• Iowa Legislature Must Act to Feed Hungry

    By Sarah Trone Garriott and Rob Hogg
    This year in communities all over Iowa, the holiday season kicked off with long lines of idling cars. Our neighbors were not waiting to see displays of Christmas lights. They were not lining up to be first for the best shopping deals. They were not stuck in bumper-to-bumper holiday traffic.

    All over our state, Iowans could be seen lining up at food pantries and other distribution sites for a Thanksgiving meal. Our neighbors were waiting hours for food.

    According to Feeding America, more than 300,000 Iowans—including more than 100,000 children—are struggling with hunger. The economic devastation of this pandemic has already pushed many more Iowans to the brink. To keep a roof over their heads, too many Iowans are literally tightening their belts when it comes to food. Right now, our neighbors are skipping meals, filling up on cheap, unhealthy food, and seeking help from feeding assistance programs in record numbers.

    We face a difficult winter and, even when the coronavirus is under control, a long road to recovery. For the health of our communities, our families, and our economy, we must act now.

    We call on the Iowa Legislature and Governor Reynolds to act swiftly in January to provide immediate additional resources to help Iowans struggling with hunger.

    We propose using the state's ending balance (more than $305 million at the end of the 2020 fiscal year) or the state's "rainy day funds" (more than $770 million at the end of the 2020 fiscal year) to provide $30 million or more in immediate supplemental food assistance for Iowans directly and through food banks, food pantries, and other feeding entities in Iowa.

    We can efficiently distribute these funds using existing or expanded programs. Options include:

    > Supporting community grocery stores and families across Iowa by providing supplemental funds to the 150,000 Iowa households already eligible for supplemental nutrition assistance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    > Supporting Iowa farmers and families through existing and expanded programs to purchase fresh produce, dairy, and meat products.

    > Reaching Iowans struggling with hunger who aren't eligible for USDA programs through existing or expanded food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens, congregate meal providers, and other community food assistance efforts, including home food deliveries for food insecure families.

    > Helping Iowa’s restaurants by allowing the use of state supplemental food assistance funds to purchase take-out food.

    > Strengthening the food assistance infrastructure by permanently exempting feeding entities, including food banks, food pantries, and congregate meal providers, from Iowa sales tax.

    > Expanding communications about food assistance so that more Iowans know about existing and expanded efforts to help those struggling with access to adequate healthy food.

    We have the resources to make sure Iowa families get access to the food they need. We know that Iowans have the heart to help our neighbors in this challenging time.

    Speak up in support of this effort. Ask your state legislators and Governor Reynolds to provide the immediate help that Iowans need when the Legislature convenes on January 11.

    Sarah Trone Garriott is state senator-elect from Polk County. Rob Hogg is a state senator from Linn County. 
  • Iowans need supplemental food assistance

    Joint Release from State Senator Rob Hogg
    and other Iowa Democratic State Senators*

    A group of Iowa Senate Democrats are calling on the Iowa Legislature and Gov. Reynolds to pass immediate assistance for food and other basic needs as early as possible in the 2021 legislative session.

    “Emergency authorization of Rainy-Day funds for supplemental food assistance will help combat food insecurity, which has tripled for Iowa families with children since the start of the pandemic,” said Senator Zach Wahls, Senate Democratic Leader. “This is more than a rainy day—it’s a thunderstorm.”

    The proposal calls for a multi-million-dollar investment in supplemental food assistance.

    The state finished the 2020 fiscal year with an ending balance of more than $305 million and rainy-day funds of more than $770 million.

    “Supplemental food assistance is needed now because of increased demand due to the coronavirus public health emergency and its resulting economic disruption, the derecho, and other longer-term economic forces that have hampered many Iowans’ ability to meet basic needs,” said Senator Rob Hogg (D-Cedar Rapids). “Food assistance would help Iowa families who are struggling right now. It also would help our community grocery stores, which need more customers, and Iowa farmers who need more markets for their products.”

    The 2021 legislative session convenes January 11, 2021.

    -end-

    *Signing onto this release are Senator-Elect Sarah Trone Garriott (Windsor Heights) and State Senators:

    • Joe Bolkcom (Iowa City)
    • Nate Boulton (Des Moines)
    • Claire Celsi (West Des Moines)
    • Bill Dotzler (Waterloo)
    • Eric Giddens (Cedar Falls)
    • Rob Hogg (Cedar Rapids)
    • Pam Jochum (Dubuque)
    • Jim Lykam (Davenport)
    • Liz Mathis (Hiawatha)
    • Janet Petersen (Des Moines)
    • Herman Quirmbach (Ames)
    • Amanda Ragan (Mason City)
    • Jackie Smith (Sioux City)
    • Zach Wahls (Coralville)
  • Gov. Reynolds’ Misuse of Federal Pandemic Relief Funds

    For the past two years, Governor Reynolds has been less than forthcoming about the Governor’s Office budget. According to documents uncovered by reporters, the Governor’s Office was running a budget deficit of approximately half a million dollars ($449,448) in March of this year. Details: https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2020/12/07/exclusive-iowa-governor-overspent-office-budget-before-tapping-cares-act/

    Shortly thereafter, the State of Iowa received millions of dollars in pandemic aid from the Federal CARES Act. Iowa was specifically prohibited from spending CARES dollars on staff salaries already accounted for in state budgets. All staff salaries in the Iowa Governor’s office were previously accounted for in the certified budget or through salary-sharing agreements with other state departments.

