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And longtime political reporter with the gazette in cedar rapids, serving as the moderator tonight. Because of the pennant, we are without an audience know it is time to meet our two candidates for the Second District of congress. Former teacher. Covering clinton and scott counties. Senator, thank you both for joining us tonight. We appreciate it. You get to lead us off. For 60 seconds, talk about why you are the best choice for this seat in congress. Thank you so much and it is a great pleasure to be here. Farmer,ormer teacher, a and a long life rhode island or. And also took that to the state senate, working on important issues like Economic Development. I know we are not going to agree on every issue tonight, but i want to go to washington to find common ground. We are facing some tough problems right now with the pandemic, the economy, with health care, and with education. Many more. I know that the way to get to the best solution is to do it together. You. Nator, 60 seconds or i would like to thank the Cedar Rapids Gazette hosting this. Sergeant was a master in the air force. No one in my family had been college educated, although they valued education tremendously. When i was 15, i was severely burned in a kitchen fire and had an epiphany about my future. I was going to become a doctor. Enlisted in the army at age 18 and continued to work and go to school until i got a degree in nursing, math and education and was able to go to medical school. I went to one of the best programs in the country, and now i am a u. S. Senator. I never give up on serving my country. Thattenacity, that great, resilience is not my story alone. I had the pleasure and privilege of serving them in the state senate and working on things like health care, asks us access to health care. I was notds that expecting and i think we can take that same spirit. That same tenacity to work for you, whether it be on recovering for this pandemic or preparing for the next one. But also working on important issues such as how do we defend our country and all of our programs that we have to Fund Economic growth. Lets delve into more of the experience that you have. Senator miller meeks, also run for the Second District numerous times. What have you learned campaigning . Already gone through this district. You learn to be authentic and sincere. Remaining the person that you are. Speaking with them, addressing their problems. Best knows that i authored were from problems that they brought to me and asked to address for them. Such as asking for just nation with the fiveyear eligibility to get prenatal care. Prescription drug prices on a bill looking at benefit managers. Oral contraceptives over the counter for those over age 18 with proper counseling and proper screening. All of those bills came out of listening to people and ringing forth their problems. We also passed bills on broadband. I think being yourself, being authentic, but not just listen, but listen to your heart and your brain and your ears and act upon what it is that you hear. Learn runningu for that is a much larger district than going statewide for this campaign . Experience. Great i got to travel all across the state and talk to so many people. Experience. At meeksd agree with senator that the important thing is that youre listening. We all come from a different place. Time tome you take the really listen to people, you come away a little wiser and you after the kinds of solutions that can really make a difference. I learned that lesson throughout my Senate Campaign as well. And serving as a state senator that the important things that you do is to really get out there, to show up, and to have some important conversation and to learn every single time through someone elses story, what the important things are, and then care enough to do something that will make peoples lives better. We seem to be getting conflicting signals on what, whether there will be another round of covert relief. Can islands wait until after the election for more covert relief . And what should be included in the next phase of the pandemic relief . It is so disappointing because the pandemic is still here, we are still fighting to get to a better place. In the process, people are suffering. It is disappointing that we are at this point, but we know, washington can get together and at done. They did it together with the first relief pass. We know that they can do it. Are Unemployed People through no fault of their own, if they cannot pay their rent, landowners will have to evict and we will have more people in the homelessness the homeless population. We know that certain people are hurt worse. These people need some assistance. Do not want our cities and counties to have to cut our services or to layoff Police Officers or firefighters. We need this relief now. We know it can be done. It is important it is disappointing when we cannot get it done. The same question to you. What should be included . Do we need more compensation . Another round of ppp for businesses . What would you include . It is disappointing that there seems to be a hiatus in negotiations. At the beginning of the pandemic, i did not have the luxury of staying in a household. I was out with my constituents trying to help people navigate through and getting the stimulus check. For people like school bus drivers, which you would not think about needing additional unemployment. And helping companies and businesses, Small Businesses get ppp. Trying to keep businesses alive in your small town when it is so hard to have an good restaurant. Friends father died after contracting covid19. This is then this is extraordinarily difficult everyone. So, it is