Democrats and republicans are vying to replace him. Tv nine and the gazette, this is the iu second Congressional District debate, your voice, your vote. Welcome to the second congressional debate here in cedar rapids. This is the first of a twopart debate. We are also partnering with the gazette and quad city times. Is october 15. We will focus on different topics. We have plenty to work our way through the next hour. Lynch,ined by james longtime political reporter with the gazette. We are moderators tonight. Because of the pandemic, we are without an audience. We are trying to keep socially distance with the candidates. Now its time to meet our candidates. Rita hart is a former teacher and served as an iowa state senator for six years, covering clinton and scott counties. On the right, republican marion , current state 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. I am a former teacher, a farmer, and a lifelong iowan. I taught in rural schools for over 20 years and took that to the state senate, where he worked with my democratic and republican colleagues on person 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. Senator, 60 seconds or you. For you. Thank you. I would like to thank you for hosting this. I am a congressional candidate for the Second District. My father was a Master Sergeant in the air force. My mother had gotten ged. 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. I left home at 16, got a job, and i enrolled in Junior College and i enlisted in the army at age 18 and continued to work and go to school until i got a degree in nursing, masters in education, and was able to go to medical school. I came to iowa to do my residency at one of the best or grams in the country. Now i am an iowa state senator. I never give up on serving my country. That tenacity, grit, and resilience is not my story alone. It is the story of countless iowans i meet every day. I had the pleasure and privilege of serving them in the state senate and working on things like health care, access to health care, lowering Prescription Drug prices, and i got awards that i was not expecting. That same can take spirit and tenacity to washington, d. C. To work for you whether it be on recovering for , this pandemic or preparing for the next one, Economic Growth that allows all of us to fulfill our potential, but also working on important issues such as how we defend our country and what we do about our programs we need to fund through Economic Growth. Thank you for those Opening Statements. Lets delve into more of the experience both of you have and politics. Senator rita hart ran two years ago. Senator miller meeks, also run for the Second District numerous times. What have both of you learned from being on the respective political stages . Statewide or have already gone through this district. One of the things you learn the most is to be yourself and authentic and sincere. Remaining the person that you are. Meeting with people, speaking with them, was named to them, addressing their problems. I saw that in the state summit. Some of the best bills i authored in the state Summit Senate were from problems that they brought to me and asked to address for them. Such as asking for a waiver for the fiveyear eligibility to get prenatal care. Prescription drug prices on a bill looking at pharmacy 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 bringing forth their problems to the state senate. We also passed bills on broadband. We had a successful session despite the pandemic. 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. Senator, what did you pick up when you ran on the democratic ticket . That is much larger than this district, going statewide for the campaign. It was a great experience. I got to travel all across the state and talk to so many people. In various corners of the state. It was a great experience. I would agree with senator meeks that the important thing is that youre listening. You can learn so much from people. We all come from a different place. We all have a different story to tell. Every time you take the time to really listen to people, you come away a little wiser and you are able then go 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 conversations and to learn every single time through someone elses story, what the important takeaways are, and then care enough to do to bring people together to do something that will make peoples lives better. Coming back to you with a question about covid19 relief, pandemic relief. We seem to be getting consulting signals on what is next, whether there will be another round of covid relief before the reluctant the election. Can iowans wait until after the election for more 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 this stage, when we know washington can come together and get something done. They did it with the first relief that was passed. We know that they can do it. The fact it is not getting done in a timely fashion is disappointed disappointing. People are suffering, 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 homeless population. We know that certain sectors are hurt worse. The retail industry, hospitality industry. These people need some assistance. We 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 disappointing we dont get it done because it needs to be done now. Senator, the same question to you. What should be included . Deleting more supplemental Unemployment Compensation . Another round of ppp for businesses . What would you include . It is disappointing that at this point in time, there seems to be a hiatus in negotiations. When we went into pause 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 route getting a stimulus check andhey had not deceived it, stimulus check if they had not received it, 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. Navigating through all of that, he saw people suffer. One of my good friends father died recently after contracting covid19. This has been extraordinarily difficult for everyone. I volunteered for my hospital in my district should they have a surge. It is disappointing that we are not having another phase, i would call it repair instead of a stimulus. It should include additional ppp, additional unemployment, because there are people suffering and we need to look at, do we need to do anything to assisted to facilitate snap assistance because there is a 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, and getting a vaccine so that we can get through this pandemic and prepare for the next pandemic. So yes, it is disappointing, but honestly, you cannot expect the taxpayers of iowa to bailout illinois or new york or california for their poor practices. We had great conservative fiscal practices the last three years, and that has allowed our state thehether weather pandemic more than those states. 