    A later directive clarified that CARES Act dollars money could be used to pay additional staff hired to meet increased workloads due to the pandemic. However, no additional staff were ever hired by Governor Reynolds.

    In an apparently improper effort to cover the Governor’s office budget deficit, Sara Craig Gongol, the Governor’s Chief of Staff, submitted an invoice for CARES Act dollars for the exact amount of that deficit. The funds were then transferred to the Governor’s office through the Dept. of Homeland Security – an unusual move.

    This maneuver circumvented normal accounting of CARES Act spending and calls into question the legitimacy of the transfer of funds. More importantly, these dollars are urgently needed to fund the pressing needs of Iowa families during this deadly pandemic.

    Senator Celsi is formally requesting that Republican leaders in the Iowa Senate convene a Senate Government Oversight meeting on this issue. The Legislature must ensure that all CARES dollars are used properly. If the State of Iowa fails to do so, Iowa could be required to return misspent CARES Act funding.

    Senator Celsi calls on Governor Reynolds to immediately return to Iowa’s CARES Act account the nearly half million dollars in pandemic relief funds improperly diverted to her office.

    “If Governor Reynolds cannot manage her office with the funds she’s received from the Legislature, she should request additional dollars from the proper channels. What Governor Reynold should not do—and the Legislature should not allow—is divert federal dollars intended to help Iowa recover from this historic pandemic,” said Senator Celsi. “There are too many other immediate needs in our state to allow this money to be misspent.”

    -End-

  • Unemployment rate much higher than Reynolds Administration estimate

    A statement by Senator Herman C. Quirmbach, D-Ames:

    Today’s press release from the Reynolds Administration on Iowa unemployment dramatically underrepresents the actual situation in Iowa.  While the release claims Iowa unemployment is 3.6%, a more accurate unemployment number is 10.3%.  

    “Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) reported this October that the number of ‘unemployed’ Iowans was 58,500.  However, IWD only counts people who have lost their jobs as ‘unemployed’ if they are still looking for work.  Not counted by IWD are another 121,500 Iowans out of a job over the last 12 months who have given up trying to find a job.  Added together, the actual number of Iowans who are unemployed relative to a year ago is 180,000, three times the 58,500 Iowans currently reported by IWD.

    “When we include all the Iowans out of a job over the last year, Iowa’s actual unemployment rate is 10.3%, and the actual number of Iowans who have lost their jobs is approximately 180,000.

    “The picture is equally bleak looking at the employment side.  Compared to a year ago, there were 130,800 fewer jobs in Iowa this October.  That’s 130,800 fewer paychecks to pay the rent or mortgage, to put food on the table, to pay medical bills, or to pay for heat this winter.  Christmas is going to be thin this year for those 130,800 Iowa families.

    —  30 —

    Senator Quirmbach holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton and taught as an economics professor at ISU for 29 years.

  • Statement on Reynolds’ failed COVID strategy

    JOINT STATEMENT ON GOVERNOR’S FAILED COVID STRATEGY FROMSENATE DEMOCRATIC LEADER ZACH WAHLS AND HOUSE DEMOCRATIC LEADER TODD PRICHARD

    “Governor Reynolds seems shocked that her failed COVID strategy has resulted in thousands of deaths, overcrowded hospitals, unsafe schools, and some of the highest coronavirus infection rates in the country over the past nine months.

    “Her half-measured attempt at a mask mandate will not be enough to make Iowans safer, especially heading into the holiday season. Her actions today are simply too little, too late. Half-measures will only prolong this pandemic and the suffering of Iowans. 

    “The Governor’s latest plan: 

    • Fails to protect our most vulnerable in nursing homes. 
    • Fails to protect the health and safety of educators and students in our schools. 
    • Fails to expand testing and contact tracing in all 99 counties. 
    • Fails to help small businesses and other employers hit hard by the pandemic.

