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May 28, 2025 15:03-16:03 - CSPAN
59:59
Rep. Ashley Hinson Holds Town Hall
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ashley hinson
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unidentified
We have briefings in our next era of transportation and infrastructure series about highways.
That's going to be June 13th.
And then we will be moving into extreme heat.
Unfortunately, the summer is likely to be a hot one.
And so we're working with our friends at the Federation of American Scientists to do a briefing about extreme heat and the heat action plan.
That will be June 17th.
And our next rapid readout, and this one's going to be the one about where we are in the budget reconciliation process with Brookings expert Molly Reynolds, that's going to be June 6th at noon.
Signing up for climate change solutions is the best way to keep up with everything that we've got going on, so I hope you can do that.
And we also are just about two months out from the Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Expo and Policy Forum.
That will be Thursday, July 24th in this room and in the Rayburn foyer.
If you have a few moments, I know we had some livecast issues today, but if you have a few moments to take our survey, let us know what you thought about the program.
We'd really appreciate it.
We read every response and we do our best to make things better next time.
So to John Robert, to Elaine, and to Sean, thank you so much for joining us today.
Hope you all are able to stay dry on this rainy Wednesday afternoon.
And we'll wrap it up there.
Thank you so much.
Live coverage continues now as we take you to a town hall hosted by Republican Representative Ashley Hinson.
She's speaking to constituents in Decorah, Iowa at Luther College.
Live coverage here on C-SPAN.
It's just getting underway.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
I don't filter those.
We just wander around the room with mics and I will take your questions in just a few minutes.
But looking forward to hearing what's on your mind.
Ensuring that I am transparent and accessible to you is a cornerstone of how I do my job, whether it's on the road for my 22-county tour at in-person town halls like this one in the district.
I've also done dozens of telephone town halls since I took office.
It's important to me to connect with you and hear what's on your mind.
I've already made 50 visits in the district, covering all 22 counties so far this term since January.
And after this town hall today, I'll have held 45 in-person town halls since I took office.
Again, I try to do one in every county every term, and I hope to be able to do that again this term in Congress.
I want to start off by saying thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve you and be your voice.
About 800,000 Iowans I represent in Washington, D.C.
It is truly the highest responsibility and honor of a lifetime to be able to do this job for you.
And people often ask me why I did get into public service.
I served with Mike for, as he said, four years in the Iowa legislature.
Thank you, Representative Bergen, for your service as well.
I know we share the passion for our great state and trying to make everyday life better for everybody.
And so thank you so much for serving this community for so many years as well.
I got into this because I am a mom.
I have a 14 and 12-year-old.
They were three and five when I first ran.
So they've kind of grown up seeing some of the changes we've been able to make.
Max and Jack and my husband and I, Matt, and I have been married for almost 17 years this year.
It goes fast.
And boy, I tell you, we have a 14-year-old and we're about to enter summer break.
So if you've ever seen a 14-year-old boy eat, it's pretty impressive right now what we're going through.
So all of you facing the grocery bills, if you have sons or grandsons, I'm sure you can certainly relate to that.
I think it's important to note that when we look at last year and what happened with the election, I think Americans overwhelmingly rejected the status quo for the country.
We were seeing an open border, high inflation.
We were seeing hardworking men and women in Iowa and our country feel like their voices were not heard.
Families in Iowa have told me for the last four years that we want to make sure we have safe streets, we have affordable groceries and gas, and that kids have an opportunity to be able to live out the American dream.
And that is what President Trump is delivering for us.
And the president is, I believe, fighting for you and fighting for me.
I'm fighting alongside of him.
And I think God saved President Trump's life in Butler.
I think he saved his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, for a reason.
I think that he is helping us to save and redirect the future of our country.
He is helping deport criminal illegal aliens rather than letting them roam our streets freely.
He is ending the abuses of taxpayer dollars rather than treating your money like monopoly money.
And he is unleashing American energy to help drive those costs down.
I think Memorial Day gas was adjusted for inflation the lowest it's been in decades, so we should thank his policies for that.
And he is protecting us women and girls instead of trying to erase us.
Under President Biden, they were trying to call us birthing people.
I don't think that's the right term.
We are not birthing people.
We are mothers.
And I am a mom fighting for other moms across the country, and I think this is too important of a fight to back down on.
So I will continue to stand up for our girls and our women.
Iowa is a model for the rest of the nation, thanks to the leadership of our great legislators and our Governor Kim Reynolds.
Our state has prioritized education and parental involvement.
They have lowered taxes for hardworking families, ensuring our communities are safe.
We are blessed by her leadership, and I am blessed to call her a friend as well.
And I've made it my goal to make sure that Washington, D.C. can run a whole lot more like the great state of Iowa.
Iowa Common Sense.
My commitment to accessibility and transparency will continue to guide me as your representative every day.
I remember the night before the president was sworn in, and he said we're not going to waste a moment delivering on the promises that we made to the American people.
And I think he wasn't kidding.
It's been very busy the past few months.
And in just a short time of having him back in the White House, he has demonstrated what it means to be accessible and to do exactly what you said you would do.
My colleagues and I are working alongside the president to undo all of the damage done during the Biden years, and we are fast-tracking America's path to a new golden age.
So the president, alongside Congress, has truly hit the ground running.
And a few of our accomplishments so far include passing legislation to protect girls' sports.
I was proud to join the president at the White House when he signed an executive order to do exactly that.
President Trump took decisive action to secure our border and start deporting criminal illegal aliens, making our border the most secure that it has been in more than 20 years.
Back in March, I think these numbers are important because they tell the true story here.
Border Patrol encountered just 7,100, just over 7,100 illegal immigrants at the southern border.
