Christie Vilsack plans to make Representative Steve King defend his record on disaster relief funding during next year’s campaign in Iowa’s fourth Congressional district, she indicated during a recent interview with the Omaha World-Herald.

King’s current fifth Congressional district and the new IA-04 contain areas severely affected by this year’s Missouri River flooding. While King tends to make the news speaking out on national issues, he did respond to the local disaster in several ways. He voted in July to extend the National Flood Insurance Program through fiscal year 2016. King had opposed similar legislation in July 2010.

King also joined a new Congressional working group on managing the Missouri River. Every member of Iowa’s delegation in the U.S. House co-sponsored the bill King introduced a bill to change the Army Corps of Engineers flood control model. Specifically, that bill would “revise the Missouri River Master Manual to increase the total amount of storage space within the Missouri River Reservoir System that is allocated for flood control.”

Given that record, one might not expect disaster relief to become an important campaign issue for King’s Democratic challenger. However, the incumbent voted against a pair of continuing spending resolutions in September. Those continuing resolutions included disaster relief funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In King’s view, the resolutions did not make sufficiently deep cuts in the federal budget for fiscal year 2012.

Joseph Morton reported Vilsack’s comments in the Omaha World-Herald on December 9:

As part of a larger campaign to slash the federal government’s domestic spending, King has voted in favor of cutting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ budget. He also has voted against legislation that included disaster aid funding.

In an interview with The World-Herald, Vilsack indicated she’ll seek to highlight those past votes as part of her campaign.

Vilsack said King is doing one thing and saying another by making announcements about Iowa-bound money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency when he’s back home in the district after voting against the funding in Washington.

“I don’t think he’s representing the best interests of his district when people are suffering from the results of a flood when he does not vote for resources to relieve their suffering,” Vilsack said.

King opposed legislation in September that included billions in disaster relief money during a showdown over whether to offset such disaster funds with spending cuts. King said at the time that he favored the disaster funding but thought the overall package to keep the government operating included too much spending.

I doubt that line of attack will fly against King. It is hypocrisy to hail FEMA funding for your district despite having voted against the spending bill in question, just like it was hypocrisy for King to welcome federal stimulus money allocated to widening Highway 20 in 2009. (King has a pattern of taking credit for Highway 20 funding he did nothing to secure.) Nevertheless, King can point to his bill on Missouri River flood control and his participation in the Congressional working group to prove that he is representing past and potential flood victims in his district.

Speaking to Morton of the Omaha World-Herald, King said “that he stands by his votes and that he’s been involved in disaster relief for a long time.” He also tried to turn the issue around into a conflict with his challenger’s spouse:

King said his opponent’s husband, former Iowa governor and current U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, should come out in favor of his bill that would require the corps to keep enough storage capacity behind its upriver dams to accommodate the kind of record-level runoff experienced this year.

“If we can’t do that, then there isn’t going to be money invested in the river bottom, because we will not be protected from a flood of similar magnitude,” King told The World-Herald. “And so, if the secretary of agriculture cares about the producers in the Missouri River bottom – all the way up and down, not just in Iowa – it would be very helpful if he would endorse my bill and send the message as a voice for the president of the United States that my bill needs to move before Christmas.”

King has indicated before that he plans to run for re-election against “two Vilsacks,” not just his declared challenger:

“We don’t know where she stands on anything. All we know is that she said she supports her husband’s positions. There should be no illusions. There’s two Vilsacks in the race, not one. So, if that’s the way it is, we will run the race accordingly and we’ll take on two Vilsacks rather than one and Barack Obama standing in the background.”

That’s a clever maneuver for King, because federal law prevents Tom Vilsack from campaigning for his wife next year or even commenting on the IA-04 race.

In other news from IA-04, Vilsack sent out the following e-mail blast yesterday slamming King’s opposition to extending the payroll tax cut.

A lump of coal for Iowa’s families?

December 12, 2011

Last week, Representative Steve King voted against guaranteeing to extend payroll tax relief for 1.7 million Iowa families. If Congress does not extend this tax break, it will cost the average Iowan family $1,000 per year.

Representative King continues to support tax breaks for billionaires, while failing to protect middle class families. Iowans deserve someone like Christie Vilsack who will not forsake working families in the name of playing politics.

Please make a contribution of $5 or more today to help us send Christie to Washington.

King had the chance to ensure that this $1,000 middle class tax increase be stopped. Instead, he voted for House Republicans to go on their holiday vacations while leaving Iowa families in the lurch. With another vote coming up this week, let’s call on King to reverse his decision and stop protecting billionaires while backing higher taxes on the middle class.

Christie Vilsack was born and raised in small town Iowa. She will be the fighter that middle class Iowans need in Congress — not someone like Steve King who consistently puts partisanship above doing what’s right for Iowa.

Click here to join Christie’s campaign with a donation of $5 or more.

Thank you for your continued support.