45 seconds to respond to that. Anything that you heard that you want to underscore about how they respond to and how it should result . Again, we know this can be done if people put their minds to it and recognize how greatly it is needed. Again, the Small Businesses would be another example that i think is so crucial to rural iowa. I was in port madison the other day and i talked to a gentleman who has a diner there, whose family has had it generations. He is struggling to keep it going and to keep workers there. That is a huge problem. He said that several 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 so many businesses will close down and not be able to open up again. Weve got to get relief past now. We will shift to mask mandates, that came up in the first debate for the Second District for the two of you. The storyline has changed since then. The president tested positive for coronavirus and we are still seeing the narrative over wearing masks, some places not requiring it. Said we do not need a federal mandate. Do either of you have different thoughts on this since the president s test last week . Anything changed for you . Has provencovid19 to be a very resilient virus, one that was unexpected and unanticipated. Most viruses like influenza or coronavirus that causes the common flu, 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. It is clipped to my purse. I also recommend that other people to do. State, thehin our democratic attorney general said that a mask mandate would not be enforceable. It would be difficult to enforce. We have to wonder, are we going to arrest people or fine people if they are not wearing a mask . But we all can do our part and should do our part. If you cannot socially distance, you should wear a mask, and avoid being in large groups and in contact with large groups. Wash your hands. If you are sick, do not go out and go in large groups. Those are simple things we can do that make it better for everyone else. It is unfortunate that the president contracted covid19, but honestly, if you look at what was happening throughout the world, i think this was going to be a virus that was going to in fact a large number of people. We know that shutting down an economy does not come without risk. The cdc has already said over noncovidple had related deaths because of hospitalizations, hospitals that were closed down. Cardiovascular events, 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 vaccine will be available soon. Safe and effective and approved. Thank you. You have two minutes to handle this question as well. Try to keep it to 60 seconds. I will not jump in right away if there is a thought going on. I appreciate that. The question was not about closing down the economy. The question was about should we we should be doing 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 struggle with this economy and it will be worse if we do not do that. So 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 millermeeks, you stood on the senate floor and told your colleagues they did not need to wear a mask. Excuse me, i said you did not need to wear a mask if you are socially distance. I read the cdc guidelines, they say if you cannot physically separate, then wear a mask. But it is also important that 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. It is what we did in the derecho. We got hit on our farm and 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. So that we are doing a better job. We can see that that has not worked well. The United States compared to other countries and where this state is compared to other states. We can do better, but we have to bring people together to do it. No one in this legislative session came down with covid19. Moving along, lets talk about an issue that in the midst of the pandemic has come up. Social justice, 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 . Should it be left to the states . First, senator hart. This has been an issue that again has divided the country and it is an important issue that weve got to address correctly. As far as looking at what can really make a difference, we have to start with listening first. Weve got to bring people to the table who have been most affected i this. By this. Thats why its been some time talking to 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 , i think, everywhere. Bring people together, the stakeholders here, the naacp, the black lives matter leaders, the social agencies, the entire group of people that can really address the situation. Talk about it, youre out what steps we can take to really make a difference. That is the approach i would like to see at the federal level as well. Senator, again the federal , role in solving this, should police be required to wear body cameras . Should we get rid of qualified immunity for Police Officers who are bad actors . This has been something that has roiled our country. First i want to say that as we continue to address the challenge of racial inequality, we should not rush to racial hatred. All of us i think working together this is a problem we , can solve. When we went back into the legislative session, this was very soon after the tragic, horrific death of george floyd. We acted quickly as a legislative body in a bipartisan way, bringing people together, to enact police reform. We did this in concert with our Law Enforcement and members of our legislative body that happened to be in Law Enforcement. We acted on banning chokeholds, allowing the attorney general to bring charges against a police officer, implicit bias training. And also to prevent Police Officers from being routed around to other Police Departments so that they would avoid prosecution or recriminations. For their conduct. 