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Iowa 1st District Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks talks Farm bill, economy and more with WVIK News

Iowa 1st District Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks.
Brady Johnson
/
WVIK News
Iowa 1st District Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

Iowa 1st District incumbent Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks is running to retain her seat in the November 5th election.

WVIK News is including our entire interview with Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks for voters.

Below is a transcript edited for clarity.

Congresswoman Miller-Meeks: Hello, I'm Mariannette Miller-Meeks. I'm the Congresswoman for Iowa's 1st Congressional District.

WVIK News: Thank you so much for taking time out of your day today and speaking with WVIK. I'd like to start first with the farm bill. There was a one-year extension that expired at the end of September. There is a lame duck session before the end of the year. What do you like about the current farm bill and is there any changes you would like to see occur during the lame duck session?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: So, the current farm bill, as you said, was extended last year, so it's a five-year reauthorization. It's always difficult to get the farm bill reauthorized, so you're cobbling together urban districts and rural districts for Iowa and for our district. The farm bill is extremely important. So we've worked very diligently to try to get it passed. We met with farmers, we met with agricultural groups, agricultural manufacturers as well. In putting together the farm bill, the text finally came out at the beginning of the year, and then it's just been the negotiations between the Republicans and then the House Democrats and the Senate Democrats in order to get the farm bill to text and then try to get that out of committee. So I don't sit on the House committee on agriculture, but certainly we had a lot of input. And our delegation, we have two of our Iowa delegation that sits on the agricultural committee, so those concerns were addressed and put in the farm bill. And we're, you know, hopeful. We wanted to get that passed. We're trying to get single subject appropriations bills passed, which has not been done in over 20 years because we don't like big omnibus bills at the end of the year. So the priority was to try to get those appropriations bills passed and try to get the farm bill passed. So now we're probably in the lame duck session as when we will be able to get that passed. You know, the things that in the farm bill that are priorities, certainly crop insurance, conservation practices are in the farm bill, which for my district and as chair of the conservative climate caucus, it's important to get those conservation practices. Another thing is that this administration has done very little on trade. There are trade practices and support. Trade is very important in our agricultural economy. We want it to be fair trade. But those trade provisions within the farm bill are very important to get across. And then support for USDA, animal disease surveillance and detection, monitoring, so whether it's African swine fever or avian flu, as we know there has been avian flu and unfortunately flocks that have had to be euthanized. And so that part of disease surveillance, monitoring, support, vaccination, that's an important context of the farm bill as well too. So those are the things in the farm bill. In addition to the nutritional programs, which right now in a tough economy where people are struggling, it's important to get those nutritional programs across and for people to know that that support continues to exist.

WVIK News: Great. Thank you so much. I know there is some disagreement on changing the supplemental nutritional assistance program back to 2021 for a different formula for the thrifty food plan. The CBO estimates that would be about a $30 billion loss from 2027 to 2033. Is that an acceptable cut to get the farm bill passed before the end of the year? Is that something you think both sides would be able to work out?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: Well, I think that's something that both sides will be able to work out. So remember that it is the House in conference with the Senate, so they go into conference, the four corners go into conference in those negotiations. So this is something that will be negotiated through with leadership, and again, I think you have to take into context, you know, where people are right now, where they're struggling, and part of the delay in getting the farm bill to the point where it could go through committee was those negotiations over the nutritional programs that were in the farm bill, which is honestly, it's the majority of the farm bill. So the majority of the funding of the farm bill, about 16% goes to agriculture.

