Much like a family gathered around the dinner table discussing ways to improve the country, Congressman John Delaney met with potential caucus-goers in Washington Sunday afternoon. The Congressman from Maryland was joined by his wife, April, their youngest daughter, and three local voters. The discussion was open and focused on issues in Iowa and the greater heartland. Delaney spoke of creating legislation that would act as a “sparkplug” to improve rural America and spur growth across the country. The first item would be a national infrastructure program, “We should have a disproportionate allocation to communities that need the money. Right, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and New York, they can largely afford to invest in their own infrastructure, but not in places like this. We’ve got to create an incentive for private companies to invest. I call for passing a law that 25% of government contracts should go to companies that have half of their employees in struggling communities. That would change everything. Right now in the government contracting process we have an incentive to give contracts to minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, and veteran-owned businesses. I support those, those are smart programs.”

He said the second step is to assist employees, “And then we need to do things to help workers. One of the things I propose is to double the earned income tax credit for communities that are struggling economically. So we need to really zero-in with a laser-like focus on both public and private capital flow in these communities start turning them around.”

In the discussion, Delaney also spoke of his support for a Federal base health insurance program, increasing access to trade skills after high school, and supporting research for cancer and Alzheimer’s treatment and prevention, all over his cup of coffee and openface turkey sandwich at Frontier Family Restaurant.