IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

They may not agree on much (health care reform, climate change, housing terrorism suspects in Illinois) but Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and Democratic U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley have found common ground on at least one issue -- loud television advertisements. Asked by reporters if he'd be willing to support a bill passed by the U.S. House Tuesday targeting loud television ads, Grassley said he would but hasn't seen the specific bill yet. "Since I control the channel switcher in my house, I get tired of my wife telling me to turn it down every time a commercial comes on," he said. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM Act, ends the practice of advertisers adjusting the volume of their television ads to be excessively and disproportionately loud during normal programming. The legislation passed the House by voice vote. Braley issued a release about the bill shortly after its passage, saying it would help prevent "noise pollution."

Labels: Bruce Braley, Charles_Grassley

President Barack Obama announced more details today about provisions
he wants in the jobs bill Congress will take up soon: "Obama proposed
new spending for highway and bridge construction, for small business
tax cuts and for retrofitting millions of homes to make them more
energy-efficient." ... Populist Caucus Chairman Bruce Braley (IA-01)
and House Trade Working Group Chairman Mike Michaud (ME-02) wrote to
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
today, urging them to make sure the jobs bill contains a strong "Buy
American" provision.

Labels: Bruce Braley

Representative Bruce Braley has rejected Republican critics of a
proposal to transfer some prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to the Thomson
Correctional Center, just across the Mississippi River from Clinton. ...
Iowa Republicans don't appear ready to stop stoking fears about
terrorists coming to a prison near you. State GOP chairman Matt
Strawn's November 20 e-mail blast slammed Braley, along with
Representatives Leonard Boswell and Dave Loebsack. ... I gather that
Republicans are confident this is a winning issue for them, but is
there any evidence that Iowans are afraid to have prisoners moved to a
maximum-security facility on the other side of the Mississippi? John
Carlson, the Des Moines Register's conservative columnist, went to
Clinton last week and found broad support for the plan.

Labels: Bruce Braley

The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reported yesterday there's a potential
challenger to U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa. Rod Blum, the chairman
and chief executive of Digital Canal Corp., a Dubuque-based software
company, told the newspaper he's been meeting with key Republicans in
the state and with the campaign arm for congressional Republicans.
Blum is former chair of the Dubuque County Republicans. He also writes
an Op-Ed column for the Dubuque paper, which says it will begin
running a substitute in November. Blum is expected to make an
announcement on whether he'll run toward the middle of the month. ...
Braley was re-elected easily in 2008, and until now there's been no
news of a potential challengers. No doubt, the congressman will take
seriously a bid by Blum or anybody else, but it's notable that his
chief of staff, Sarah Benzing, and press secretary, Jeff Giertz, have
both left Braley's office to work on Senate campaigns in New York and
Louisiana.

Labels: Bruce Braley

Although some members of the U.S. House have voiced firm opposition to
the long-awaited initial health care reform bill presented this week
by U.S. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana), chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee, U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) isn't necessarily among
them. The process is not a sprint, he reminded reporters on his
Thursday morning conference call, but more of a marathon in which the
finish line must remain the top priority. "I'm not at all happy with
some of the things that were left out of the Senate (Finance
Committee) bill, but the reality is that this is not the final Senate
bill. It is the chairman's mark," Braley said. "It was the product of
work by six senators and, in the end, we're not sure how much the
Republican senators contributed to this chairman's mark since none of
them support (it)."

Labels: Bruce Braley, health_care

Iowa's five congressmen have joined to sponsor a bill that calls for
creation of commemorate coins wihch would be sold to benefit the
Future Farmers of America. According to the FFA's website, there are
about half a million FFA members in the country today. There are an
estimated 12,000 FFA members in Iowa, many of whom own one of the
organization's iconic navy blue corduroy jackets. Congressman Bruce
Braley (D-Waterloo) sent out a news release about the bill. Braley
spokesman Jeff Giertz says Braley did not own one of those corduroy
jackets, but Braley's dad was in the FFA. ... Spokespersons for
Congressmen Steve King (R-Kiron) and Dave Loebsack (D-Mount Vernon)
say neither was in FFA.