WVIK News: Thank you for that context, Congresswoman. I'd like to move on to clean water in Iowa in the first congressional district. Is there any conversations of having federal legislation to address PFAS chemicals or microplastics that are within our water supplies? Has anybody broached the issue with you before, or is this something that's kind of new that you're hearing now?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: Well, I would say from the standpoint of legislation, no one has broached me about legislation. I am on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and so Clean Air Act, Clean Water does fall under those provisions. That has not come up in committee hearings, nor have I had individuals address it with me. As we know, Iowa has a clean water program that they're working with farmers, with the DNR, Department of Natural Resources, with IDAL, so they're working with state agencies, and where there's a federal nexus with federal agencies as well. But this is a program, and then also our farmers in part of this program, we have a large number of farmers. I was just at one of their farms two weeks ago, and then a month before that, well, a little over a month before that in August, with one of our farmers. We have farmers doing sustainable regenerative ag, talking about no-till, you know, buffers, how you can reduce pesticide, fungicide, nutritional support. I've talked with manufacturers and entities that are working on microbes that can generate nitrogen so the application, external application would be less, so we're working on a variety of things to be able to reduce inputs that would be into the soil. I've got a bill for setting up a biochar institute. Biochar is a product of pyrolysis from organic material, like charcoal, but it can be added on top of no-till or into tilled ground, improves the soil quality, also water absorption, so improves water quality. If you think of a filter that you have on your faucet, often those are charcoal, charcoal to purify water, so it would help with water purification as well, as helping the soil microbiome. So it's an amazing chemical, and it sequesters carbon for thousands of years, so that's a byproduct of this high temperature, low anaerobe environment for pyrolysis, and so we have farmers that are working on this, our state agencies working on this as well too, and so I think we're going to start seeing a lot of improvement as we go forward with the processes that have been put in place.

WVIK News: And to move on to some legislation that you have helped co-sponsor, the, I want to get the name right, the Opportunities for Non-developed Sites to Have Opportunities to be Rehabilitated for Economic Development, or for short, Onshore Act. I was reading through it, it would give about $100 million over four years for the Secretary of Commerce to choose at least 10 grants, could be more, every year to allocate for cities, states, non-profits, higher education institutions to develop land, connect water utilities, fund workforce training, and cover EPA review studies. Do you have any updates on the pass, for a possible vote for this bill in the House?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: So it's not unusual for things to come up in the lame duck session, and so we're hoping, so the Onshore Act is something that's very important to the Quad Cities, you know, for development sites, economic areas that were once vital, now are not, also workforce development. So that is something that is important to the Quad Cities, something that we've worked with economic development and leadership here to put forward, and we'll continue to work in the lame duck session to get it passed. We also have a critical infrastructure bill that's helpful to Rock Island Arsenal. I've got a DRUG act which would help lower prescription drug costs immediately, taking on PBM reform that I started when I was an Iowa State Senator in 2019, at which time I had to convince a lot of people it needed to be done, and now people are seeing this opaque marketplace between the drug manufacturer and the dispensing of drugs, and what's happened to small independent community pharmacies and even larger pharmacy chains, and so would very much want to see the DRUG act get passed. I tried very hard to get it passed this summer because, again, it would lower prescription drug prices for people immediately, and this is an area where in addition to high prices at the grocery store and the gas pump, people are struggling with medications, either seniors on a fixed income or families, and especially low income families. So there's a variety of bills, a rural infrastructure, recycling infrastructure bill, so I've got a lot of bills, our IVF bill, wanting to get that across, so we've got a variety of bills that we're hoping to get passed in the lame duck session, and so we're going to keep one ONSHORE Act as well, this is one of the bills we want to see get passed.

WVIK News: And you've mentioned in other media interviews that the economy is kind of one of the top priorities for voters in the district, what types of ideas for federal legislation could be forwarded that would help families be able to afford their groceries, their rent, that would help with kind of the housing crisis that the country is seeing, where people can't afford to put down a mortgage.

Rep. Miller-Meeks: So, on two fronts, so one is that we know that we're in an economic environment where inflation went up to 9% in 2022, it was within four months of the Biden administration being in power that interest rates went up, and it started with a 1.9 trillion COVID relief package that was not targeted, temporary, or timely. And so that started this spiral of and that bill was in addition to our typical annual $4 trillion appropriation that we have. So that started us on inflation. Inflation in December of 2020 was around 1.6%. Inflation by May of 2021 was at 5.6% and went up to 9%. So to tackle inflation, there's a couple of ways to do that. One is to raise taxes. Taxes had already been raised because inflation is an insidious, regressive tax. That affects people on a fixed income, working families, the working poor. So people are already paying more because of inflation. Although, so raising taxes was not going to pass even in the Democrat majority Congress. The other way would be to stop government spending. They didn't stop government spending. We had two more large spending packages after that in 2021, 2022. And then the third way would be to raise interest rates. So the Federal Reserve, a little bit too slowly, raised interest rates in 2022. And so now interest rates are at the highest rate they've been for most people in their lifetime. I'm old enough that I've seen interest rates higher, but I can assure you that tax is real on individuals. Inflation has come down as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates, but inflation is accumulative. It's year over year. So people are paying about 21% more for groceries, about 50% more for gasoline, especially here on the Illinois side. A little bit less on the Iowa side. And they're struggling. And when we're out, it doesn't matter what party, political party someone is, everyone is feeling the pinch of inflation, and they're struggling. You add to that, and I think you correctly said, when interest rates are high, you know, interest rates were down below 3%, you could get a mortgage at 3%. With interest rates between 6 and 8, it makes it, that's reflected in rental, but it's also reflected in trying to purchase a home, whether it's a starter whether you're trying to grow, or whether you're trying to downsize. And so that's created problems for people who are struggling. So first and foremost, we have to prioritize government spending. So where those dollars go, we have to prioritize. Number two, the Tax Cut and Jobs Act is due to expire. There are some very important provisions in the Tax Cut and Jobs Act that help low income families. So we doubled the child care tax credit, and so that's due to expire. We actually did a tax bill in the House but that's over in the Senate, and languishing in the Senate. I hope they take it up, because there's a lot of provisions in that that would help low income families. So the doubling of the child care tax credit, all of the tax brackets were brought down, so everyone received a tax break, and if the Tax Cut and Jobs Act is not reauthorized in 2025, people's taxes will go up immediately. So they will see an immediate effect of that.

