Ernst Visits Area Employer And Visits About Tariff And Building Business Here And Abroad
Senator Joni Ernst met with leadership at Clow Valve this past week to learn more about their business and how legislation could impact them.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – For Senator Joni Ernst, completing the ‘Full Grassley’ every year in office is something she works to accomplish.
Ernst says those visits to industry, or hosting town halls, gets her a lot of windshield time but also allows her to hear the concerns from Iowans she represents.
This past week was Ernst’s first visit to Clow Valve in Oskaloosa. There she met with the executive team, hearing about their concerns about making opportunity equitable and a level playing field to do business in America and on the international stage.
Clow is an example of manufacturing that is essential to Iowa’s survival. It sits in the middle of a productive agricultural economy of southeast Iowa.
That varied portfolio that is Iowa has become shaky lately with the latest trade war with China and the tariff’s that may impact Iowa’s farmers and manufacturers.
Ernst said that the path to a new trade agreement with China is looking good, acknowledging there has been “back and forth” with China over trade. She also acknowledges the concern it has placed on farmers.
Ernst called China “a bad actor” that has “been put on notice now” and those pressures have begun to move China back to the bargaining table.
“They understand that they need us as well, and so I think that we will agree with China,” added Ernst.
Ernst pointed to work that President Trump’s administration has done with other trade deals with former Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries and opening up the European Union (EU) for the Ag Market.
Inside the offices at many manufacturing plants, like Clow, uneasiness lingers over the future of trade as new trade agreements are being worked out.
Ernst said there is always uneasiness as agreements are worked out. “But I think that we’ll be able to navigate our way through this.”
In a recent town hall meeting in Sigourney, Oskaloosa News asked Ernst about Iowa’s veterans, and the concerns veterans have about the health care they are receiving through the VA.
“There is a huge push right now in the Veterans Affairs Committee which would even further streamline [it]. It isn’t the Choice Program, but it is a takeoff of the Choice Program, which would allow veterans to choose where they want to go, in regards of how far away they live from a VA or so forth. We hope it will allow great accessibility of veterans, so they are not waiting 20, 30, 40, 60, 90 days for services at the VA or one of the clinics. I hope to see that bill move,” said Ernst. “It is making its way through the process in Congress right now.”
Ernst says that the bill would allow veterans to utilize local health care services. “They could pick their provider. They could pick where they go, regardless of the distance they live from a VA center. It will have a lot of debate surrounding it. There are a lot of folks that won’t support that move. My stance has always been, when we look at Veterans Affairs, it should always be veteran first. Not the VA first, veterans first. So if a veteran chooses to go to another provider, they should have that opportunity to go to another provider.”
As to the progress of that legislation, “[It’s] moving very slow on the Veterans Affairs Committee and, of course, we continue to hope that [legislation] will get through, and that we’ll see some progress there so our veterans can choose wherever they want to go.
