Statewide Iowa — (RI) — Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer thinks the Governor isn’t going far enough in restricting the movement of Iowans to address the coronavirus outbreak. The Democrat from Dubuque has sent a letter to the governor, asking her to issue a statewide stay at home order.
(As above) “Honestly we are past the point where they should be recommendations. They need to be orders, there is a difference between a recommendation and an order. And when you have a stay at home order, that still means folks are able to perform essential services,” she says.
Finkenauer says she has been talking with the governor throughout this week — and decided to send her letter after talking with doctors from Dubuque — who have also sent a letter to the governor.
(As above) “Urging the governor to do the stay at home order given what they had been seeing on the ground and why they see that they need it. It’s also something that I didn’t take lightly, but have been concerned about how serious some parts of our state may be taking it,” Finkenauer says.
She says the governor feels the actions the state is taking are enough to slow the spread of COVID-19.
(As above) “I think that’s okay to disagree — but after today when I saw two more deaths in my district — I was not going to wait another day before I urged this publicly,” Finkenauer says. “And made sure that folks across my district and across the state knew that I believe that this is warranted.”
Finkenauer says she not only represents her district — but on the federal level has to speak for the rest of the nation — as she’s concerned that the national food supply could be hurt.
(As above) “If our farmers get sick and cannot plant, then there is not going to be corn that is going to be processed in our district. And then on top of that if those workers get sick and then we have other folks that are at General Mills that make cereal, if those folks get sic, what that means. And on top of that, we’ve got again, our grocery store workers who are working their tails off are stocking our shelves. We need to do everything, everything possible to protect that essential workforce,” according to Finkenauer,” according to Finkenauer.
Finkenauer says she could not sit back and not say something publicly after seeing the two additional deaths in her district. The two latest COVID-19 deaths reported Friday, happened in Allamakee and Poweshiek County. The first death was reported in Dubuque County.
