It was a full house on Saturday at the Cretsinger Building in Coon Rapids for the final Chamber/Carroll County Growth Partnership Legislative Forum of the 2025 session. District 11 Rep. Craig Williams (R-Manning) and District 6 Senator Jason Schultz (R-Schleswig) took questions from the floor. One from Barry Bruner of Carroll started the discussion on cancer rates and causes in Iowa.
Schultz says Gov. Reynolds is looking to put millions of dollars toward cancer research for Iowans.
Williams says Iowa is second in the nation in cancer rates, and the three leading causes of cancer in Iowa are radon, alcoholism, and obesity. Williams says 70 percent of Iowa homes are above the federal limit for radon levels, and every dollar put towards radon mitigation saves healthcare costs in the long term.
Ann Kult of Coon Rapids also raised another concern about cancer research, referencing the Trump administration’s spending cuts and how they will impact the National Institute of Health and its cancer research. Schultz says spending cuts will affect research in the short term but will reduce federal corruption overall.
Williams says major cutbacks will have positive and negative impacts but will reduce unnecessary costs after fifty years of unchecked spending and free funds for more targeted initiatives.
The Iowa legislative session is scheduled to conclude on May 2 but could be extended, making this the last legislative forum and the last week of the session. While legislators may continue to work, their per diem payments end on this date, creating an incentive to finalize legislative work.