That is a 95% decrease, 95% decrease from the year before, and a 97% decrease from March of 2022.
This marked the lowest levels recorded since the fiscal year 2000.
I think that's remarkable.
We did not need new legislation.
We just needed a new president who was going to enforce the laws on the books.
Congress also passed the Lake and Riley Act, which ensures that illegal immigrants detained that are accused of serious crimes are actually kept detained.
This bill included Sarah's Law.
It was a bill that was championed by our Senator, Joni Ernst, to prevent violent offenders from being able to walk free.
I think these are common sense safety measures that we should never have to say are controversial.
We've also taken action to roll back Biden-era regulations that hurt manufacturers, consumers, and our entire economy, and many of those votes have been bipartisan.
I voted on the SAVE Act to ensure that only American citizens are voting in American elections.
And last week, the House passed several common sense bipartisan bills to help improve care for our veterans.
We have a lot of complicated forms that veterans are required to fill out.
And just today, I saw that our Secretary of Defense got together with our Secretary of VA, and they are working to make sure that that transition out of service is more seamless.
I've also continued my bipartisan work for the people of Iowa by introducing legislation to move agency headquarters out of Washington, D.C. and closer to the people that they serve.
Through my bipartisan SWAMP Act, I introduced that with Representative Jared Golden of Maine.
We're working to improve transparency at the Small Business Administration to ensure that small business owners have a clear picture of disaster relief assistance through my SBA Transparency Act with Senator Tim Scott.
And I've reintroduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation with several of my colleagues to work on important issues like onshoring our food supply chain, boosting domestic manufacturing, and ensuring that the CCP does not control any elements of our food supply chain.
Food security is national security.
I was also proud to vote for President Trump's one big beautiful bill last week.
unidentified
This is a generational investment.
This is a general investment.
This is your time.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
So I'm here to clear up a lot of the misinformation that's out there today because this bill is about securing our borders.
This bill is about providing continued tax relief for working Americans and returning our country to prosperity.
This bill is promises made, promises kept in action, and Iowans overwhelmingly voted for President Trump's America First agenda.
Ending illegal immigration, preventing dangerous criminals and drugs from entering our communities, cutting wasteful spending, and unleashing American energy.
When Democrats were in the majority, they passed laws to make you report transactions of $600 through Venmo and wanted to then hire 87,000 more IRS agents to come after you.
I think that's wrong.
They added trillions of dollars of new spending that drove up inflation, and that is a tax on every single American.
Now that we have the majority, we are working to provide tax relief for working Americans.
And my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will continue lying about this package being a tax cut for the wealthy.
But did you know, did you know that the top tax rate for earners, top earners, was not changed in this bill?
We wanted to target that tax relief to those who need it the most, the middle class.
So what we did change was to add provisions like no tax on tips and no tax on overtime, as well as an enhanced child tax credit.
Social Security programs cannot be touched through the reconciliation process.
There's a lot of misinformation out there about that.
But we did add tax relief for seniors through a deduction of an additional $4,000 from taxes if they make less than $75,000 or $150,000 filing jointly, and that number ratchets if you make more than that.
So we also made small business tax relief permanent and will prevent the death tax from hitting small family farms in Iowa.
I think this bill is promises made, promises kept.
And again, there is a lot of misinformation out there.
If you haven't read the bill, please do because it's 1,100 pages and it extends the tax cuts of 2017 and provides the relief to Iowans.
To put it in perspective, the average taxpayer in Iowa's 2nd District would see a 25% tax hike if these tax cuts are not extended in this bill.
A family of four making $69,384, which is the median income in this district, would see a tax increase of $1,358 if the Trump tax cuts are allowed to expire.
This is worth about seven weeks of groceries to a typical family of four.
So simply put, anyone who voted no on this bill also voted to allow your taxes to go up.
I don't know why you do tax relief for you.
I think it's really important that you get to keep more of your own money.
So my philosophy is, and always has been, it is your money, it's not the government's money, and I will keep fighting to protect American families over illegal immigrants, and that's what this bill does.
So from the border security perspective, this will help to secure our border permanently by funding the largest deportation effort in history and disincentivizing illegal immigration, providing funding for at least 1 million annual removals.
And by giving our border patrol agents the strategic advantage that they need, this sends a very clear message to the cartels, to the traffickers, to the murderers, any other illegal alien criminal that they have no place here in the United States.
This would not have been possible without the leadership of President Trump, and I look forward to working with him to get this transformational piece of legislation signed into law.
As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, I have advocated to slash wasteful spending while successfully ensuring that Iowa does receive resources for targeted investments like child care centers, drinking water infrastructure, affordable housing, while working to end the abuses of taxpayer dollars and overreaching mandates.
At a recent event in Cedar Rapids, I received overwhelmingly positive feedback about the work that Doge is doing.
My entire philosophy is the intent behind Doge is that we absolutely have to cut waste, fraud, and abuse so that we can sustain key programs and investments that islands and Americans care about.
No one has sought to tackle this difficult task head-on and see it through until President Trump.
It's really easy to say yes, and that's why we found ourselves $36, $37 trillion in debt.
And finally, we are discovering waste, fraud, and abuse and peeling back that onion every single day.
His administration discovered over $300 million of SBA loans have been given out to children under the age of 11 and over 300 million to people over the age of 120.
For goodness sakes, the youngest recipient of an SBA loan is a nine-month-old.
A nine-month-old should not be getting a loan from the SBA because, guess what?
That's fraud, and those loans are not being paid back.
And that is waste, fraud, and abuse that we are cutting out.
Doge has also found outrageous spending, like $70,000 for production of a DEI musical in Ireland, $2.5 million for electric vehicles, not here in the U.S., but in Vietnam, and $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, just to name a few.
