As GOP candidates race to outdo each other's obstructionism, Braley discusses motivation, approach to working for Iowans

DES MOINES, IA - As the Republican primary for US Senate takes an increasingly rightward turn in its closing days, Braley for Iowa launched a positive TV ad today featuring Rep. Bruce Braley speaking about why he's motivated to fight for Iowans and how he approaches standing up for people. The spot is the third of Braley's Senate campaign.

Braley said, "Fighting for Iowans means knowing them - who Iowans are, what Iowans care about, and the challenges that Iowans are facing. I grew up in Brooklyn, Iowa, and worked my way through college doing jobs like road construction, waiting tables, and driving trucks. I worked as a lawyer in Waterloo representing Iowans, from farmers struggling through the farm crisis to families denied insurance benefits they deserved. And I've fought for working families in Congress to improve wages and create job growth. I'm running for Senate to strengthen and expand opportunities for working families, because that's where I come from."

The 30 second spot starts airing on broadcast and cable TV today across the state of Iowa with no set end-date.

The ad can be viewed at the following link: http://youtu.be/w_4dCsa_FpI

(DES MOINES) - After signing the Home Base Iowa Act yesterday at Camp Dodge, and the Iowa Apprenticeship and Job Training Act today at Facebook in Altoona, Iowa, Gov. Terry E. Branstad today formally sent the transmittal letters to the Iowa Secretary of State.

Bills signed Monday, May 26, 2014

Senate File 2352 an Act relating to the additional homestead credit for certain disabled veterans and including effective date and applicability provisions.

Senate File 303 an Act relating to veterans, military service members, and certain survivor beneficiaries and including effective date and retroactive applicability provisions.

Bill signed today, Tuesday, May 27, 2014

House File 2460: an Act relating to and making appropriations to the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Economic Development Authority, the Department of Workforce Development, the Iowa Finance Authority, the Public Employment Relations Board, and the State Board of Regents and Regents Institutions, and providing for other properly related matters, and including effective date provisions.

Gov. Branstad exercised his item veto authority on House File 2460 in accordance with Amendment IV of the Amendments of 1968 to the Constitution of the State of Iowa. The item veto message can be found here. The full message is pasted below.

May 27, 2014

The Honorable Matt Schultz

Secretary of State of Iowa

State Capitol

Des Moines, Iowa 50319 

   

Dear Mr. Secretary:  

   

I hereby transmit House File 2460, an Act relating to and making appropriations to the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Economic Development Authority, the Department of Workforce Development, the Iowa Finance Authority, the Public Employment Relations Board, and the State Board of Regents and regents institutions, and providing for other properly related matters, and including effective date and retroactive applicability provisions.  

   

House File 2460 is approved on this date with the following exceptions, which I hereby disapprove.   

 

I am unable to approve the item designated as Section 3, amending 2013 Iowa Acts, chapter 137, Section 21 inserting subsection 2.  This item makes changes to the administration of the 260F program.  The Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) has the infrastructure to administer this program and maintaining the 260F program at the IEDA is the most efficient use of funds.  It is important to keep the 260F program consistent and stable for the business community. 

I am unable to approve the item designated as Section 16, in its entirety.  This item makes changes to the administration of the 260F program.  The Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) has the infrastructure to administer this program and maintaining the 260F program at the IEDA is the most efficient use of funds.  It is important to keep the 260F program consistent and stable for the business community. 

I am unable to approve the designated portion of the item designated as Section 20, subsection 5.  This item places restrictions on the funding formula for the apprenticeship program.  Requiring all stakeholders who are recipients of funds from the apprenticeship program to comply with the same statutory funding formula is fair and transparent.

I am unable to approve the item designated as Section 21, in its entirety.  This item creates an apprenticeship training program advisory board.  Such board is unnecessary to administer the financial assistance for the apprenticeship programs because the assistance is provided by statutory formula rather than board approval.  Further, the purpose of the apprenticeship program is to create jobs and grow the private sector, not government.  This advisory board makes government bigger without serving any purpose. 

I am unable to approve the items designated as Sections 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, and 32, in their entirety.  These items make changes to the administration of the 260F program.  The Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) has the infrastructure to administer this program and maintaining the 260F program at the IEDA is the most efficient use of funds.  It is important to keep the 260F program consistent and stable for the business community. 

I am unable to approve the items designated as Sections 35, 36, 37 and 38, in their entirety.  These items make changes to the administration of the 260F program.  The Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) has the infrastructure to administer this program and maintaining the 260F program at the IEDA is the most efficient use of funds.  It is important to keep the 260F program consistent and stable for the business community. 

