LEE COUNTY – Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks said Monday she still feels strongly about getting funding for Lee County’s EMS/public health building.
Miller-Meeks voted against funding the House of Representatives' Ag appropriation bill that included $2.1 million in funding for the Lee County project. She told Lee County Supervisors at the board’s regular meeting Monday the final cuts included in the bill before it got to the House floor were too steep for Iowans, and too indiscriminate.
“The funding for the EMS/Public health project would have probably been eliminated so I voted no on the ag approps bill,” Miller-Meeks told the board.
The bill will come back and they’re working on that bill now, but we sent a message to our conference frankly that the majority of our debt and deficit is on mandatory spending.”
Miller-Meeks said she voted for a bipartisan debt commission to address all spending, especially mandatory spending.
She said that was in a continuing resolution bill that was voted down.
Growing the economy and increasing wages and jobs will increase revenues and that's one way to cut the deficit Miller-Meeks said. The other way is to cut spending. That would be hurting the economy in a way that would further increase the deficit and debt, meanwhile hurting what is already considered fly-over country.
“There’s a limit to how much you’re going to push around the Midwesteners and small states. It will come back and you won’t see the deep cuts and we’ll be able to vote for that appropriations bill,” she said.
The bill would have passed in July with an original proposed 8% cut, she said, and she would have voted for that bill.
But at the end of the debate, overnight, someone added another 14% discretionary cut to the bill. Miller-Meeks said that would cause too much damage to the Midwest and agriculture states and she couldn’t support that.
The second-term Representative of Iowa’s 1st Congressional District said she was the first person from Iowa’s delegation to speak up about the depth of the cuts to the bill.
She said she believes the bill will still come up for a vote in some fashion probably in December after both chambers haggle over the appropriation’s components, and she doesn’t believe the county will have to reapply for the appropriation again next year.
“It reminded me of what Gov. Culver did when he left office. When he had a 10% across-the-board cut and he didn’t really look at anything or where those cuts would be and how they would impact regions,” she said.
That was when Miller-Meeks was head of the Iowa Public Health Department.
Supervisor Garry Seyb asked when she thought that appropriation could get voted on again. The county is waiting on confirmation of that funding to restart work on the Lee County Health Department/EMS building. That project has been put on hold while the county waits to hear on the appropriation. The project is currently projected at $5.5 million with $2.4 million in ARPA funds allocated for the project. The county has also secured a $975,000 grant from the USDA’s Rural Development program and a $600,000 Iowa Community Development Block Grant. There is also a private fund set up through the North Lee County Community Foundation that could have as much as one million set aside for the project.
Miller-Meeks said she has to go back to Washington D.C. on Tuesday, but said the measure is not on the docket yet.
She said her staff will keep the county up to date on what is happening with the bill.
“We’re trying to get all those appropriation bills passed by the end of the year, but it would be nice if we got them done before Thanksgiving,” she said. “Part of it is that we have to get the Senate act on those. The Senate has four of our appropriations bills…we're trying to push them to pass those that are already over there so we don’t get a huge omnibus bill.”
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