WVIK News: Because that was always said to be temporary?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: It had a five year, so it was passed in 2017, it's expired in 2025.

WVIK News: Except for those that make over a certain amount, they had permanent tax cuts in the 2017 bill.

Rep. Miller-Meeks: There are some permanent tax credits in the 2017 bill. Those are minimal. Most of them go away. So for instance, our farming community, the estate tax, that is due to go back down. The step up basis, the 1031 exchanges that you need when you're purchasing agricultural property, or in business owners, all of those things are due to expire. The immediate expensing that helps our job creators, the small business things, those all expire. And we had a Ways and Means hearing in August at the Iowa State Fair, and we had four small business owners all testify on how important, and these are just mom and pop, or a mother, single mother with children that are now in the business, these businesses will be heavily impacted if the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is to expire. So primarily it benefited low income and lowering of the tax brackets. Everybody benefited, but it had a significant impact on working families, low income, farmers, small businesses, and then our manufacturing sector here in the Quad Cities, which we want to be robust. Why do we want to have these pro-growth policies? Because part of helping people struggle is to be able to have wages that keep up with inflation. So when you have year over year inflation, that's now about 20%, 21% cumulative, you want to have a growing economy where people have job mobility, people can come into the workforce, they can make higher wages. That's a very important part of being able to address the cost of living for individuals. And then working through a good economy on lowering the interest rates will help, which will help with home ownership as well as rental incomes.

WVIK News: Would you support raising the, I know Iowa's federal minimum wage...the Iowa's wage and the federal minimum wage are the same, excuse me, it was $7.25. Would you support raising that?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: I think you have to look at the minimum wage and the fact is that most people make vastly more than the minimum wage.

WVIK News: So it should be raised to accommodate?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: So I think if you already have the majority of people that are in the workforce making more than minimum wage, so when I travel around and places are hiring, and they'll say what their wage is, so $13, $15, $18 an hour already is what they're offering. So we already have a labor market where what is being offered even for entry into workforce is much higher than whatever the state or the federal minimum wage is. So I think you're already seeing the marketplace respond to that. In addition to which, a minimum wage is for individuals who have low skills or no skills. So those individuals coming into the workforce are being trained and do not stay at a minimum wage for longer than about six months if you talk to employers of all types of employers throughout our district.

WVIK News: Okay. We'll move on to, I know the Federal Emergency Management Agency is going through some budget cuts in the previous years, so they don't have enough funds currently for the amount of natural disasters that the country is seeing from Iowa to Florida to Georgia. Would you support providing more funds for FEMA in the lame duck session or going before in a special session as President Biden and a few other congressmen have suggested?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: Well, first let me say I'm not aware of any budget cuts to FEMA and to disaster relief.

WVIK News: They had cuts to their funding a number of years ago. I can't say the year off the top of my head. (Correction: In recent years, FEMA has not seen budget cuts. The Shelter and Services Program, which many in the media have recently discussed, is administered by FEMA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection for noncitizen migrants, but funds do not come from the Disaster Relief Fund.)

