Voters in Iowa’s 3rd congressional district have a “do-over” on the ballot. Former Congressman David Young served Iowa from 2014 to 2018, but lost in his third election to Democrat Cindy Axne. Now, he is looking to reclaim his seat.
Republican congressional candidate David Young says that reforms are needed now to support the supply chain through the pandemic.
According to Young, “Part of it is to make sure that we have safety protocols out there, a strong infrastructure, make sure we give relief to those who are burdened by rules and regulations, and so, opportunities as well to purchase directly from farmers in case some of our slaughterhouse go down or other entities that are kind of in the middle between the producer and the end user.”
He says that Congress should have a role in preventing any potential market manipulation.
“We see what happened here earlier this year with the price and making sure we have complete oversight from top to bottom, to making sure there is no market manipulation and collusion going on, and making sure that those who are producing it get what they deserve and more,” Young states.
Supporting new and beginning farmers is another priority for him: “Beginning farm programs, I think, are very, very important to make sure we are bringing in new farmers in, that there are incentives, whether its grants, or maybe you go to a four-year university... and chose to be a beginning farmer, maybe loans are repaid and making sure there is access to capital.”
He says that the administration should be going after as many trade deals as possible, as long as they are good and fair.
“We have a President who likes bilateral agreements... There are multilateral agreements out there,” Young notes. “You go back to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, there is an opportunity there now to engage with those countries that would have been in the TPP and start doing some bilateral agreements with them.”
Young says that it is important to have a robust rural utility service and always be looking five steps ahead for a new generation of technologies, including using broadband as a healthcare tool.
“Getting that broadband out there to our critical access hospitals, our community health centers as well, and being very cognizant of any healthcare policy and what that means,” he adds. “We hear a lot of things from the public option and Medicare for all, and making sure that it doesn’t hurt our rural healthcare system.”
Young formerly served two-terms in Congress, with a spot on the House Appropriations Committee. He says that it is important for Congress to fund incentives for farmers, instead of handing down mandates.
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