Stories

The vast majority of Democratic opposition to the final health reform bill in the U.S. House came from members whose districts are more rural than the nation as a whole.

WASHINGTON — How effectively will the U.S. House health care bill cover children? Turns out, it depends on where they live. The $894 billion health reform bill working its way toward a House vote this week would repeal the Children’s Health Insurance Program, shifting some low-income kids into Medicaid and others into private plans that would both cost more and guarantee fewer benefits.

A Marion man who previously campaigned for U.S. Senate will officially throw his hat into Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District race this Thursday and kick off his campaign with a three-city tour.
Christopher Reed, who narrowly won a three-way Republican primary to challenge U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin in 2008, will officially become a candidate for the U.S. [...]

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Waterloo, announced in early December that he was forming a populist caucus in the U.S. House. Today, the members of the caucus were officially announced.

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Waterloo, has sent a letter to his House colleagues asking them to become a founding member of the new populist caucus.
Braley said he is forming the group in order to renew focus on the issues of the middle class and working families.
“The middle class is the economic engine of America,” Braley [...]

E-Verify, known as the Basic Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification Program prior to 2007, was created along with two other pilot programs as a part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 and was originally an option for only the five states with the largest immigrant populations (California, Illinois, Florida, Texas and New [...]

A spokesman in Congressman Tom Latham’s office says the lawmaker voted against incentives for election verification because the bill would be a “costly redundant federal program.”

Former Iowa Congressman Edward Mezvinsky is scheduled to be released from prison this weekend after serving more than five years for fraud.

Congressman Bruce Braley introduced a piece of legislation this morning that would require the federal government to write documents in simple, easy-to-understand language.
The Plain Language in Government Communications Act — H.R. 3584 — is a bipartisan bill that targets tax returns, federal college aid applications and Veterans Administration forms. Basically, any form, publication and publicly [...]

Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, has some new shoes to fill in the beltway this fall.
Shortly before the August recess, Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minnesota, who serves as chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, tapped Braley for service as the vice-chairman of the subcommittee on highways and transit. Braley will serve as second-ranking majority member [...]