Labels: Bruce Braley

The National Republican Congressional Committee is launching a round
of ads bashing Democrats who voted for last week's energy bill -- and
CNN reports, surprisingly, Bruce Braley is on the list. Braley's spot
on the list is probably due more to his position as a key ally to
House Energy and Commerce chair Henry Waxman than to any perceived
vulnerability in the 1st CD, where he easily bead Dave Hartsuch last
year and where no names have surfaced as possible 2010 opponents. …
Mostly freshmen and red-staters, and the perpetually endanngered Baron
Hill. I'm actually surprised that in Iowa they went after Braley,
rather than Boswell, who wavered before voting yes on the bill.

Labels: Bruce Braley

The Quad-Cities' two congressmen have signed on to a bill that would
reverse the cuts General Motors and Chrysler are making to their
dealer networks. Reps. Phil Hare, D-Ill., and Bruce Braley, D-Iowa,
are co-sponsoring the Automobile Dealer Economic Rights Restoration
Act of 2009. Here's the bill's text. Backers say the dealers are an
asset that come at virtually no cost, and that they're needed to
protect the federal government's investment in the manufacturers. They
also say cutting the dealer network will hurt the economy. "Closing
local auto dealerships would have a devastating impact on my
constituents," Hare said today. "These critical small businesses
provide thousands of good-paying jobs in my district. Rebuilding the
auto industry should be done in tandem with these dealerships, not
despite them."

Labels: Bruce Braley

Congress is getting to work on the details of health care reform,
and a major battleground will be whether to include a strong public health
insurance option for all Americans. Republicans like Senator Chuck
Grassley are revving up their scare tactics about "government-run" health
care. Coalitions of Democrats who back a public option are also taking
shape in the House and the Senate. The new Populist Caucus led by Congressman
Bruce Braley (IA-01) has yet to weigh in on the specifics of health care reform.
That needs to change soon if Braley is serious about turning this caucus into a voice
for the middle class in the House.

Labels: Bruce Braley

Iowa's Great American Hypocrite, US Senator Tom Harkin, is at it
again. This time he has joined with several other irony-impaired
Senators to compose a warning to American International Group Chairman
and CEO Edward Liddy. In this letter the group of Senators have
ironically lambasted the employees of this company as failures and
that they are responsible for the worldwide financial meltdown. Not
once do they consider their own actions and inactions as a
contributing factor. Not once do they consider their blind defense of
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as contributing factors. Instead they
ridicule a company that has it's own contractual obligations to meet.
In House of Representatives a group of naive Congressman have joined
together to author a letter to Department of Treasury Chairman Timothy
Geithner, you know, the tax cheat.

Labels: Bruce Braley, Tom_Harkin

Through Wednesday's passage of H.R. 1105 – The Omnibus Appropriations
Act of 2009 - the U.S. House voted to kill a program that allows
private sector collection agencies to help the Internal Revenue
Service recoup old outstanding tax debts. I'm told that Federal
Treasury Union Employees never liked the program because its success
could have made the case for more effective collections by the private
sector. And the last thing we want to do is create private sector jobs
and reduce the size and scope of government... They had reason to fear
the program's success. As of October 2007 the IRS' Private Debt
Collection Program, which launched as a test program only a year
earlier, successfully closed 9,000 old cases, collecting more than $30
million in outstanding debt.

Labels: Bruce Braley, Leonard_Boswell

The news releases which went out earlier his week indicated there were
21 members in the new "Populist Caucus" Congressman Bruce Braley
(D-Waterloo) has formed. Today, Braley's two Iowa colleagues --
Congressmen Leonard Boswell & Dave Loebsack, both Democrats -- joined
the "Populist" group, too. ... "The middle class is the economic engine
of America, but too often in Washington, the needs of the middle class
are ignored." Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), Chair of the Populist
Caucus, said. "During these tough times, we need a renewed focus on
strengthening the middle class and improving the lives of working
families."

