Services.”

There is a national debate over how to address the aging electrical system, and some of this conversation is playing out in the farmland of Missouri. The federal government wants to embark on a nationwide plan to increase the reliability of electricity and reduce consumer costs.

While H5N1 is associated with high mortality rates in poultry, reports indicate infected dairy cattle rarely die. Even when cows in a herd become sick, they seem to recover rather quickly after a few weeks, as long as dairy farmers are using disease management procedures, Strubberg said.

Since March 25, when the world first learned H5N1 had developed the ability to infect and spread among cows, infections have been reported so far in at least 140 herds in 12 states – including Missouri’s neighboring states of Kansas and Iowa — according to the USDA dashboard updated July 3.

However, experts say the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s numbers likely underestimate the size of the outbreak because so few cattle are being tested.

Currently, the USDA requires lactating cattle to be tested before being shipped across state lines.

Adalja said that because of the lack of proactive testing, he said he doesn’t believe “anybody in the field would think that those 38 states could be declared non-H5N1 cow (infected) states.”

Historically, when the H5N1 virus has infected people on rare occasions, the death rate has been over 50%. In the current U.S. dairy cattle outbreak, the four farm workers with documented infections have had mild cases, mostly including symptoms of eye redness, following direct contact with sick cows. The most recent human case was announced as of last week.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the health risk to the general public remains low and has recommended personal protective equipment for those working with infected cows.

While dairy cows have generally recovered during this current outbreak, the virus has proven to be fatal to cats who drank raw milk from infected cows.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration said its tests indicate that the pasteurization process used in commercial milk processing is effective at inactivating the H5N1 virus. While there is concern that the virus can be transmitted to humans through the consumption of unpasteurized, or raw, milk from infected cows, the FDA continues to emphasize its longstanding recommendations about ingesting raw milk because of its potential to be contaminated.

The fact that no farms are reporting symptoms in cows is the best indication that H5N1 is not in Missouri, state officials said. One of the reasons they believe Missouri has avoided the virus is because the state imports so few cows.

Missouri’s tests on 17 dairy cows, as of Monday, occurred because the animals were being moved across state borders. However, it remains unclear how the virus is circulating, and in some states, herds have become infected despite no movements of cattle.

It appears that farm workers may be involved in the outbreak’s spread, but Missouri has minimal shared labor between farms, state officials said.

Even so, in preparation for the 2024 Missouri State Fair, scheduled to begin Aug. 8 in Sedalia, the Missouri Department of Agriculture and Strubberg announced last week updated biosecurity protocols for exhibiting dairy cattle. All lactating dairy cattle must have a negative H5N1 test within seven days before arrival at the Missouri State Fairgrounds.

The Missouri Department of Agriculture has been doing outreach to dairy producers and veterinarians and providing updated information on the virus.

Scott Poock, a dairy and beef cattle veterinarian with the University of Missouri Extension, said he would be confident that Missouri “probably hasn’t had it.”

“Can I say 100%? Absolutely not. Never,” Poock said.

Missouri, like other states, has been battling H5N1 in poultry for some time. And as it remains unclear how the virus jumped from birds to dairy cows, Strubberg said the lack of many new H5N1 detections in Missouri poultry can provide more confidence, to a degree, that the virus isn’t in Missouri cows.

While some experts are concerned about a lack of proactive testing, there is a risk aversion for farmers who would have to quarantine lactating cattle with a positive test. The USDA has taken some actions to help farmers, including offering loans to farmers and livestock producers to alleviate biosecurity measurement costs, such as veterinary and testing expenses.

Like experts in infectious diseases, farmers are aware of the issue but have differing opinions and levels of concern, Strubberg said.

Chloe Collins, an MU Extension dairy field specialist, said that most farmers she has recently spoken with have been optimistic about the H5N1 risk. She said farmers are practicing good biosecurity and are tapping into expert resources. Collins also described the state’s dairy industry as “prepared and resilient.”

Adalja said he believes that the USDA and state agriculture departments are walking a tightrope trying to balance the economic and public health implications. This includes what stigma might occur if a farm tests positive.

“These (cows) are not pets,” Adalja said. “They are economic vessels, basically, that are important for the economies of those farms, the economies of those counties and the states.”

This story originally appeared in the Columbia Missourian. It can be republished in print or online.