TOP PHOTO: Chelsea Ivens with Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s office guest spoke at the South Campbell County Rotary Club luncheon. Ivens is Blackburn’s senior field director and manages the public outreach for the Knoxville office and oversees the entire East Tennessee region.

By Charlotte Underwood

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – Chelsea Ivens with Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s Office is from White Pine in Jefferson County, and is Blackburn’s senior field director. She manages the Senator’s public outreach for the Knoxville office and oversees the entire East Tennessee region. Ivens spoke at Tuesday’s South Campbell County Rotary luncheon and meeting.

Blackburn has six district offices. Ivens works as a liaison between Blackburn’s office and citizens.

She gave an update on bills and legislature that Blackburn is working on in Washington, D.C.

“The Senator serves on four committees; she serves on the Veteran’s Affairs Committee, the Finance Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee where she was the first female Republican to serve on that committee, and she serves on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which is where she focuses a lot of her energy,” Ivens said.

On that committee, some of her main focus is on the expansion of rural broadband “and making sure money is aimed at that for Tennessee for those kinds of projects.”

“She also serves as the ranking member on the Consumer Protection Product Safety and Data Security Sub-committee, so that’s where you will see a lot of her work on combating big tech and your invasion of privacy online, especially with regard to children and online safety,” Ivens said. 

She gave updates on what Blackburn has been working on this past week. 

“This week the Senator is in an all-out war against communist China government and that remains on her radar, especially their recent use of A.I., artificial intelligence, and how that has been harmful to us here in the U.S. with respect to misinformation. The Senator has been in discussion with the Senate Judiciary and the Commerce Committees about how we can best combat the threat of the Chinese government’s A.I. involvement and interference in our information systems and raising awareness on that issue; It’s a big threat and remains a priority for her,” Ivens said.

She also said Blackburn has been “laser focused on the fight to keep parents involved in their children’s education.”

“Protecting our children is something the Senator cares deeply about,” Ivens said.

She briefly touched on the possible government shutdown on Oct. 1, saying they were still a little uncertain in the Senate what would happen.

“Senator Blackburn wants to avoid a government shutdown, but she has always been very vocal about this administration’s spending being out of control and she feels strongly it will be our children and our grandchildren that will have to eventually spot that bill. So, this is a contentious issue and may lead to another bitter shutdown, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty on the Senate side,” Ivens said.

In closing, Ivens commended Campbell County’s local leadership and government representation with State Rep. Dennis Powers and Gov. Bill Lee.

“You have wonderful leadership here in Campbell County,” Ivens said. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 09/20/2023-6AM)

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