    “The deadly results of her inaction has turned this pandemic into a public health crisis that has devastated our economy. Here is what the Governor should have announced tonight that include the specific recommendations of the White House Coronavirus Task Force:

    • An effective mask mandate. 
    • Proactive and increased testing for teachers, community college students, public sector workers, staff in crowded or congregate settings, all hospital personnel, large private sector employers.
    • Expand and renew Iowa Small Business Relief Grant Program to provide relief grants to bars, taverns and other establishments impacted by COVID-19.
    • Expanded, strategic use of testing in all 99 counties. 
    • Proactive testing must be part of the mitigation efforts inclusive of mask wearing, physical distancing, hand hygiene, and immediate isolation, contact tracing, and quarantine.
    • Ensure all nursing homes, assisted living, and elderly care sites have full testing capacity and are isolating positive staff and residents.
    • Ensure all hospitals, including rural hospitals, have access to antivirals, antibodies, PPE, and ventilators.
    • Review testing at universities & ensure appropriate testing and behavior change in the 10 days prior to student departure to hometowns for the holiday season.

     ###

  • Statement on Governor’s latest COVID steps

    Statement from Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen 

    “Governor Reynolds’ latest steps to fight COVID are like buying a smoke detector after your house is blazing out of control. 

    “Iowa has one of the highest positivity rates in the nation, making more schools unsafe to hold in-person classes. Hospitals are above capacity for COVID and non-COVID patients. Iowans are finding it difficult to impossible to get tested for COVID. And the death count is spiking. 

    “For eight months, Governor Reynolds has unilaterally led a COVID strategy,  damaging the Iowa economy and leaving business owners and workers at her mercy. If the Governor had listened from day one to health care experts – including the White House Coronavirus Task Force – more Iowans would be alive today and the Iowa economy would be rebounding.”

    -end-

  • The Truth about Iowa Unemployment

    Statement by Senator Herman C. Quirmbach, D-Ames:

    “The headline today from the Reynolds administration of 4.7% unemployment in Iowa wildly underrepresents the dire current unemployment situation in Iowa.  A truer unemployment number would be 12.3%.

    “What the Iowa Workforce Development press release says up top is that there were 76,600 unemployed Iowans this September.  That is up from 48,700 unemployed in September a year ago.  That is a 57. 3% increase in the number of unemployed in just 12 months.  That would be bad enough, but the full story is much worse.

    “Only in the fine print at the bottom of the news release do you get the full picture.  In addition to the 76,600 unemployed workers, there are another 138,400 Iowans who have left the labor force in the last 12 months.  If all those people were also still looking for jobs, the unemployment rate would be 12.3%.

    “Here’s how people quitting looking skews the unemployment number.  The way unemployment is calculated is a little strange.  If you lost your job and are looking for a new one, you are counted as unemployed.  However, if you lost your job and have gotten so discouraged about your prospects that you have given up even looking, you are no longer counted as unemployed.  Indeed, you aren’t even counted as being in the labor force!  You’re called a ‘discouraged worker’ and become invisible to IWD when it computes the unemployment rate.

    “During the year, there is always some degree of churn in the labor force.  Older folks retire.  Young folks get out of school and look for a first job.  New parents leave and then reenter the labor force around the period when their kids are young.  People move in and out of the state.

    “But a loss of 138,400 workers is not normal churn.  That’s a loss of nearly 8% of the workforce—not quite 1 of every 12 workers—in just 12 months!  If job prospects were better, most of them would still be at least looking.

    “The Iowa economy will not recover until we crush the coronavirus.  And that won’t happen until we get serious about masks, widespread testing, and contact tracing.   Instead Governor Reynolds obstinately refuses to follow the White House Coronavirus Task Force recommendation to mandate masks.  With COVID-19 cases surging—nearly 7,700 in the last week, per the New York Times—contact tracing is unmanageable, even if Iowa were seriously trying, which we are not. 

    “Until the Reynolds administration is willing to commit to a serious effort to end the pandemic, Iowa businesses, Iowa consumers, and Iowa workers will continue to suffer.  No amount of rosy press releases and misleading claims will do the trick.”

    -end-

    Senator Quirmbach holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton and taught as an economics professor at ISU for 29 years.

  • Statement on Governor’s misuse of federal COVID funds

    Statement by Senator Claire Celsi on findings by State Auditor and U.S. Treasury Department’s Inspector General on misuse of federal COVID relief funds by Governor Reynolds

    Sen. Claire Celsi is Ranking Member of the Senate Administration and Regulation Subcommittee

    “I am disappointed that Governor Reynolds used taxpayer money intended for COVID-19 related uses for non-pandemic expenditures. 

    ”These findings, discovered during Auditor Rob Sands’ review and confirmed by the Treasury Department’s Inspector General, prove that Governor Reynolds misused more than $20 million of federal funds the state received to fund COVID-19 relief measures that are desperately needed in our state.

    “Instead of directing more money to testing and contact tracing, paid sick leave for essential workers, food assistance, childcare subsidies, additional money for rent assistance, unemployment insurance, utility assistance, providing PPE to healthcare workers and educators, and to help schools prepare for the winter season — and myriad of other uses —  Governor Reynolds is using the CARES Act money as a means to fund pet projects and make Iowa’s budget appear flush with excess funds.

