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King again seeks ban on state regulations on farming practices in other states

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Congressman Steve King. (file photo)

Republicans on the U.S. House Ag Committee have approved their preferred version of the next Farm Bill. It includes a proposal from Iowa Congressman Steve King that attempts to stop state-level regulations on food grown or raised in another state.

“For example, California’s cage-size regulations (mean) we have inspectors from California that are now traveling around Iowa with their tape measurers and measuring the cage sizes of our laying hens in Iowa,” King said during House Ag Committee deliberations. “We have states that have prohibited gestation crates…They prohibit the importation of, into their state, of meat that is produced in a fashion that they disapprove.”

King said states have every right to impose regulations on how farmers within their borders may farm, but he said having officials in one state dictate farming regulations in another state is wrong.

“That goes on with stalls for veal calves and the prohibition to feeding ducks and geese for foie gras liver,” King said. “And it’s getting worse.”

King indicated the Farm Bill could help clarify that congress has the sole authority to regulate inter-state commerce, including agricultural commodities and food products.

“Pre-empt some really bad things that are coming down the pike,” King told his colleagues on the House Ag Committee. “…It’ll be worse if we don’t do this now.”

King, in a news release, said without action, Iowa’s farmers will be “held hostage to the demands of California’s vegan lobby” and regulations adopted by California’s state government. King authored a similar proposal for the last Farm Bill, but it was not included in the final version.

Critics of King’s proposal say it will “preempt states’ ability to enact laws that protect public health, the environment, and consumers.” Others argue laws in Arizona, California and Minnesota that prohibit the false advertising of foods as kosher could be jeopardized.

Governor says framework in place, negotiators ‘very close’ to tax deal

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Republican lawmakers are negotiating the final budget details in the governor’s office.

Republican Governor Kim Reynolds and top Republicans in the House and Senate are continuing their private negotiations today, aiming for an agreement on how deeply to cut state taxes.

“We’re still talking. We’re still working. We’re going to get together again this afternoon,” Reynolds told reporters this morning. “And that’s how you get to consensus.”

Reynolds indicated they’ve been “very close” on the overall framework of the bill for weeks.

“It’s just how we get there, when we get there and what the details look like,” Reynolds said. “…It’s my goal to get a tax bill done this year.”

Reynolds cancelled an economic development trip to New York this week to stay at the capitol to be directly involved in negotiations. Representative Guy Vander Linden, a Republican from Oskaloosa who leads the tax-writing committee in the Iowa House, said the governor’s been a “driving force” in the negotiations, with a simple message to lawmakers.

“Get a tax bill out that I can sign and let’s get this thing going,” Vander Linden told reporters was the basic summary of Reynolds’ direction.

The main sticking point has been how big the tax cut package should be.

“I think the governor’s done a good job of laying out the path that she would like to have us to follow,” House Speaker Linda Upmeyer, a Republican from Clear Lake, told reporters Wednesday afternoon. “…The biggest thing is that we would like to make sure it’s sustainable and responsible…Hopefully we’ll get there very soon.”

Senate Republicans hope to provide a significantly larger series of tax cuts and provide them sooner. The governor has publicly said she’s not going to draw any “lines in the sand” about what must be in or out of the final package. Senate President Charles Schneider, a Republican from West Des Moines, is equally reluctant to talk details in public. Schneider indicated this week that Reynolds is offering “insight” to the process.

“I think it’s good that people are keeping open minds and wanting to work together to find something that’s good for the taxpayers of Iowa,” Schneider told reporters.

There have been some hints as to how large next year’s tax cuts may be. The budget plans released by Republicans in the House and Republicans in the Senate reflect a roughly 100-million dollar reduction in tax revenue.

Packing 40 years of memories, Iowan heads to Barbara Bush’s funeral

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Barbara Bush and Becky Beach.

An Iowan who was a personal assistant to Barbara Bush for 4½  years is making her way to Texas to pay her respects to the former first lady.

Sixty-two-year-old Becky Beach of Des Moines first met Mrs. Bush 40 years ago as a volunteer, in the Bush home in Houston, addressing invitations for campaign events.