Doge has also been working to improve technology efficiencies, ensure the government isn't paying for unused office space, and ensure every tax dollar goes as far as possible.
The federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion, yes, billion, every single year due to fraud because of inadequate data and outdated systems.
A company could not run this way, and this is absolutely unconscionable.
It's disrespectful to American taxpayers, and Swamp Bureaucrats were not batting an eye because things have been going the same way for a long time.
Even Democrats like President Obama and Speaker Pelosi admitted that we need to root out waste, fraud, and abuse.
You may have seen those clips circulating.
The difference now is that we're actually doing it, and President Trump and Republicans in Congress and the Senate are committed to following through on that pledge.
So last month, I introduced the Protecting American Taxpayers from Wasteful Spending Act, which would codify President Trump's recent executive order to improve the Treasury's Department ability to actually screen for improper payments and fraud.
Ending improper payments should be a bipartisan issue, and we should be able to get behind legislation that ensures that tax dollars are not fraudulently paid out, improperly paid out, and then sent down the drain.
The American people do deserve transparency and accountability, and I hope that we can make this policy permanent through my legislation.
As you know, I came to Congress in the minority, and I was in divided government for several years.
I am proud of what we were able to accomplish for Iowans in those years, in those circumstances, and my governing philosophy has not changed.
I will always work with anyone who will work with me to advance Iowa's priorities and do what's right for our communities.
And I think if you look at the bills that I've already introduced this Congress, it's clear I'm focused on getting those results for you.
Before we open it up for questions here in a minute, I would just want to do a little housekeeping.
We actually have three offices in the district.
These are all devoted to serving you, helping you to navigate issues with the federal government.
Anything with the IRS, visa and passport issues, dealing with FEMA.
You might not think to immediately call your congresswoman's office when you're having those challenges.
Maybe you're waiting on your check back from the IRS, or you aren't getting the right amount of money in Social Security benefits.
Those are all places where we can help you with casework going forward.
But we are again here to help answer your questions and stand ready with issues related to the federal government.
I do take that feedback with me to D.C.
A lot of my bill ideas come from conversations at my town halls, at my visits to small businesses, child care centers, health care community centers.
Like I've visited many, many times in over 500 stops through the district in the past several years.
I think that feedback is really important.
We need to get out in our districts and hear directly from you, which is exactly what I've done since I took office.
And I will continue to travel to every corner of the district to do just that.
So, how we're going to do this for questions, and thank you for all being here today.
Please, I'm just going to my two staff have microphones, so they have wireless mics.
They're going to wander through the auditorium here.
I don't screen questions ahead of time, so just raise your hand, and we'll get to as many as we can in the time we have.
I'd ask you to say your name and where you're from so that we can make sure we're properly following up with you.
So, with that, Reagan, we'll start right there behind you.
I guess we had a question, a guy by the exit sign.
unidentified
I can actually see President Bill Clinton boldly and Ben Ellison, formerly of Washington, D.C., now of Dyersville, Iowa.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Ben, thank you.
unidentified
President Bill Clinton bravely and honestly worked across the aisle to cut government, and in doing so, fired over 300,000 federal bureaucrats and employees to balance our budget.
What can be done to cut the government?
Because after 9-11, it got big, wide, and large, and is the largest employer in the world before adding the Department of Defense.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Well, I think that's a very good question.
I think the core, Ben, of what we're trying to work on right now is exactly that.
It's figuring out when we're on an unsustainable path, what do we need to do, right, to right the ship?
I don't think it's something that can be done overnight, but certainly there are a number of proposals that we're working on to try to do exactly that.
I mentioned in my opening remarks about the unused office space.
There are tons of square footage that is currently sitting up buildings that the federal government owns.
We actually had a hearing in our Financial Services General Government Appropriations Committee that I sit on to talk about what can we do?
Can we put these things on the market?
How can we sell off properties that the government's not using that are currently wasteful?
We are taking a look at departments and what they actually need and what our essential services that we should be staffing.
And that's true of the military as well.
I think we need to make sure we're staying core to mission, which is delivering for the taxpayer, keeping our country safe, and delivering for the taxpayer in the same process.
The status quo just is not working for our country in terms of the waste that we have in government.
I said this in my opening remarks, too.
The reason we're in this position is because people haven't had the guts to say no to things.
Some things are just not the role of the federal government to do.
Some things belong at the state level, the local level, or in the nonprofit sector.
And that's exactly what we're kind of trying to do in terms of the deeper dive and peeling back the layers of the onion that we're looking at right now.
And again, thanks to President Trump for leading this charge and to our Congress.
Congress, again, is committed.
Congress is committed to making sure that we're right-sizing these government agencies that saw, in many cases, 30 percent increases during COVID.
We've got to reel it in.
Thank you, Ben.
unidentified
Okay.
Go ahead.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Just naming where you're from.
unidentified
Thank you.
Steve Peterson, DeCora.
I'm concerned about a lot of things, but one of the things I'm really concerned about is the corruption in Washington.
And I think that it undermines our faith in our government, and I think it undermines our faith in representatives.
In particular, I'm thinking about the $400 million jet that was given to Mr. Trump.
I'm thinking about the meme coins and the dinner at the White House.
I'm thinking about the Liberty Fund and the Ponzi scheme and the billions of dollars that are coming into there.
So there's lots of reasons why somebody like you might be silent.
You might be scared to say something.
You might actually like to see the corruption.
I know there are some that are making a lot of money from it.
Or you might not care about it.
Could you help me understand why you are silent about this correction?
First of all, Steve, thank you for the question.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
I think it's really unfair to imply that I like to see corruption in Washington, D.C.
I reject that premise wholeheartedly.
