It isn’t every day that a presidential administration reaches out to local government in southeast Iowa.
Washington County Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. got that message through email correspondence with the Trump administration and made a trip to Washington D.C. in July to participate in the first of its kind Local Elected Officials of Iowa Conference with the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. When responding to the invitation, Seward told KCII News his expectations and goals going into the conference. “I was optimistic that someone in Washington even wanted to invite local elected officials from Iowa to come and have a conversation. I was hoping that the conversation would be a two-way conversation, not just go somewhere and be lectured to, or be told how things are going to be. But it was going to be a conversation about the way things are as we see them here on the ground, and maybe they’ll listen and take that to solve some problems.”
Seward used the platform to raise concerns about funding for roads at the county level, and mental health and disabilities services funding. Other topics that were raised by members of Iowa government included economic issues, the farm bill, education, and skills gap. The delegation from Iowa was welcomed to Washington D.C. by Senator Joni Ernst and her staffers prior to the conference at the Russell Senate Office Building, during which time Ernst took a phone call from President Trump on speaker phone. Seward talked about the message from the President and the experience. “It was pretty amazing, of course when you go to Washington D.C. and you are invited to a White House function, you are always hoping that the President will be in town and he may just pop in. He did talk about how much he appreciated Iowa, and the support that Iowans have given him. He then talked some about the state of the economy and relations with tariffs and issues. The way he described it was that the United States had been taken advantage of on trade issues for quite a long time. He mentioned that the farm markets had been fairly stagnant or going downhill for 10 to 15 years, and it was time to change the way things are being done. It’s going to hurt for a little bit, but he expressed his confidence that it will be a better economic and trade climate in the future.”
At the conference itself, the group heard from Kellyanne Conway, the senior adviser to the President, Vice President Mike Pence, Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon, Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Eric Hargon, Department of Labor Deputy Secretary Patrick Pizzella, Chief of Staff for Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Iowa native Matt Whitaker, Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Greg Ibach and Iowa native and Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Intergovernmental Affairs Office Doug Hoelscher. Seward feels optimistic about what this conference accomplished, serving as a connection between local and federal government for problem solving to cut through red tape, and that all of those who attended were genuinely interested in what local officials had to say. You can hear more about Seward’s trip to Washington D.C. on the Halcyon House Washington Page at KCIIradio.com.