disappointing that we are not having another die would call it a recovery or a repair instead of a stimulus. It should include additional ppp, additional unemployment, because there are people suffering and we need to look do we need to do anything there is lack of food. I know that there had been a pause on evictions and moratoriums. That will have to end. Growing our economy is so important so that we solve some of these problems so that we can get through this pandemic and prepare for the next pandemic. It is disappointing, but honestly, you cannot expect the taxpayers of iowa to bailout illinois or california for their poor practices. And that has allowed our state to whether the pandemic more than those states. Seconds to respond to that. Anything that you heard that you want to underscore about how they respond to and how it should result . We know that it can be done. If people put their minds to it and wrecking eyes how gravely it is needed. The Small Businesses would be another example that i think is so crucial. Talked to a gentleman who has a diner there, whose family has added generations. Itis struggling to keep going and to keep workers there. That is a huge problem. He said that many of the businesses in the downtown area were not going to be able to open up, and i think the Restaurant Association has said that somebody does close down and not be able to open up again. This came up in the first debate for the Second District for the two of you. The storyline has changed since then. We are still seeing the narrative over wearing masks, senator, you said that do either of you have different thoughts on this since the president s test last week . Anything changed for you . I think covid19 has roof to virus, oneesilient that was unexpected and unanticipated. They are seasonal in nature. Covid19 has been resilient and somewhat unpredictable and how it has remained and stayed on. I certainly wear masks. I socially distance. I wash my hands. I use hand sanitizer. I also recommend that other people to do. The attorney general said that a mask mandate would not be enforceable. We have to wonder, are we going to arrest people or fine people if they are not wearing a mask echo we can all do our part and should. You cannot socially distance, we should wear masks and avoid being in large groups and in contact with large groups. If you are sick, do not go out and go in large groups. We cannot do that and make it better for everyone else. It is unfortunate that the president contracted covid19, but if you look at what was happening throughout the world, i think this was going to be a virus that was going to impact a large number of people. We know that shutting down an economy does not come without risk. People hadver 98,000 noncovered related deaths ,ecause of hospitalizations hospitals that were closed down. Diabetes, death rates from suicide, overdose, drug addiction, this is not just a simple shut down everything so that the virus will go away. Hopefully the the vaccine will be available soon. I will give you two minutes to handle this question. Try to keep it to 60 seconds. I appreciate that. The question was not about closing down the economy. The question was about my should doingshould be a the things that we know to protect the public. If we do that, will that allow us to keep this economy going . That is the bottom line. Until we get this infection rate down, we are going to shudder with this economy and it will be boorse if we do not it will be worse if we do not do that. It is disappointing we are not following the science on this. We can talk about how we are following the mask suggestions and washing of the hands and that kind of thing. The fact is that senator miller senator miller meeks if you cannot physically separate, then wear a mask. Thatt it is also important as leaders here, that we are providing a great example and we know that when we are indoors, the risks are much higher. The bottom line is we have to come together and quit making this a political thing and instead, take advantage of the opportunity to bring people together on this. Farm and our our family, our friends, our neighbors came together. Nobody asked about republican or democrat. It was a common problem. That is what we have here with the covid crisis. It is a common problem. We lost an opportunity to bring people together on it and bring down the infection rate. We can see that that has not worked well. The United States compared to other countries and where this state is compared to other state. We have to bring people together to do it. This administration came down with covid19. Moving along, lets talk about an issue that has not come up. The social inequities, we saw this in june with the demonstrations after George Floyds death. I want to ask you both, what is the federal role in resolving this . In addressing social justice inequities, or is there a federal role . First, senator hart. This has been an issue that again has divided the country and it is an important issue that we have to address correctly. At what canoking really make a difference, we have to start with listening first. We have to bring people to the table who have been most affected by this and so that is why i spent some time talking to the people the chief of police in davenport about this. His approach and my local sheriff, they talk about the same things that we have to do everywhere. Bringle together people together, the stakeholders here, and the naacp , the black lives matter leaders, the social agencies, the entire group of people that can really address the situation. Talk about it, duck about what steps we can take to really make a difference. That is what i would like to see at the federal level