Feenstra swings thru the Fourth

Fresh off his appointment to the House Agriculture Committee, Fourth District Rep. Randy Feenstra has pledged to make Iowa farmers a priority during his first term in Congress.

The Hull Republican made several stops throughout northwest Iowa last week, including a visit to Upper Des Moines Opportunity in Sibley. He said that strengthening the ag economy through expanded trade deals was vital and vowed to use his seat on the Agriculture Committee to improve Iowa famers' financial interests.

Specifically, Feenstra credited renegotiated trade deals with China for recently bolstering corn and soybean prices across the country.

"This is very significant for those markets. Trade has played a significant factor to those increases," he said. "We have to continue to open up markets, like in the Pacific Rim and other places, and continue to work with the [United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement] and make sure that's followed by Mexico and Canada. Those are going to be hot topics."

The freshman congressman said he's focused on building relationships among his Midwestern colleagues in Washington, D.C. He said that was important during his stint as a state senator in Des Moines and believed it was the key to finding success within his new role.

"If you want to get things done, you have to build relationships and build contingencies," Feenstra said. "Once we have a coalition and group of people, then we can move policy."

Feenstra also expressed support for the biodiesel industry and the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), which sets the required amount of renewable fuel blended into the nation's fuel supply. The RFS faced adversity during the Trump Administration as several small refineries were granted waivers that exempted them from the blending standards. According to biofuel organization Growth Energy, 88 Small Refinery Exemptions (SREs) were granted by the Trump Administration equaling 4.3 billion gallons of biofuel demand.

Feenstra was critical of the SREs and remained tentatively optimistic the Biden Administration would be friendlier to the renewable fuels industry. He said that Michael Regan, the president's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency which oversees the RFS, "has shown that he's a friend to ethanol and biodiesel" in the past.

"We'll have to see how that plays out," Feenstra said of Regan, who is awaiting Senate confirmation. "If he is a friend, then we have to eliminate the waiver process through the EPA, and we can only hope that happens."

Feenstra, who also sits on the Budget and Science, Space and Technology committees, said reducing the national debt was one of his top priorities as well. The ever-growing figure is inching towards $28 trillion and he believed it was a "significant issue" that needs to be addressed immediately.

"That is paramount to me," Feenstra said. "If we don't get our budget under control, it's going to affect everybody from my children to those that are on Social Security and things like that."

There's no shortage of issues in Washington, and the congressman hoped the "very turbulent" partisan atmosphere could be partially soothed during the next two years. He was critical of President Joe Biden, who signed a record number of executive orders during his first two weeks in office, and believed enacting an agenda through the stroke of a pen wasn't ideal.

"I think both sides need to calm down their rhetoric, but if the new administration wants unity and civility, then they have to engage Congress also," Feenstra said. "Words are words, but they need to be put into action. That's what I stress all the time. We're all Americans and we all want a better society, but we have to do that through the Constitution."