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 also we are at time. Shifting to partisanship. We always hear about this, especially in the election campaign, about how people will work across the aisle. Let me ask each of you, specifically to your own candidacy. We will start with senator millermeeks. Where do you break from President Trump on . Is there anything that they associate with President Trump that you hope you that they do not associate with you . Is there anything you differ on . I think the event at the rose garden recently with the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett could have been handled differently. I do not know all the things that happened there. I dont know if a Temperature Check people, if they had covid19 testing or screening. But i do think it was a momentous occasion, but at the same point, there should have been appropriate social distancing and physical separation and mask wearing at that event. That would be one place where i odds with President Trump, and i wish he would tweet less. And for you, since the district was redrawn a decade ago, if people see your name on there, is a vote for you vote for the congressmans term . Is there anything you would it on from his record or other democrats . I do think that he did do a great job of representing this district. I think also you are going to see that i am a different person. My background is different. I come from a rural perspective. I understand the farming aspects. I lived my entire life in rural iowa. I think it is so important that we work on Economic Development issues for small towns, rural areas. 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. That is the thing i like about the democratic party, it is a very big umbrella. We do not always agree on issues. For instance, i come from an i come from an area of agriculture where i think there are specific things we ought to be doing to create a Strategic Plan to take us from where we are now on Water Quality and climate change, Carbon Sequestration to where we need to go, so i dont always agree with the attack some of my democratic colleagues do. Moderator shifting up to recovery, the congresswoman talked about trying to get some of the noncovered costs into a relief package like tree damage, causing some people in cedar rapids and other people thousands of out of pocket. Dollars the second didnt take on as much property damage, but there was damage to some of the farmers. For either of you, is there anything else each of you would propose that would be Financial Relief for those who suffered financial losses . Sen. Hart first of all, we suffered more loss in the Second District than you might think. We got hit very hard on our farm. And bins, weve got a lot of our crop on the ground and it is going to be a really tough we lost every building that we have to store equipment in. We lost three grain bins, and weve got a lot of our crop on the ground and it is going to be a really tough harvest and i think that is something people havent talked much about, how this derecho, the pain of the derecho is continuing because there are a lot of farmers working tonight who are facing a really tough harvest and some really tough situations where they dont have grain storage, etc. Really tough situations whee they dont have grain storage, etc. It took tooointed long for Clinton County to get the relief they needed. I see they finally got that. I think there is a way to maybe look at that, to speed up that kind of relief that is so important, but to your point also about the trees, i think that is a huge loss to us as a stage. The thousands and thousands of trees we have lost across the state. I think there is definitely some work we need to do in that area, as well. Moderator senator millermeeks, your response on derecho and trying to make some people whole who might not be covered on costs . Sen. Millermeeks there are costs that could be covered and the derecho is one of those straws that breaks the camels back after the pandemic. It has been a difficult year for all of us and for iowa especially in iowas farmers, but there are other things in more urban areas, the loss and storage of food, the getting electricity backup. Other Natural Disasters in other places and those equipment and trucks had to be brought back into the looking at our electric infrastructure, electric grid and how we can handle that in the next Natural Disaster that comes along is important but we know people lost a lot of food that was stored so replacing that, access to food, access to ice. Moderator im going to cut you off here. Senator millermeeks, we will start with you. Second District Residents around scott and johnson counties probably enjoy access to some of the best Health Practitioners and facilities in the state. What about the folks in the other 22 counties . How do you ensure they have access, especially during a pandemic, and specifically weve seen later use of telemedicine. Is that the answer, and if it is the answer, does the Second District have the bandwidth to make it available to everyone . Sen. Millermeeks it is interesting you would ask that because the night we met to go into the pause, one of the things i brought to my caucus was we needed better access for telehealth, Insurance Companies that did not cover telehealth, they should cover it and increased