as well. The federal role in solving requireduld police be to wear body cameras . Should we get rid of qualified immunity for Police Officers who are bad actors . This is been something that has ruined our country. As we continue to address the challenge of racial inequality, we should not rush to racial hatred. All of us working together, i think this is a problem we can solve. This was after the tragic, horrific death of george floyd. We acted quickly as a legislative body in a bipartisan way to bring people together to enact police reform. We did this in concert with our Law Enforcement and members of our legislative already in Law Enforcement. Chokeholds,banning allowing the attorney general to bring charges against the police officer, implicit bias training. And also to prevent Police Officers from being rounded around to other Police Departments so that they would avoid prosecution or recriminations. So they are not allowed to just continue to go to other places and be bad actors. We did this at the state level. We always hear about this, especially the Election Campaign at, about how people will work across the aisle. You,e ask each of specifically to your own candidacy, we will start with senator miller meeks. Where do you break from President Trump on . Is there anything that they associate with President Trump that they hope that you hope you that they do not associate with you . Think the event at the rose theen recently with nomination of Amy Coney Barrett could have been handled differently. I do not know all the things that happened there. I do not know if they had testing or screening. But i do think it was a momentous occasion. Shouldsame point, there have been appropriate social distancing and mask wearing at that event. That would be one place where i would be not at all with President Trump, and i wish you would tweet less. Since the district was if peopledecade ago, see your name on there, is a the for you vote for congressmans term . Think that he did do a great job of representing this district. Also, you are going to see that i am a different person. I come from a rural perspective. The farming aspects. I lived entire life in rural iowa. I think it is pertinent that we work on Economic Development issues. I can have those kinds of conversations and i look forward to that. To the particular question that you are asking, are there areas of disagreement . Absolutely. The Democratic Party is a big umbrella and we do not always agree on issues. For instance, i come from an area of agriculture where i think that there are specific things that we need to do to create a Strategic Plan to take to get where we are now to where we need to go, and so i do not agree with some of the tax that my democratic colleagues do. Shifting up to racial recovery, we talked about getting some of the noncovered cost into a relief package. That is causing some people thousands of dollars out of pocket. The Second District did not take weh damage come as will start with senator hart, is there something that each of you would propose for relief for people . I think that we suffered more loss in the Second District and you might think. We got hit very hard on our farm. We lost every building that we had. And we have a lot of our crop down on the ground. It is going to be a tough harvest. That is something that people have not talked much about. Continue continuing, facing a tough harvest, tough situations where they do not have grain storage. I was disappointed that it took too long for Clinton County to get the relief that they needed. They just finally got that. Way to that there is a maybe speed up that kind of relief that is so important, but to your point about the trees, i think that is a huge loss to us at the state of iowa. At the thousands of trees we state,st the cost this that we have lost across the state. I think there are certain costs that can be covered. Of the straws that broke the camels back. It has been a tumultuous year for all of us and iowa especially. Things in morer urban areas, the storage of food, getting electricity werep, we know that there other natural disasters in other places. Those equipment and trucks out to be brought back into the state. Looking at our electric infrastructure, our grids, how for the next that natural disasters important. A lot of the food that was stored, replacing that, getting access to food we will have to cut you off on this one, thank you. And those district around scott county, probably enjoy the best facilities in the state. What about the folks in the other 22 counties of the Second District . How do you ensure that they have access especially during a pandemic . We have seen a lot of greater use of telehealth, telemedicine. Is that the answer . Does the Second District have the bandwidth to make it available to everyone . It is interesting you would ask that because the night we met to go into the pause, one of the things i brought up to my caucus was that we needed that her access for telehealth, for entries for Insurance Companies that did not cover telehealth, knowing this was going to be an issue Going Forward. In rural areas, it is a difficulty in our access hospitals for providers, with the level of providers and that is something we are working on in the state legislature. We need to continue to do that, but also continue to recognize the importance of telehealth. Digital general with access, we have access more than we used to in the past. I also have the pass the bill on haveband, we need to better access to broadband. I am in a rural area and i do not have that access and broadband. We did pass a bill on rural ive understand some of the money will be going to that nature. Telehealth is going to be extremely important. Question. Hart, same you are rural. Do you have the Broadband Connectivity to talk to your daughter your doctor . 