Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst is introducing bipartisan legislation to help address the state’s chronic shortage of physicians.
The Conrad 30 waiver program grants foreign doctors who attended medical school in the U.S. the ability to stay here for three years if they work in an area with a shortage of healthcare professionals.
Every state gets 30 slots, but not every state uses all their allocated slots.
Ernst says she’s introducing legislation with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, that would allow unused waiver slots to be transferred to states like Iowa.
We have many states out there. Just for example, Georgia, Nebraska, they don't use all of their slots. And those are just slots that we desperately need.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, Iowa has one of the lowest rates of physicians in patient care in the country.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK569310/
The chair of the Iowa Democratic Party Rita Hart says so far, Democrats have not decided on holding their Caucuses the same night as Iowa Republicans.
The Iowa G-O-P announced in July their first-in-the-nation Caucuses will be held January 15, 2024.
During taping of “Iowa Press” that will air tonight on Iowa PBS, Hart said she’s not going to commit to that date until the Iowa Democratic Party’s State Central Committee reaches a consensus, according to Radio Iowa.
The two major parties have typically held their Caucuses on the same night. Iowa Republicans have secured the opening spot in their party’s 2024 nominating process, but national Democrats have decided that South Carolina will go first in 2024.
The new U.S. Drought Monitor shows the areas of Iowa with extreme and severe drought dropped following recent rains. One of those areas is in Woodbury County and another is in Southeast Iowa.
Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig tells Radio Iowa that a lot of farmers are thankful for the rains. However, he says the impact of the drought "has not been totally washed away. “
