US Congressman Zach Nunn visited two locations in the Raccoon Valley Radio area Tuesday.

The freshman Congressman made a stop in Guthrie County to hear from area farmers about their concerns as an important aspect when it comes to passing a Farm Bill this year.

“We’ve talked with farmers who highlighted crop insurance, not only has to be in the Farm Bill, but long term we need to make sure that crop insurance is guaranteed. Beginning farmer programs, how do we get new people into the agricultural community, and that starts with having an on ramp for them to be successful out of the gate. We want to make sure that we got farmers backs by hearing from farmers first hand, and that affords me the opportunity to (Washington) D.C. and ask the tough questions.”

Nunn then visited Jefferson with representatives from different aspects of economic development, including Jefferson Matters: A Main Street and Chamber Community, the Greene County Career Academy and Greene County Development Corporation. Nunn listened to some success stories of how private and public partnership can make different projects with education, childcare and housing possible. He talked about how he wants to help implement more federal grants to lift smaller communities. 

“We have a lot of grant money that had previously gone to federal bureaucrats to determine where it is. I want to be a champion for these individuals to say, ‘We have shovel ready projects that are ready right here in central Iowa, let’s put these to good use.’ This is something that’s going to grow tenfold what it can do for economic development, not just for Iowa, but has a following effect to the rest of the country.”   

These two stops were part of Congressman Nunn’s “listening tour” where he says he wants to gather as much input from constituents as possible rather than talking at people.