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.
Congressional negotiations on proposed health care reform have dominated news cycles for months, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that other important committee work has been set aside.
The Ryan White Act, a federal program that provides basic care, treatment, education and support services related to HIV/AIDS, is scheduled to sunset on Sept. 30 unless Congress reauthorizes the program. U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, who is now chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he is confident that the reauthorization will be completed.
“Staff [members] have been working on the Ryan White bill for some time now, and we have a mark-up scheduled for next week,” Harkin said Thursday by phone.
“I’m hopeful it will be a smooth mark-up. We have reached out to Republican members of the committee — and I’m doing so even now — to get a bill that will be broadly supported.”
U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, who serves on a House committee that has been holding hearings on the reauthorization, expressed both confidence that a bill would be passed and hesitation that it would be without controversy, given the current partisan political climate in Washington.
While Harkin is also keenly aware of the party-line divides among lawmakers, he said that in relation to this bill he “hasn’t detected any” partisan contention yet.
During each of the past three fiscal years, more than $2 billion in federal funding has been distributed through the Ryan White Act. In fiscal year 2007, Iowa received roughly $4.5 million in assistance that was used to provide medications, education, early intervention and support services.
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