Beach was soon hired as Mrs. Bush’s personal assistant as George Herbert Walker Bush launched his campaign for president.

“I did her scheduling, her press, traveled with her, took the dog to the vet — all those glorious things,” Beach told Radio Iowa. “Back in the late ’70s, early ’80s, we didn’t have a press corps. There weren’t advance teams…Secret Service. None of that happened until he became the nominee for vice president.”

In the lead up to the 1980 Iowa Caucuses, Mrs. Bush visited each of Iowa’s 99 counties and Beach was there for each stop. Beach says on one wintry day, the woman who drove the car did something that surprised Beach and Mrs. Bush.

“We came out of the motel and she was using her hairdryer to melt the ice that was in the lock, so we could get into the car,” Beach said.

Beach worked for Mrs. Bush throughout the 1980 campaign and for the first part of George H.W. Bush’s first term as vice president. Beach left her job as a personal assistant to the future first lady at the end of 1982, but has been recruited back into the Bush family orbit several times since to work on campaigns and coordinate events.

“After 40 years of working with them, I lived at their homes both in Houston and Maine and in D.C.,” Beach said. “She would frequent say: ‘I will have accomplished my goals if my family still comes home.’…I know that was extremely important to her. She just loved her family.”

Beach uses words like “regal” to describe the former first lady.

“Elegant, honest, funny, witty — but the main thing I really remember about her is her love of family and their love of her,” Beach said. “She always wanted people to feel important if they were in the same room with her. It didn’t matter if they were the people washing the dishes or a president or another a head of state.”

Beach last saw Mrs. Bush in person about 18 months ago.

“All of the gals that traveled with her — I was the first, and then the subsequent ones — we all had surprised her in Houston and had lunch with both President Bush and Mrs. Bush,” Beach said. “I sat next to her at lunch. She remembered all of the times and all the fun things we used to do. We were just doing a little reminiscing.”

Beach and the other women who traveled with Mrs. Bush plan to meet privately as a group this Friday night in Houston. Beach will be among the 1,500 invited guests at the first lady’s private funeral on Saturday.

Strings of pearls in Iowa statehouse, in tribute to Barbara Bush

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Governor Reynolds and other Republicans wear pearls to honor Barbara Bush.

Republican Governor Kim Reynolds and the nine Republican women who are members of the Iowa House are wearing pearls today in honor of former First Lady Barbara Bush.

Mrs. Bush, who died last night, made a string of imitation pearls a staple of her wardrobe. House Speaker Linda Upmeyer of Clear Lake is wearing a long strand of pearls and confirmed to reporters that hers aren’t real either.

“Absolutely faux,” Upmeyer told reporters this afternoon. “No doubt about it. Faux!”

Upmeyer called Bush was an amazing woman.

“She was one of those ladies who could just speak her mind really well and you always knew she was being pretty candid,” Upmeyer said. “I liked that.”

In November of 1995 Upmeyer got to visit with Bush when the former first lady visited Mason City and delivered a speech at the community college.

“I had an opportunity to actually sit at the table and visit with her a little during dinner,” Upmeyer said, “so it was nice.”

Mrs. Bush told the audience in Mason City to remember that “what happens in your house is more important than what happens in White House.”

(Photo courtesy of Iowa House GOP Caucus Staff)

House GOP plans ‘status quo’ budget for justice, public safety agencies

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Lawmakers of both parties are expressing concerns about staffing levels in state public safety agencies, but Republicans on a House committee have approved what they’re calling “status quo” funding for Iowa’s justice system which covers the highway patrol, prisons and the state crime lab.

Representative Gary Worthan, a Republican from Storm Lake, said there’s no extra money to hire more troopers or crime scene investigators.

“Not to try and gloss it over or anything, this is kind of holding our own in the Department of Public Safety,” Worthan said. “We’re not going to be able to increase numbers.”

