On Trump's Freezing Funds and Random Firings of Federal Employees; "if it's impacting farmers in Iowa, I think I would have heard about it.”

Iowa State Senator Ken Rozenboom (R)

With Congress in recess, Republicans coming home from Washington, D.C. who addressed constituents at town halls nationwide are taking heat for Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s broad, indiscriminate, and sometimes dangerous staff and budget cuts, including those at the National Nuclear Security Administration, federal employees working to combat the bird flu outbreak, and more than 1,000 workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

NBC reports that at City Hall in Roswell, a suburb of Atlanta, attendees jeered and talked over Republican Rep. Rich McCormick as they asked him about the cuts. One man said, “Why is the supposedly conservative party taking such a radical and extremist and sloppy approach to this?”

It was with a similar concern that on Saturday I was in nearby Oskaloosa, Iowa for a local legislative town hall called Coffee & Conversation hosted by the Mahaska County Chamber and Development Group. I’ve attended these functions for 20 years, and they can be interesting for the fact that for as long as I can remember, nearly all of the elected officials have been Republican, and most of the audience who ask questions are Democrats. Sometimes very frustrated ones.

The event is always held at Smokey Row Coffee Shop on the square in Osky, a regular stop for presidential candidates. I worked in local radio for many years and would often interview presidential candidates who stopped by. If memory serves, candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, Doug Bergum, Ron DeSantis, and the scoundrel Ted Cruz addressed audiences at Smokey Row.

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At Coffee and Conversation on Saturday, my representatives Barb Kniff-McCulla in the Iowa House and Ken Rozenboom in the Senate were there, as was House Member Helena Hayes. About 55-60 people were in attendance, maybe double the number of people who normally show up, and the meeting had five law enforcement officers there, including the sheriff, a show of force I haven’t seen before at these gatherings.

I wanted to know what these Republican members of the Iowa Legislature had to say about how Trump and Musk's funding freeze and job cuts were impacting Iowa and our agricultural economy, and I politely asked them to address the issue.

I went in with the apparently incorrect assumption that our representatives would be familiar with the funding freeze and the impact of the job cuts. They either didn’t seem to know much about them or didn’t want to talk about them.

Here’s a brief rundown that Senator Rozenboom and Representatives Kniff-McCulla and Helena Hayes might want to pay attention to. The Des Moines Register reported on Valentine's Day that Iowa farmers are owed $10 million as payment for conservation initiatives just from one project led by the Iowa Soybean Association. The money owed is for work already completed by farmers. There is potentially another $86 million approved for adopting climate-smart agricultural policies that remains in question. Practical Farmers of Iowa and others are owed millions of dollars, and $46 million awarded last year through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program is at risk.

Food shipments to countries in need overseas have stopped as Trump shut down USAID, leaving $450 million dollars of food to rot. Some of that aid comes from Iowa.

Because of Trump’s freeze and cuts, 38 out of 39 staff members of the Soil and Water Conservation Districts of Iowa have been laid off after not receiving promised funding from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

And we don’t even know how many researchers at Iowa State University have lost their jobs or funding, including some who were researching bird flu.

Billions of dollars are at stake for American farmers and rural America because of Trump and Musk.

And I didn’t even mention Trump’s threats of tariffs on some of our best trading partners, China, Mexico, and Canada.

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Representative Barb Kniff-McCulla was the first to address my question. Barb is a dear friend.

She replied with an anecdote that she had received a phone call from someone in nearby Newton who was fired and subsequently rehired! Not exactly an effective response given the avalanche of other impacts.

Barb also said that there is a lot of fat in government that needs to be cut.

The fact is that most of the “fat” isn’t in the Federal government but in government contracts with private businesses. Brookings reports that “the federal government’s workforce has remained largely unchanged in size for over 50 years, even as the U.S. population has grown by 68% and federal spending has quintupled, highlighting the critical role of technology and contractors in filling the gap.”

It’s the private sector robbing us blind, not the government agencies themselves. If Trump and Musk really wanted to cut the fat, they should start with the private contractors working for the Pentagon and other agencies, not the USDA and conservation staff that help farmers and rural communities.

Barb concluded with the statement “I support Donald Trump what he is doing and making a change. Thank you.”

We’ll see how long Barb holds that opinion.

Representative Helena Hayes wasn’t interested in addressing my request. She said that she was only interested in addressing issues that she will be voting on, on issues that will impact her constituents in Mahaska, Keokuk, and Jefferson counties. Fair enough. I hear this a lot.

But the fact is that her constituents are being hurt by Trump’s policies, right now, and if she, the rest of the Republicans in the Iowa legislature, and Governor Kim Reynolds said so, our congressional representatives in Washington, D.C. might be convinced to hold Trump in check. I’m not holding my breath, but they are going to have to sooner or later, as the damage will only increase if they don’t.

Senator Ken Roozenboom got right to the point. He told me that it must not be much of an issue as farmers aren’t contacting him and that while legislators in Iowa are busy and “don't follow what's going on in Washington so much, but if it's impacting farmers in Iowa, I think I would have heard about it.”

I understand. Some farmers and other rural folk might not be saying much now—despite the reality of the facts reported above.

The Iowa Farmers Union recently issued an indictment of Trump’s plans, which Ken apparently hasn’t seen. That’s OK. He’s a busy man. They wrote in an email to members that includes this quote:

"The recent firing of USDA employees pulls the rug out from underneath farmers and the rural workforce that makes the agency run in Iowa. It is unfair to farmers and USDA employees alike.”

So, taking Ken at his word, that farmers and rural people don’t seem to care about Trump’s freezes and cuts and aren’t contacting him, let’s light him up and tell him that we do care—especially if you are a farmer or a person hurt by Trump’s policies. Ken’s a powerful man. He’s on the Legislative Agriculture (Vice Chair), Education, Natural Resources, Rules and Administration, State Government (Chair), and Transportation committees. Share your stories. Send him links to the news.

Sure, Ken’s powerful, but not as powerful as we are if we engage and speak the truth. We can make a difference. Let’s own this as we hold our Legislators accountable.

Reach Ken at ken.rozenboom@legis.iowa.gov, or call him at 515-281-3371. Flood him with the truth.

While you are at it, light up Governor Kim Reynolds too.

Email her here. Call her at 515-281-5211.

And Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig is avoiding the media on these issues and seems to be in a witness protection program. Contact Mike here. Or call his office at 515-281-5321. I wrote about Naig being MIA here.

Please be respectful, and share your concerns—and tell them what you want them to do. They work for us, not Donald Trump.

And, if you live in another state, please contact your representatives and share your concerns. I hear many are using 5 calls to reach them.

And if either Republicans or Democrats are doing the right thing, thank them. Tell them you appreciate their courage.

And if they are turning a blind eye to what Trump and Musk are doing, light their asses up.

Flood their zones with emails and/or phone calls and peaceful protests.

Either make them pay attention or bring them down.

Peacefully. Respectfully.

Iowans, do your thing.

Light. Ken. Up.

With the truth.

ken.rozenboom@legis.iowa.gov

515-281-3371

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