Hearing from Iowans so I can tell their stories in Washington is the most important part of my job. That’s why I’ve held an in-person town hall meeting in all twenty counties across Iowa’s First Congressional District. Questions at my town halls are neither screened, nor filtered—we have an open discussion where I hear from folks from all walks of life and across the political spectrum about what is on their minds.
While we cover a wide range of topics at each town hall meeting, there has been one clear takeaway: the Biden Administration’s policies have failed Iowans. The sentiment can be summed up by a question I was asked at a recent town hall meeting in Marshalltown: “How has the Biden presidency gone so badly, so quickly?”
The short answer: record high inflation, sky-high energy prices, and the crisis at our Southern Border are the predictable results of Speaker Pelosi’s and President Biden’s partisan and out-of-touch agenda. The Biden Administration’s exorbitant spending beyond our means—spending trillions in 2021 alone—is the main cause of record high inflation that is destroying family budgets. President Biden’s intentional sidelining of domestic energy resources—from stalling oil drilling to ignoring Iowa biofuels—has driven Iowans’ energy costs through the roof. Policies that incentivize illegal immigration and undermine law enforcement at the border have created the worst border crisis in modern history.
Iowans are frustrated by the lack of accountability from President Biden for the wide-ranging crises his Administration has created. In Washington, I’m telling Iowans’ stories and using their feedback to push for commonsense solutions.
Families are struggling to afford the basics—it’s more difficult for people to get by as prices continue to soar. At every single town hall meeting I’ve held over the past year and a half, working families, small business owners, and farmers have explained to me the impact of inflation on their everyday lives, budgets, and bottom lines. Instead of throwing taxpayer money at every problem and further driving up inflation, we need to get government out of the way and pursue pro-growth economic policies. That’s why I helped introduce the Main Street Tax Certainty Act, legislation that will make key provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent. As prices for everyday goods continue to rise, this will help Iowans keep more of their hard-earned paychecks and ease the financial and emotional burden of inflation.
At a town hall meeting in Waverly, I heard from a family whose daily utilities used to be around $8 dollars, and now, they’ve nearly doubled—that adds up. While the Biden Administration continues to sideline domestic energy sources, allowing costs to bear down on Americans, I’m backing an all-of-the above energy strategy that prioritizes Iowa biofuels. This strategy calls for the President to restart the Keystone XL pipeline, prevents the Administration from recklessly dipping into our emergency reserves while blocking oil and gas leasing on federal land, and ramps up Iowa biofuels utilization to increase our domestic fuel supply. Unleashing our abundant domestic energy resources will bring costs down and help restore American energy independence.
The Biden Administration’s open border policies have created complete chaos at our Southern Border—right now, every state is a border state. There have been 2.4 million illegal immigrant encounters at our border since President Biden took office, including gang members, convicted sex offenders, murderers, and even suspected terrorists. Drug cartels and human traffickers have taken advantage of the situation, and local law enforcement have told me about the increased meth on Iowa’s streets from the border. When I held a town hall in Marshalltown, an attendee told me he read an article in the local paper that morning about the increase of drugs in the community, and he was worried about the strain on local police. In addition to calling on the Biden Administration to enforce the Remain in Mexico policy, restart border wall construction, and keep Title 42 in place, I’ve introduced several pieces of legislation to support border patrol agents and hold the Administration accountable for this crisis. The BE GONE Act will help ensure that law enforcement is empowered to find and deport sex criminals attempting to come into our country illegally. I’ve also introduced the Stop the Betrayal Act, legislation to prevent the Administration from transporting illegal immigrants into the country using taxpayer dollars. These commonsense policies will help restore the rule of law at our border and keep Iowans safe.
The issues that Iowans are talking about around their kitchen tables every night—from inflation and energy costs to the safety concerns stemming from our open border, are being ignored by Democratic leadership in Washington. I’ll continue hearing directly from Iowans, telling their stories in Washington, and working on real solutions to the challenges people are facing.
