More than two dozen Iowans including farmers, health-care providers, small-business owners, retirees, and faith and labor leaders were in Washington, D.C., this week for what they called "a massive mobilization for reform" organized by Health Care for America Now.
The rally included Teresa Cooley, a Des Moines nurse for 30 years; Sandy Doerring, a registered nuse and member of the Service Employees International Union; Mike Draper, owner of a Des Moines retail store called Smash; Amy Logsdon of the Iowa Citizen Action Network; retired Des Moines resident Virginia Rowen; and Don Rowen of the Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans.
Meanwhile, U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was this week joined by 22 state legislators including Iowa state Senators Jack Hatch (D-Des Moines) and Joe Bolkcom (D-Iowa City) as she announced the establishment of State Legislators for Health Reform and called the legislators an "incredible asset as we work to make reform a reality."
The state legislators will try to persuade their communities of the need for health reform this year. They'll host public events, author opinion pieces in local publications, and mobilize constituents.
"We are all working in our states on health issues, but we know that this is an American problem that deserves an American solution. One state can't do it alone," Hatch said. "We will use our networks and our voices to organize and champion the cause of health reform."
Hatch was also among a delegation of state legislators who joined U.S. Senator Tom Harkin in urging Congress to include a public plan in the upcoming health-reform legislation. The delegation organized by the Progressive States Network delivered a letter signed by more than 700 legislators from 47 states that calls for any health-reform legislation to include the choice of a public-health-insurance option.
As debate started Wednesday in the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee on the more-than-600-page health-care-reform bill with 388 proposed amendments, Harkin stated simply: "We are going to get it done this year.
"We all know what the goals are: affordable, high-quality health care, reduced costs for families and government and businesses, and to protect people's choice of doctors and hospitals and insurance plans," Harkin said. "But there is one goal that I think that is overarching for everyone ... and that goal is to re-create America as a general wellness society."
There was a slight setback this week. The timeline for getting a bipartisan health-care-reform bill out of committee has been pushed back a bit, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley told Iowa reporters.
"Until yesterday, we were pretty much on schedule to get a bill on the Senate floor by the end of this month for debate next month," he said mid-week. "That slipped yesterday. Whether it slipped a day or a week, I don't really know. Things have slipped. ... Whether this will be done next Tuesday or a week from Tuesday, or maybe after the Fourth of July break right now is in doubt, but this is the first time that I've had to kind of say we haven't met a deadline."
Grassley emphasized, though, that his group of 23 U.S. senators is still hoping for a bipartisan health-care-reform bill that can get 80 votes in his chamber.
"That may be wishful thinking but at this point, that's our goal," Grassley said. "We've developed beyond the blank sheet of paper, but we don't have a bill. ... Maybe tomorrow, if I were talking to you, it will all fail. But right now ... we said we wanted a bipartisan bill since the first of the year. We're still headed in that direction."
Lawmakers Accuse Reservoir Project of Skirting Eminent-Domain Law
The Clarke County Reservoir Commission is using a loophole in Iowa's 2006 eminent-domain law to condemn homes and farmland north of Osceola for a recreational lake, three House Republicans and some of the property owners said this week.
"This is a deliberate attempt to get around our law," said state Representative Jeff Kaufmann (R-Wilton), who was visibly frustrated and said he's been warning about this for years.
Backers of the proposed 900-acre reservoir in Clarke County say it's intended to improve the area's drinking-water supply, which would be allowed under the law. But Kaufmann said the project is clearly for recreation because it includes boat ramps, fishing jetties, RV campsites, and a 300-foot beach with picnic facilities and a bath house.
"The law is being misused, and we have absolutely no way to protect ourselves," said Teresa Dunbar of Cumming, whose family home in Osceola would be among those condemned. "Because they want a recreational lake, they're making the lake three times as large and they're condemning property."
The residents argued that a pipeline from Des Moines could be done at the same cost to meet the area's water needs. Kathy Kelly, who has lived in her rural-Osceola home for 25 years, said the ongoing battle has put families' lives in limbo for 14 years. "It's like terrorism in your own backyard from your community members," she said. "It is torture."
Representative Jodi Tymeson (R-Winterset) said Iowans need to be aware that the state's eminent-domain law is not strong enough. "I'm not sure anyone in Iowa is safe," she said. "You shouldn't have to spend your entire life savings fighting the government."
The 2006 state law said eminent domain can't be used to take a person's land for economic development or recreation. Then-Governor Tom Vilsack (a Democrat) vetoed the bill, but the legislature overrode the veto - the first override in Iowa in 40 years.
Kaufmann said lawmakers need to tweak the law and close the loopholes. He said he's introduced seven bills to plug these loopholes, but all went down on party-line votes.
"We haven't found much help with the Democrats," said Cindy Sanford, who would lose her Osceola home of 20 years along with 180 acres of timbered land through condemnation.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy defended the legislature's actions, saying lawmakers have taken no substantive votes on eminent domain since 2006. He said the issue has only come up as political amendments that have had nothing to do with the subject of the bill being debated.
"We all voted unanimously to override the governor's veto," McCarthy (D-Des Moines) said in an interview with IowaPolitics.com. "We've certainly done nothing to enhance government's power."