Rep. Miller-Meeks: Since I've been in Congress, we have been two years with a Democrat majority and then now two years in the Republican. I don't recall any cuts being made in any of our appropriations bills to FEMA. So I don't recall them. You would have to prove that. So I'm going to push back on that because as far as I am aware with Republicans in Congress, we have not cut disaster assistance to FEMA and even in our last continuing resolution, we did some emergency funding for FEMA. Now to that end, so am I opposed to coming back in the current environment with both Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton? I'm not opposed to coming back in a special session to go back for funding, nor am I opposed to looking at additional funding for FEMA in the lame duck. However, we also know that FEMA has a fund of about $7 billion. It was reported through this past week of about $7 billion that was meant for previous disasters but has been unused even going back to disasters in 2012. If there is money that was not needed for previous disasters and those funds exist, those funds should certainly be transferred into ongoing expenditures that FEMA has to address these national disasters.

WVIK News: Okay. Same thing for the Small Business Administration?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: Again, I don't recall cuts to the Small Business Administration. The chair of the Small Business Committee is Blaine Luetkemeyer out of Missouri. The Small Business Administration in the loans that they make for small businesses that have been impacted by hurricanes. I remember in Iowa when we've had floods or the derecho that the small business loan to individuals were very helpful in them getting back on their feet. If the Small Business Administration is coming to Congress and they need additional support to be able to help get businesses back on their feet once the rescue and recovery phase is gone, then I'm not adverse to that. To me, that's one of the roles of the federal government is to protect life and protecting life when it comes to natural disasters I think is one of their prime functions.

WVIK News: Okay. Thank you so much. Congresswoman Miller-Meeks, I'd like to move on to abortion. I know we don't have much time left, but with Iowa's heartbeat bill, once cardiac activity is detected, abortion is prohibited unless in the case of rape, incest, or the life of the mother further down the line of the pregnancy if something were to occur. Would you support any federal legislation that would help assist these mothers, maybe single mothers, raise their child? They may not want the child, but if they have cardiac activity in at least Iowa, they have to bring the pregnancy to term. Is there any programs that you would like to bolster or new ideas to help these single mothers raise their kids?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: Well, I'm pro-life with exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother. But to that end, I've also put forward programs and signed on to bills to help families. So I mentioned the child care tax credit earlier that it was doubled, but I also have a bill that would extend the child care tax credit dream pregnancy rather than after birth. So if a woman is trying to make a decision, can I afford to have this child, she has that knowledge that this child care tax credit would be available to her. There's a bill that both Ashley Hinson has that I've signed on to which would have support for women in college who are pregnant. We also have bills on adoption, adoption services. I have a bill on in vitro fertilization tax credits so that only the wealthy should not be the only people that can have in vitro fertilization if they have the dream of parenthood that individuals who want to become parents can become parents and have assistance with a tax credit. It's a $30,000 tax credit over their lifetime. So the programs we have put in place to help mothers and to help them financially, there are several programs in addition to the ones I've mentioned and that I've co-sponsored. I'm also on a... I'm in a bipartisan group that's working on paid family leave. So we're hoping to have legislation. We've crafted some things. We have our pillars of that legislation and again this is a bipartisan group of individuals working on this subject because it's an important topic if families, if you have two parents or if you have a single parent and they're working, that there's support for them both throughout the process of pregnancy then after pregnancy and in addition to which we're working on childcare as well. So quality childcare, I know you didn't specifically ask about that but it is in the range of services for mothers and families should they choose to have a child.

WVIK News: Thank you so much, Congresswoman Miller-Meeks.

Rep. Miller-Meeks: You're welcome.

WVIK News: I know we probably only have a couple minutes left so I want to jump around here. There hasn't been an official complaint filed in the Scott County Auditor's Office but a LeClaire resident a few weeks ago, a month ago alleged that you're primarily residing in, I want to pronounce this right, Ottumwa and not in Davenport. Would you have any statement for those allegations?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: I would say I have a residence in Davenport. Even the House Ethics Committee responded to that and said usually they deal with complaints that are much more substantial and less frivolous. I would ask for you to ask the same question to my opponent and ask her whether she resides in Iowa or whether she resides at her place in Florida, in Sarasota, Florida. Members of Congress primarily are in Washington, D.C. but I have a residence in Davenport.