I am here answering your questions in public because I care about transparency.
Just a minute.
I'm going to answer your question.
I care about transparency and accessibility and doing things the right way.
I was actually just named to the House Ethics Committee because I do things the right way.
That is a committee that is evenly balanced.
It's Republicans and Democrats, five and five.
And we have to, in many cases, look at very serious allegations against our colleagues and police them from doing the right thing.
I'm answering your question.
Steve, I'm answering your question.
You may not like my answer, and if that's the case, then that's your right to not like my answer, but I'm answering your question.
So one of the things that I did to lead by example here, so that my constituents know that the decisions that I am making, because I am accountable to all of you, many of you probably didn't vote for me, some of you probably did.
What I think is important is leading by example.
When I was named to the House Appropriations Committee, for example, I want to make sure you know that any decision that I make, any funding request I make, is not something I'm going to get a kickback on.
So my husband and I actually sold all of our publicly traded stocks.
I'm not making stock trades to make money while I'm in Congress.
I'm not doing any of that stuff.
The other thing I think is important is following the rules.
And so when you look at what happened with that plane, everything was followed ethically.
It was given to the Department of Defense.
And what I think is important to note in this bigger conversation is there is going to be a look at make sure that plane is safe for us to use.
Ultimately, that's my biggest concern with any sort of plane like that.
If it's received from a foreign entity, we need to make sure the rules were followed and that there are no spy materials available on the plane.
And so we're going to be making sure that that happens because the last thing we need, no matter who is the president, is a president flying around in a plane with spy materials aboard.
So everything was followed ethically, and I'm here answering your questions today.
So I am not afraid to answer your questions.
Reagan.
unidentified
Hi, good afternoon.
My name is Jennifer Riley from New Hampton, Iowa.
Thank you for being here, and I hope you're hearing what people are saying here.
I have several concerns, followed by a question, and I promise to talk fast.
Okay?
Okay, so there's been over 1,500 presidential pardons so far.
So these victims will never have resolution.
A lot of the victims will never have resolution to the crimes that were committed against them, including the U.S. citizens.
There's been over 152 executive orders.
Some of these should have been managed by Congress, and they weren't, and some of them are very frivolous, unenforceable.
The last three speeches our president's given in the Mideast for West Point graduates and for Memorial Day, I don't even understand what he was talking about half of the time.
I'm worried about the financial stability of not only myself, but this whole country as a whole.
The relationships with our allies, I almost wonder if we're getting on a need-to-know basis from some of our allies because he's, I don't know, this president's gone against a lot of our allies.
He's gone for a lot of our adversarial nations, our cabinet.
Sometimes I wonder if some of these members even know what the job entails by their actions and their words.
And then the decorum of the president.
I wouldn't want him to be a role model for my child.
And finally, I'll end this with a short question.
I would like you to explain, for those that are unaware, what is the process for becoming a legal citizen of this country?
What are the steps, how people go about doing this, how much money it costs, et cetera, et cetera.
There are a lot of people that have been deported that are legally in this country, and that concerns me.
I think most of us are immigrants or have immigrant families in this country, and that's very important.
I think there's a lot of misinformation about that.
And I think that everybody, if they're in the country illegally, should have the opportunity to proceed with that.
I know that process is long and it's not cheap.
I'd like you to comment on that a little bit.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Well, thank you, Jennifer, for the question specifically, because my sister is married to an immigrant, and so is my cousin.
So I do believe in legal immigration to this country.
My family supports legal immigration to this country, and it is too long of a process, and it's very onerous and very expensive.
It depends a lot on where you're coming from, what country you came in, what visa you were on to come here the first time.
If you look at, there's actually a flowchart, I think, that was published, and my team can follow up with that to show all the different, I don't know if you want to call it pipelines that you'd have to kind of like wander through to become a citizen, but it is very, very convoluted.
And I think we do need to take a look at the legal immigration system.
Our first step was, though, securing the border.
I think that was absolutely critical because Congress was not in a place to have a conversation about legal immigration reform until we stopped illegal immigration and the onslaught we were seeing at our southern border.
And I again think that that was priority number one that I heard in the last election cycle as I was out on the road.
People cared about making sure we had a secure border.
And so I thank President Trump for his work to make sure that happened in the last couple of months.
I am open to talking about legal immigration reform.
The environment got pretty toxic around the southern border, as you can imagine, because people didn't like having a wide open border with millions upon millions of illegal immigrants coming into our country.
As I mentioned in my opening remarks, when you look at those border crossing numbers, they've gone way down.
But you know what else has gone way down?
The number of interdictions at our southern border, because the cartels are now trying to figure out ways around the southern border.
I had a question at my last town hall about the Coast Guard and what they're now having to do because these cartels, because of our southern border being closed, they're now trying to get around and find new ways to get that product and trafficking people into our country too.
So those are all problems that are associated with illegal immigration.
And now that we've kind of started to tackle that and the deportation side, I think we do need to look at the legal immigration process and why it is so complicated.
Iowa relies a lot on guest worker programs.
So we have a number of visa programs for people who want to come here and work.
They maybe don't necessarily want to become a citizen right away, or they might eventually want to become a citizen.
But we do know that those programs work.
So I've worked with many of my colleagues already on both sides of the aisle.
Appropriations has already tried to tackle this in committee to try to take a look at the funding mechanisms for the processing of those visas and those workforce visas.
So those are a couple of the areas that I think we do need to absolutely tackle.
But again, priority number one had to be securing the southern border.
unidentified
Okay.
Roy?
My name is Gavin.
I'm from the Dubuque area.
And I just wanted to talk about how you've said a lot about reigniting the American Dream.
