Week eight… doing great :)
We heard from the President of the United States last Tuesday. Following that, the 3rd Iowan to deliver a Response to the State of the Union, Governor Kim Reynolds, gave a measured, common-sense rebuttal, after earlier that day signing into law, historic tax relief for all Iowans. Thank you for your leadership, Governor Reynolds.
This week Interim Director Matt Behrens of the OCIO gave the IT committee and update on the broadband grant program and specifically discussed NOFA 6 ($100M of state funds) and NOFA 7 ($210M of federal funds). Both NOFAs had far more requests than funds available to distribute, a nod to the work and funds that are still needed. He also discussed how different maps were needed to identify eligible areas and explained how differing scoring requirements were used for state funds and federal funds. There are some unique challenges in awarding federal funds through the broadband grant program because of the fed strings attached. We’ve made significant progress since the first broadband grant awards in 2019, but there are still broadband deserts that exist. My goal continues to be connecting those who need connected by remaining technology agnostic, getting government out of the way of innovation and incentivizing expansion of our network.
Also this week, we passed two bills to help childcare providers increase access to care for more families. House File 2127 allows parents to pay the difference between Child Care Assistance rates and the rates charged to families who do not receive CCA. This bill will allow flexibility between parents and childcare providers to help raise the income of childcare providers, and it will allow more providers to accept Child Care Assistance. House File 2198 allows 16 and 17-year-olds to provide childcare to school-aged children in a childcare center without supervision. This bill can help fill the workforce gap facing our childcare industry. This is not a requirement, but an additional option for our childcare providers. Many 16-year-olds are more than capable of caring for school-aged children. Allowing them to take on this responsibility will not only increase access to childcare but give those young adults valuable experience in a much-needed profession. Both bills came as recommendations from the Governor's Child Care Task Force.
The bill I drafted based on the Butchery Task Force’s recommendations, passed the House on Wednesday. It has the Dept of Ed establish a framework for a community college certificate program for artisanal butchery, it has IWD develop and maintain a library of resources for meat processing with education and financial assistance in mind, and IDALS is to develop a direct-to-consumer tool kit, as well as directory of meat lockers in Iowa posted on their website.
A bill also just passed the House that I served on the subcommittee for, involving a $200K appropriation from the General Fund to support the commissioning and crew of our new USS Iowa, a Virginia-class submarine. Iowa (SSN-797) will be the fourth U.S. Navy vessel named for the state of Iowa.
Great to see you all at the Legis Coffees! Had one in Guthrie County and one in Adair County. We have a very informed and attentive constituency, and I appreciate your thoughts and questions. It helps us to better represent you when we hear from you.
To my constituents in Adair, Guthrie, Dallas and Cass, and my future constituents in Madison, Union, and Clarke—thank you for your continued support and input. I can be reached at Ray.Sorensen@legis.Iowa.gov. OUR LIBERTIES WE PRIZE AND OUR RIGHTS WE WILL MAINTAIN!
