Republicans in the Iowa House passed a bill designed to cut some of the “strings” on federal block grant money for city and county road and bridge projects. Cities and counties would send their money to the Iowa Department of Transportation and the Iowa D-O-T would send the same amount back, without enforcing the federal requirements. Representative Gary Worthan, a Republican from Storm Lake, says other states have made this move and hundreds of thousands of dollars that would have been spent complying with federal rules was spent on new bridges and roads instead.

 

Democrats like Representative Abby Finkenaur of Dubuque say the bill is designed to avoid federal wage rules for construction crews and “Buy American” requirements for construction materials.

 

A similar bill has cleared a COMMITTEE in the Iowa SENATE