And I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has helped me and my wife put a down payment on a home and it's very important for the work you're doing with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
So I wanted to, number one, say I appreciate that.
And number two, ask any more questions about how you're trying to spark young families to get homes.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Well, thank you, Gavin.
I appreciate you coming.
Number one, all the way over from Dubuque.
I think it is really, really important that young families have the ability to keep, number one, again, it's your money, it's not the government's money, right?
And so the more of that that we can put back in your own pocket, I think, is a catalyst for the economy.
And, you know, the number I mentioned, and we do have these forms, if anybody wants one on the way out, we have some printouts that show, number one, the tax rates as they are today and what would happen to them if we don't pass this bill and extend those.
But number two, as I mentioned, the average family income and what you're going to face in a tax increase, I just don't want to see that happen.
And so I think that that's really, really important.
The other thing I think is important is igniting our small rural communities because providing that opportunity for Iowans to stay in rural communities will help people to have more prosperity and keep rural America alive.
So you talk about the 199A provisions of the bill, which that's about small business tax cuts and the certainty that exists there.
So that, as you mentioned, you having more money allows you to buy a house.
For a small business, it may be the thing that allows them to create a job, provide additional benefits for their employees, or reinvest in their business and grow and expand.
So those are some of the provisions that I think are really, really important and can help young people like you be able to continue to live that American dream.
And then safety and security, the other element, right?
You want to be safe and secure in your communities.
That's what this bill really focuses on.
It focuses on that fundamentally by incentivizing our law enforcement officers with pay increases and bonuses that they need.
Our law enforcement, we have some here today, so I'd like to thank them for being here.
But, you know, it's a very, very tough job, and it has uncertainty associated with it.
And people are putting their lives on the line every day.
We need to make sure that they're well paid and have a good job to come to.
So thank you, Gavin, for asking the question and for coming today.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Okay, Reagan?
unidentified
Hi, my name's Kathy Mossman.
I'm from Claremont, Iowa.
And I am a Democrat.
And I have a story.
My friend and colleague is a Republican.
It has kept our relationship Exciting to say the least, because obviously I did not want Trump in because I call him a trumpet.
And I'm not a trumpet.
So I wanted, I'm glad Reynolds retired.
Now I hope we get a Democrat in there.
So people like myself could use the marijuana for my paralyzed legs and my whole body to make it feel better in the long run.
I need those kind of drugs that will help me survive living like this for the rest of my life.
That's why I want a Democrat back in somewhere like Minnesota has.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
That's what you okay.
So, well, Kathy, thank you so much for being here.
And like you, I'll just share my mother's best friend is Democrat too, and their conversations are pretty interesting right now as well, as you can imagine.
So I think the most important thing is that you are able to remain friends and have those conversations in a civilized manner, even if you do disagree.
So I think that is really important.
So thank you for maintaining that friendship and keeping that conversation alive.
I think what's really important around the conversation around medical marijuana is making sure that it's for medical use.
Iowa does have a program.
I know we worked on it when I was in the state legislature.
I think there have been some changes to it since I last reviewed that policy and looked at it.
My concern with free-for-alls around marijuana are that there are no tests right now for sobriety for marijuana.
Unlike alcohol, where if you get in a car and you hurt or kill someone while you're driving drunk, you can immediately be tested for how intoxicated you are.
As of right now, I don't think there is the same test for marijuana, which I think could be helpful in making sure law enforcement could properly assess whether somebody did break the law or not.
And unfortunately, those two things sometimes collide with the health care space as well.
So what I do think is important is that we do have a robust medical marijuana program, which we do here in Iowa.
My own aunt has had multiple myeloma.
It's been several years ago since she passed away, but she also took medical marijuana because she had that cancer, and it was the thing that allowed her to be able to eat and stay alive long enough to fight as long as she did.
She lived 16 years with multiple myeloma blood cancer.
So I understand how important having that access to something that can make you feel better is.
And we'll happily take a look at it as long as we can make sure the science backs it up on the legal arguments.
unidentified
Roy?
I got the mic.
No, come on.
Okay.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Go ahead.
unidentified
Devin brings Austin on just all of here.
First off, I wanted to say thank you for coming today and talking to us.
I was able to catch most of your remarks.
There's not a lot of decorum in the room today, as they were talking about.
So thank you for being here and disrespect what you do.
As a young farmer in the county, my concerns are with the farm bill, how does that come in?
We would really like to continue to work on that and get a long-term solution, not just extension after extension on that.
And then also more of a long-term solution with both E15, which has been extended for a waiver now again.
I think it's the sixth time it's been a waiver instead of actual Congress doing something on that.
So it'd be nice if Congress would take that up.
And I know you've been a huge champion of the EATH Act and just wondering how that's coming and where that's at this time around.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Thank you so much for making the drive.
Yeah, you tackled some very important issues.
Let's start with E15.
I do think it's ridiculous that we have to get a waiver and go through that process every single year.
This is a fuel, obviously, additive that's blended.
A lot of it's taken down to Texas, blended in with fuel, and then sold around the country.
And they grant the waiver every single year, so it should be permanent in my mind.
I know President Trump has signaled that he supports the policy.
We've actually introduced a piece of legislation in the House that would make it permanent.
It doesn't cost anything to do that.
This is about consumer choice, honestly, to be able to offer that to consumers.
And then it's a win-win for Iowa farmers, too.
So I think that that's a very important policy.
I serve as one of the co-chairs of the Biofuels Caucus.
It's a bipartisan group of us.
We actually did an introduction of this, like a press conference in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago.
Nikki Budzinski, who's a Democrat from Illinois, she has a district kind of right across the river.
She and I have been working together on this, as well as Adrienne Smith from Nebraska.
So we'll keep pushing on the E15.