30 seconds. We need access to rural hospitals and telehealth is a great advantage. We have been able to utilize that. We are lucky we have good broadband because we have a local Telephone Company that made the investment. We need to make sure that everyone has that highspeed internet. We need to recognize that health care is crucial to keep people in rural iowa. They need to have that kind of access to good health care. It is so important that we have Mental Health care and that is a huge problem across the state of iowa. Looking at some of the attacks that we have seen, we have seen some of the criticism for your backing of Republican Legislature that lacked protection for applicants with preexisting conditions. Where this in campaigns that can become a first impression. How do you want to respond to that when you have seen this could a schisms about you . You . Ose criticisms about not one person lost their health care because of this bill. The reason why voted for the bill was because it wouldve the for theion on the table constituents that needed that bill to be passed. We have selfemployed people, farmers, who did not qualify for the subsidies and could not afford the high cost of the premiums. A program thated applied to just that mitch of people. People. Of vote thater regret a helped out my constituents. That program exists today. We have people on that program and my question is, will my opponent take that program away . Would say i have a long history of coverage for preexisting conditions. My older brother had an overnight surgery. Open heart surgery. Ads,e of your attack talking about preexisting conditions, that is the reality. You can believe your running mate who said that that bill would deny coverage of preexisting conditions. There is only one person on the ge that is willing to denydid not vote to anybody, any kind of health care, not anyone was denied health care because of that plan. Did it did you was give insurance to people who otherwise would not have it. He said that he would deny coverage and you agreed with him. Some people see the attack ads against you saying that 300,000 are being donated if that is the impression that they might get of you, how do you want to respond if people might be seeing that . I would say you have to look at my sec report and there is no contributions from humana or United Health care or aetna or any of the large medical Insurance Companies. I also have a senate record. It shows that i passed legislation asking for eligibility to get prenatal care for residents. I passed the bill aimed at lower Prescription Drug prices. I passed a bill from nonmedical switching of medications without the initiation from your doctor. I also was given the 2019 the legislator of the year coalition, specifically because i was doing things to reduce cost, get access to care, and get people of the services they desire and need. If you would like to respond, you can. The reality is that my opponent has consistently been in favor of repealing the aca, which would take millions of people off their Health Insurance and would not hold Insurance Companies accountable for preexisting conditions. And so, that is where we differ. I think that we should take the Health Care Program that we have today and improve it and not go backwards. That is what i will continue to work on. Ini have never been informed favor of repeal. I have always said reform. Broadbandalk about again as part of a larger infrastructure program. Bridges, also forms of transportation. What are the top priorities, senator hart emma for the Second District in terms of infrastructure . There are so many needs for infrastructure. We as farmers recognize that we need these rocks and dams to be there for us so that we can get our products to market. That is crucial. On highwayn working 30 for a long time. We need improvements the. Improvements there. Our small schools, that we provide them with proper funding so that we can have quality education. People live a great life in rural iowa. I am thrilled that when people can see the beauty of rural iowa and want to live in rural iowa, but we need resources. That infrastructure includes protecting our rural hospitals, grocery stores, and childcare. Childcare should be considered a part of any infrastructure. When families are getting struggling to get the childcare that they need, we need to have affordable and acceptable childcare. That is an important part of our economy. In terms of priorities for the infrastructure package, i think i think locks and on the Mississippi River are very important for manufacturing and agricultural economy, our highways and bridges, and not just highway 30 that has been a long time struggling to be a fourlane, southeasty two and iowa. Our electric grid, all of that is part of infrastructure and needs addressed. The broadband, we passed a bill in order to get higher connectivity, better conductivity in rural areas. I live in a rural area and during a pandemic, ive never been so happy to live in a rural area that is less populated. All of those things need addressed and we need a Bipartisan Coalition and consensus to come up with how do we Fund Infrastructure Going Forward . We know revenue is coming in from the gas tax, not just people not driving as much, but because of electric vehicles and what we did in the state senate was pass increased registration fees on solely electric vehicles so you could have road use money come from that. Senator hart, i wanted to ask about how we pay for these Infrastructure Projects . Motor fuel taxes, senator millermeeks said, seems to be a