Spring fever is in the air. It seems you aren't engaged in a conversation for very long before the discussion turns to someone's anxiety to get the long, harsh winter behind us. Iowans are ready for Mother Nature to freshen up the landscape with her colorful palette of pastels.
From spring cleaning to Spring Break, March madness is teasing young and old alike. As a farmer, nothing can replace the optimism that pumps through your veins at daybreak on the first day of a new planting season. In Washington, there's another rite of passage marking spring's arrival. When the perfume of Cherry Blossoms fills the air, the heavy tourist season begins and the capital city's population swells. Many of these visitors come from Iowa.
During my annual visits to each of Iowa's 99 counties, I try to get the word out that my door in Washington is always open. Whether you're part of a youth group, a family on vacation or an organized community coalition, I encourage Iowa visitors to stop by my office on Capitol Hill. My staff can provide tour information and gallery tickets to watch floor debate in the Senate and House of Representatives. If you are interested in seeing me in person, please call ahead to schedule a meeting in advance.
Every year, community coalitions from across the state representing educators, school board members, employers, city planners, economic development leaders and locally elected officials come to Washington to meet with the Iowa congressional delegation and meet face-to-face with the "faceless" bureaucrats who will consider many of the public policy issues that impact their regional infrastructure and hometown schools, workforce, growth and public safety.
Many of these organized trips got started more than 15 years ago, though Sioux City has been coming for 47 years. The 1980s farm crisis left a lasting impression in the minds and hearts of Iowa families and civic, religious, farm and business leaders. Efforts to diversify Iowa's economy and strengthen local community development initiatives became the seeds of survival. At the time, I launched a statewide campaign to help community leaders come together and organize local priorities, identify long-term goals and objectives and trouble-shoot signs of weaknesses or growing pains at the local level. Once the seeds were planted, it didn't take long for a lasting effort to take root. Today at least a dozen community groups, regional organizations and chambers of commerce orchestrate an annual meeting to Washington, including the Des Moines metropolitan area and Ames; Cedar Rapids/Iowa City; Quad Cities; Sioux City; Cedar Valley; Southeast Iowa (Mount Pleasant, Burlington, Fort Madison and Keokuk); Marshalltown; Council Bluffs; Fort Dodge; Pella; and Clinton.
My office works closely with them to make sure their voices are heard where they need to be heard. From the workforce to the workplace, other issues bearing a critical impact on a community's economic growth and vitality include transportation, housing, law enforcement, energy, agriculture, international trade, health care, immigration, environment, education and tax policy.