    “The U.S. Treasury had explicit rules on how this money could be used, and upon examination, it appears those rules were ignored.

    “A few months ago, I asked State Auditor Rob Sand to investigate the use of COVID-19 relief money to fund Workday, an IT project that was already underway before the pandemic.

    “Normally, the Senate Oversight Committee would investigate this type of action, but Auditor Sands’ independent investigation is the only option we have at this time. I fully support his critical examination of this misappropriation of taxpayer dollars.

    “I urge Department of Management Director Roderer and Governor Reynolds to immediately rectify this situation and use the COVID-19 funding for COVID-19 expenses, not as a supplement to our normal Iowa general fund budget.”

    -end-

  • Investigation needed into misuse of federal COVID funds

    Iowa Senate News Release
    September 16, 2020

    Key Democratic Legislators call for investigations into misuse of federal COVID funds

    Key Democratic legislators are calling for investigations into reports that Governor Reynolds diverted nearly $450,000 to pay her staff instead of using the funds for COVID-19 relief efforts. 

    “At a time when the number of jobless Iowans is through the roof and many Iowa businesses are hurting because of the pandemic, Iowa taxpayers should have confidence that federal COVID relief funds are being used only to help them,” said Sen. Joe Bolkcom, Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

    “Instead of using funds that are desperately needed to provide relief to hard-working Iowans and closed or struggling businesses hurt by the pandemic, the Governor is diverting the relief funding for other purposes.  That’s not right.”

    A report by Bleeding Heartland uncovered public documents showing that Reynolds directed that $448,449 in funding received through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act were used to cover salaries and benefits for staff already working in her office.

    The diversion is even more puzzling because the Legislature approved and the Governor signed legislation to appropriate more than $4.6 million to cover the cost of running the Governor’s office – including salaries and benefits – over the past two years. 

    “We need to find out what the Governor did with the extra money. The intent of the federal aid was not to allow the Governor to set up a slush fund,” Bolkcom said. “We also need to find out if this diversion is continuing.”

    For the past six months, none of the documents released to the public and legislators contained any information about this diversion of funds.

    “Instead of transparency by the Governor and her staff, they are hiding the ball from Iowa taxpayers,” Bolkcom said.

    Democratic Senators called for a three-pronged effort to investigate this misuse of public funds:

    • First, Senator Claire Celsi of West Des Moines, Ranking Member of the Administration and Regulation Budget Subcommittee, will request that the State Auditor immediately investigate the diversion of funds. The Subcommittee appropriated $2,303,954 for the Governor’s office during Fiscal Year 2020 (July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020) and $2,315,344 for Fiscal Year 2021 (July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021).
    • Second, Senator Tony Bisignano,  Ranking Member of the Government Oversight Committee, will request that the Oversight Committee convene to allow Republican and Democratic lawmakers to question the Governor, the Director of the Department of Management and other key officials with knowledge of this diversion.
    • Third, federal officials in U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) will be contacted to investigate whether paying existing staff is an appropriate use of COVID relief funds.

    END

  • Thank you, Iowa workers!

    During a difficult year, Iowans have been asked to do more and they have responded by:

    • Pouring into communities to help those hit by storms and flooding
    • Working overtime—often in risky situations—at front-line jobs during the pandemic
    • Using innovative solutions to continue providing goods and services to their fellow citizens
    • Adjusting how and where they work to limit potentially dangerous circumstances

    This Labor Day, let’s look around and thank those who are working hard in what often feels like thankless times. A special salute and thank goes out to all who have worked during the pandemic and the derecho to help their neighbors, community and state get through the upheaval—the nurses, teachers, utility workers, factory laborers, first responders and other front-line workers.

    Under Republican control of state government since 2017, many Iowa workers have faced hard times. Laws that protected them have been watered down or eliminated, making it harder for them to get ahead. This includes overturning laws that brought Iowans better wages, safer working conditions and a stronger economy, and replacing them with policies and tax benefits that favor big businesses and special interests.

    Even before the hardships of 2020, Iowa wages had stagnated; worker benefits had been cut; and income inequality was growing. Many families have a much harder time making ends meet than they did a few years ago.

    For example, a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows that on average Iowans today must earn $15.46 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the state’s fair market rent rate. That’s more than double Iowa’s minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. The difference is even bigger in several Iowa communities. In Iowa City, for example, workers must earn $19.44 per hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the local fair market rent rate.  

    Senate Democrats continue to offer solutions. It’s time to put Iowa workers first by restoring and protecting worker rights, expanding job training and apprenticeship programs, providing paid sick and family medical leave, paying living wages, ensuring equal pay for equal work, and investing in child care.

    The best “thank you” we can give hard-working Iowans is real opportunities to get ahead.