Labels: Bruce Braley, Dave Loebsack, Leonard_Boswell

One of Blue America's earliest and most heartfelt successes came in
2006 when we helped Bruce Braley turn Iowa's first CD from red to
blue. After a stellar first term, Bruce didn't need help being
re-elected. His 64% win in November was the highest margin of any
candidate in the state (including Senators Harkin and Obama!). His
success has been especially sweet because of the way his candidacy
started out. You may recall that in 2005 Rahm Emanuel was running
around the country sabotaging progressives and bullying anti-war
candidates. He managed to ruin Democratic chances in district after
district with his wrongheaded insistence that voters backed his own
pro-war position in Iraq and that progressive candidates needed to
soft-pedal their opposition to Bush's (and Emanuel's) agenda.

Labels: Bruce Braley

Bruce Braley was elected to Congress in 2006 with the support of the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's "Red to Blue" program.
In 2008 he helped manage the DCCC's Red to Blue efforts. For the next
election cycle, he's been promoted again: "The DCCC today named the
second of its three Vice Chairs - Congressman Bruce Braley (D-IA) will
serve as Vice Chair for candidate services, responsible for the DCCC's
offensive efforts including recruitment, money, and training." ... Last
month, Van Hollen named Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida the DCCC
Vice Chair for incumbent retention. Given her refusal to endorse three
Democratic challengers to Republican incumbents in south Florida, it
was appropriate for Van Hollen to remove her from a leadership role in
the Red to Blue program.

Labels: Bruce Braley

Bruce Braley is once again showing leadership in Congress. Braley sent
a letter to colleagues in the U.S. House about becoming a founding
member of a populist caucus to help the middle class and working
families. The letter outlines six goals... "1. Fighting for working
families and the middle class through the establishment of an
equitable tax structure, fair wages, proper benefits, a level playing
field at the negotiating table, and secure, solvent retirement plans."
... Both John Edwards and Mike Huckabee were described as being
populists during their presidential runs and that helped them do well
in the Iowa Caucuses. This shows the issues outlined have some support
on both sides of the aisle.

Labels: Bruce Braley, U.S. House

This week's palace coup in the halls of Congress may put Iowa's Bruce Braley on one of the House's most powerful committees. Braley was a key backer of California Rep. Henry Waxman, who overthrew Michigan's John Dingell as chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The vote was a big win for alternative energy, climate change control, and for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and a loss for the auto industry, the seniority system, and Iowa caucus enemy Dingell. Braley's reward may be a seat on Energy and Commerce, a real plum for a second-term member. The Hill reports that the expanded Democratic majority will mean up to five additional Democratic seats on Energy and Commerce, and Braley is the only name specifically mentioned. If the appointment happens, Braley will likely be a key ally to new chairman Waxman.

Labels: Bruce Braley, U.S. House

Congressional candidates' third-quarter campaign finance reports were
due today (October 15), so I went over to the Federal Election
Commission site to see how things stand. For some reason, I was unable
to find reports for Senator Tom Harkin or his opponent, Christopher
Reed. I will cover their FEC filings in a separate post when data
become available. All of the incumbents have large cash-on-hand
advantages over their opponents going into the final stretch of the
campaign. Bruce Braley (D, IA-01) has given generously to the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: $25,000 in July and
another $50,000 at the end of August.

Labels: Bruce Braley, campaign finance, U.S. House

Charges of state child labor law violations at Agriprocessors have
prompted a member of Iowa's congressional delegation to propose new
federal legislation that would increase penalties against offending
companies. "Yesterday's charges against Agriprocessors emphasize the
need to protect children against unsafe and illegal working
conditions," said U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley. "When employers purposefully
break the law by hiring children for dangerous jobs, they put our
children's lives and safety at risk. The current, low federal
penalties must be increased to deter future child labor violations."
Tuesday morning Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller filed documents in
Allamakee County against Agriprocessors, a kosher meatpacking plant in
Postville, charging the company and five individuals with more than
9,000 violations of state child labor laws.

