Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin praised the efforts of Senate Democrats who sought a bipartisan agreement on health care reform, but he also noted that when push comes to shove, Democrats, as the majority party, are obligated to ensure that real reform actually passes.
“Both Senate committees can be proud that their bills are a part of a robust bipartisan process,” Harkin said, adding that the reform proposal from the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was presented after the committee had considered more than 200 Republican amendments and accepted 161. U.S. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) spent months negotiating with with key Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, including U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley from Iowa, in an attempt to bring forth bipartisan legislation.
“I think [Baucus] bent over backwards to meet their demands and include their ideas,” he said and noted that all three of the key Republicans involved in the negotiations with Baucus have decided not to support the resulting bill. In addition, all Republicans on the HELP Committee, regardless of how involved they were in the mark-up process, ultimately took a party-line stance against the committee’s bill.
“It is their right to choose this partisan course,” Harkin said. “But just as surely, Democrats are the majority party in Congress, and we have a responsibility to lead. And to lead is to propose. That’s what we did in the HELP Committee in July, and [the] Finance [Committee] will follow suit next week.”
Harkin is now even more optimistic than he was previously that a final reform bill will be sent by Congress to Pres. Barack Obama before Christmas — “or maybe even Thanksgiving.”
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