declining source of revenue. What can we do . Again, weve got to recognize that things are changing, that people are driving more electric cars, that weve got a different way we have got to look at things. Weve got to put several things on the table and i think that we have got to, first of all, know what our priorities are. Weve got to look at the possibility of finding the waste that exists already and finding ways to pay for other things by identifying that waste, and weve got to look at the tax code we have now and how we can improve it, make it fairer, make sure that middle class working families are shouldering less of the burden so that we can get this economy going in a way that gives us the kinds of revenue that can pay for these into these Infrastructure Projects. Back to senator millermeeks on this, do you have specifics on that . On which part . Covering the cost. As i said before, if you have a bipartisan consensus come forward so both parties arent attacking the other party, when you discuss what you do with the fuel tax on the federal level . Do you have added cost for electric vehicles . Do you have a better permitting process and more control so we know world roads and bridges are rural roads and bridges are being addressed in a manner that is best for that state . There are things you can do in that regard, but i really think this is going to take a bipartisan consensus Going Forward and it needs to be multiyear, not just one or two years. Our roads and builders cant plan ahead when you only have a one or two year funding. It needs to be longterm, multiyear funding infrastructure bill. Looking toward Social Security, this came up in the first debate, Second District. Plenty of retirees, people rely on Social Security. Senator hart, you said in the last debate increasing the age limit is not the way to go. Senator millermeeks, you talked about the level of taxation on selfemployed, but if you could talk about the workers who do work at a company and their level of taxation for this. How would you put out a plan to keep Social Security solvent for decades . We have to have bipartisan groups come together before in order to address issues like Social Security. It happened under Ronald Reagan and it will take that again because it becomes a political attack for everyone running for office, but we need to look at what are the ways we can make sure Social Security lasts. Young people are concerned there will be no Social Security for them. This is a program we pay into. It is not an entitlement. It is paid into and people are getting return for what they paid into. Looking at it as a bipartisan consensus, if you raise taxes on Small Businesses, it is Small Businesses that grow and become Large Businesses and employ people. If you are a Small Business owner, which i was, you are paying 15. 4 , so you have the rest of your overhead, because you paid the owner and employee. Small businesses are penalized under that system. We already have an automatic increase in the salary. The income level increases each year it is taxed, then we had additional taxes on higher income earners to fund medicare. I know that is not Social Security, but there have been additional taxes levied to fund these programs. Senator hart, when i asked about raising the age limit, you said it is not the way to go. What would you do . I totally agree we have got to make sure this program exists for the seniors who are depending upon it. It is crucial to our economy that people have a secure retirement, and these are earned benefits that need that promise needs to be kept to them. And we want this for our children and grandchildren. So im glad to hear we have a mutual desire to do things in a bipartisan way but we cant do that when there are certain things that simply dont make sense for the fix, so raising in raising the retirement age or privatization schemes i dont think are appropriate. I do think people on both sides of the aisle would consider raising the cap in order to make sure we fix this system so it is solvent going into the future. Coming back to you, senator hart. Something you touched on in an earlier answer, talking about Water Quality and agriculture. Iowa farmers count on a variety of federal programs to support them and protect them from market volatility, and should participation in those programs be linked to water and Soil Conservation practices . Perhaps a good driver discount for farmers who plant cover crops and take special care of waterways . Such an important issue that so many of us are hungry to get to work on, right . This is something people have been working on for generations. I grew up on a dairy farm. My dad was a conservationist and he talked to me all the time about the ingenuity of the American Farmer. They are part inventor, part engineer, and all hard work. If we can unleash the American Ingenuity by the American Farmer to actually put these practices into place, i think we can solve these problems. So yes, we used to have a farm bill that was linked to some of these conservation efforts. What we need to do is make sure that farmers are the ones who are at the center of making these decisions so they make sense for farmers and not every farm is the same, and not every area of the country is the same. Geography is different so we need to make sure farmers are the ones who are leading this charge, but we need to unleash their ingenuity to get the job done. Senator millermeeks, should farm programs be tied to good practices on the farm, water and Soil Conservation . I certainly think that is a way to move behavior into an area you want it to go. Weve seen that work with other types of programs. Ive had the pleasure of going to the horse farm that uses