In most cases, the agencies would receive about as much money as was planned for the current year, before a round of budget cuts last month. Representative Chris Hall, a Democrat from Sioux City, said the state prisons, in particular, are understaffed.

“It’s endangering some of our state workers,” Hall said. “It’s endangering our taxpayers and families across the state.”

The House GOP’s overall state budget plan is drafted around a tax cut of $100 million. Republicans in the Senate have proposed significantly deeper tax cuts.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Joyce Russell)

Voted expected on identity theft bill introduced by Congressman Young

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A vote is expected today in the U.S. House on a bill, drafted by Iowa Congressman David Young, that seeks to crack down on identity thieves and help victims of such fraud.

“Many in the Third District of Iowa have spoken to me about their fear of having their identity, bank or credit card numbers, and other personal information stolen,” Young said on the House floor Tuesday. The Justice for Victims of IRS Scams and Identity Theft Act would require the Attorney General and Treasury Secretary to submit reports to Congress detailing how they have prosecuted identity theft crimes.

According to Young, Americans lose billions of dollars to con artists and many Iowans worry about getting a call from their bank or credit card company explaining their information has been stolen.

“This reality can turn an individual’s and a family’s world upside down. Millions of Americans have gotten that call and many have lost everything because of identity theft,” Young said. A 2016 report indicated Americans submit up to 14,000 complaints about IRS impersonation scams every week.

“This is serious,” Young said. “These scams are indiscriminate and can impact any person at any time.” Young added that the Department of Justice should suggest “what can be done to deter criminals and prevent identity theft from happening.”

 

Iowa Senate has new personnel guidelines on harassment, retaliation

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Charles Schneider

The Iowa Senate has a new “harassment prevention” policy and an updated code of conduct. Republican Senator Charles Schneider indicated a month ago when he was elected president of the state senate that updating senate “personnel guidelines” were a priority.

“First, to make sure that all those who work in and around the Iowa Senate have a clear understanding of what constitutes harassment, sexual harassment and retaliation,” Schneider said today during the Senate Rules Committee meeting, “and second to make sure that everybody understand the process for addressing complaints when they arise.”

Last fall, the state paid $1.75 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a former Iowa Senate GOP staffer who was fired in 2013 after she complained of harassment. Last month, the senator who fired Kirsten Anderson resigned after online photos and video showed him kissing a lobbyist. Schneider was elected to his new leadership position after that senator’s exit.

Schneider told said the new policy requires annual training for every senator and for all employees of the senate as well as interns. There will be a yearly review of the anti-harassment policy to ensure it’s keeping up with “best practices” in the public and private sectors.

“We wanted to make sure that we created an environment that people feel safe in to come to work and that people feel safe to send their kids to and we just knew we had to get it done,” Schneider said after the meeting.

Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen said it took nearly five years after the firing of an employee who was harassed to get to this moment.

“I’m hopeful that this will be a first step in the right direction to changing the culture and making the Iowa Senate a more welcome and opening place for people to work,” Petersen told reporters.

Senators unanimously voted this afternoon to update the Senate Code of Ethics as well. The update makes it clear the Senate Ethics Committee has the authority to receive and investigate complaints of harassment or retaliation. A senator’s clerk was just fired April 3 after a “credible complaint of harassment” was made. That clerk, who functioned as a secretary to Republican Senator Waylon Brown of St. Ansgar, was a paid employee of the senate and had recently completed anti-harassment training.

Senator Petersen said it appears the same male clerk had previously been fired from a similar job in the Iowa House.

“Even with the training that everyone who serves on the senate floor went through, to see misbehavior like that shows that we’ve got work to do,” Petersen said.

Senate Republican leaders say the new human resources director for the legislative branch will help keep personnel policies updated and avoid similar situations in the future.

Senator Grassley says federal tax cuts helping middle class

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Senator Chuck Grassley.

On this federal tax deadline day, some Iowans are considering changing their withholding allowances.

Federal tax cuts enacted late last year put more money into our checks, but the higher take-home pay could end up being a tax liability. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the tax cuts were “absolutely” worthwhile and are a benefit.

