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Senator sponsors bill to give student loan borrowers more info

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Senator Chuck Grassley

A study finds the typical Iowa college student graduates with $29,000 in debt, among the highest rates in the country.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is introducing legislation that would boost the amount of information students get before signing on the dotted line for loans they may be trying to pay off for decades.

“The real problem here is that there’s a federal law that says that a university tell you the maximum amount of money you can borrow,” Grassley says, “and for the University of Iowa, that’s about $13,000 more than they need to get a degree.” The legislation is designed to help students and their families avoid financial pitfalls, he says, and to get Uncle Sam out of business of encouraging students to take on too much debt.

“The federal government is promoting people getting in debt. That’s the wrong ethic for the federal government,” Grassley says. “I want these borrowers to be informed borrowers and an informed borrower is a wise borrower.” The legislation would make sure students get complete estimates of college costs and financial aid before deciding where to apply. It would also create a universal financial aid letter so students can compare financial aid packages between schools.

“Students should have the best possible information in hand before making a financial decision with long-term effects,” Grassley says. “The federal government, as the lender, has the responsibility to at least ensure that students know what they’re getting themselves into before getting in over their heads.”

The measure is called the “Know Before You Owe Federal Student Loan Act.” Grassley says fellow Iowa Republican Joni Ernst is a co-sponsor as is Minnesota Democrat Al Franken.

The Institute for College Access and Success says the average Iowa college student in 2015 graduated with $29,547 in debt, ranking 15th highest in the U.S., while the proportion of college graduates with debt in Iowa was 66%, the 8th highest in the country.

 

Treasurer says taxpayers shouldn’t pay for sexual harassment case

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Mike Fitzgerald.

State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald is asking Iowa’s governor to ensure Iowa taxpayers don’t foot the bill for the judgment the former communications director for Republicans in the Iowa Senate won from a jury last week.

“We do have a tight budget and now we have this $2.2 million for those scoundrels up in the Republican senate to pay,” Fitzgerald says.

A jury awarded the money to Kirsten Anderson who filed a lawsuit charging her complaints about sexual harassment were disregarded and she was fired from her job on the Senate Republican Caucus Staff for complaining. Anderson’s bosses say she was fired for poor work and nothing else.

Fitzgerald, who is a Democrat, says testimony in the trial brought appalling behavior to light and he says Governor Kim Reynolds immediately should have insisted on changes in the legislature.

“She is the leader of this state. She’s the leader of the Republican Party,” Fitzgerald says. “She should have demanded a change….that we have professional operation in every area of state government.”

Reynolds told reporters last week she has a “zero tolerance policy” when it comes to sexual harassment in the state agencies she oversees, but Reynolds said she has no control over personnel policies in the legislature, which is a separate branch of state government.

Senate Republicans will meet privately this Friday. One Republican senator has publicly called for Senate Republican Leader Bill Dix to step down from his leadership post. The second-ranking Republican in the state senate has issued a statement supporting Dix.

Democrat issues proposal for covering 11,000 Iowa kids who may lose insurance

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Des Moines pediatrician Amy Shriver with Senator Janet Petersen.

Democrats in the Iowa Senate warn about 11,000 Iowa kids are in danger of being uninsured because their families may be unable to buy individual insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act’s exchange next year.

Senator Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, is calling on Republican Governor Kim Reynolds to approve a stop-gap plan for the parents who to get insurance for those children.

“They shouldn’t have to worry about wrapping their kid in a bubble wrap for 2018 because they can’t get health insurance and they can’t afford to have their kid break an arm on the playground,” Petersen said during a news conference at the statehouse. “It’s just simply wrong. We need answers.”

Petersen’s proposal would let those parents buy private insurance through the state-run HAWK-I program. The program currently subsidizes insurance for about 60,000 children who live in a household where the yearly income is at or below 300 percent of the poverty line. Petersen indicated federal bureaucrats would have to grants Iowa a waiver to implement the stop-gap proposal she’s offering for 11,000 more Iowa kids.

“Families’ financial security depends on answers,” Petersen said. “Congress is not coming up with solutions.”

AUDIO of Petersen’s news conference, 14:00

Medica is the only insurance company that plans to offer individual insurance policies on the state’s Affordable Care Act exchange in 2018 and the company has warned premiums will jump 43 percent. Iowa’s insurance commissioner has offered a plan that might lessen the premium hike, but federal officials have to provide a waiver for his proposal, too.

A spokeswoman for Governor Reynolds issued a written statement late this morning, saying “Iowa’s Obamacare marketplace is collapsing” and Reynolds is focused on getting the insurance commissioner’s plan approved “so every one of those 72,000 Iowans—both adults and children—will have a health insurance option next year.”

(This post was updated at 11:35 a.m. with additional information)

Pate: feds must do better in working with states on voter system security

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Paul Pate. (file photo)

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is expressing frustration with federal officials who are warning voter registration systems maintained by the states are in “imminent danger” of being “hacked.” The U.S. Homeland Security secretary said this week that states that fail to ask for help to prevent cyber intruders are “nuts.”