cover crops and some of these practices. They discussed the feasibility of doing it and the programs and being able to be a sustaining program that can pay for itself, because there is a cost to that individual farmer when they adopt these programs. So yes, there are incentives that can help navigate, but the more farmers that do it, and the farmers are ingenious, they are hardworking, they have a work ethic and a never stop attitude. They are some of the most hopeful people ive ever met, and i think with that attitude, if you bring farmers to the table, theyll be able to help us navigate through these issues and Water Quality as weve seen them do with the secretary. We will stick with farming, at least to some degree, talking about trade and especially with china. Senator millermeeks, there is a consensus china has been a bad actor when it comes to trade and respecting intellectual property. At the same time, it is one of the biggest markets for iowa farmers and manufacturers. How should the United States go about expanding trade with china, even as it disrespects human rights and engages in military expansion in the South Pacific . Aggressionshinas have been of tremendous concern. Administration after administration, both parties, have been wary to do anything with china because they are such a large trading partner, but we know they have egregious practices, have not acted in good faith once admitted to the wto, and have not obeyed the rules. We are in a situation where they are a trading partner with us. We want to continue to negotiate those trade agreements. We had the phase one china deal, which we want to see go through. It is very important to our markets. From that standpoint, for the agricultural markets, its a very important trading partner for us. But there are ways that you can work with other International Organizations and countries to hold the Chinese Communist Party Accountable for their behavior, the theft of intellectual property, Holding Companies hostages to be able to sell in their marketplace to turn over their technology to the Chinese Communist party. These are things that have to be addressed and can be addressed in collaboration with other countries and with International Organizations such as the wto, world health organization, International Monetary fund. Senator hart, what should our policy toward china be . Given the situation there, how they treat their minorities and military expansion . I will agree with much of what ive heard here. Weve got to align ourselves with other countries so we come from a position of strength. Yeah, it is clear we are all unhappy with china as a bad actor. Thats why its really frustrating that we went into this trade war from a singular factor instead of creating an alliance with other countries. Now, weve gone for almost four years, and farmers have suffered as a result. So, weve got to reengage with diplomatic relations here, and weve got to do this from a position of strength. So, aligning ourselves with other countries with similar concerns. And again, so many of our farmers that are engaged in this trade kind of situation, they understand how to do this, where their advantages are. They need to be a crucial part of that conversation, but weve got to come from a position of strength. When we are dealing with these issues of trade, america had to be a leader on this. Other countries were not willing to come forward because china is such a tremendous trading partner for us. I think when the United States took action, other countries were willing to come along. Now, you see other countries willing to assert some authority through the World Trade Organization with china when it comes to theft of intellectual property. Dumping our products on the market and unfair trade product trade practices. I think United States being a leader has helped other countries come along. I think the United States being a leader in not doing this very well has caused other countries to say, maybe we should do this a little differently. I disagree with that. Farmers have wanted china to be taken on. Seen many other debates from the highest levels to congressional debates that have delved into personal attacks. Your first debate was very civil. Very much kept to the topics. How do each of you try to bring this to washington to be able to work, even with the 400 plus members of the house. Senator hart, we will start with you. I get this question a lot because people are very unhappy with the division in the country. They are tired of the namecalling, tired of not getting along with friends and family because of the political divide. So, i tell them we all have to do our part. As leaders, as people in elected positions, weve got to be the example. Weve got to show people that we can disagree with people and do it from a position of respect. I tell people that every one of us has to do that in every relationship we have. If we want to see this change, weve got to be the change that we want to see. Again, i have talked before about how i came from a divided household with a republican mother and democratic father. Thats where you learn that you can have big disagreements in a conversation, but in the end, youve got to get up from that table and work with everybody to get the work done. We have to lead by example. We have to encourage others to do the same. We can get there if we all do our part. Senator millermeeks, what approach be to keep civility and keep it to the issues . Weve seen these debates for the past three weeks, present company excluded. [laughter] thank you for that. I follow the golden rule, treat other people how you want to be treated. When i went into the senate, i treated my colleagues with respect and dignity. I