Iowa Third District Republican Congressman David Young visited Atlantic today (Tuesday), and one of his stops was here at the KJAN Studios, where he discussed the recently passed tax package, DACA, and Health Insurance. Turning the pages back on this past year, Young was asked about his greatest personal accomplishments serving Iowans in Washington, D.C. He spoke about a bill passed and signed into law by President Trump, regarding the safety of our food as it relates to Agri-terrorism/Bioterrorism. He said Homeland Security had no preparedness plan in place to look at those issues and protect our food from terrorists.

Young said regardless of political party affiliation, or whether you live in an urban or rural area, Health Care is the number one issue among Iowans that he’s encountered in his visits with Iowa. Young says the bi-partisan efforts to make health care more affordable and available to everyone, didn’t gain much traction, but he hopes Congress will do more in the coming year to compromise on a plan. Young says also, that he’s been pushing congressional leadership to come up with a long-term solution to funding for CHIP, the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program, which in Iowa, has funding available for until about April. He says five-years’ funding would be a good start. He said the program, which expired on September 30th, needs more predictability and sustainability. Young says he will continue to work with his colleagues to try and fund that particular priority.

And, as for DACA, Young said President Trump did the right thing when he handed the issue back to Congress for a solution. He said it should be a legislative matter and not something for the Executive Branch to decide. As for the recent tax break, Young said you should start seeing a difference in your paychecks beginning in February, and that the breaks afforded to businesses and corporations are necessary to grow and create more jobs. Farmers and small businesses will see tax relief as well, according to Congressman Young.

The President has proposed getting rid of NAFTA, but Young thinks that would be “disastrous,” especially to Iowa’s Ag Economy and its farmers.He said we need more markets. Citing the abundance of grain being produced, Young said “We can’t just all consume it ourselves.”