McCarthy agreed that "private-property rights should be one of the most cherished rights we have" but said there needs to be more fact-finding before the legislature gets involved in the Clarke County situation.
Analyst Warns Iowa May Not End Fiscal Year in the Black
Governor Chet Culver said he's confident the state can balance its budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30, despite warnings by a fiscal analyst to the contrary and calls by some for a special session.
"I'm very confident that we'll be able to close the books on fiscal year '09 and move forward ... ," Culver told reporters. "I have the authority to transfer up to $50 million. It's too soon to speculate what steps we're going to have to take. I'm committed to sound fiscal management."
Jeff Robinson, an analyst with the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency (LSA), predicted this week that the state might not have enough money to end the fiscal year in the black. A similar prediction was made at the beginning of the month by Holly Lyons, director of the LSA's fiscal division, after release of the end-of-May revenue numbers.
Culver spokesperson Troy Price said it's still too early to consider a special legislative session, despite the Legislative Services Agency's latest prediction that Iowa will spend all of its $45 million ending balance, and that the $50 million that can be transferred by Culver from reserve accounts might not be enough.
Price pointed out that while the fiscal year ends June 30, the state will not have a final accounting until September, when accruals, expenditures and refunds are taken into consideration and the books are closed. Price said the current decline in revenues might be nothing more than typical month-to-month fluctuations, and he added that the state should not incur the cost of a special session unless "absolutely necessary."
Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley (R-Chariton) accused Culver of refusing to accept reality about the budget, and described the governor's comments as "wrongheaded" and taking a "wing and a prayer" approach.
Officials Try to "Manage Expectations" on Flood Recovery
Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston said this week at an IowaPolitics.com forum on flood recovery that she wishes she had told flood victims more clearly that the government "will not make you whole."
"People lived with the assumption that somehow, between the federal, the state, and local government, that government would come in and they would be made the way they were prior to this disaster," Langston said.
Langston recounted her own experience with flooding several years ago, saying she suffered $70,000 in damages and got just $8,000 from the government, along with a $25,000 loan.
"It's all gone, and no one will give that back to you," Langston said. "And no one will deal with that pain. And that's a brutal thing to tell people in the very beginning when they're in shock. But honestly, I think it's a more compassionate way of dealing with people and just saying, if you'll excuse me, 'This sucks, and it's really not going to get a lot better.'"
Lieutenant General Ron Dardis, executive director of the Rebuild Iowa Office, agreed that government can't cover all the costs. He said much of the funding the state has received from the federal government - such as the $517 million the state got in Community Development Block Grants last week - is not meant for this purpose. "They're not designed to be used for disaster funds, so that's the discussion we're having with [U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development] Secretary [Shaun] Donovan ... ," Dardis said. "We need to have a disaster track for this type of fund so that we can get the money to the affected areas in a timely manner."
The number of flood-affected Iowans living in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has dipped below 300, but that number is still not acceptable, state Representative Thomas Sands (R-Columbus Junction) said.
Dardis said the government must streamline the process and get people out of the FEMA trailers, but it must also manage expectations. He described disaster recoveries as "marathons, not sprints" and said some affected by Hurricane Katrina are still living in FEMA trailers nearly four years later.
All three panelists at the forum agreed that watershed and floodplain management are crucial to preventing future major flooding events.
"Instead of looking at this in snapshots, we need to look at entire watersheds," Sands said, "because anything that affects that entire watershed affects everybody within it, as well as the neighbors, and that's where the state really needs to be a leader, in looking at entire watersheds."
Parties Revved Up for Two of the Year's Biggest Fundraisers
More than 1,000 people will attend two of Iowa's biggest political fundraisers next week, which are expected to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for Republicans and Democrats as the parties gear up for the 2010 elections.
Republicans will hold their "Night of the Rising Stars" at Hoyt Sherman Place next Thursday, June 25. "This will be a six-figure fundraiser for the party," said Executive Director Jeff Boeyink. "The event also serves the important purpose of introducing the new Republican Party of Iowa to our activists, donors, and the Iowa political community."
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour will headline the event, which has already received significant media interest. Iowa Republicans hope to take lessons from Barbour, who was chair of the Republican National Committee in 1994 when the GOP made its comeback. He then returned home to Mississippi to take out an incumbent Democratic governor.
Barbour is also incoming chair of the Republican Governor's Association, so he will be at the forefront of helping Iowa Republicans in their attempt to reclaim Terrace Hill next year.
Sixteen new, young Republican state legislators will also be featured at the business-casual GOP event, expected to be attended by more than 700 people.
Two days later, Democrats will welcome back former Iowa Governor Vilsack, former First Lady Christie Vilsack, and former state party chair and Lieutenant Governor Sally Pederson for the "10th Anniversary Hall of Fame Ceremony" at Drake University.
"Democrats in Iowa have enjoyed tremendous success in the past few election cycles," said Iowa Democratic Party Chair Michael Kiernan. "That success was built on the foundation that was created by Tom and Christie Vilsack and Sally Pederson during the historic 1998 election."
It's one of the Iowa Democratic Party's two annual fundraisers. The event is expected to draw roughly 300 people.
This weekly summary comes from IowaPolitics.com, an online government and politics news service. IowaPolitics.com staff contributed to this report.