was very fortunate to be given the leeway from my leadership as chair of Human Services that if there was a bill that made good sense, it did not matter who authored it, if i thought it made good Health Policy sense, that i should pass that. There were republican bills, democrat bills. We did multiple bills in a bipartisan way. I think if you treat people with respect, courtesy, and dignity, you dont always get it in return, but it is incumbent upon you and your response to how you are treated will set the tone for that. I follow the golden rule. Green new deal or no green deal . What should congress do to protect the environment, limit harmful emissions, but without crippling farming or our diets as we know them . Where do we begin . I think thats a great question. Truly the question is, how do we keep an economy growing in which we know we need the economy to grow so that we have the tax revenue we need in order to help people . And for which they are asking. How do you do that and also protect the environment . In our state that we have a great example of that. 40 of our Energy Sources are eather wable w wind, solar, biodiesel, and ethanol. Ethanol has gotten better marks in being environmentally friendly in the recent years. We can continue to do that. We can continue to have research and development as we look for cleaner sources of energy, as we change vehicles. I have had a honda civic hybrid, 2003. It had great gas mileage but also had a hybridelectric engine. We have great farm agriculture and some great geniuses in our state that have worked on carbon sequesteration and funding at iowa state university. Continuing to do research and development as we do this. I had a great opportunity to tour we are at time. Green new deal . Members of your party have championed the idea. Is that something you support if you get to congress . I come from a very practical aspect on this. With my farm background, i recognize that there are so many things that we can do as farmers. Yes, to that point, we are lucky to live in iowa that we have iowa state and the university of iowa and the iowa Farm Foundation and leopold center. They know the practices that are effective. Many of our farmers have been doing these things and doing them on their own. But we need to have farm policy that lends itself to this research, and allows an opportunity to really get things done. One year when we didnt get things done on a Water Quality bill in the senate, i hosted a Water Quality summit locally so that we could have those conversations, bring experts to the table, bring urban and rural people together and really talk about what would make a difference. What came out of that was that rural people said, hey, i could do more than i am doing, and i want to know more about this practice. The urban people came and said, its not as easy as i thought it was going to be. Weve got to wed these things together and Work Together to get it done. Quick followup to each of you. Yes or no on this. Should the federal government follow californias lead and set a goal for doing away with fossil fuel vehicles . No. We need a Strategic Plan. We know where we are now and where we need to get. We need to have a Strategic Plan to get us there. If the positions are if thats where it leads us so that we can do something about the carbon in the air sounds like a maybe. It has to be done right. It has to be done correctly. Let me just ring up bring up, assuming each of you gets elected, often times, people in congress and the firstterm, theres not much you can do right away. Senator hart, what specifically would you want to focus on in your First Six Months in office . What would you push for specifically . I hope the first bill i could vote on is an anticorruption bill. This is another thing that people talk to me about and i feel strongly about, that we have got to create a system that people have faith in. Right now, people dont believe that people in Public Office are there for the right reasons. They feel like they are there for their own gain rather than doing things for everyone else. I would like to see us pass an anticorruption bill that stops gerrymandering so that people feel like theyre vote counts again, that bans congress from ever serving as lobbyists, that bans congresspeople from buying individual stocks. That attacks campaignfinance reform. We have got to do a better job so that people have more faith in the system. Senator millermeeks, as you focus on going to washington, d. C. , for your First Six Months, what would you really advocate for, put your time and effort toward . Covid19 pandemic, how we recover through this, prepare for the next pandemic. We know that we will have one. I predicted that we will have another one and we need to address our strategic stockpile, manufacturing from china and not having a Single Source for ppe and pharmaceuticals, so bringing that back into this country. I think addressing the covid19 pandemic going as it is currently on Going Forward, and then health care. The next thing is an infrastructure bill. Its very important for us to grow our economy and state. There have been so many jobs lost and businesses that may never come back from this pandemic that were involuntary shut down by the government that may be an avenue for job creation. We know we have roads, dams, broadband, infrastructure that needs to be repaired. We know that this is something that we can work on in a bipartisan fashion. And then, trust in government and accountability. I think it is very important, we need to have more transparency in all of our agencies, more accessibility for citizens to address elected leaders and heads of agencies so we restore faith and trust in our government agencies. Im