Blum champions opening markets for Iowa farmers

URBANA - Two things Eastern Iowa farmers have pounded into his head, 1st District U.S. Rep. Rod Blum said Thursday, is to get regulators off their backs and open more markets.

He's on their side, Blum told Farm Bureau members from Linn, Benton, Black Hawk and Tama counties in Urbana.

'I'm a free trade person,” the freshman Republican congressman said. One in five jobs in Iowa is dependent on trade, 'so we have to be free-traders here in Iowa. We want more markets for our products.”

It bothers him when he hears presidential candidates questioning U.S. trade agreements - a frequent complaint of GOP front-runner Donald Trump.

'I've only been there 15 months, so I don't know if we do good deals or not,” Blum said, 'but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do deals. We got to do deals” because there are more consumers outside the U.S. than inside the country.

Blum said he helped round up votes for trade promotion authority, which the House approved. TPA is a framework for negotiating future trade deals that gives the House a role in the negotiations, he said.

Blum also would like a debate on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a pending trade agreement among the U.S., Canada and 10 Pacific Rim countries that would eliminate tariffs on goods and services, and remove many barriers to trade within the region.

Generally, farmers and farm groups have supported the agreement, which has yet to be approved. There's been little discussion, and Blum predicted there won't be a vote on the TPP until a new president takes office.

Blum also talked about his efforts to rein in the EPA's enforcement of the Waters of the United States regulations that, according to state officials, would regulate more than 90 percent of Iowa land.

'I think most of you would agree that's overreach,” Blum said. 'Do Republicans want clean water, clean air? Sure, we do. Everybody does. Is WOTUS overreach? Yes, we think it is.”

He recommends the EPA goes back to the drawing board to write regulations with the involvement of farmers, cities and other parties that are impacted by the regulations.

Responding to a questions about the Treasury Department changing the rules on inversions that American companies have used to avoid taxes, Blum said the solution is to make the U.S. a more attractive place to do business.

'I don't like it, but why are they doing it?” he said. The U.S. has the highest corporate tax rates in the world, he said, 'so let's make America the best place in the world to do business.”

In addition to lowering the corporate tax rate, 'get rid of crony capitalism, get rid of corporate welfare, close the loopholes,” he said. 'Cut all the money that is going to the advantaged. The billionaires don't need our tax dollars.”