Miller-Meeks Discusses Immigration, Antiquities Act and China During Sigourney Visit

SIGOURNEY – Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks met with locals at the Sigourney Cafe on  August 12 as part of a 20-county district tour. Miller-Meeks stated that, when congress returns to session in September, she will work on single agency appropriations bills and the farm bill. The congresswoman stated she was working on a bill that would tackle pharmaceutical benefit managers, which she called “opaque middle men” in the prescription drug supply chain. Miller-Meeks stated that PBMs require administrative fees for PBMs be included as a percentage of the list price of a drug, which raises prices, and that she wanted to delink administrative costs from list prices. She also stated she wanted to ban spread pricing and that these measures would save $636,000,000 dollars. Miller-Meeks stated that the vote on this bill would likely come during the lame duck session, which she felt was less than ideal. She also stated she was working on a bill to create recycling programs for aluminum and other materials in her district and a bill to make oral contraception more accessible.

An attendee asked Miller-Meeks if the Republican party could win if members keep being hardliners about abortion, bringing up Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’s controversial six-week abortion ban as an example. Miller-Meeks stated that she opposed allowing abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, or life of the mother. She stated that she had never voted for a state or federal ban on abortion. She claimed that the idea she had was a lie made up by Democrats to distract from the economy and the border. Miller-Meeks has not voted for an abortion ban in the past, but did cosponsor the 2022 Life at Conception Act, which would have banned abortion nationally after 15 weeks. This bill did not make it to the House floor to be voted on.

Miller-Meeks claimed that the border was an “unmitigated disaster” controlled by cartels. She claimed that lax immigration policies were responsible for fentanyl being brought into the country. Miller-Meeks linked this to drug overdoses, which are the number one cause of death for Americans 19-45.

An attendee asked about Republicans voting against a bill to secure the border. Back in May, the Border Act of 2024, a Biden-backed border security bill that would have made it harder to apply for asylum, sped up deportations, and give the president the authority to shut down the border completely if migration levels exceeded certain thresholds, was shut down after all but one Republican senator voted against it. Miller-Meeks claimed that the idea Republicans had voted against this bill was a lie, because it did not make it to the House. She said the Senate should pass HR2, a more restrictive Republican immigration bill that passed in the House.

She claimed that immigration problems were caused by President Biden ending several of his predecessor's executive orders, like his Remain in Mexico policy and Title 42 Expulsions. She stated that congress had ceded too much power to the executive branch and that immigration policy should be determined by congress, not by executive order.

Miller-Meeks stated that Biden could shut down the border with an executive order, but wouldn’t. The congresswoman was asked about the June executive order Biden issued, ordering asylum requests to be shut down once the average number of daily encounters at ports of entry exceeded 2,500 and keep asylum requests shut down until the daily crossing number fell below 1,500. Miller-Meeks stated this was insufficient, as thousands of people were still allowed to enter the country. An attendee asked if House Republicans could threaten to refuse to fund federal agencies unless Biden took more drastic actions towards the border. Miller-Meeks stated shutting down the government would not sway Biden, but would put the nation at risk by taking away Homeland Security funding. She stated the only solution towards immigration was to reelect her and increase Republican control of the government.

Miller-Meeks stated she opposed student loan debt forgiveness. She claimed Biden was attempting to circumvent the Supreme Court by pausing loans, as a way to buy votes.

Miller-Meeks stated it was important to set up a fair trade agreement with China as part of the farm bill, noting that neither Trump or Biden had made a trade agreement with the country. An attendee asked about Chinese companies buying American farmland. According to the USDA, 3% of American land is owned by foreign-companies and only 1% of that is owned by Chinese companies. 80% of American land owned by Chinese people is owned by Chinese pork processor Smithfield Foods or by Chinese Billionaire investor Sun Guangxin. Miller-Meeks stated that she had helped pass a bill in the House that prevented the Chinese government from buying land near military bases. The attendee asked if there was anything she could do to stop individual Chinese people from buying land in the U.S. Miller-Meeks stated that the situation is complicated, because the government needs to respect private property, but that the government has to look carefully and put restrictions on the sale of private property to Chinese people.

