A Trump-backed congresswoman is taking home tens of thousands of dollars from an industry she's fighting to deregulate, according to The Daily Beast.
According to an analysis by The Daily Beast, the pork industry is giving money to Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) while she acts as one of the "staunchest advocates" on Capitol Hill for legislation for looser regulations through the Save Our Bacon Act.
Hinson has Trump's endorsement in her current Senate campaign in Iowa, and in the meantime, she's receiving campaign funding from groups tied to the pork industry, based on campaign finance filings reviewed by The Daily Beast.
The Daily Beast reported that Hinson took $20,000 from the National Pork Producers PAC. She also received $15,700 in campaign donations from Jeffrey and Debra Hansen, the owners of Iowa Select Farms, the state's largest pork producer, according to The Daily Beast.
She also received $5,250 from groups tied to Smithfield Foods, which controls about a quarter of U.S. pig production and was purchased by a Chinese company in 2013, and more than $7,500 from TYPAC, a political action committee with ties to Tyson Foods.
The Daily Beast tallied up her political contributions from pork-related groups to $65,350 over the last five years.
As a congresswoman, Hinson introduced the "Save Our Bacon Act," which targets a California proposition that mandates all pork sold in the state must comply with its own animal confinement regulations. The law, Proposition 12, also applies to pork raised elsewhere, The Daily Beast noted, which limits which pork can be sold in California.
Hinson managed to attach the bill to the bipartisan Farm Bill, though Congress hasn't passed a new Farm Bill since 2018 and has extended the existing one three times, according to The Daily Beast.
