You choose, the hardest jobs in America are:

• Donald Trump’s hairstylist, his skin tan retailer and his attorney team — they’re really busy.

• Joe Biden’s Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, his public event sign language interpreter or his speech and policy writing team.

You choose.

Friends, I filed a bill this week with several of my colleagues that would provide pre-birth child support to mothers who are carrying a father’s child. Right now, that support, for the most part, does not start until the baby is born and, as a pro-life person, I felt that the unborn child needs and deserves the support. Quite frankly, guys have been getting off the hook for too long and need to take accountability for their actions.

The word “really” can be used in so many meaningful ways. It can be used as a question: “Really?” It can be used in the sense of gossip — “REALLY!” It can be used to express interest — Really.” It can be used to express doubt — “Really?” Or, it can accentuate truth — “Really!” But, it can also accentuate unbelief — “Really!” “Really” is a really interesting word.

Could it be that congressional leaders could come to a budget agreement ahead of the deadline of Jan. 19 when portions of the government run out of money again? Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy did a budget deal that his House caucus later reneged on costing him his job. The new speaker, Mike Johnson, who actually physically sat next to Senate Leader Chuck Schumer and shook his hand, also has reportedly done a deal for $16 billion in less spending than the Democrats had proposed.

Just like us, insects spend their winters in different locations. Unlike us, they spend their winters in different stages of development. Some may overwinter as adults, others in their immature stage as grubs, caterpillars or nymphs, while others will be in the pupal stage like a chrysalis or cocoon. Understanding their lifecycle and location can help us support beneficial insects while managing problem insect pests.

In the Senate during week three the focus was on scheduling subcommittee meetings for discussion and public comment. The scheduling process can be quite a challenge as the other senators are also setting up their times for subcommittee, while looking ahead to meeting the first funnel deadline of Feb. 16. Hundreds of bills are packed into this three-week period. I served on and chaired a number of subcommittees.

Bills introduced:

After reading the commentary on repealing the estate tax please see context below that was lacking.

An estate tax is levied on the estate of the deceased while an inheritance tax is levied on the heirs of the deceased. There is no federal inheritance tax and Iowa is one of only six states that has a state-level inheritance tax.

President Biden’s open-border policies have rolled out the welcome mat for illegal immigrants, drug traffickers, terrorists, and foreign nationals with ties to China to unlawfully enter our country. Yet, he refuses to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and keep our families and communities safe.

Almost all of us know how to pronounce pandemic now, and we have a pretty good idea of what it means since everyone we know spent more than a year under virtual house arrest.

But that didn’t help Billy much. Billy’s our town dog, of course. He’s been our town dog since Sally passed away on Doc’s porch, and Billy’s owner died two weeks later. Sometimes an honored position doesn’t require an election.

The increasing secrecy by Iowa law enforcement and their lawyers about identifying people by name raises important questions underlying public confidence in the critical work of first-responders.

Q: What are you hearing from Iowans about romance scams?

A: The efforts of rip off artists seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of their victims are a tale as old as time. Today the internet gives con artists and criminals a digital platform to lay an anonymous trap far and wide, from identity theft to online extortion and money laundering.

The church at which I serve (CrossWinds) has a conviction when it comes to our regular Sunday morning teaching. As a general rule, we will preach through an entire book of the Bible at a time, verse-by-verse. One of the greatest values of this approach is that we avoid circling back to the same topics over and over again, but instead trust that God will use his word to accomplish his purposes in his people.

The headline read … “Driest western Corn Belt in a lifetime.”

By Bryce Anderson, DTN: “For some large portions of the Western Corn Belt, the four-year period from December 2019 through November 2023 has been the driest in a lifetime. It's also the eighth-driest four-year stretch in a total of 125 four-year periods on record going back to 1895. The driest such period on record was back in December 1954 to November 1958 — 65 to almost 70 years ago.”

Last week in the Senate I was mostly busy working on bills that came across my desk. Scheduling and attending subcommittee meetings are the first step to start the legislative process. I serve on: Commerce, Judiciary, Workforce, Health & Human Services, Appropriations and Ways & Means committees.

This week was shortened a little do to The Martin Luther King Jr. Day as well as the caucus.

However, many of us are still able to work from our districts and keep things moving, so I am not sure it slowed much down.