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Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. On December 29, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that my State of Iowa will receive over $209 million this year from the Rural Health Transformation Fund. This Federal funding will boost Iowa hospitals, Iowa clinics, Iowa nursing homes, Iowa legal centers, and other rural providers.

I was proud to help craft the Working Families Tax Cut law that the President signed on July 4 last year. That law provides for the largest Federal investment in rural healthcare in history.

Under Iowa's Governor Kim Reynolds' leadership, Iowa is positioned very well to use this historic investment to build a high-quality, sustainable system of care for Iowans across the State. My State of Iowa, under Governor Reynolds' leadership, plans to use this Federal investment toward telehealth, workforce, preventing and treating cancer, improving coordination of care, streamlining data sharing, and expanding emergency medical care. These investments will improve health, well-being, and quality of life not only in Iowa but in all of rural America.

I am pleased that Iowa is maximizing this Federal investment in rural communities, not investing in bureaucracy. And to show how this investment is going to pay off without wasting money on administrative costs, Iowa's administrative costs for this Federal funding are projected to be less than 1 percent. Too often, you see Federal grants with administrative cost rates of 8 percent, 15 percent, and I have even seen, on more than one occasion, things as high as 60 percent. So I am glad Iowa is wisely using this Federal investment. And I look forward to seeing the result in rural Iowa.

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