“I would look at it from the big picture of economic growth,” Grassley says. “For eight years, we had economic growth of 1.4% and we’ve gotta’ have 3% economic growth and one way to do it is to cut taxes.” Grassley says that money can be better spent by the people who earned it than by Uncle Sam, as he says politicians in Washington too often let politics influence how those tax dollars are allotted.

“This tax cut is really helping middle class America who, probably between 2000 and right now, has not had any pay increase. Maybe today, their salary’s purchasing power is even less than it was in 2000.” Grassley says the 150-million-some taxpayers nationwide should have more say in how the money they earn is spent — or saved — and the tax cuts return more of that money to the people where he says, “it does more economic good.”

“Jobs, growing the economy, more economic freedom — is what tax cuts are all about,” he says. Grassley, a Republican, says there needs to be less regulation and Congress needs to “be more careful how we spend the taxpayers’ money.”

 

House Republicans unveil $7.4 billion state spending plan

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Pat Grassley (file photo)

Republicans in the Iowa House have unveiled a plan to increase spending by more than three percent for the next state budgeting year.

Republican Representative Pat Grassley of New Hartford suggests the plan’s overall $7.4 billion spending target is similar to what Senate Republicans have in mind.

“As far as the size of the pie would be, I would say we’re fairly close in those conversation and it just really is getting down to this point in the session, we need to get things moving,” Grassley told reporters yesterday.

There is no limit on how long an Iowa legislative session may last, but this is the 100th day of the 2018 and the final day members of the House and Senate get daily expense money. Jack Whitver, the Republican leader in the Iowa Senate, said he’s optimistic Republicans in the Senate and House are close to striking a final deal.

“Hopefully in the next few days we can get to some agreement on taxes and then we can get moving on the budget,” Whitver told reporters.

Yesterday, Governor Reynolds said she is not making any public demands about what her fellow Republicans in the legislature should include in their tax bill. Democrats like Senator Joe Bolkcom say the state is “flat broke” and cannot afford to cut taxes.

Iowa Senate honors Wally Horn for 46-year legislative career

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Wally Horn and his wife Phyllis.

The Iowa Senate paused for more than an hour this afternoon for a series of speeches honoring the longest-serving state legislator in Iowa history.

Senator Wally Horn of Cedar Rapids, an 84-year-old Democrat, has been a member of the Iowa General Assembly for 46 years.

“I’m going to miss you dearly, miss the wisdom, miss the advice and also miss the fun,” Senator Bill Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo said.

Senator Tim Kaputcian, a Republican from Keystone, said Horn and his wife, Phyllis, took the time to get to know him and his wife.

“The thing that I appreciate is the fact that they were the first to welcome us and respect us,” Kaputcian said, “just like we respect them.”

A couple of senators, including Tony Bisignano of Des Moines, noted the looming exit of the candy dish Horn and his wife have stocked on Horn’s senate desk.

“And so we’ll lose weight and our diabetes levels will go down,” Bisignano said, while another senator used a mild curse word to refer to the candy bowl.

Horn was the last to speak. He reflected on the decades he’s spent at the statehouse in Des Moines.

“I don’t know if I’d do it again. Looking back I probably would, but there were some things I didn’t get done that I should have done more and that is my son and daughter — spend more time with them,” Horn said, pausing for emotion, adding service in the legislature “hurts your family.”

Horn was elected to the Iowa House in 1972 and he crossed paths with two of the state’s well-known Republican politicians. U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley was already a member of the Iowa House at the time and former Governor Terry Branstad won a race for a House seat the same year Horn did.

Horn served 10 years in the Iowa House and has been a member of the Iowa Senate since 1983.

Horn is a native of Bloomfield, Iowa, an Army veteran and a retired school teacher and coach. He worked at Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School after teaching stints in the Washington and the Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock School Districts.

He was the Senate Majority Leader from 1992 to 1996, shortly after being the senator who helped guide a bill legalizing “riverboat” gambling through the legislature.

Horn told his colleagues he has cast more than 210,000 votes during his tenure in the legislature.