Yesterday, June 15th, marked the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Older Americans Act, a landmark federal initiative to support older adults.  I was raised in part by my grandmother, so I know firsthand how important it is to support and protect Iowa's seniors.  The Older Americans Act provides critical services that help millions of seniors thrive, including elder abuse prevention, caregiver support, and preventive health programs.

Hunger remains an urgent problem for many low-income seniors and older Americans with physical disabilities.  For this reason, last year I led a bipartisan group of nearly 50 members of the House of Representatives to fight sequestration cuts that would have slashed funding for Senior Nutrition Programs.  Funding was restored, ensuring that vulnerable seniors across the country wouldn't go hungry because of congressional gridlock.

The Older Americans Act was an important start to an ongoing conversation about how we can meet the needs of our aging population and provide vital assistance so that seniors can live with independence and dignity.  Please know that I will always stand up for Iowa's seniors and look forward to staying in contact about this important issue moving forward.

Sincerely,

Dave Loebsack
Iowa's Second District

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2015 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that beginning Sept. 1, farmers and ranchers can apply for financial assistance to help conserve working grasslands, rangeland and pastureland while maintaining the areas as livestock grazing lands.

The initiative is part of the voluntary Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a federally funded program that for 30 years has assisted agricultural producers with the cost of restoring, enhancing and protecting certain grasses, shrubs and trees to improve water quality, prevent soil erosion and reduce loss of wildlife habitat. In return, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides participants with rental payments and cost-share assistance. CRP has helped farmers and ranchers prevent more than 8 billion tons of soil from eroding, reduce nitrogen and phosphorous runoff relative to cropland by 95 and 85 percent respectively, and even sequester 43 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, equal to taking 8 million cars off the road.

"A record 400 million acres and 600,000 producers and landowners are currently enrolled in USDA's conservation programs. The Conservation Reserve Program has been one of the most successful conservation programs in the history of the country, and we are pleased to begin these grasslands incentives as we celebrate the program's 30th year," said Vilsack. "This is another great example of how agricultural production can work hand in hand with efforts to improve the environment and increase wildlife habitat."

The CRP-Grasslands initiative will provide participants who establish long-term, resource-conserving covers with annual rental payments up to 75 percent of the grazing value of the land. Cost-share assistance also is available for up to 50 percent of the covers and other practices, such as cross fencing to support rotational grazing or improving pasture cover to benefit pollinators or other wildlife. Participants may still conduct common grazing practices, produce hay, mow, or harvest for seed production, conduct fire rehabilitation, and construct firebreaks and fences.

With the publication of the CRP regulation today, the Farm Service Agency will accept applications on an ongoing basis beginning Sept. 1, 2015, with those applications scored against published ranking criteria, and approved based on the competiveness of the offer. The ranking period will occur at least once per year and be announced at least 30 days prior to its start. The end of the first ranking period will be Nov. 20, 2015.

Later this week, USDA will also announce state-by-state allotments for the State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE). Through SAFE, also a CRP initiative, up to 400,000 acres of additional agricultural land across 37 states will be eligible for wildlife habitat restoration funding. The additional acres are part of an earlier CRP wildlife habitat announcement made by Secretary Vilsack. Currently, more than 1 million acres, representing 98 projects, are enrolled in SAFE.

To learn more about participating in CRP-Grasslands or SAFE, visit www.fsa.usda.gov/crp or consult with the local Farm Service Agency county office. To locate a nearby Farm Service Agency office, visit http://offices.usda.gov. To learn more about the 30th anniversary of CRP, visit www.fsa.usda.gov/CRPis30 or follow on Twitter using #CRPis30.

The CRP-Grasslands program was made possible by the 2014 Farm Bill, which builds on historic economic gains in rural America over the past six years while achieving meaningful reform and billions of dollars in savings for the taxpayer. Since enactment, USDA has made significant progress to implement each provision of this critical legislation, including providing disaster relief to farmers and ranchers; strengthening risk management tools; expanding access to rural credit; funding critical research; establishing innovative public-private conservation partnerships; developing new markets for rural-made products; and investing in infrastructure, housing and community facilities to help improve quality of life in rural America. For more information, visit www.usda.gov/farmbill.

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Bridge Project and VoteVets.org have teamed up to expose the political agenda of Concerned Veterans of America in a new report titled, "The Vets Group That Fights Against Veterans." CVA promotes extreme right-wing policies that stand in opposition to nearly every other veterans group, as reported in the Military Times today.

From pushing a plan to privatize the VA healthcare system to proposing a transition from the current military retirement system to a private 401(k)-like plan, CVA follows the radical conservatism of the Koch brothers, working to advance the billionaires' self-interest at the expense of veterans

Already, Marco Rubio has participated in a CVA town hall in New Hampshire. Bridge Project will be working with partners to hold CVA and the Koch brothers accountable as Jeb Bush, Rubio, Scott Walker, and the rest of the Republican field audition for a slice of the $900 million the Kochs plan to spend propping up GOP candidates and trying to buy the White House.

Read "The Vets Group That Fights Against Veterans" here:

TROY, NY (07/14/2015)(readMedia)-- Vignessh Kumar, of Moline, IL has been named to the Dean's List at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for the Spring 2015 semester. The Dean's List recognizes full-time students who maintain grade-point averages of a minimum of 3.0 out of a possible 4.0 and have no grades below "C."

Kumar studies Biology.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is the nation's oldest technological research university. The university offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences, information technology, architecture, management, and the humanities and social sciences. Institute programs serve undergraduates, graduate students, and working professionals around the world. Rensselaer faculty are known for pre-eminence in research conducted in a wide range of fields, with particular emphasis in biotechnology, nanotechnology, computational science and engineering, and the media arts and technology. The Institute is well known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace so that new discoveries and inventions benefit human life, protect the environment, and strengthen economic development.

As it approaches its bicentennial anniversary, the Institute continues to define The New Polytechnic, a new paradigm for teaching, learning, and research that uses advanced technologies to enable fresh collaborations across disciplines, sectors, and regions, in order to answer the global challenges of our day.