Rep. Dave Loebsack visits North Liberty businesses, talks about jobs

NORTH LIBERTY - U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack spent his Tuesday afternoon visiting North Liberty businesses and meeting with workers to discuss jobs as part of his Making It Work tour.

Loebsack visited assembly and warehouse facility NIS, before continuing on to meet with Burlington Airport staff and law enforcement officials, among others. His tour is scheduled to last through next week, during which he will make about a dozen stops at businesses throughout the 2nd District, he said.

'It's important for me to learn from companies like this what they're doing and what they might need from me,” Loebsack said at NIS. 'At the moment in Washington, D.C., as you know, there's a lot of dysfunction.”

NIS employs 155 people and puts together 30,000 to 35,000 refrigerator components for Whirlpool Amana each weekday, said Dough Vranek, sales and projects manager.

Vranek said Loebsack's visit was important to promote NIS, which is designed to provide entry-level work, and to 'recognize our people.” Vranek and Loebsack both mentioned the company's diversity among employees, who collectively speak six different languages and come from multiple continents.

In a short talk to more than a dozen NIS employees, Loebsack said he supports workforce training and wants to help small businesses 'on the tax front and on the regulatory front, too.”

'We've got to keep people safe, we've got to make sure that we have the proper regulations in terms of safety and all the rest. But at the same time we don't want to overburden our businesses, either, to stop them from innovating and keep them from continuing to hire, continuing to prosper and do well in the community,” he said.

Loebsack also was scheduled to stop by Cole's Quality Foods Tuesday afternoon.

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