Iowa’s U.S. Rep. Miller-Meeks commits to holding public town hall

BETTENDORF — U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks committed to holding a public town hall while speaking at a private event this week with Americans For Prosperity.

Both Iowa Republicans U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and 2nd District U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson have held public, in-person town halls recently despite advice from top House Republicans not to, following contentious events and viral confrontations over President Donald Trump’s agenda and policies.

"Just like I've done every single year, we'll do in-person town halls," Miller-Meeks said Wednesday.

Several protests have been organized outside private events Miller-Meeks has attended in the 1st Congressional District, a 20-county district that includes Iowa City, Davenport and rural Southeast Iowa. People at the Rhythm City Casino for an Iowa Federation of Republican Women event and at the Outing Club in Davenport, for instance, urged the congresswoman to hold a town hall open to constituents.

"This is all about letting her know that all of her constituents want to talk to her, not just the Republicans," Leslie DuPree, an organizer of a protest earlier this month, previously told the Quad-City Times.

"It's fine for people to protest," Miller-Meeks said Wednesday to a reporter. She said it takes a lot of organizing months in advance to plan events for her to attend, sort out schedules and attract people.

"We've done Rotaries. We've done chamber events. We've done events like this," Miller-Meeks said. "You get asked to do this months in advance, trying to set it up within your time that you have in district among all the other activities and traveling. I think (last) Thursday I did 588 miles in a day."

On Wednesday, Miller-Meeks said she met with Prevent Blindness Iowa, the Iowa American Academy of Pediatrics and the Iowa Business Council before meeting with the Americans For Prosperity group. She also pointed to a virtual town hall she held in February, where her staff said 12,000 people joined.

Miller-Meeks told the group gathered by Americans For Prosperity that she is planning a telephone town hall in the next week.

"Jump on early," Miller-Meeks told the group. "Our last telephone town hall, the Democrats shared the number. ... .Every caller. Every person for the first 35 minutes … were all Democrats with questions."

Miller-Meeks pushing for tax cuts renewal

Miller-Meeks told about 20 people gathered at the Americans For Prosperity event at Iron Tee Golf in Bettendorf that she was pushing hard for to continue tax cuts and credits passed in Trump's first term.

"To me, the most important thing that we will do this year is to reauthorize the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act," Miller-Meeks said.

Many of the cuts from the package, passed in 2017, will expire by the end of 2025 unless Congress acts. The package nearly doubled the standard deduction, expanded the child tax credit, cut the corporate tax rate and doubled the estate and gift tax exemption, among other provisions.

A budget plan passed in February required $2 trillion in cuts overall. Miller-Meeks sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid and other programs, and was by that bill tasked with reducing $880 billion over 10 years.

Democrats, pointing to a Congressional Budget Office letter, say it will be impossible not to cut Medicaid and other essential services when making those $880 billion in reductions. Democrats say tax cut benefits go mostly to the wealthy. Households in the top 5 percent — who earn more than $450,000 a year — would receive more than 45 percent of the benefits of extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, according to a July 2024 analysis by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

Political advertisements will show a message of "’the Republicans are trying to give tax cuts to the rich and take away health care to kids,’ and that's what we're going to hear" Miller Meeks said. "So, for us as members of Congress, we have to have the backbone to do the right thing and the right thing" is renewing the act, she said.

David Gregor, from Bettendorf, told Miller-Meeks that he came to the United States 30 years ago from Canada and said his net worth here is much greater than what it would've been if he'd stayed in Canada with higher taxes. He called Iowa a great place to live and asked Miller-Meeks how to make sure Congress listens to perspectives from Iowa and not just from more populous states.

Miller-Meeks responded that she is pushing back against talk of getting rid of energy tax credits. "We have Republicans who want to get rid of all the (energy) tax credits. I'm of the mind, these benefit my state, and I've got farmers that are reliant upon them. I've got companies, ag-related manufacturing companies that are reliant upon farmers being able to do their jobs and have markets," she said.

Miller-Meeks said, too, she's walking a line on tariffs.

"While I'm not being critical of the tariffs, I have talked about how trade is just as important," Miller-Meeks said. "I support the president. I understand what he's trying to do, but I also have to look out for our state."

Miller-Meeks was asked about the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling temporarily halting the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelans held in detainment to El Salvador.

"When you bring in over 10 million people into a country, you can't have a single asylum hearing for every one of them," Miller-Meeks said — but she said she would support a mass asylum hearing.