The Vilsack campaign continues to focus on rural issues in its occasional policy releases. In October, Vilsack advocated a five-point plan “to help returning veterans and beginning farmers get the skills and financing they need to become family farmers and ranchers, keeping our rural communities strong and prosperous.” Last month, Vilsack released a plan to create a federal Infrastructure Investment Bank that would be required to invest 20 percent of its funds in “rural projects with a minimum project size of $20 million.” Bleeding Heartland will discuss those plans in more detail in a future post.

Any comments about the IA-04 campaign are welcome in this thread.

DECEMBER 20 UPDATE: King continues to spread the word about his hard work on disaster relief and flood prevention. Here is a press release his office sent out on December 20:

Independent Panel’s Recommendation Supports King’s Call for More Storage in Missouri Reservoirs

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Steve King released the following statement after an independent panel of experts released their after action report of this year’s Missouri River flooding entitled, “Review of the Regulation of the Missouri River Mainstem Reservoir System During the Flood of 2011.” The report contained information about how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers managed the Missouri River before, during, and after this year’s flood, and it contained several recommendations about steps to be taken in order to avoid a repeat of this year’s flooding in the future. One of the panel’s recommendations was a call for a “review of the System storage allocations, to include the flood-control storage needed for floods like 2011 or larger.” This recommendation falls in line with H.R. 2942, legislation Congressman King has introduced to recalculate the total amount of flood control storage space within the Missouri River Reservoir System so that it is sufficient to control the runoff experienced during this year’s flood.

“For months, I have been arguing that Congress must take action to require the Corps to update the amount of storage capacity in the System that is geared toward flood control,” said King. “The Pick Sloan Program was built to protect us from the worst flooding ever experienced – which at that time was the flood of 1881. This year we experienced a new worst case scenario for flooding on the Missouri River, and we should update the management of the System accordingly. My bill would do this, and I am pleased that that panel recognized the need for this kind of change in the recommendations it made today.”

Along the same lines, here was the spin from King’s office following House and Senate passage of 2012 spending bills on December 16 and 17:

King: Additional Disaster Relief Funding On Its Way

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Washington, DC- Today Congressman Steve King (R-IA) released the following statement after Congress passed legislation to provide $8.1 billion in emergency funding for disaster recovery. The bill included $6.4 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund and $1.7 billion in funding for disaster recovery assistance through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps). The legislation passed the House yesterday, with King’s support. Additionally, the House passed, and King supported, legislation to offset the cost of the disaster aid with an across-the-board cut to non-defense spending in Fiscal Year 2012. The legislation was approved by the Senate today, although the offset for the disaster relief was stripped out by a vote of 43-56. The legislation now awaits the president’s signature.

“This year’s flooding along the Missouri River did significant amounts of damage to homes, businesses, and farm land, and it greatly weakened much of the infrastructure that’s in place up and down the river to protect us from flooding,” said King. “The Corps has estimated that nearly $750 million in damage was done to the levees and other flood control infrastructure in the Missouri River basin. Getting our levees repaired to their pre-flood specifications has been a priority of mine since water levels crested. Without the protection of the levees, home owners and businesses will be unable to rebuild and many farmers will be forced to pay triple crop insurance premiums. This funding will give FEMA the resources it needs and will provide the Corps the resources necessary to repair flood protection structures to, and I emphasize this, their pre-flood elevations. Finally, beleaguered flood victims can see at least one positive step that Congress has taken.”

“For several months, I have said that emergency disaster aid should be offset with cuts to line items in the budget that are of less priority,” said King. “I was pleased that this position prevailed in the House yesterday with the vote to pay for the disaster relief that was passed. This was the right and responsible thing to do. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats oppose responsible federal spending and seem to believe that continued deficit spending is preferable to prioritized spending. It appears their view is that rebuilding levees and other critical infrastructure is of no higher priority than any other line item in our federal budget. I disagree. I believe our nation’s fiscal situation requires us to carefully prioritize federal spending. I am pleased that the House followed this principle, and I am disappointed in the Senate’s failure to do the same.”

DECEMBER 22 UPDATE: King is determined not to be exposed on this flank. On December 21 his office sent out the following press release:

Washington, DC- Congressman Steve King (R-IA) released the following statement regarding H.R. 3719, legislation he introduced requiring that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ensure that the levees and other flood control infrastructure damaged by this year’s flooding along the Missouri River is returned to the elevation and design that predates the 2011 flood before any funds are expended to carry out environmental work by the Corps in the River basin.

“Repairing and reconstructing the levees and other flood control infrastructure that was damaged by the Missouri River flooding must be the Corps’ top priority,” said King. “I introduced this legislation knowing that an entire population along the River cannot rebuild until the levees are repaired and many farmers will have to pay triple what they paid last year for crop insurance until the levees are repaired and rebuilt. The legislation will ensure that the Corps directs as much funding as possible to the high priority work of repairing and rebuilding the levees that protect the lives, property, and livelihoods of those living in the River bottom.”