WVIK News: Thank you so much. Final topic for today, since October 7th, there's been about $18 billion of military aid that's been approved in the House and the Senate. From your perspective, is there a red line to sending military aid while the International Criminal Court is investigating war crimes and acts, crimes against humanity with the Prime Minister, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Is there a red line when it comes to this international discussion of whether or not there are acts of genocide in Israel? Would that change your mind on any further military aid?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: Well, first and foremost, let me just say that there are not acts of genocide occurring in Israel. We know that there was an attempt in World War II and the Holocaust to eliminate an entire race and that was the Jewish race. But I think when it comes to military funding to either Ukraine or to Israel, that having metrics, having outcome measures, how the money is being utilized, I think all of those things need to be able to ascertain beforehand. You know, whether we're supplying arms, whether we're supplying intelligence, those things that we should have some idea of, and we do, especially when it comes to Ukraine because of the allegations of corruption, where the money goes, what are the outcomes, what are the metrics, what do we consider success as negotiations for peace are going on. Certainly, no one desires to have innocent women and children to be injured in a conflict and for humanitarian aid to be provided, but you have a terrorist activity, a terrorist group, Hamas, who invaded Israel on October 7th. They invaded a country. They were not occupiers. They were not colonializing, sorry for that, Gaza. Israel had pulled out of Gaza in 2005. In Israel, there are Palestinians who work in Israel. There are Palestinians who are in the Knesset. So they work, they vote, and they are in the government as well. And so I think that you have to have a knowledge of the region and knowledge of the individuals. And I was with Senator Ernst and we were in the Middle East speaking with MBS of Saudi Arabia on October 6th who indicated that they were going to be joining the Abraham Accords and economic modernization which they think is very important. And one of the reasons Hamas invaded, Hamas is a proxy for Iran. Iran did not want there to be continued economic modernization in the region. And so I think it was one of the steps forward to peace in the Middle East was Abraham Accords. So you now have Hamas, you have Hezbollah, you have the Houthis, all terrorist proxies for Iran who is very close to getting a nuclear weapon. So I think you have to take all of that into the context as you want to provide humanitarian aid and bring people to safety. But Hamas could have stopped this conflict a year ago. There are still over a hundred hostages including Americans, four Americans that are still in captivity. And if you have listened to Rachel Goldberg-Polin about her son Hirsch in abysmal conditions, extremely poor health, who were also in all likelihood abused and tortured while they're in captivity. There are still hundreds who are in captivity in addition to the murder, brutalization and rapes that occurred on October 7th. So Hamas perpetrated those and is using Palestinian women and children as human shields as they build tunnels and armaments underneath hospitals and schools. So it is certainly a tragedy that we are in this situation. But Israel has the right to exist. They have a right to a country and they have a right to defend themselves.

WVIK News: And at this point, is there any issues I may not have asked you about that you think is important with your priorities if elected to another term?

Rep. Miller-Meeks: Well, I think the other thing you didn't ask about is one of the most important things to voters in addition to the economy and being able to afford to go to the grocery store and the gas pump and their prescription medications is in fact the border. We passed H.R.2 border security immigration bill. The record number of people coming across our southern border both individuals who are coming here for economic reasons but you also have people that are on the terror watch list. You have, as we know now, gangs that are inhabiting in certain cities and in certain apartment complexes. The crime that has increased as part of that. The record number of drugs coming across. Some interdicted at the ports of entry but many more are coming across when the cartels signal that people are going to be here and then another part of the border illegal drugs come across. And as we know, drug overdoses is now the number one killer of young individuals 18 to 45 years old. So with Fentanyl, Fentanyl alkaloids, Fentanyl itself, the numbers of illegal drugs, certainly our southern border is a huge problem and the crime along with that and I have an opponent who has not supported law enforcement has contributed to organizations to defund the police, to abolish prisons, abolish ICE, in support of sanctuary cities and it is a huge issue. Voted against qualified immunity while she was in the state house. So I think when you're looking at an open border, the amount of drugs, talking to our law enforcement about the amount of drugs that they're interdicting and drug overdoses that they're helping individuals to recover and give emergency aid, these are two issues that are extremely important to people within our district.

WVIK News: Okay, thank you so much Congresswoman Miller-Meeks in taking the time and speaking with us today.

Rep. Miller-Meeks: Well, thank you so much for having me.

Brady is a 2021 Augustana College graduate majoring in Multimedia Journalism-Mass Communication and Political Science. Over the last eight years, he has reported in central Illinois at various media outlets, including The Peoria Journal Star, WCBU Peoria Public Radio, Advanced Media Partners, and WGLT Bloomington-Normal's Public Media.