Labels: Bruce Braley, immigration

Earmarks. We have all heard that word. We all know what it means.
Earmarks are a form of government spending that has come under
scrutiny in recent time. They used to be called pork barrel spending,
but that name conjured visions of $500 hammers and $2,000 toilet
seats. So Congressional leaders felt that they had to change the name,
so along comes the term earmarks. Then that term acquires an ill
reputation, rightly so I might add. Then Congress in its almighty
wisdom changes the term that they use once more, this time to the
innocuous name discretionary spending. By any name it is still pork
barrel spending and it is bad business for a government to use this
system. Some consider it a form of bribery, I know that I do. I see it
as a way for Congressman to bribe their constituents to vote for them.

Labels: Bruce Braley

Jeff Giertz, the spokesman for U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, says
he's taking a leave of absence for a few months to go work for
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in Alaska. That Braley
would let him go may say something about how competitively he sees
state Sen. David Hartsuch's challenge. Giertz was a familiar face in
the 2006 campaign against Mike Whalen. Iowa's 1st District is on the
Democrats' safe list, this isn't all that surprising. Hartsuch also
filed 2nd Quarter financials that showed him raising $16,655 for the
year, far short of the $640,000 Braley raised through mid-May.

Labels: Barack_Obama, Bruce Braley

Iowa Congressmen Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack, both Democrats
representing flood-ravaged eastern Iowa, are requesting federal
support for state railroad bridges that were destroyed by flood
waters. The Cedar River Bridge that serves Penford in Cedar Rapids was
destroyed when the Cedar River flooded this month. Flooding in eastern
Iowa destroyed three railroad bridges: the Iowa Northern Bridge in
Waterloo, the Cedar River Bridge in Cedar Rapids and the Iowa, Chicago
& Eastern Bridge near Columbus Junction. Loebsack, who represents the
2nd Congressional District that includes Cedar Rapids and Columbus
Junction, and Braley, who represents the 1st Congressional District
that includes Waterloo, have penned a joint letter to U.S. House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi to request that the bridges be quickly repaired
and destroyed.

Labels: Bruce Braley, Dave Loebsack

Braley Demands Tougher Oversight of Agriprocessors, Latham Urges Immigration Reform... Iowa -- in particular the small town of Postville -- is currently at the core of a long-waged public debate on immigration. The federal operation there on May 12, the aftermath of deportations and criminal sentencing, as well as the current silence in relation to the investigation against the employer encompass the multitude of issues surrounding immigration and emotions provoked by such government action. As local residents attempt to work through their own often conflicting viewpoints on both responsibility and reform, they need look no further than two of their own congressmen to see how differently two men can react and respond to the same situation.

Labels: Bruce Braley, immigration, Tom Latham

Much has been written, both before after after the May 12 immigration
raids in Postville, on the diversity of the community. One unique and
divisive aspect of Postville that has largely escaped most members of
the media, however, is the fact that the community is split between
Allamakee and Clayton counties. This also means that the community is
divided between Iowa's 1st and 4th Congressional Districts. The
Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant resides in Allamakee County
and Iowa's 4th District. While it goes without saying that residents
of both districts have felt and will continue to feel an impact of the
nation's largest immigration raids that netted 389 people, most of
them from either Guatemala or Mexico, only Congressman Bruce Braley, a
Democrat representing the 1st District, has voiced questions and
concerns about the activities on that day and the subsequent
aftermath.

Labels: Bruce Braley, immigration, Tom Latham

The Des Moines Register had a lovely little chart in their Saturday
newspaper today that showed the cash on hand and 4th quarter numbers
from the five districts in Iowa but I cannot seem to find it on the
web version of the website at all. What I can tell you is that Steve
King and Tom Latham BOTH topped Bruce Braley, Dave Loebsack and
Leonard Boswell in fundraising in the 4th quarter which ran from
October 1 through December 31. For being in the minority party in
Washington D.C., I think that is an interesting development. Normally
it is easier to raise money when you are in the majority because, lets
be honest, you have a bit more access to the legislative calendar and
agenda.

