100 bills in Rep. Ashley Hinson’s first 100 days in House

Her first 100 days in office aren’t getting as much attention as President Joe Biden’s, but U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson is highlighting the milestone by talking about sponsoring or co-sponsoring 100 pieces of legislation in those 100 days.

Since being sworn in Jan. 3, Hinson has signed on to more than 100 pieces of legislation, including health care for veterans and COVID-19 relief and bills promoting biofuels, holding Big Tech accountable for perceived censorship and reducing government red tape and regulations.

On April 13, her hundredth day in the U.S. House, Hinson posted a video on social media highlighting her efforts “on what matters to Iowans sitting around the kitchen table, not the latest headlines consuming the Washington, D.C., bubble.”

For example, the Marion Republican told reporters Friday, she introduced the Red Tape Reduction Act that would codify executive orders issued by former President Donald Trump that focused on reducing federal regulations. Biden has used executive orders to reverse many of those, she said.

Concerns about “burdensome regulations” are common when she meets with Iowa 1st District voters, she said.

“I don't believe that bureaucrats from D.C. who’ve never stepped foot in Iowa should be able to force one-size-fits-all mandates on our small businesses and our farmers,” Hinson said Friday. Federal regulations should be “limited, especially as we are rebounding from the COVID-19.”

This week, she also teamed up with Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia on the Paycheck Protection Program Equity Act to fix a provision that prevents farmers and small business people from getting the full PPP forgivable loan amount.

She sponsored another bill to improve small farmers’ access to costly precision agriculture technologies, which can increase crop yield, improve distribution, lower emissions and prevent soil degradation.

Hinson joined an Illinois Democrat to sponsor a five-year ban on senior executive branch employees lobbying an agency where they had worked and a lifetime ban on lobbying on behalf of foreign agents.

Not everyone grades her early days in Congress as positively as Hinson’s self-evaluation.

Harmful Hinson, a Facebook group of about 500 people that recently protested outside of Hinson’s Cedar Rapids district office, gave her agenda a grade of F based on her opposition to removing QAnon supporter Rep. Marjory Taylor Greene from House committees and her votes against the Biden American Rescue Plan and coronavirus pandemic relief, raising the federal minimum wage, the George Floyd bill and House Resolution 1 to reduce the impact of money in politics and expand voter access.

Hinson called the minimum wage legislation “divisive.”

“She’s saying that lifting families out of poverty for doing honest hard work is divisive, and that’s frankly ridiculous,” said Chris Schwartz, a Black Hawk County supervisor and spokesman for Americans for Democratic Action.

Hinson isn’t as generous grading the Biden administration’s first 100 days as she is in her self-assessment, especially in regard to his policies on immigration and migrants who have flooded the southern border.

She called Biden’s rhetoric “music to the ears of the cartels and the drug smugglers.” During her recent visit to the border, she said officials told her cartels are making $11 million a week smuggling people into the United States.

At the same time, Hinson has had several meetings with Biden administration officials, including a phone call with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg this week. A meeting with the president’s legislative liaison gave her an opportunity to discuss the importance of the PPP Equity Act.

“It's a bipartisan bill, so they were interested in knowing more about bipartisan legislation that we're working on,” Hinson said.

The Iowa Democratic Party filed an ethics complaint against Hinson, alleging she used official office resources to conduct grassroots lobbying, which the congresswoman denies.

The House Ethics Committee has taken no action on it.

Also this week, Politico reported Hinson has tapped Sophie Crowell of the Republican National Committee to head her 2022 re-election campaign.

Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com