(Atlantic, Iowa) – Iowa 3rd District Congresswoman Cindy Axne appeared in Atlantic Tuesday afternoon for a round table discussion with community leaders at the Atlantic Depot/Chamber Office. Among those in attendance was Mayor Grace Garrett, City Administrator John  Lund, Police Chief Devin Hogue, Chamber and economic development officials, SWITA Transit Director Mark Lander, and CCHS CEO Brett Altman.

In her opening remarks, Axne said because this is an election year, candidates tend to spend much of their time campaigning. “I feel like too often the official side of things people stop doing, so I want to let you know I’m still doing the official side of things,” and she wanted to make sure the needs community leaders are being met as much as possible.

She focused her time during the meeting, on things that are in the works in Washington, D-C, including the “Inflation Reduction Act,” and “Invest to protect” Act. With regard to the latter, it was recently passed out of the house, and it is aimed at trying to fix things locally, including police and sheriff’s units across the state and country, when it comes to receiving grants for staff and equipment. Axne said the problem is that small town Iowa is competing against large cities like New York, Chicago, L.A., Des Moines and others, for the grants.

The Invest to protect act, she said “Literally creates a separate pot of funding” from the major grants most law enforcement agencies pursue, but separate for department or units with under 125 staff. “We have condensed the [grant]  application to two hours,” instead of the multiple hours it would normally take to fill-out or have attorney’s handle the mind numbing task. That way, she says, the funding can be used for recruitment, retention and education bonuses, instead of for operational expenses only. Congresswoman Axne said the bi-partisan bill passed in the House. She suggested those in attendance contact their Senators to have the bill brought up when they return in November, “because we still have time to move some agendas forward.”

She says she’s also working on hearings for the Farm Bill and reducing the “red tape” for USDA Programs and bureaucracy. Axne said the House just passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which she says is designed to “put money back into people’s pockets.” She says the Act will: lower prescription drug prices and energy costs; hold corporations accountable for their share of taxes; and reduce the deficit without individual tax increases for Iowans. Axne said the tax rate for corporations should be at least 15%. There should be taxes on corporate stock buybacks, and encouragement for companies to invest in workers.