On the EATS Act, obviously, this is, for everyone who's here, a policy that came out of California where they are trying to dictate how our pork producers can raise hogs here in Iowa.
I think it's inappropriate and it's an interstate commerce issue for them to be exerting their influence.
If they want to regulate their own producers that way as a state, they can.
And so that's the language that we actually had worked out.
It was bipartisan language.
We've got it in the last farm bill draft that we were able to get through House Ag last year.
But basically, it would say California can choose to dictate how the pens are for hogs and for the sows as they're having their babies, but they don't necessarily have a say in how Iowa does it.
California is an important market for our pork producers.
It's like between 13 and 15 percent of pork for consumption.
So we need to make sure that we have access to that market.
So we'll be reintroducing the modified language that satisfies that, I think, both interstate commerce clause but also respects states' rights in the process.
And then the farm bill.
I think it's really sad that we weren't able to get a farm bill done last year.
The Senate at the time didn't even put out a draft last year.
I think that's really unfortunate.
House AG put together a policy that was bipartisan coming out of committee and I think would have addressed many of the challenges that our farmers are currently facing today with high input costs and market access.
So I know that there are some provisions included in the reconciliation package that do address some of the farm bill provisions and we can follow up with you on what those specifically are.
There's some for, I think I read there's a drought indemnification payment, same thing for dairy.
So some of those targeted programs that are designed to help assist farmers when things are challenging so that Congress doesn't have to come in and then write a big check.
We'd rather just make sure it's very targeted and that there's clear criteria laid out.
Market access is absolutely critical.
We need better trade deals in this country because that's something that I think will give our producers the true leg up, fair trade deals.
And that is something that absolutely we are trying to do by funding market access programs and foreign market development as well.
So those are all provisions that hopefully will be in the new farm bill draft.
We pulled what we could and put it in the reconciliation package so we can get some things moving forward and then we'll continue work on the farm bill as well.
So hopefully we can get that done.
Thank you.
unidentified
Yes.
Okay.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Reagan.
Ma'am.
unidentified
Hi, my name is Jean from Necora here, and I'm a she-her with fewer rights than guns currently, which greatly disappoints me.
I must honestly say, and I don't want to pass my time on the mic, I can honestly say that I had to lie in order to get contact information about your phone number from your office to call, which greatly disappoints me because I thought that you worked for me, that I shouldn't have to lie.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
My office number is public.
unidentified
It's on the website.
It was buried in the website.
Absolutely buried in the risk.
Well, okay.
But when I was looking, it was not available.
And I have questions, concerns about Mr. Musk, who is not elected, and the orange god.
But I'm going to pass my time on to Michael for his question.
Hi.
Thank you, Representative Hinson.
I'm Pastor Mike Wilker.
And last summer, you remember me at the smaller town hall talking about our congregation.
I'm the pastor at First Lutheran Church here in Decora.
And our congregation has an almost 50-year history of supporting allies of U.S. veterans who served with us, like in the Vietnam War.
This is a wall hanging done by a Hmong family and given to our congregation in honor of our cooperation with them and helping them resettle.
And last summer I raised with you the issue of Afghan allies and asked you to join Representative Miller-Meeks and Representative Nunn in supporting the Afghan Adjustment Act.
But since then, President Trump has stopped all refugee resettlement and has revoked the temporary protective status of thousands of Afghan allies, 900 here in Iowa.
On the same day Lutheran services in Iowa helped resettle one Afrikaner family.
900 of these people received notices that they had to leave the country right around July 4th, our Independence Day.
And I plead with you to support our veterans, the Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Jews, Baptists, Muslims.
This is such a broad coalition of religious groups, plus the American Legion, the veterans of foreign wars, and the Iraq and Afghan Veterans of America are all supporting and calling upon you to support our Afghan allies.
We've made promises to them, and it's important for us to keep them.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Well, thank you, Michael.
There are different kinds of protected status and visa coverages, right?
And so when you look at what the President's decision was here, it was specific to the TPS versus the ones that are granted.
You talk about our allies.
You're talking about the men and women who served as translators alongside our military, right?
Those visas are different than the ones that we're talking about here.
We need to make sure that if we are settling refugees in this country, that they are 100% properly vetted.
And that's what the State Department, I think, is trying to retool right now.
So maybe these things are paused.
But I do think we have a long history in this country of welcoming refugees, and we want to do that in the right way.
I 100% support making sure we take a look at that so that we're properly screening people when they come in.
We can't just have a blank slate because that is unsafe for Americans.
We need to make sure that people who are coming here are properly vetted.
So that's going to be my filter as I look at all these policies coming out, changes at the State Department, changes to visa programs, changes to student visa programs, changes to refugee programs.
Everything needs to be at the root about safety and making sure we know who is coming in and that they are who they say they are.
At the same time, standing with the people who, again, stood alongside our men and women as they fought in Afghanistan and those dangerous fields of war as well.
So that's going to be my approach to the refugee programs going forward.
Roy?
Right there.
unidentified
Hi, Rob from Cedar Rapids.
Just want to say thank you for coming here.
I know a lot of folks aren't doing town halls right now across the country, but I appreciate you being accessible to your district.
And I was just talking to a friend.
He's working full-time.
He's having to pick up overtime shifts.
Hopefully that won't be taxed as much anymore.
But he and his wife is working full-time too.
He's got three kids.
And I know that if the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act were to expire, the average family would see an increase of around $2,000 here in Iowa.
And he told me, he's like, there's no way I can afford a $2,000 increase.
He's trying to pay for his son to go to college next year.
And he just does not have that in his budget.
And with that being said, I know that it's now in the Senate's hands, but I know that there's concerns or even debate on whether or not that might come back to the U.S. House.