going to jump in here. Before closing statements, we are going to give you 30 seconds for questions the tv news anchor made up. Go ahead. All right, we are being told that there will be tens of millions of doses of covid19 Vaccines Available by the end of the. Of the year. Will you get the vaccine . Should be mandatory . Yes, i will get the vaccine. It should not be mandatory. If it is cleared by the health experts, absolutely we should be front and center. Yes, there should be a mandate. If we want to keep people safe, we have got to make it happen. A couple more questions because we have a little more time. Senator hart, any thoughts on term limits coming into place in congress or Supreme Court . Are you still good with Lifetime Appointments . What i would like to see us do is fix the system so that people feel like they can vote they can keep a person accountable who is there elected their elected representative. If we can do something about gerrymandering and campaignfinance reform, we will find opportunities to hold elected officials accountable. That is i think the better solution. 30 seconds, senator millermeeks. Any thoughts on term millers for term limits for congress or appointments on the high courts . Its certainly hard to run against an incumbent. Having said that, there are term limits at the ballot box. What happens when you limit your congressional representatives, power within the bureaucracy increases. One of my favorite senators was senator tom coburn from oklahoma. He happened to be a physician and he term limited himself, said he would serve no more than eight years as a representative. He did that, went back to oklahoma, was asked to run for the senate seat. He ran from the senate seat and in his second term stepped down and resigned. He recently passed away from prostate cancer. As far as the Supreme Court, i think at this time, yes, i would continue to agree with Lifetime Appointments. But i would also like weve got to wrap this up. So both of you can get your last words in. You get 60 seconds each to make a final pitch. Senator millermeeks, you have the floor. 24 year military octor does not make me the best candidate for the seat. What makes me the best candidate is i am a person who listens with their ears, heart, and brain and is moved to action by the things they hear. My life story will tell you that i never quit fighting and never give up. I will never quit fighting for the people of iowa, their futures, and the future of our great state. I will continue to work hard to be your voice in congress and to make sure that all of us can reach and fulfill our potentials. Senator hart . Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here tonight. I really appreciate that. We have talked a little bit about health care tonight. That is an issue that is personal to everyone. Everyone i talked to has a personal story. My personal story has to do with my mother, who had a heart condition that caused her to lose her voice. She raised nine children with just a whisper. I raised my five children and i think back on that and think, how did she raise nine children successfully with just a whisper of a voice . I know the answer. She taught us how to listen, because we needed to listen. Sometimes, she was in trouble. We also needed to listen in order to know if she was happy, sad, or mad. The other lesson that i learned is that sometimes the loud voices are not always the one that you ought to listen to. Sometimes, that less powerful voice, the voice that you have to lean in to hear, is the one that has the most important thing to say to you and can make the biggest difference in your life. I think washington has forgotten that lesson. I will never forget it. I would be honored to have your vote. Thanks to both of you. We are out of time for the debate for the second congressional district. The 24 counties covering southeast iowa from ottumwa to iowa city to Clinton County on the quad cities. Our sister station will host the next debate one week from tonight. They will touch on some of the topics we did not get to, education, some of the other topics. Of course, we would like to thank senator rita hart and senator millermeeks and james lynch from the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Thanks to all of you for watching. Always important to try to be informed and we hope you are able to pick up something about each of these candidates. We appreciate your time. Monday evening, Mitch Mcconnell and amy mcgrath take part in a televised debate. The university of kentucky sponsors the event. Live coverage starts at 7 00 eastern on cspan, cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Q a, author and 2020 kirk is Book Prize Finalist isabel work listen wilkerson talks about her new book. , i am shedding a Light Holding an xray to the country so we can see what is underneath these divisions, underneath what we call racism, that there is this infrastructure of division concept. Ates race as a race as a concept is a fairly new one in history, dating back only 400 or 500 years. And her bookkerson caste tonight on q a. President , available in paperback, and ebook. It provides biographies of every president , and conversations with historians about the leadership skills that make for a successful presidency. As americans go to the polls next month to decide who should lead our country, this collection offers perspective into the lives and events that forged each president s leadership style. To learn more, visit andan. Org thepresident s, order your copy today wherever books are sold. Commissioner Charles Reddick and others testified about the role of the irs during the coronavirus p

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