SIOUX CITY -- U.S. Congressman Steve King spent Thursday afternoon representing Iowa’s interests at the first-ever Tri-State Congressional Forum.

The forum, held at Sioux City’s Western Iowa Tech Community College, was a chance for Siouxland residents, the members of the Siouxland Chamber and Congressional delegation to engage in a discussion about issues affecting the tri-state area.

“The best time we can spend as legislators and representatives is listening to residents, and then take what we learn and get it done,” said King. “Every level of representation of this region has to be engaged and work toward a common goal. Those goals must be set with Siouxlanders.”

King, the senior member of the Congressional delegation, said he wanted to focus on finding quality affordable health care for everyone and seeing the four-lane project of Highway 20 to completion.

“Siouxland is no question one of the most attractive business climates in the country, but we have to make it convenient for people to conduct their business here, including sufficient transportation and the ability to attract and retain employees by offering quality healthcare,” added King.

King is a long-time supporter of helping small businesses employers and employees retain health insurance. His bill in Congress, H.R. 37, the Health Insurance Affordability Act, would extend tax incentives to the premiums of individual purchasers of high-deductible plans combined with HSAs. He is also a supporter of H.R. 525, the Small Business Health Fairness Act, which would create Association Health Plans, allowing small businesses to pool their purchasing power to allow them to take advantage of the same discounts given to large corporations.

The group also talked about the status of the Sioux City postmark. King has been lobbying the USPS to allow Sioux City to present a competing business plan before closing the mail processing center.
 
King serves on the House Agriculture, Judiciary and Small Business Committees. He sought a special wavier to serve on the Small Business Committee to properly represent Iowa’s small business.