The first major piece of legislation has been passed through the Iowa House of Representatives, and it seeks to bring relief to countless flood victims around the state.

State Representative Chris Hagenow, (R) District 19, says the floods of 2019 hit southwest Iowa particularly hard, and many cities in that area have yet to recover. What the proposed bill would do is provide additional aid to those affected. “I mean, there are communities that may no longer exist because of the flooding that they had last year. And we last year put some money into flood relief, and matching federal dollars. This year already, there were some projects on line that were ready to go that we needed to appropriate, so we just did a supplemental funding package of another $21 million to help the folks in southwest Iowa.”

A similar bill, calling for $20 million in flood relief, has been passed out of the Iowa Senate, so at the moment it’s unclear exactly how much will be allocated. Hagenow adds, climatologists are predicting potentially more flooding this year along the Missouri River, so the Legislature is likely not finished with providing aid to the area. To learn more about this and other legislative topics, listen to today’s Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program on air and at RaccoonValleyRadio.com.