“I’m disappointed in the secretary,” Pate said today on Iowa Public Radio’s “River to River” program. “I think that if he seriously wants our cooperation, he ought to show up at our meeting. He sent a representative to our national meeting who was generous enough to sit in the meeting, but he didn’t have a single answer for any of us when we asked the hard questions.”

Pate, who is a Republican, was among the state election officials who held their summer meeting earlier this month. Pate said federal officials need to provide him and other election officials from other states with a security clearance so they can learn more details about the hacking.

“I find it very frustrating that Homeland Security has not done a good job on working with the states. We had a reasonable working relationship prior to this cycle,” Pate said. “They would send us information about certain challenges they were monitoring and we would take action.”

Pate said that changed during the 2016 election in President Obama’s last year in office and the Trump Administration has continued withholding important information from the states, according to Pate.

On another high-profile issue, Pate indicated he and other state officials who are in charge of elections hope to speak with President Trump about Trump’s assertion that as many as five million “illegal” votes were cast in the 2016 presidential election.

“I welcome the president to sit down with us so we can walk him through the process, so he understands the difference between fraud and, perhaps, some of the other challenges that elections face that can disenfranchise people,” Pate said.

For example, Pate said casting more than one ballot in an election is illegal, but merely being a registered voter in two different places is not.

The commission Trump appointed to investigate voter fraud met for the first time this week. Pate said he supports efforts to “reassure Americans” that their votes count, but Pate said he’s “not seeing millions” of fraudulent votes.

Iowan Sam Clovis nominated to be USDA undersecretary

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Sam Clovis

President Trump has nominated an Iowan who was a top policy advisor on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to serve as the USDA Undersecretary for research, education and economics. Sam Clovis, formerly of Hinton, Iowa, has been working in the USDA since Trump took office, serving as a liason to the White House.

“This may be the last rodeo I ever have. I can’t believe I’ve had this experience,” Clovis said a year ago during an appearance in Iowa. “But I will tell you this: I can’t imagine anything more important than what I’m doing right now because it’s about the country.”

His nomination to be the top science advisor in the USDA has sparked controversy, as Clovis has said he’s skeptical of climate science.

“I have looked at the science and I have enough of a science background to know when I’m being boofed and I think a lot of what we see is ‘junk science’, so I’m a skeptic,” Clovis said during a 2014 interview on Iowa Public Radio.

“…Does man have an impact on the environment? Absolutely, but there’s a difference between having an impact on the environment and leading us to something that we have now changes from global warning now to climate change because I’m not sure what climate change means.”

Clovis said he’s wary of efforts to restrict human activity deemed damaging to the environment.

“What we see about a lot of this…is really about income redistribution from rich nations that are industrialized to nations that are not and it comes down to this false premise…that we ought to consume based on population rather than on the strength of our economy,” Clovis said. “If we have 20 percent of the world GDP, it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that we consume 20 percent of the energy of the world.”

Clovis finished second in the June 2014 Republican Primary for U.S. Senate and then he ran as the Republican Party’s nominee for state treasurer in the 2014 General Election. Clovis worked on Rick Perry’s presidential campaign, but after Perry dropped out of the race Clovis joined the Trump team in August of 2015. Clovis helped edit Trump’s most recent book as well.

Clovis is a US Air Force veteran who was a Morningside College economics professor and talk show host on KSCJ Radio in Sioux City before he entered politics.

Republican calls for Senate’s GOP leader to step down, for ‘fresh start’ after harassment verdict

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A legislator from Sioux City is calling on the Iowa Senate’s GOP leader to step down after a jury awarded $2.2 million to a former aide to Senate Republicans.

Kirsten Anderson, the former communications director for Senate Republicans, told the jury she was fired seven hours after she complained to her boss about sexual harassment in the workplace. Republican State Senator Rick Bertrand of Sioux City said in a written statement released late Wednesday that “ultimately” it was Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix who made the decision to fire Anderson. Bertrand said it’s time for Dix to resign as the GOP’s leader, so Republicans in the senate can have a “fresh start.”

Bertrand said current staff members testified they witnessed the harassment, but didn’t report it for “fear of retaliation.” According to Bertrand, Dix “has a pattern of retaliation” and Bertrand suggests power “has that effect on some people.” After the legislature ended in April, Dix stripped Bertrand and another Republican senator of key committee assignments for reasons that were not publicly disclosed.

Senator Dix issued a written statement Tuesday after the verdict in the harassment case was announced, saying Anderson had been fired for poor work and nothing else. Dix took over as Senate Republican Leader in mid-November of 2012. Anderson was fired six months later. Dix said in his written statement on Wednesday that the incidents of harassment that were discussed during the trial will be investigated immediately.

Iowa taxpayers will foot the bill for the jury’s $2.2 million award to the fired Senate staffer.

 

Democratic leader: ‘horrific…unacceptable’ behavior revealed in lawsuit

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The leader of Democrats in the Iowa Senate says he’s shocked by the accounts of sexual harassment that Republican staff in the Iowa Senate say they’ve experienced and witnessed.