And so I guess if that were to happen, I guess maybe you can tell me about where we're at with that process.
But if it were to come back to you, can we have your support that you will vote on it once again, as well as keeping the spending low so we can keep these tax cuts in place?
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, thank you, Rob.
I think the most important thing is we'll obviously see what the Senate's going to make changes as they have the right to do.
We have a bicameral process for a reason so that they can come in and put their mark on it if they so choose.
But I think the House passed the bill that we could get out with 218-ish votes, right, because we have a narrow majority with a lot of differing viewpoints in the House of Representatives.
So our Speaker started these conversations obviously very early on to get people to a point where we had enough consensus to advance the bill.
There are provisions in the bill that I'm not a fan of, right?
I don't agree that we should be subsidizing tax cuts in blue states, right?
Because we've got the SALT cap increase that is a very, very expensive portion of this bill that I don't necessarily agree with 100%.
I think their state legislatures should be more responsible so that their tax burden is lower on their constituents.
That's a whole other conversation.
But so, where we are in the bill right now, it is moving through the process.
We passed it last Thursday morning and then it will go through all committees.
They have a separate instruction in the Senate, as long as we have marked our bills to meet the Senate instruction as well.
Reconciliation is a very wonky, rule-ridden process, and it has to be done exactly by those instructions or provisions can be thrown out.
So, right now, it's going through that process.
Senators are having their discussions about what they like and don't like in the bill, and then we'll, of course, reassess as we would with any piece of legislation as soon as it comes back from the House.
But I will tell you this: that it is of the utmost importance, I think, to make sure we do preserve the current status quo.
Otherwise, those tax cuts will expire, and that will be a tax increase on all Iowans and all Americans.
I just don't want to see that happen.
So, I'll continue to work every day to make sure you can keep more of your own money.
Thanks, Rob.
unidentified
Hi, my name is Anna Linnell.
I'm here from Tecora.
I am another American who has a disability, although mine is not as visible as, say, yours is.
I live on Social Security.
I get Medicare, Medicaid SNAP benefits.
I've had to take a part-time job, and I don't know how I'm going to manage all of that.
Can you tell me that Medicare and Medicaid will not be cut?
Can you tell me?
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, let me explain the changes that we are actually making because I think, to your point, if you are on disability, are you SSDI?
Yes.
Okay, so you're disabled.
Anyone who is medically frail is explicitly exempted in our legislation.
That is you.
Caretakers of those who are disabled, they are also exempted from that work requirement.
And again, there's a lot of misinformation out there around this bill and what the changes are to Medicaid specifically.
This does not touch Medicare at all.
This bill, with the Medicaid changes, specifically focused on taking off duplicate enrollment.
We've got a lot of people who are enrolled in two states.
We shouldn't be funding dual state enrollment.
We did have 1.4 million illegal immigrants also receiving care through Medicaid.
We can't keep funding that, and we need to make sure that the benefits are there for people like you.
SNAP, for example, I'll address SNAP too.
States right now are not incentivized to do better with these programs.
There's a lot of erroneous payments.
I think the number we had was like $13 billion in erroneous payments.
We need to make sure that program exists for people who need it.
So, again, some of the changes: any parents who are pregnant, disabled, taking care of a disabled child or an aging parent in school at least half of the time, participating in an alcohol or drug treatment program, those people are exempt from the work requirements, which again are like 20 hours a week.
You have to try to have a part-time job or show you're looking for work or volunteer in your community.
So, those are the changes that we have made to Medicaid because it is about making sure that these programs do exist for people like you, people like you who actually need them, are disabled, and require that assistance from the government.
So, that is what we are working to preserve by getting rid of the waste, fraud, and abuse in these programs.
Okay, I've got to move on because I'm trying to get as many questions in.
Go ahead, Roy.
We have another question right here.
unidentified
Oh, right, go ahead.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Oh, thanks for stepping out.
unidentified
Thanks.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
And name and where you're from, please.
unidentified
My name is Jody Eno-Spurlog, and I'm from Ridgeway, Iowa.
And I first want to just thank you for being here.
It does take courage these days to show up in a town hall, regardless of position or party.
I'm also here for the same reason that you are, because I'm a mom, and a farmer, and a scientist, and an educator, and someone who is currently devoted to soil and water resources in Iowa.
And I want to focus my question on so I that honor transparency and not wanting misinformation.
So, I'll preface it with that, and then focus on what my understanding is of the congressional members' position in terms of jobs, control of the purse.
I just heard you share that in Al-Qaeda, actually.
I was down there too.
Tariffs, a responsibility of Congress, and establishing and shutting down of federal agencies.
So, under for the last few months, entire agencies have been dismantled.
So, USAID is probably the most striking example.
People are already dying because of that.
Catholic relief agencies, which were a major mechanism for that support, have just been done.
In the budget, there's an $800 million cut to NRCS conservation technical assistance for farmers.
NIH and NSF have been slashed.
And by slashed, I mean 40%.
This is not a reduction in force.
This is a destruction in force.
This will affect healthcare, agriculture, our economy, the infrastructure into science.
A report just came out returns investment of $1.7 for every dollar invested.
So my question is related to these are things that are under control of Congress.
I haven't seen action on the part of Congress or yourself to try to protect and or reclaim this job.
That includes tariffs.
And so in the reconciliation first bill, you voted to take away tariff power from Congress for a year.
So my question is, do you agree with the slashing of these whole budgets?
and or complete loss of agencies, given that it is congressional authority or not.
And if not, what are you going to do to reclaim your power?
Because I'm interested.
I think, as you said earlier, you're accountable to us.
So you work for us, not for any president.
You work for us.
I needed to answer your question.