For the above reasons, I respectfully disapprove the designated items in accordance with Amendment IV of the Amendments of 1968 to the Constitution of the State of Iowa.  All other items in House File 2460 are hereby approved as of this date.

Sincerely,

TERRY E. BRANSTAD

Governor

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HousingIowa Awards to honor outstanding housing initiatives throughout Iowa

(DES MOINES) - The Iowa Finance Authority is seeking nominations for the seventh annual HousingIowa Awards. The HousingIowa Awards recognize outstanding programs, projects and people in all sectors of Iowa's housing industry for their leadership and innovation in advancing affordable housing opportunities in Iowa. Award nominations are due July 3.

Award nominations are judged by an independent panel of judges. The 2014 award winners will be announced at the 2014 HousingIowa Conference on Sept. 3 at the Des Moines Marriott Downtown.

Award categories include :

•  ·          Multifamily Development
•  ·          Single-Family Development  
•  ·          Special Needs Development  
• ·         Innovation
• ·         Legislative Friend of Housing
• ·         Kay Anderson Friend of Iowa

More information about the 2014 HousingIowa Awards and the HousingIowa Conference is available at IFAMeetings.com.

The Iowa Legislature created the Iowa Finance Authority, the state's housing finance agency, in 1975 to

undertake programs to assist in the attainment of housing for low- and moderate-income Iowans. Since then, the Iowa Finance Authority's role has grown to include approximately 40 programs. The Iowa Finance Authority is a self-supporting public agency whose mission is to finance, administer, advance and preserve affordable housing and to promote community and economic development for Iowans.

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TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) ? The U.S. Department of Agriculture is teaming with businesses, nonprofits and others on a five-year, $2.4 billion program that will fund locally designed soil and water conservation projects nationwide, Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

 

Authorized by the new farm law enacted earlier this year, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program is intended to involve the private sector more directly in planning and funding environmental protection initiatives tied to agriculture. Officials provided details of the program to The Associated Press ahead of an announcement scheduled for Tuesday.

 

"It's a new approach to conservation that is really going to encourage people to think in very innovative and creative ways," Vilsack said.

 

He described the projects to be funded as "clean water start-up operations" that will benefit communities and watersheds, a departure from the department's more traditional approach of focusing on individual operators adopting practices such as no-till cultivation or planting buffer strips to prevent runoff into streams.

 

Universities, local and tribal governments, companies and sporting groups are among those eligible to devise plans and seek grants.

 

"This program is a recognition that a coordinated and comprehensive effort is more effective than the USDA operating on its own and Ducks Unlimited operating on its own and the Kellogg Foundation operating on its own," Vilsack said.

 

In addition to protecting the environment, the projects will bolster the rural economy by supporting tourism and outdoor recreation jobs while avoiding pollution that would cost more to clean up, he said.

 

USDA will spend $1.2 billion ? including $400 million the first year ? and raise an equal amount from participants. Successful applications will include offers of cash, labor or other contributions, as well as plans for achieving measurable solutions and using new approaches, said Jason Weller, chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

 

Vilsack was announcing the program in Michigan, home state of Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, primary writer of the farm bill with Rep. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma. A news conference was scheduled in Bay City near Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay, where nutrient runoff from croplands causes algae blooms that degrade water quality.

 

Stabenow said she expected the area to generate several funding proposals.

 

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, established by the cereal pioneer, is working with The Nature Conservancy on a project designed to reduce runoff in the Saginaw Bay watershed, said Diane Holdorf, the foundation's chief sustainability officer. Kellogg, based in Battle Creek, buys wheat for its cereals from farms in the area.

 

The program establishes three pots of money for grants. Thirty-five percent of total funding will be divided among "critical" areas including the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the Columbia, Colorado and Mississippi river basins, the Longleaf Pine Range, prairie grasslands and the California Bay Delta.

 

Additionally, 40 percent will go to regional or multi-state projects selected on a competitive basis and 25 percent to state-level projects.

 

The California Rice Commission plans to seek funding of initiatives to expand water bird habitat in flooded Central Valley rice fields, said Paul Buttner, manager of environmental affairs. Rice farms are an indispensable waterfowl refuge because most of the original wetlands have been developed, he said.

 

Working with the USDA and other partners, the rice commission has developed practices that can make fields more hospitable for birds such as draining them more gradually ahead of planting season and building nesting islands, Buttner said. The new program could attract more participants, he said.

 

The New Mexico Association of Conservation Districts will develop proposals for combating invasive plants that suck too much water from the ground and ranching practices that could slow the depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, Executive Director Debbie Hughes said.