Friend,
I have a lot of updates on my work in Washington on behalf of Iowans this week!
The Senate sent back its version of the $1.9 trillion spending bill this week, which was ultimately passed by the House and signed into law. While I was hopeful the final version of this legislation would provide targeted relief for Iowans and Americans, it instead prioritized policies completely unrelated to the pandemic. Unfortunately, it did not focus on commonsense solutions that would get our economy and country back on the right track, like public health measures to stop the spread of the virus and reopening schools. I opposed the final passage of the bill, but will continue to look for ways to find common ground to deliver for Iowans.
For example, I worked in a bipartisan manner to secure COVID-19 vaccine doses for federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in our district which will help ensure Iowans who want a vaccine can get one, regardless of where they live. After visiting and receiving direct input from Iowa's FQHCs, I led my fellow House Members in asking the Biden Administration to ensure our FQHCs received doses of the vaccine from the federal government. And yesterday we got the good news that three of our FQHCs will be receiving doses in the next six weeks! I am proud of our bipartisan work on this, and happy to secure these critical doses so that we can get more shots in the arms of Iowans. The more vaccines we distribute the sooner our economy and lives will begin to return to normal, and I'll keep working with anyone to make sure that happens.
I also wanted to make sure you knew about the bipartisan legislation I introduced this week to help root out corruption in Washington. This legislation imposes a five-year ban on senior Executive Branch employees from lobbying the agency that employed them. It also bans senior Executive Branch employees from lobbying on behalf of foreign agents for life. Washington insiders shouldn't be able to leave their taxpayer funded posts and use their status to immediately cash out and lobby their politician friends, and they should never be able to use sensitive U.S. intelligence to benefit a foreign adversary. This is exactly the kind of corruption Iowans sent me to Congress to fight against and I'll keep working to clean up DC on behalf of Iowans!
Read on for more information about my week in Washington, including my efforts to stand up for the Second Amendment and repeal the harmful Death Tax that hurts family farmers in Iowa.
Best,
