U.S. Representative for Iowa’s Second District Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) was one of a limited number of Congress members that attended President Joe Biden’s first joint address of his term Wednesday night.

Miller-Meeks tells KCII she was honored to have been invited to attend the smaller gathering due to COVID-19 restrictions, “It was a very warm welcome. He greeted a lot of the, especially the senators as he came through to approach the well on the podium. I thought his remarks were well spoken, well said, the tone was very even. And my hope would be that when he talks about unifying the nation and bipartisanship that his words are not empty rhetoric. So far we’ve not seen a lot of bipartisanship in my several months in Congress.”

Miller-Meeks says she appreciated the President’s rhetoric on bringing jobs back to the U.S., and his support for COVID-19 vaccinations, though she was disappointed to see that he didn’t address what she refers to as an “ongoing crisis” at the southern border, as U.S. Customs and Border Control has experienced an increase in encounters and arrests since April of 2020. You can hear more from Miller-Meeks during Monday’s Halcyon House Washington Page on air and at kciiradio.com.