Staying busy during the quarantine

The Union is catching up with local State Senators and State Representatives to see what they've been up to in the last couple of months since I haven't been able to conduct normal legislative business at the Capitol in Des Moines. Today, we catch up with Iowa Sen. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Ottumwa), who represents Senate District 41.

1) Can you tell us what you've been doing since the Legislature was suspended in mid-March?

After the legislature paused, I have worked on helping constituents with application of unemployment benefits, Iowa Economic Development Authority grants, Small Business federal PPP loans, provide information on where and how to receive assistance and checked into the status of applications.

I developed a series of videos about volunteer activities such as delivering meals to seniors, donating blood, visiting restaurants to order take out to try to keep them afloat as examples. I delivered meals to the home bound as needed if the regular drivers were unavailable.

I contacted county mayors to make sure they had my contact information and inquire if they desired assistance. I reached out to all four hospitals in my senate district to to see they had PPE and their capacity and learned that they were struggling financially without the ability to see patients or do elective surgery. I contacted the governors office to inform them of these hospitals struggles.

I have answered constituents e-mails and phone calls. I try to keep people informed via social media, but it's difficult without the ability to send out our newsletter. I was able to have the senate staff send out a newsletter with information on unemployment benefits, state grants, tax filing deadlines and federal SBA PPP forgivable loans.

2) Have you been able to continue working in any capacity in your role as State Senator, or did that work have to come to a halt since the Legislature was not in session?

Yes, I have kept surprisingly busy as indicated in the first question. I also try to listen to the Governor's press conference daily so that I am up to date on the state's progress with COVID-19. I also follow the federal press conferences and reports. We do get questions about policy and legislation, but I catalog that in case we come back into session. No new legislation can be introduced even if we go back into session because we were already a week away from the 2nd funnel. Sometimes People have forgotten that new legislation cannot be introduced.

3) Do you know if there are any plans to allow for remote working so that Legislators can conduct business when not at the capitol?

We are working through how to return, but I don't think we will be able to open the legislative session remotely. However, we should work on provisions make remote work in the future as this will not be the last pandemic we will face.

4) What role are State Senators and State Representatives playing in state government at the moment? Is all business being conducted through the Governor's office, or do you still have a say in what transpires?

State legislators can answer questions from constituents, helping to navigate applications, try to get answers for them from departmental agencies and also work with the governors office do you expressed concerns or suggestions of their constituents.

There's been tremendous sacrifice made by all individuals, small businesses Extremely hard hit and our rule hospitals were also suffering. However, working through the issues they by day and following the progress I've been able to inform Constituent of what's going on with compassion and factual information in a non-partisan manner will help all of us to weather the pandemic.

5) Even though you're not in the capitol, are you staying in touch with constituents through phone calls and emails? Can you share some of those experiences?

I'm staying in touch with my constituents through phone calls, emails, social media, visiting some of the small businesses. I am also a board member of the Wapello County veterans affair commission and since our group is small we have been able to meet with appropriate social distancing. I was contacted by one of my constituents with their difficulty in obtaining unemployment compensation and was able to help them with this process and most recently had questions from a constituent about professional licensure renewal that I assisted with and they express their gratitude. I'm grateful that I was in a position to help.

6) Do you think the Governor has done the right thing by prohibiting gatherings of more than 10 people, but at the same time, not issuing a stay-at-home order for the whole state? Do you think the state should be more aggressive or less aggressive in limiting business activity and social gatherings than it has been?

Any loss of life is terribly sad and devastating to those who know the individual best and I know Governor Reynolds feels this acutely. But Governor Reynolds has done an exceptional job under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. With disasters likes floods or tornados, one can draw on the experience of former governors or disasters, but the pandemic is an unprecedented public health disaster which has great uncertainly and fluidity, especially during the first 3-4 weeks. She has been working with Dr. Pedati, IDPH, the CDC, legislators and governors of other states in trying to protect both the safety and health of all Iowans but also to ensure that essential businesses can continue to operate. She has used a data driven approach and has been very transparent through her press conferences. I especially appreciate the information on numbers of those who have tested positive, the total number of negatives and the hospital capacity. Again, any loss of life is tragic.

The governor also carries a tremendous burden of re-opening the state to allow The economy to re-open. This is especially important for hospitals, especially the critical access hospital's and Henry County Hospital is an example. This is also true for small businesses which are enduring extreme hardship and may not survive even with grants, loans and the ability to partially reopen. To reopen our economy, we must also have the confidence of the public to become consumers of services again. Guidance has been provided to small businesses and nonprofit agencies on how they can reopen safely and what measures need to be put in place as they open. All of us would have liked to have seen more broad base testing And we have seen the amount of testing go up dramatically. However, I think we need to also increase the opportunity for serologic testing or antibody testing as we begin to reopen our state. Bringing on hospital laboratories and private laboratories to help in the testing would enable us to dramatically increase our capacity of testing provided we have the required reagents.

Under these extreme circumstances when peoples‘ personal freedom and liberty are restricted by any governor under a public health disaster proclamation, I think the public will comply as long as the restrictions seem rational and justifiable. Governor Reynolds and IDPH have taken such an approach to our benefit.