Representative Nathan Reichert

House Begins the Discussion on Tougher Emission Standards:
This week we held a subcommittee to discuss toughening the emissions standards of new vehicles here in Iowa. During the last election we promised to help reduce Iowa's dependence on foreign oil and make Iowa the green state. Iowans are looking for ways to save money at the gas pump. The Legislature is working to deliver by requiring more fuel efficient, cleaner cars and trucks to be sold in the State of Iowa. This saves you money at the pump, and cuts the number of barrels of oil we need to import significantly. This is also a major step in improving our state's air quality and reducing the effects of global climate change. By starting the discussion on this, it will let the automotive industry know states are going to start demanding cleaner alternatives to foreign oil. There are 16 states have already adopted these standards and Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota are all looking in to doing this as well.

Community Disaster Grant Allocation Changes:
Iowa Homeland Security has re-evaluated the way they will be assessing the disaster grant allocations. They previously went by the zip code of where the property was located, and money was being granted to cities whether the affected address was incorporated in the city or not. Now, they will be geo-coding the addresses to accurately indicate where structures that participated in either FEMA's Individual Assistance Program or Small Business Administration Disaster Relief Programs are located. If the structure is within a city's corporate limits it will be correctly attributed to the city; if the structure is in an unincorporated area of the county it will be attributed to the county. This will hopefully clear up any misunderstanding and make it so that the funds get where they need to be to help with the rebuilding efforts.

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! The Furniture Bill Passes Out of Committee:
On Thursday in Public Safety we passed HF 417 out of committee, and it is now headed to the floor. We are one step closer to saving good paying jobs in Muscatine, while saving millions of dollars for the State of Iowa. Members from the HNI board came before the subcommittee this week to reinforce how important this bill would be to the local Muscatine economy and to the rest of the state. By creating/saving these jobs it will mean more direct revenue to the city and state, and HNI estimates with all of the ways this bill will benefit Iowa, the state could save more then 25% of its cost by purchasing furniture through a local, Iowa company.