The time to be here with us today. We do have a lot of national media. Thank you folks for coming out. It must be quiet on the president ial trail here in iowa today. You are absolutely welcome. Thank you for being here as well. Work, weur town halls do have a number of cards filled up by folks i would like to ask questions. If you would like to fill out a card and you didnt when you came in, raise your hand. Staff will come by and will provide you with a card. You can fill that out and get your name thrown in there to be drawn as well. With that, we will go ahead and get started. I wont have an Opening Statement or anything. We want to get to as many questions as possible. Those upve cards, send to the front here. Emily will go ahead and call a couple names out. She will get folks in line. We will get started. They give coming. I apologize for any name i butcher. I will read to names. Deb, followed by and are amber. Hello. Im a Small Business owner here in carroll county. I want to know what your concerns are and what you will do about these tariffs. I just received a letter from one of my suppliers. My product that comes from china is going to be up to 103 in addition to the 25 . Now, chinese negotiations are ongoing with the china tariffs and so forth. I continue pressing the president on this. I would like to see the chinese trade deal done sooner rather than later. It is one of the agreements that will not come through congress. It is being negotiated by the president and their team. Yes, understanding it need to comes to needs to come to a close. We will continue trying to provide whatever support we can as congress, to enable him to get this done in a timely matter. Negotiations, especially when it comes to china, are not as easy as negotiating with a traditional ally of ours. Mexico and canada, those types of trade agreements, working with the eu, great britain, those are much easier. We do other things with those countries that we can use as leverage or additional partnership. With china, not so much. The issue with china understand, they have been a bad actor for a very long time. They have treated our farmers horribly. While our commodities are in the pacific ocean. What we have to work on is making sure that they are working with us on intellectual property theft, on currency manipulation, and forced technology transfers. Those are the biggest issues we have outstanding right now. We will continue to press to get this done. Understand the concerns and i hear those across the state of iowa. Absolutely. The tensions are on. Amber. Followed by nathaniel. Thank you for the phonetic spelling. Amber . Go ahead. Im an educator. My husband is an educator. Im a parent to three. What is the current discussion about gun control measures and safety in our schools . This is one of those issues we have been wrangling with now for a very long time. Recess, gunst control issues were first and foremost that we discussed when we got back to congress. What we have to have is agreement on any bill that would move forward between the house, the senate, and the president has to indicate what hes going to sign into law as well. All have to law, we figure out the path forward. It has to have a clear and real and positive affect. Between the two bodies in congress and the president , we are still working on what we can actually get done. Understand the concerns that are out there. Theres a lot of disagreement on this issue. We have to find a path forward. Negotiations are still ongoing between congress and the white house. Will ofniel followed by des moines. Hello. I worked tirelessly as a constituent advocate. I contacted about people trying to use Social Security. They have disabilities. Many of which will be eventually cleared as a disability. Social security takes five years , before that process is finalized and payments are paid. Most of these people are not homebound. They are not able to hold gainful implement. Whenever they try, they are punished. Whenever they try to deal with Social Security to improve themselves, they are punished. If they get married, they are punished. These are all federal issues. I have met with everyone running for president coming to this state about this issue. Republican and democrat, house and senate, everyone agrees this is a problem. No one has been able to make any moves on this. People in the v. A. Are also not getting the treatment they need. One person has a lot of elements. The v. A. Knew about it and didnt tell him about it. He didnt know until he went to a private doctor. He only knew about it at that point. These people are dying. Many of the onetwo arts dying are losing their ability to hold gainful appointment. Federal agencies are not moving fast enough. Congress agrees its a problem but nobody picks it up. Thank you. I can tell you are very frustrated. This has been a frustration of mine, too. The factomeone voices that we need to make changes, whether its with the v. A. And the way we do business there or whether its with Social Security, whether it is traditional Social Security or Social Security disability. The media goes into a frenzy. Recenteen this happen in past. There is an issue there where politicians are afraid to talk about those issues. We have to have real and honest conversation about it. Understand that these programs need work. They need work. Its a huge government bureaucracy. Have people that need support in our own communities. We need to be able to cut through the red tape. To have honest conversations. Down, it doesnt matter. We have to have honest conversations about the issues that exist within the federal weve overcomeow them. Until we sit down and do it without hysterics, and without trying to make it a political talking point, only then are we going to be able to move forward on any real significant change in those programs. Thank you, nathaniel. Will followed by laura of pandora. Will rogers with the Iowa Nebraska equipment dealers