I used to think I could talk with Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks. That was in 2008 during her first run for Congress. I was on the county board of health and felt that gave me standing to discuss issues with the ophthalmologist. I found her during a break between two parades in Johnson County and asked questions, which she answered. I don’t recall much of the conversation, except that I asked her about abortion. She replied, “Roe vs. Wade is the law of the land.” I now recognize this as a conventional Republican dodge designed to assuage my concerns on a controversial issue. It seems duplicitous in the time of Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Eighteen years later, this aspect of the congresswoman’s character remains unchanged. It was exemplified during her discussion of a recent series of events dubbed “the second annual Made in America manufacturing tour.”
“I met workers who told me the same story again and again,” she wrote in a weekly email newsletter. “They love their work. They are proud of what they build. And they want Washington to get out of their way so they can keep doing it.” That’s a very Republican response which left me feeling empty.
Steel manufacturing companies, like the four Miller-Meeks visited are notorious polluters. By getting out of the way, she must have meant her May 22, 2025 yes vote on S.J.Res. 31, which overturned an EPA rule concerning the classification of industrial facilities as “major sources” versus “area sources” under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act. This matters to steel manufacturers because scrap metal processing can introduce hazardous metals and other contaminants into the furnace. Her vote potentially loosened restrictions on this process.
Or maybe she referred to her yes vote for H.J.Res. 35 which overturned EPA’s implementation rule for the methane-waste-emissions charge created under the Inflation Reduction Act. This law is more evidence of what Miller-Meeks means by Washington getting out of the way: undoing good things President Joe Biden did.
Or maybe Miller-Meeks being an original cosponsor of H.J. Res. 27, introduced in January 2025, to overturn EPA’s regulation of trichloroethylene (TCE) under the Toxic Substances Control Act is what she meant. This matters for the plants she visited because it is evidence she was actively sponsoring efforts to reverse an EPA chemical restriction.
Finally, in March 2025 Miller-Meeks introduced H.R. 2145, the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act of 2025, which would create an EPA pilot-grant program to improve recycling access in rural and underserved areas. Two of the plants she visited are scrap recyclers and the area in which they purchase scrap metal has been the subject of foreign competition buying up scrap at a higher price. Without this raw material, Iowa firms have to seek it elsewhere in more expensive markets. Introducing this bill is an example of Miller-Meeks rigging the system for steel manufacturers.
There are other issues in the wings, particularly labor. The Gerdau S.A. plant in Wilton is an example of the United Steelworkers Local 8581 working with management in long-term planning. It was that way when they were owned by Cargill, and remains so under Gerdau. However, the other three locations are not fully unionized. The only other employees represented by a union are at Clow Valve, where about 100 of 450 employees are represented by District Lodge 8 of the International Association of Machinists. SSAB Iowa, Inc. and Wilton Precision Steel are decidedly non-union companies.
I don’t doubt employees Miller-Meeks encountered on her tour take pride in their work. There is more to the story. These visits have been readily turned into campaign fodder. Loosening regulations that could potentially impact our health, and rigging the system to favor steel manufacturers is not being mentioned in all the happy talk in her newsletters. I’ve learned that is par for the course with Republicans.
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