reimbursement for telehealth knowing this was going to be an issue Going Forward. In rural areas, there are difficulties in our critical access hospitals with the level of providers, maternal care and these are things we are working on within the state legislature with our programs. We need to continue to do that but also continue to recognize the importance of telehealth and with digital electronics, cameras, we have access to Telehealth Services much better than we used to in the past. A bill onsed broadband, specifically because, and i think the pandemic underscored that better than anything else, we need better access to broadband. I am in a rural area and dont have good access to broadband. If there is a cloud in the sky, my connectivity goes down. Willof the covid19 money be going to broadband nature so faster broadband for telework, telelearning, and telehealth will be important. Senator hart come out on the farm, you are not far from the quad cities but you are rural. Do you have the Broadband Connectivity to talk to your doctor, feel confident your doctor is seeing you and you are seeing him or her . 30 seconds on a response. Yeah, it is so important to us in rural iowa. Telehealth andto it is a great advantage and we need to utilize that. We have great broadband because we have a local Telephone Company who made the investment. The need to make sure everyone has that highspeed internet and recognize that health care is crucial to keeping people in rural iowa. We have an Elderly Population that want to stay in their homes. We need that kind of access to good health care, and it is so important that we have Mental Health care. That is a huge problem across the state of iowa. Moderator keeping it with health care but looking at the attacks weve seen, we will start off with senator hart. Criticism for your backing of a legislative bill, you talked about this in the first date, but often we see in campaigns where that can be a First Impression, you see criticisms about you. Sen. Hart lets be clear, that lets talk about the facts. Not one person lost their health care because of this bill and the reason i voted for that bill is it was the only option on the table to help my constituents needed it. We had a selfemployed farmers y for theot qualif subsidy and could not afford the premium. This allowed the farm bureau to create a niche for those people. Thati had no alternative, is a vote i took on behalf of my constituents and ill never regret a vote that helped out my constituents. You know, that program exists today. We have people in our district that are on that program and my question is, would my opponent take that program away . Moderator 30 seconds to respond to that, senator millermeeks. Sen. Millermeeks i have a long history of coverage for preexisting conditions. My mother had a heart disease, my brother had surgery at two years of age. I wrote an article about in that, said there has to be coverage for preexisting conditions. The reality, you dont have to believe me, you can believe your running mate fred hubbell who said the bill would deny coverage for preexisting conditions and there is only one person on this stage today that has voted to deny coverage for preexisting conditions and that is rita hart. Sen. Hart again, i did not vote to deny anybody any kind of health care. Not one person was denied health care because of that plan. Give peopledo was in my district and opportunity to get insurance who would not otherwise have it and i will never be sorry that i did something in favor of my constituents. Sen. Millermeeks fred hubbell said it did not coverage and you agreed with him. Moderator next question for senator millermeeks. When some people see the attack are 300nst you, there thousand plus dollars of donations from the healthcare industry, if that is a First Impression of you as they are looking at this campaign, how would you respond if people might be seeing that . Sen. Millermeeks i would say you have to look at my report and there is no quantrill view shes from walmart or humana for or other largea medical and Insurance Companies, but i have a Senate Record that shows i passed legislation asking for a waiver of the fiveyear eligibility to get prenatal care for lawful residence, lowering Prescription Drug prices, prohibiting Insurance Companies from nonmedical switching of medications without your doctor, i was given the 2019 underserved champion of the year and the primary care association, specifically because i was doing things to reduce costs and get access to care and get people the needed services they desire and need. Moderator senator hart, if you would like to respond, you can. Sen. Hart the reality is my opponent has consistently been in favor of repealing the aca, which would take millions of people off their Health Insurance and were not hold Insurance Companies accountable for preexisting conditions. And so thats where we differ. I think we should take the Health Care Program that we have today and improve it and not go backwards. Thats what i will continue to work on. Sen. Millermeeks even last week, i have never been in favor of repeal. I have always said reform. Lets talk about Rural Broadband as part of the larger infrastructure package. There is a lot of talk about doing something with roads and bridges, all forms of transportation. What are the top priorities, senator hart, for the Second District in terms of infrastructure . What do we need most and how do we get it . Sen. Hart there are so many needs for infrastructure. As farmers recognize, we need locks and dams to be there for us so we can get product to market. I think that is crucial. Weve been working on highway 30 for a long time. We need improvements on these two lane roads. I think infrastructure, also our small schools, that we provide them with proper funding so we can have quality education. People live a great life in rural iowa. Im so thrilled that when people can see the beauty of rural iowa and who want