And it takes, in your words, that I just heard, guts to say no.
So I'm looking for that.
Guts to say no.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
The reason we're in the position we're in, Jody, $36 trillion in debt, is because people have said yes to too many things that were not the sole scope and responsibility of federal government.
That is exactly why we are where we said why we're having to have these very important conversations about saying no to things right now.
It is our job as an appropriator, which I serve on that committee, to go in and have these conversations.
The President proposes a budget, but the House actually starts that process.
So we have been having hearings.
I've actually had probably 20 hearings since the end of April where we have been asking these cabinet secretaries about their proposed budgets, about where we need to be making investments.
So whether it's the Coast Guard, the Agriculture Secretary, in our case, the heads of ICE and CBP and FEMA have all been coming before us.
And there are places where maybe they've made a change that we don't disagree with.
And Congress can come in and say, no, we are going to fund that at this level.
And that's what we're going through right now.
So we're actually having all of those conversations about making sure we're putting funding back where it needs to go.
As we've been peeling away these layers of the onion, we have discovered many things that were very, very wasteful.
I gave some of those examples in my opening comments about DEI operas and electric vehicles in other countries.
We need resources for farmers.
We need resources for moms.
We need resources for all these programs.
And right now we're having to borrow at a rate that's unsustainable.
And I don't see that as being responsible for our kids and for that next generation if we're not reeling things in.
And so that's really where our focus is over these next couple of months, is making sure we're going through with the fine-tooth comb, funding things that need to be funded, cutting things that need to be cut, and right-sizing these agencies.
You mentioned NIH.
I just saw one very important grant be awarded to the University of Iowa for a cardiac research project that's seven years long.
There are dollars still flowing to our universities, and we absolutely need to be making those investments.
We need to be making the right investments.
And what we've seen also out of many of these dollars is that they're not, and you heard me talk about this at our last town hall if you were there too, the administrative costs that some of these universities are taking or institutions are taking, in some cases is up to 80 percent.
And if only 20 percent of a grant is flowing to the researcher, I think that's not a good use of taxpayer dollars.
NIH has 27 different centers around the country, 27 different CIOs and 700 different IT systems.
That is just not efficient way to do business.
So going in and retooling that, it may take less people to run an agency or it may be housed in a different agency.
That's what I care about is if we're actually executing on the priorities for the American people.
I don't care what agency name is at the top.
Pell Grants, for example, under the Department of Ed.
I don't care who administers it.
I want to make sure Pell Grants still exists and I want to make sure they're still funded and there's flexibility around Pell Grants.
So that's what we are going to be doing as appropriators in the next couple months.
Look for markups to start in June.
They just released our markup schedule for our Bills for Appropriations Committee, and then we're hopeful we'll have them on the House floor sometime in July.
So that's the process for appropriations.
So, okay, go ahead, Reagan.
unidentified
My name is Alan Ellickson from Decora.
President Trump and his cabinet, in addition to being totally unqualified and inept, are breaking laws by ignoring federal judges' orders.
The checks and balances of our government include Congress's responsibility to hold the executive branch accountable.
My question for you is: when are you going to do the responsibility that you were elected for by holding the executive branch accountable up to and including impeachment?
Well, let me start by saying that judges need to follow the law.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
And I don't think this country needs another impeachment charade.
That's what we saw in the last Congress, and I voted no on that for a reason.
Judges need to follow the law as well.
And, you know, what I think is important about the bill we just passed is we have a number of judges who have been activist judges and going beyond the scope of their district courts.
And if you look at Congress's law, the laws that are on the books and Congress's role there, judges need to be following federal civil procedure.
So our bill includes a provision that would make sure that they follow things like rule number 65, which is what we've seen egregious abuses of by some of these judges recently.
We have a bill called the Rogue Rulings Act, which would help to, again, reel this in.
If someone is suing in a district court, they should be provided relief in that district court.
It's not a nationwide court decision.
It is a district court decision, and that is designed on purpose within our system.
And so judges need to be following that law as well.
As far as the checks and balances, Congress is executing its right to do that.
We are using what's called the Congressional Review Act Authority.
We've used that in many cases already this Congress.
When we don't like a rule or regulation introduced by an administration, Congress can use the CRA to do that.
These votes, many of them have been bipartisan, and we have done that several times on rules that I think take our country in the wrong direction.
Many of them are from the previous administration, but I don't care who's president.
I'm willing to work with anyone to again make sure that we're respecting American citizens again.
And 77 million Americans voted to make sure we are advancing these priorities.
So thank you again for coming.
We are out of time because I've got to get going to another stop in the district.
But thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to come and answer your questions here today.
It's my honor to serve you.
If you have questions going forward, our number is on our website.
You can also subscribe to our newsletter at pinson.house.gov.
Thank you so much.
unidentified
I've never seen spots with that stupid, but my gosh, the idea is up to there at my expectations.
Just being scared to death and saddling up anyway, as John Wayne said.
Y'all made it.
You climbed that mountain.
ashley hinson ▲ ● ▼
Take the risk.
Push yourself onto a new challenge.
unidentified
This week, watch commencement speeches from across the country featuring inspirational messages from political leaders, sports personalities, and celebrities.
Tonight, hear remarks by President Donald Trump at the United States Military Academy at West Point, former Michigan Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow at Albion College, Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and former astronaut and former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden at Ohio State University.
Watch 2025 Commencement Speeches tonight at 8 Eastern on C-SPAN 2 or anytime online at c-span.org.
In a nation divided, a rare moment of unity.
This fall, C-SPAN presents Ceasefire, where the shouting stops and the conversation begins.
In a town where partisan fighting prevails, one table, two leaders, one goal to find common ground.
This fall, ceasefire.
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