Former Mayor of Irwin and GOP congressional candidate for the 4th District, Bret Richards, says if he was acting as a representative, he would be urging U.S. House Republicans to pass a disaster relief bill for struggling Iowans. “I appreciate Congressman King when he said on May 9 that ‘In Iowa, we need this relief and we need it soon,’” Richards says. “I also appreciated his May 10 vote for a nationwide disaster relief measure and when he encouraged the Senate to ‘work just as quickly to produce a final bill that the president will not hesitate to sign.’” However, 24 days later, that legislation has still not reached the president’s desk. The House is in recess and three GOP members objected to advancement of disaster relief because the national debt has reached $22 trillion. Richards says of course we need to address chronic federal deficits and massive national debt. But we also need to take care of those who have lost everything in natural disasters. “Whether this bill is approved or not—and it eventually will be—deficits will still be too large and the debt will still be out of control until Congress gets serious about reducing them. In the meantime, I’d tell anyone holding up disaster relief to do the right thing and get out of the way,” Richards says. Richards has served in the U.S. Army as a civil engineer before returning to the family business in Irwin. That business was sold in 2015 and he has since held several adjunct professor positions and is currently with Creighton University.