A jury has awarded Kirsten Anderson, a former aide to Senate Republicans, $2.2. million for the discrimination and retaliation Anderson says she endured. Anderson argued she was fired in 2013 for complaining about the work environment. Senate Democratic Leader Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids says the trial demonstrated that not everyone in the Iowa Senate complied with anti-harassment policies.

“The initial news reports from day one and day two of the trial is horrific and that behavior is unacceptable,” Hogg says.

Hogg was elected leader of the Democrats in the state senate last November.

“Since I’ve become the leader in the Iowa Senate, I know we’ve had no complaints,” Hogg says. “In the 10 years before that, that I’ve been in the senate, I don’t remember any sexual harassment complaints in the Democratic Caucus and I will also tell you that I certainly have not seen any behavior like what’s being described.”

Last week, a man who still works for Senate Republicans testified in court that he was present when a Republican senator asked a female staffer to provide physical details about her breasts. Four GOP staffers testified that sexually inappropriate comments were common in the Senate GOP staff offices and grew worse as a another man in the office was going through a divorce.

“The legislature needs to make sure behavior like that is not happening,” Hogg says. “It is unacceptable.”

Hogg says if the Senate’s policies and procedures had been followed, taxpayers wouldn’t have to shell out $2.2 million “for the inappropriate actions of Republican Senators and staff.” Since 2014, all 50 members of the Iowa Senate and all senate staff have been required to complete a seminar about sexual harassment in the workplace. Last week, a woman who still works for Senate Republicans testified in court last that senators make jokes about the seminar and men in the senate still tell her they don’t know where the line is.

Anderson — the staffer who sued — worked for Republicans in the Iowa Senate for five years. Governor Kim Reynolds was a state senator for two of those five years. Reynolds told reporters on Tuesday that she was “not aware” of the harassment Anderson and others described, but Reynolds said that “doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening.”

Iowa Senate GOP leader says there’s ‘no tolerance’ of harassment

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The Iowa Senate’s Republican leader has released a statement following a jury’s verdict that one of his former staff members should be paid $2.2 million for being subjected to discrimination and retaliation.

Kirsten Anderson worked for Republicans in the senate for five years until she was fired in May of 2013. Senate Republican Leader Bill Dix said Anderson was fired “only for her poor work product and absolutely no other reason.”

Anderson argued she was fired because she complained about a toxic workplace where sexual harassment was commonplace. Senator Dix, in his written statement, admitted “the environment prior to” his election as the Senate’s Republican leader in November of 2012 “was lacking in professionalism and appropriate behavior.” Dix said “any issues that arose during the trial, which had not previously been reported to a supervisor, will be investigated and addressed immediately.” Three of Anderson’s coworkers gave sometimes graphic testimony about the harassment they experienced or observed.

Anderson got a raise about two months after Dix took over as the leader of the Republican Caucus in the state senate, then was fired four months later. Dix said in his written statement that during the nearly five years that he’s been the Senate GOP’s leader he has “immediately and effectively” addressed complaints of harassment and inappropriate behavior. And Dix concluded his statement by saying: “The Senate Republican Caucus is now a safe environment and there is no tolerance for any and all types of harassment.”

Jury sides with ex-Iowa Senate GOP staffer in wrongful termination lawsuit

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A jury has awarded $2.2 million to a woman who says she was fired from her job working for Republicans in the Iowa Senate because she complained about being harassed.

Kirsten Anderson was the communications director for the Iowa Senate Republican Caucus Staff. Her superiors said Anderson was fired for inferior work. She filed a wrongful termination lawsuit. A jury has agreed with the argument that Anderson was fired for complaining about the lewd and sexist behavior she experienced during her five years on the job.

During the trial, other co-workers backed up Anderson’s assertions about the vulgar things that went on in the office. A male co-worker testified that he overheard a Republican senator ask Pam Dugdale, another female on the Iowa Senate GOP Caucus staff, about the physical details of her breasts and the remark was made on the senate floor.

Anderson testified another male analyst in the office made remarks about the length of the skirts worn by high school girls who worked as senate pages.

Reynolds: legislative branch is responsible for its own HR policies

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Governor Kim Reynolds today said the executive branch of state government has a “zero tolerance policy” when it comes to sexual harassment in the workplace, but it’s up to house and senate members to make those kind of policy decisions for the legislative branch.

“I don’t control them,” Reynolds said during her weekly news conference.

A week ago Reynolds said she was not aware of sexual harassment in the Iowa Senate during the two years she served as a Republican State Senator. A jury is currently deliberating in the case of Kirsten Anderson, the former communications director for Senate Republicans who says she was fired for complaining about harassment. Reynolds today was asked about testimony from Anderson’s coworkers that confirmed vulgar, sexist comments were common in the Senate GOP offices.

“I was not aware,” Reynolds told reporters. “Doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening.”

Reynolds said “every one” of the employees in the state’s executive branch must read the policy on harassment in the workplace and sign a document indicating they’ve read it. Jury deliberations in the wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former Senate GOP staffer Anderson began Monday and resumed today. Anderson’s bosses say she was fired after failing to improve her work, particularly the grammar she used in written documents.