Finkenauer town hall

The congresswoman is in North Iowa to hear about the struggles her constituents face

Folks in rural north iowa have a lot on their minds and today they got a chance to share their thoughts with their congresswoma n.

Kimt news 3's nick kruszalnicki is live in mason city with the story.

Nick?

George and katie á people in this part of the state have had a lot to deal with in the last few years.

Everything from declining commodity prices and trade wars... to a lack of health care.

First congressional district representative abby finkenauer was in osage this afternoon to hear all about it.xxx "whether it's investing in our small businesses or tacking prescription drug costs, there's so much that's getting done and i want to make sure that folks in this district, and also in our smaller towns too are aware of what's happening."

Representative abby finkenauer says some of the issues she's been working on in dác aren't the kind of things that would usually make headlines, but they're very important to rural iowans.

She tells me one of the things she's prioritizing is health care.

"when you're talking about some of our smaller hospitals being able to keep open or being able to stay open and some of our rural areas, a lot of that has to do with our medicare reimbursement rates and making sure that our hospitals are getting what they need."

One of the ways finkenauer hopes to ease the burden on rural health care is to grant more visa waivers to foreign doctors who want to practice in the united states.

"we have great physicians, but we need more of them.

Especially with our population, making sure folks have access.

This is something we're going to keep working on and i'm proud of some of the steps we've been able to take."

In the crowd this afternoon was bruce piederman.

He says he is impressed by finkenauer's efforts to fight for the rural residents of the district back at the capitol.

"she covered a lot of subjects and she gave us a pretty good review of what she's been doing and i was going to say to her that she's kind of like a firefighter.

She's trying to put out the fires that the republicans keep lighting."

While climate change was his biggest concern, piederman tells me he's seen how the trade wars are hurting the farmers he works with.

"that's been more and more of a problem in finkenauer also talked extensively about the need for more broadband internet in rural iowa.

She told me she wants to keep expanding funding for those grant programs. live in mason city, nick kruszalnicki, kimt news 3./// thanks nick.

Tomorrow á finkenauer will be holding town halls in waverly and marshalltown./ // the entire state