An attendee stated that he lacked trust and faith in the government, especially the Secret Service, DEA, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Education, and Congress. Miller-Meeks agreed that trust in the government was waning. She praised the new bipartisan task force formed to investigate the failed assassination of Donald Trump. Miller-Meeks brought up the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, calling her testifying at a Congressional hearing lackluster. She questioned why the Secret Service would allow Donald Trump to hold an outdoor rally. An attendee asked about a news story from earlier that day, where a Massachusetts hair salon owner said that members of law enforcement working with the Secret Service to secure a Harris campaign event broke into her business, taped over cameras, and used the bathroom without permission. Miller-Meeks stated it was crazy to not ask for permission.

Miller-Meeks stated that the government needs to cut budgets. She stated she favored single appropriation bills, because they force agencies to prioritize spending. She stated that she and Senator Joni Ernst had crafted a bill that will require contractors hired for government projects that are over budget and have been going on for five years to be hauled before congress to explain the delays and why they are over budget. She stated that federal agencies should look into selling properties and having employees work remote. She stated that the only two ways to reduce debt were to either cut spending or to boost the economy and that she preferred the latter. She claimed that the U.S. needed to return to the “regulatory restraint” of the Trump era.

The congresswoman stated that the U.S. needs high bandwidth internet. She stated that specific frequency bands are controlled by the Department of Defense, who are reluctant to allow use for private citizens. Miller-Meeks stated that Chinese companies are building 5G networks in other countries and accused the Chinese government of being behind this as part of a secret plot to steal data. 

An attendee asked about Miller-Meeks’s Congressional Oversight of the Antiquities Act, designed to limit the ability of the executive branch to establish national parks. Miller-Meeks stated the bill was inspired by Biden’s 2023 establishment of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona. This 917,618 monument near the Grand Canyon was a traditional homeland of Native Americans in the area, before they were forcibly removed by the American government, and contains numerous archeological sites, some believed to be 10,000 years old. Because the land has been named a national monument, the 20-year moratorium on uranium mining in the area established in 2012 has been made permanent. Miller-Meeks called the creation of the national monument a “massive land grab” and claimed that the U.S. needed the area for uranium mining for nuclear power plants. She did not refer to the monument by name or mention why it had been set aside. She explained that her bill would force the president to receive congressional approval before “taking away” productive land. She also stated it was important to renew permits for copper mining in the Superior National Forest in Minnesota, which were rejected by the Biden administration due to toxic runoff into water sources.

Miller-Meeks stated the U.S. needed more energy production due to rising energy demand. She stated that the left agreed with her that nuclear power was the best way to produce clean energy. She stated that she was agnostic about energy production, as long as it reduced emissions. Miller-Meeks stated that Biden needed to give more oil drilling leases on federal land. She claimed a lack of oil leases caused high oil prices and helped out the governments of Russia and Iran.

An attendee asked about Iowa’s child labor laws and stated that the state of Iowa should pay the fines given to companies that break federal child labor laws. Last year, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds enacted sweeping changes to the state’s child labor laws, allowing teens as young as 14 to work hazardous in industrial laundries, as young as 15 to work light assembly work, and as young as 16 to work in dangerous jobs like demolition, roofing, excavation, serving alcohol, and operating heavy machinery. Reynolds also allowed teens as young as 14 to work six-hour night shifts during the school year. Miller-Meeks gave her support to these laws and that federal labor laws needed to be changed.

She stated she did not want to coerce children to work, but said that she left home at sixteen and worked full time to put herself through med school. She stated that young people should be allowed to work as late as nine at night. She stated that young people want to work, that Iowa businesses are not abusing them, and that these jobs instill a good work ethic. She compared working long hours in high school to being a student athlete.