association. I wanted to touch base about ethanol. A lot of our farmers in the state of iowa, Commodity Prices are really down. Part of that is the ethanol production issue thats going on. Could you give us an update on whats going on in washington, d. C. Right now about ethanol production and how we will get that back on track. Absolutely. This matters. This matters to people here in iowa. The renewable fuel standard is the law. It is the law. Our federal government needs to adhering to the law. Weve had many discussions many times over. Ive had many personal conversations on the phone with the president as well as meetings in the oval office with him as well. Talking about how we move forward. I understand, on one hand the president is saying, we dont want to shut down small refineries for oil folks. I get that. We have ethanol plants that are closing. We have that right here in the state of iowa. So, weve been pushing the president. I was able to visit with him. Governor reynolds flew out. We also had senator chuck grassley. We have the senators from nebraska and south dakota. We met in a Small Group Setting with the Vice President and the president. Plan to moveth a forward for ethanol. And other biofuels. So, through that meeting, we thought we had a deal. So, once the word got out that we had finally gotten to a deal, of course big oil came in and through a monkeywrench in that. They said, this is unfair. Maybe you dont think its fair but it is the law. We are just asking the administration to uphold the law. Now. Nk we are on our way i can say that. The president reached out to me. I had a visit with him on monday. So, we are back to our original proposal. It is good. They want to see an announcement this week. We are working on that. Bottom line, 50 billion gallons 15 billion gallons is with the law calls for. That is what we will stick with. I think we have a deal forthcoming. I want to see it in writing. We have had the rug pulled out from underneath us before. We have to see it in writing. I think we are well on our way. Hopefully we will have it resolved this week. Thank you. Laura followed by cam of manila. Kim of manila. Im following up on one of the questions by the teacher. I continue to be beyond frustrated by the lack of action by the senate and yourself on anything related to gun violence in this country. 100 people a day are killed by gun violence. [applause] weve had children gunned down in our schools. Heres the thing. Passeds ago, the house some reasonable legislation. Im not antisecond amendment. Im not against hunting or handguns. When we have this kind of problem, if these were terrorists coming into the country and murdering 100 people a day, you would be doing something. The house passed strong red flag bills. They also passed a bill that would require background checks on all gun sales. I would like to know your personal stand on this. And what you are going to do about it. This will become a voting issue for me. If you guys cant get your act together on this, what will you do with bigger issues in our country . [applause] i would say, the houston pastor measure. The president has said he will not support that. We do need to find something between the house and senate that will be agreed upon to move forward. I do think there are ways that we can make sure any loopholes in background checks are closed. I think that that is a smart move. We should be doing that. What is called red flag laws means Something Different in various states. I do support taking a look at some of those various measures. But making sure that due process is involved. There are states that are passing socalled red flag laws where there is no due process for the person that is accused. We need to make sure that that is covered. We are still americans and we still do have rights. Until those rights are taken away and there is due process involved in that. I do think that we should be looking at those proposals. Again, due process is very important to me. If we start stripping away peoples rights, whats the next right we will strip away from someone before theyve had their say in front of a judge . There are a number of things we can do. You mentioned a number of deaths every day. I agree. Be its not where we should as the United States of america. Simply, we have a lot of laws out there. I know people will scream about this. We have laws in place already. Those laws need to be enforced. There are a number of cases where we have seen these mass tragedies, laws were not enforced. Enforced, maybe some of those lives could of been saved. Simply by layering more and more laws out there, thats fine and dandy. Enforced to make a difference. Folksve had a number of who will come out to these town halls and say, this needs to be in law. You know what . A lot of those things are already law. They are not being enforced. So, we need to educate ourselves on what is in law and how we do a better job enforcing it. I also believe that in some of these cases where we have had shooters that will act as a weapon, whether its a parent or friend that gave them a weapon, those people need to be held accountable, too. You know . Im a responsible gun owner. I keep my guns locked up. Im not going to provide them to someone who doesnt have the authorization. I think there are a number of things we should be doing. Don offollowed by manning. Thank you for this opportunity to hear our voices so you can be our voice. My question relates to climate. Notably, the political climate. It seems problematic that mistrust has made working the atr to problem solve an impasse before consideration, discussion, or negotiation even starts. What are your thoughts on this and what are you doing to help the disruptive standstill and negativity this atmosphere creates . Thank you for that. That is a really important question. What we see on the media i want to thank folks in the media for actually being here and covering what is important to islands. That