Stories

Gov. Chet Culver’s $830 million I-JOBS plan is nothing more than a campaign stunt designed to buy an election, Sioux City businessman and GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats said.
Vander Plaats, who so far is the only Republican challenging Culver in 2010, called the plan to issue bonds to upgrade state infrastructure, create jobs and [...]

U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack has given 2nd District residents a way to visually view the distribution of federal funds that were appropriated through the Recovery Act.

In the midst of a global recession and a decades-long slump in American manufacturing, President Barack Obama spent part of Earth Day in central Iowa defending an ambitious policy agenda reflecting the view that economic prosperity is intertwined with energy security.

We reported last month that a USDA program to expand rural broadband access was set to receive billions of stimulus dollars despite its less-than-perfect record of effectively spending money, revealed by an Inspector General’s report.  Undeserving suburban communities were getting loads of money to expand broadband to places that already had it, and deeply rural [...]

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said today that Iowa has “been fortunate” that emergency funding for highways is soon to arrive, while additional funds for teachers and low-income health programs will likewise prevent imminent job losses within the state. He forgot to mention that voted against the stimulus package that will provide that money.

Though Democrats in Iowa had a heck of a time enacting ‘prevailing wage’ requirements for public works projects at the state level this year, a similar federal proposal has faced considerably less controversy.
In fact, it is a Republican, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who is overseeing the expansion of the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act for President Barack [...]

Hundreds of billions of dollars will be sent out by the federal government over the next few years as part of the stimulus plan passed by Congress a few weeks ago, and some question how well it will be spent.  ProPublica’s Michael Grabell has an eye-opening story up today detailing the hurdles faced by regulators [...]

Iowans for Tax Relief sent out a press release today analyzing the prospects for job creation under Gov. Chet Culver’s proposed bonding initiative.
Ed Failor, Jr., President of Iowans for Tax Relief said, “We need to ask the right questions of Governor Culver. If, by his math, $750 million will create 21,000 new jobs, for a [...]

Floor debate on HF 333 — “The Public Improvement Quality Protection Act,” as it now calls itself — has been delayed as bill drafters finalize some last-minute amendments. Many in the capitol see this as a sign that Democrats have found their 51st vote for the bill, which would require most publicly funded construction projects to pay wages that match “prevailing wages” on other nearby construction projects.

Leaders in the U.S. House and Senate appear to have reached an agreement on President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package, but not all Democrats are pleased with the bill, chief among them Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin.
Harkin told the New York Times he believes Obama and Democratic lawmakers were too quick to give up on the [...]