These are important issues that I will fight for:
1) Public money for Public Schools:
Despite the increase of students statewide, most rural schools have continued to see a decline in enrollment. Coupled with record low state in-vestment for public schools, many schools in small towns and rural areas are being forced to close or merge. When a community loses its school, it most often leads to fewer jobs and additional population decline.
There have been 126 public schools closed since Republicans took over the Iowa House. For nine of the last ten years, GOP law-makers have provided the lowest increases in public school funding in Iowa history.
2) Women’s rights:
Gender bias continues to create huge barriers for many women today. In employment, laws and workplace policies still effectively exclude women from certain job sectors and force them out of the workplace, especially when they become pregnant or after they have a baby. This unfairly creates persistent disparities in women’s income, wealth, and economic security.
3) Healthcare for all:
Keep Government out of medical decisions: Making healthcare available for all Iowans. Keep the governor and legislature from making personal, life-defining decisions for women. Allow the people and their doctors to be at the helm of their own decisions about pregnancy. The government should keep out of the way of health care, and out of the exam room. Women and their physicians can make the medical decisions that are the safest and most appropriate for their unique needs.
4) Protect Child Labor Laws:
As documented in an earlier report, multiple business and industry lobby groups continue to support rolling back child labor laws in the interest of maintaining or expanding access to low-wage labor. Recent reporting has further emphasized the role of right-wing think tank Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) and its lobbying arm Opportunity Solutions Project in using funding from billionaire donors to accelerate state legislative action on child labor laws in 2023. While FGA lobbies for the erosion of child labor protections in states like Arkansas, Iowa, and Missouri, they are simultaneously working to limit access to anti-poverty programs like SNAP and Medicaid, block expansion of Medicaid eligibility, and promote the defunding of public education through expansion of school vouchers in the same states.
5) Roll back limitations put on the State Auditor:
The reductions to the auditor’s powers through Senate File 478 with the expansion of authority for Governor Reynolds and newly elected Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Republican, through the government reorganization plan.
“Who’s going to provide the oversight now to protect the taxpayer dollars?” Rep. Amy Nielsen, D-North Liberty said. “The attorney general? This — it just seems that we are allowing embezzlement and theft to happen and then investigate it, because we can’t let the auditor investigate fraud.”
6) Change limits on Public Assistance:
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that puts new limits on public assistance programs that help low-income Iowans access food and health care. It will deny food assistance, known as SNAP, to households that have more than $15,000 in assets, excluding a home, one car of any value, and a second car worth up to $10,000. It will require Iowans who get health insurance through Medicaid to cooperate with child support recovery. The new law also requires the state to have a real-time eligibility verification system for all public assistance programs, which may be done through a contract with a private company. The nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency estimates 8,000 Medicaid recipients and 2,800 SNAP recipients will have their benefits canceled each year starting in 2025 “due to discrepancies.”