to live in rural iowa, but they need resources and that infrastructure includes protecting our rural hospitals, having grocery stores. It also means childcare. Childcare should be considered part of any infrastructure because when families are struggling to get the child care they need, and right now everyone is, particularly in this time of pandemic, but weve got to have affordable and accessible childcare and that is an important part of our economy. Moderator senator millermeeks, in terms of priorities for infrastructure package, what do you see as the greatest needs for the Second District and how should we pay for that . Locks andrmeeks dams on the Mississippi River are very important for manufacturing and agricultural economy, our highways and 30dges, and not just highway that has been a long time struggling to be a fourlane, but highway 2 in southeast download 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 InfrastructureGoing Forward . We know revenue is coming in from the gas tax, 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. Moderator 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. Sen. Hart weve got to recognize that things are changing, that people are driving more electric cars, that weve got a different way with got to look at things. Weve got to put several things on the table and i think that weve got the first of all know what our priorities are. Weve got to look at the wasteility of finding the that exists already and finding ways to pay for other things by identifying that waste, and taxe got to look at the 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 structure projects. Moderator back to senator millermeeks on this, do you have specifics on that . Sen. Millermeeks on which part . Moderator covering the cost. Sen. Millermeeks 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 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. Cantads and builders plan ahead when you only have a one or two year funding. It needs to be longterm, multiyour funding into structure bill. Moderator 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 raging the 8 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 . Sen. Millermeeks 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 come you are paying 15. 4 , so you have the rest of your over head because you paid the owner and employee. Small businesses are penalized under that system. The income level increases each then we hadaxed, 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 . Moderator senator hart, when i g the ageut raisin limit, you said it is not the way to go. What would you do . Sen. Hart 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 that that need promise needs to be kept to them and we want this for our children and grandchildren so im glad to hear we have a in al desire to do think bipartisan way but we cant do that when there are certain things that simply dont make so raising infix, type 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 so it isix this system solvent going into the future. Moderator coming back to you, senator hart. Something you touched on in an earlier answer, agriculture. 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 cover crops and take special care of waterways . Sen. Hart such an important us arehat so many of 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 canthe place, i think we 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 and not everyers 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. Moderator senator millermeeks, should farm programs be tied to good practices on the farm, water and Soil Conservation . Sen. Millermeeks i think that is a way to move behavior into an area you wanted to go. Want it to go. Ive had the pleasure of going to the horse farm that uses cover crops and some of these practices. They just got 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 and thethat do it, 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 in Water Quality as weve seen them do with the secretary. Moderator 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. States go the united about expanding trade with china, even as it disrespects human rights and engages in military expansion in the South Pacific . Sen. Millermeeks i think chinas sen. Millermeeks i think chinas aggressions have been of tremendous concern. Administration after administration has been wary to do anything with china because they are such a large trading partner, but we know they have egregious practices 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. From that standpoint, for the agricultural markets, its a very important trading partner for us. There are ways that you can work with other International Organizations and countries to hold the Chinese CommunistParty 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. Whatator senator hart, should our policy toward china be . Given the situation there, how they treat their minorities and military expansion . Sen. Hart i will agree with what much with much of what ive heard here. It is clear we are all unhappy with china as a bad actor. Thats why its really frustrating that we went into 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. Sen. Millermeeks 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. 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. I think United States being a leader has helped other countries come along. The unitedi think states being a leader in not doing this very well has caused other countries to say, maybe we should do this a little differently. Sen. Millermeeks i disagree with that. Farmers have told me they want china to be taken on. Moderator we have seen many other debates from the highest levels to congressional debates that have delved into personal attacks. Your first debate was very civil. How do each of you try to bring able towashington to be work, even with the 400 plus members of the house. Senator hart, we will start with you. Sen. Hart 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. Electedrs, as people in 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 everyone 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. Moderator senator millermeeks, what was your approach should be to keep disability and keep it to the issues . Weve seen these debates for the past three weeks, present company excluded. Sen. Millermeeks 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 policy sense Health Policy sense, that i should pass that. There were republican bills, democrat bows. If you bills. 