Congressman-elect Dave Loebsack of Mount Vernon is pledging his support of what’s been dubbed the “Change America Now” agenda. Loebsack joined representatives of the AFSCME union and the Iowa Citizen Action Network in Iowa City on Thursday afternoon to speak in favor of passing a series of bills, including one that would raise the minimum wage.
“You know, I am a new member of congress and I’m a Democrat and I certainly endorse the legislation…proposed by Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leadership,” Loebsack says. Democrats in the U.S. House have promised to pass a series of bills in the House in the first 100 hours of the new congress.
“There are a lot of things that we need to be talking about,” Loebsack. In addition to raising the federal minimum wage, Loebsack says it’s time to cut in half the interest rates on federal student loans. Loebsack was cleaning out his office at Cornell College yesterday. He was a political science professor there. Loebsack defeated long-time Republican Congressman Jim Leach in the November election.