Week 4 of the 2025 legislative session began on a solemn note as Brigadier General (Retired) and Iowa Representative Martin L. Graber passed away suddenly on Jan. 31, 2025, at Fort Madison in southeast Iowa. He was laid to rest on Tuesday, so no Iowa House subcommittee or committee meetings were held on Feb. 4.

If you follow the minutes of the Board of Supervisor meetings, you know that January was full of discussions about wage increases for employees and elected officials for FY2026.
Before I go any further, let me remind you that our budget years run from July 1 st – June 30 th , so the Supervisors were discussing and deciding on wage increases that will not take affect until
July 1 st , 2025.

I heard from fellow Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement members up in Worth County their Board of Supervisors recently passed an ordinance that enacts common-sense protections from hazardous liquid pipelines. That’s the eleventh county to pass an ordinance pushing back against Summit’s proposed CO2 pipeline.

There’s no denying that the United States has an opioid crisis. Unregulated, deadly drugs have found their way into our urban centers, our suburbs, and even our rural main streets. Every year, these fatal substances indiscriminately kill hundreds of thousands of Americans regardless of age, race, or creed. There is no questioning what needs to be done.

ALGONA—-- For only the second time this year it was the Hampton-Dumont-CAL Bulldogs girls basketball team that was on the losing side of a game.The No. 11. Hampton-Dumont-CAL Bulldogs lost to the No. 8. Algona Bulldogs 36-32 on Feb. 7. Hampton-Dumont-CAL is now 19-2 on the year and both losses have been to Algona.
 

Whether it's about general funding or fentanyl traffic, national security, or the “level playing field for US industry,” tariffs still dominate public dialog.
Policy is force. tariffs are a tax, it's not a magic wand. I heard a friend say, “How dare Trump put tariffs on our wonderful friends in Canada?” We will all pay the tariffs to the government.

We’re back at it with more budget talk and information.  Last week we talked about the different departments within the county organization, both state mandated and those that aren’t mandated.  This week we’re going to look at all the different funds the county has.  Before we go any further, let’s talk about what a fund is…the easiest way to think about is like this…a fund is a bucket of money that the county has.  Some buckets or funds are f

Earlier this month, I joined more than 120 of my colleagues in introducing H.R. 38, the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. In 1791, the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified by Congress. One of our great Founding Fathers — James Madison — believed that the security and longevity of the American Republic depended on free, well-armed citizens.

On the evening of Wednesday January 15th, I hosted my first of several telephone town halls for 2025. Nearly 6,000 Iowans joined us to ask questions about topics important to them and to learn more about my work in Congress for our families, farmers, businesses, and rural communities.

Forty years ago, Dawn and I finally worked out some bugs typical of a school teacher's kid and a stock broker's kid who decided to farm. This was after such things as uneven soybean stubble that caused a neighbor to ask what happened, to luckily having an elevator manager willing to purchase soybeans testing 22% moisture when the standard was 13%.

I had two very best friends in grade school, as most kids do. What made us special wasn’t just our secret handshakes or shared lunch table, it was something written in the stars. Our birthdays fell three days in a row, January 20, January 21, and mine, January 22. Every year, without fail, we celebrated together. Three birthdays, three cakes, three rounds of wishing and dreaming.

We’re continuing our discussion regarding budgets this week. Of course, the main way for a local government to bring in income is through property taxes. Property Taxes have taken quite a few turns in reform the last 5+ years. It’s a topic that is a clear as mud, but if you recall, I did try to explain the process the best I could back on July 14th .

As a child I lived in Southern California. The common way to put this is grew up. But I was simply alive there and grew up when I met Dawn in Dumont, Iowa. She's worth it.

At the end of this year, significant portions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which was signed into law in December of 2017, officially expires. That means that – absent congressional action – taxes for Iowa families, farmers, and businesses will increase.

The other night, my husband Travis and I went out for dinner—just the two of us. A rare happening, as we usually have at least one of our four kids in tow. We’d been out Christmas shopping and needed to refuel before returning to the chaos of the December night. BBQ wings sounded like the perfect fuel.