Iowa Fourth District Congressman Randy Feenstra says House Democrats proposed an amendment that would remove his disaster relief provision from the pandemic relief bill.
Feenstra?s provision was recently passed out of the House Agriculture Committee, and would provide relief for victims of natural disasters, including high windstorms like the devastating derecho that tore through Iowa last year. In a press call with reporters Thursday afternoon, Feenstra said Iowa wouldn?t be the only state to benefit from his provision.
?Many states in the south and west were impacted by wildfires, drought, and other weather-related instances that further harmed producers and rural businesses who were already dealing with the economic fallout of the pandemic,? said Feenstra.
Feenstra noted House Democrats are now looking to strike down his provision.
?Democrats, who are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in this bill to build a bridge to Canada and to build an underground train to Silicon Valley, are planning to strip disaster relief for Americans out of this bill,? Feenstra said. ?I even did my due diligence and reached out to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who I know have constituents that have suffered losses from natural disasters. I was able to find common ground, but it seems Speaker Pelosi doesn?t care.?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated damages from the derecho to be $7.5 billion, which is a larger cost than nine of last year?s 10 hurricanes and tropical storms that made landfall. It was the most costly severe thunderstorm in U.S. history.
Feenstra planned to testify before the House Rules Committee on the importance of his proposal.