is the first step. That we focus on issues that are meaningful to our various constituencies. In washington, theres a divide. There are some hot button topics out there where we do argue. We will go on the floor of the senate and go after each other and debate and debate and debate. There are issues that we agree on as well. There are a number of issues where weve been able to pass things out of committees unanimously. Really important things like infrastructure bills. We just passed a highway reauthorization package. Out of the environment and Public Works Committee coming unanimously in the senate. How many of our outlets have covered that . Did you hear about it in the news . A wonderful success, bipartisanship. No. It is not driving up viewership if we are not fighting about something. That tends to be what people cover. All in all, there are some hot button issues that will really get our blood flowing. There are a lot of issues that we really do agree upon. We sit down and we have those rational conversations. If it is Something Like transportation, its really important for many of us. Just list last week, i introduced a bill that is coop on our childcare desert across the United States and allowing loans for nonprofits so that they can develop childcare centers. Thats important here in iowa. We dont have enough childcare facilities. We find things, common passions amongst different parties. When we find those passions, we really Work Together on introducing bills. I think its up to a number of us to set the example that we can find a path forward. But we have to be willing to work with the other party to do that. Its important that we Work Together and find solutions. Its not good enough to just have political talking points out there. We actually have to be working together. Again, the media likes to focus on the things that are going wrong. They dont focus enough on whats going right. Thats what i would like to see more of. I think you would see more folks wanting to Work Together if they got recognition for actually doing a really good job at something their constituents care about. Thank you. Donfollowed by followed by ailey. Im a Public Housing director. Thank you for coming. One of the main concerns that i the had over time has been Trump Administrations lack of funding for our programming. Of how Public Housing is being per trade sometimes by the administration. People that are just taking advantage of a system. Situation, across most of it is primarily our elderly that are trying to live on the little bit of Social Security that they have. My concern is always for our funding. Like i said, the Trump Administration has consistently requested lower amounts of funding. For the last couple years, they have recommended zero funding for capital improvements. Hud has been increasing the pressure on us to make Public Housing just like new. Our Public Housing unit is 50 years old very quickly here. Im not quite sure how i can make our Public Housing new well having while having a recommendation of zero funding. Between regulation and funding, what is your stance with Public Housing . Im a big supporter. Thank you very much. I was up at sioux city several weeks ago for the opening of everett apartments. Thats a very wonderful system for the city. Im proud to be part of that. What i would remind everyone is that, the administration, the president , has to make his recommendations for a budget every year. By law, he has to. Congress holds the purse strings. I support those initiatives. Its really important. Iowa is one of the states that tends to suffer a little bit with the housing voucher issue as well. Bill, wetroduced a have tried to work this out in a way that will also meet some of the demands of some of the more states. Etro focused let me explain a little bit where im going. We have housing vouchers for families that live in iowa. That will help them receive low rent, and those vouchers are provided to those that live in the state. , i will share an example that i know personally, is there are waiting lists in other states, in other communities. Maybe theres a waiting list in the chicago area. A family from illinois or an individual will move into iowa and receive an iowa housing voucher. But then they will move back to illinois. The housing voucher from iowa goes to illinois. , wepot of money for iowa end up paying for housing in illinois. Area, just suitland in that area, 50,000 a month in iowa housing vouchers goes outside of the state every month. Every month. House 45 iowato families. Yet its going to another state. I have a bill that i have introduced. The only way we can get bipartisan support their was if there is still dollars available and other states pot of money. That other state would pick up that housing voucher. List, weave a waiting are still on the hook to pay for housing and other states. Imes a number of ways trying to work through this issue for iowans to make it workable here. I do support your programs. I think they are very important. We have caucuses all across the state of violent where low Income Housing is very important. We want to make sure that folks can sustain a healthy lifestyle, live in a safe environment, and we can work on those projects together. We absolutely should be doing that. Thats my message to the administration. We need this. One other area i want to touch on, mike empowers act. We have an issue. I just spoke to a young lady in southwest iowa not that long ago. She is in low Income Housing. She just took a job working for a bank. Shes a single mom. Moneyw is making too much so her low Income Housing, the rent is going up. Childcare because she is making too much money. Now that young lady who was qualifying for lowIncome Housing and childcare through federal Government Programs has been cut off from that. Shes had to take a second job now. Byare defeating the purpose hurting those were trying to do better for themselves and their families by