Labels: Bruce Braley, Dave Loebsack, Leonard_Boswell, Steve_King, Tom Latham

Congressman Bruce Braley's hope that government documents be written
in simple, easy-to-understand language is one step closer to becoming
a reality. The Plain Language in Government Communications Act, or HR
3548, was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Braley
last fall and overcame its first major hurdle when it was passed
unanimously by the Subcommittee on Information Policy this week. The
bill will now move to the full House Oversight and Government Reform
Committee for consideration. "The subcommittee's passage of the Plain
Language Act is the first step in making government more accessible
and accountable to American taxpayers," said Braley, a Democrat who
represents Iowa's First District.

Labels: Bruce Braley

When Congressman Bruce Braley was selected to serve as chairman of a
subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Small Business, it marked
the first time since at least 1959 that a freshman congressman from
Iowa had held such a distinction. This week, the Democrat is touring
the First District to ensure his constituents know perceived lack of
progress in Washington, D.C. isn't a reflection on his leadership.
"This gives you some idea about how busy our Small Business Committee
was," Braley said Wednesday as he stood in front of a screen and
highlighted the 18 bills that were sent out of the House Small
Business Committee and passed on the House floor during 2007.

Labels: Bruce Braley

As the one-year anniversary of the 2006 general election – in which
the U.S. House and Senate moved from Republican Party to Democratic
hands — approaches, the National Republican Congressional Committee is
asking just what the Dems in power have accomplished. The NRCC is
targeting congresspersons perceived at risk for re-election, and that
includes South Dakota Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and the
three Iowa Democrats who hail from central and eastern Iowa.
Basically, all the House members from the tri-state area who aren't
Republicans (all three Nebraska congressmen are R's) are being taken
to task for inaction since Congress convened in January. Herseth
Sandlin and Bruce Braley, Sioux City native Dave Loebsack and Leonard
Boswell are being criticized by the NRCC for a host of things.

Labels: Bruce Braley, Dave Loebsack, Leonard_Boswell

Bruce Braley voted to condemn MoveOn.org for the Petraeus/Betray Us ad
that ran in the New York Times. MoveOn.org helped raise over $87,000
to help get Braley elected in 2006. Matt Stoller from Open Left
wrote... 'Since they voted to condemn MoveOn's ad, they have
neutralized MoveOn's ability to help them.' Since Braley considers
MoveOn so bad, should he consider returning the $87,000 then? Or does
Braley consider, now that he is elected, that he doesn't need help
from groups like MoveOn? Or does Braley think newspaper ads do more
harm than continue a failed policy in Iraq?

Labels: Bruce Braley

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 -- HR 3584 -- is a bipartisan bill that
targets tax returns, federal college aid applications and Veterans
Administration forms. Basically, any form, publication and publicly
distributed document must be provided in a "clear, concise,
well-organized" manner that follows the best practices of plain
language writing. A complete description of the Federal Plain Language
Guidelines is available online. There are also examples of
before-and-after applications of the initiative.

Labels: Bruce Braley

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the political and
fundraising arm of the Republican House of Representatives Caucus, has
been ambitiously sending out regular press releases to media outlets
in the districts of Democrats that they view as fertile for Republican
pick-ups. In the latest round of press releases, both of Iowa's
freshmen Democrats made their way into the sights of the NRCC. In a
recent press release that notes many Democratic members of Congress
have voted to give housing assistance to illegal aliens, Dave Loebsack
and Bruce Braley are listed as culprits. At this point in time, no big
name Republican has stepped forward to challenge either man from what
I can tell. Both districts, at this point in time, are uphill battles
but cannot be viewed as complete write-offs.

Labels: Bruce Braley, Dave Loebsack

Another Bush appointee in trouble for what looks like corruption? Another fox put in charge of the chicken coop? Say it ain't so! Lurita Doan, the Bush-appointed General Services Administration chief, was questioned under oath by trial lawyer and brand-new U.S. House Representative Bruce Braley of the Davenport, Iowa area ... Doan describes herself as "an unabashed entrepreneur" and Republican fund-raiser who allowed a White House operative to brief her managers in the GSA on Democratic "targets" in the November 2008 election. ... Do you like the fact that Bruce Braley, a Democratic trial lawyer, won in November, and the Democrats put a trial lawyer in charge of questioning Lurita Doan under oath? I love it!

Labels: 1st CD, Bruce Braley