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 is going to follow set the tone for that. I follow the golden rule. Moderator 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 . Sen. Millermeeks 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 . Eople in our state that we have a great example of that. 40 of our Energy Sources are from grenoble whether, wind, solar, biodiesel, and ethanol. Thanol has gotten better marks in being environmentally friendly in the recent years. We can continue to do that. We continue can continue to have research and development as we look for cleaner sources of energy, change vehicles. I had a honda civic hybrid, 2003. It also had a hybridelectric engine. We have great farm agriculture and some great geniuses in our state that have worked on carbon atuesteration and funding iowa state university. I had a great opportunity to tour moderator you have reached time right now. Green new deal . Members of your party have championed the idea. Is that something you support if you get to congress . Sen. Hart i come from a very practical aspect on this. With my farm background, i recognize that there is 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 Foreign Policy that lends itself to this research, and allows an opportunity to really get things done. Getyear when we didnt 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. Moderator quick followup to each of you. Yes arnon this. Should the federal government follow californias lead and set a goal for doing away with fossil fuel vehicles . Senator millermeeks . Sen. Millermeeks 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. Us sots where it leads that we can do something about the carbon in the air, moderator sounds like a maybe. Sen. Millermeeks it has to be done right. It has to be done correctly. Moderator assume 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 six months First Six Months in office . Sen. Hart 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. Anould like to see us pass anticorruption bill that stops gerrymandering so that people feel like theyre vote counts congress fromns 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. Moderator 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 towards . Sen. Millermeeks covid19 pandemic, how we recover through this, prepare for the next pandemic. One. Ow that we will have 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 shutdown involuntarily shut down by the government that may be an avenue for job creation. Dams,w we have roads, 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. Moderator 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. Will you get the vaccine . Yes, i willmeeks get the vaccine. It should not be mandatory. Sen. Hart 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, weve got to make it happen. We have a bit more time. Senator hart, any thoughts on term limits coming into place in congress or Supreme Court . Are you still good with Lifetime Appointments . Sen. Hart 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 representative. 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. Moderator 30 seconds, senator millermeeks. Any thoughts on term millers for congress or appointments on the high courts . Sen. Millermeeks its certainly hard to run against unencumbered. Having said that, an incumbent. Having said that, there are term limits at the ballot box. Power within the bureaucracy increases. One of my favorite senators was senator tom coburn from oklahoma. 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 for the sea 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. Moderator wrap this up. 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. Sen. Millermeeks being a 2040 year military 24 year military veteran my being a doctor 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. Moderator senator hart . Sen. 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. Children and ie 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 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 want to listen to. Sometimes, that less powerful voice, the voice that you have ar is then to he one that has the most to say i 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. Moderator thanks to both of you. We are out of time for the debate for the second candidat Congressional District. The 24 counties covering ottumwa to iowa city to Clinton County on the quantities. Host the next debate. 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 for this presentation. Always important to try to be informed a the Senate Confirmation hearings for judge amy coney at 9 00begin monday eastern with Opening Statements by Judiciary Committee members, followed by an Opening Statement by judge merrick. Watch barret. Watch live on cspan, stream on cspan. Org, or listen on the cspan radio app. Biden and President Trump are on the campaign trail monday. Joe biden takes a stop in and theohio president heads to florida for p first public event outsid the white house since being treated for coronavirus. You can watch both rallies on at cspan. Org, or listen on our free cspan radio app. Democrats need to pick up four seats in the november elections to win a majority in the u. S. Senate. Cook politicale report, 35 senate races are considered competitive, including the contest in colorado where incumbent governor cory gardner debated candida john hickenlooper. The den