(Radio Iowa) – A bill to ban guaranteed income programs in Iowa is eligible for debate in the Iowa House. The bill would affect the UpLift pilot program in Polk, Warren and Dallas Counties which is giving 110 low income households five-hundred dollars a month. The bill would let those payments continue until next January — four months before the program is scheduled to end. Republican Representative Steven Holt of Denison says government programs should connect people to jobs. “That’s how we get out of poverty. Fostering hard work, independence, not dependence on government and socialist programs that will not be sustainable,” Holt says. “They’re not sustainable.” Holt says the bill is socialism on steroids.

“This is an attack on American values. This is an attack on the work ethic in this country when we already are struggling,” Holt says. “Every employer that I speak to is struggling to find employees that are willing to work.” Luke Elzinga of the Des Moines Area Religious Council testified against the bill during a subcommittee hearing last month. Elzinga says basic income programs like UpLift show what low income people need extra money for. “In pilot after pilot across the country participants have used the vast majority of basic income to support their families’ basic needs of food, housing, health care, transportation and clothing,” Elzinga said.

The bill passed the House Judiciary Committee yesterday (Thursday). Democrats say the bill is a roadblock to an effort to reduce poverty in working families and will interrupt research on how recipients use the five-hundred dollar monthly stipend.