Berkley Warren Bedell (March 5, 1921 – December 7, 2019) was an American Democratic Party politician and businessman who served as the U.S. representative for Iowa's 6th congressional district from 1975 to 1987.

After starting a successful business in his youth, Berkley Fly Co., he ran for Congress in 1972, but was defeated by incumbent Wiley Mayne.

[5] Though no longer serving in Congress, he remained active in Iowa politics, strongly supporting Howard Dean in 2004 over John Kerry.

He graduated from Spirit Lake High School in 1939, where he earned spending money with a business in the midst of the Great Depression.

He introduced legislation in 1977 that would require the barge industry to pay a fee for using the waterways which, Bedell pointed out, the Government paid millions of dollars to create and maintain.

[3] Bedell's original plan set the rate the barge industry paid as directly related to the amount the Government spent on waterway projects.

This would have the additional effect of helping curb unnecessary waterway projects, and it was the same plan proposed by Pete Domenici in the Senate.

[2] Congress eventually passed a watered-down version of the original plan put forward by Bedell and Senator Pete Domenici.

While other supporters of waterway usage fees, including Domenici, backed the compromise, Bedell gave a passioned plea for his colleagues to oppose it.

[2] In 1985, Bedell put forward an agricultural plan that he thought would increase production controls for farmers, thus raising prices for crops.

[13] While in Congress, Bedell was Chairman of the Small Business Subcommittee, and he used this position to investigate underselling on the part of large oil companies.

[14] He also claimed that certain large oil companies underpaid their "windfall taxes" in certain cases and wanted to pass legislation to increase regulations on these corporations.

[16] In late 1982, Congress passed a law which forbade the United States from funding groups aiming to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

The proposals generally involved shifting costs for meat inspections and other USDA duties from the federal government to the industry.

[28] Due largely to his friendship with Tom Harkin, he remained an important political figure in Iowa, with politicians such as Howard Dean meeting him in their trips to the state.

[29] As an opponent of the Vietnam War, Bedell signed a petition urging against United States military intervention in Iraq.

[32] Bedell died in Naples, Florida, on December 7, 2019, at age 98, from complications of a stroke he suffered three days earlier.

[a] It has a master wing, fifteen bathrooms, eight bedrooms all facing the lake, six garages, an indoor entertainment stage overlooking the water, a gathering room with a Brazilian blue marble floor and seating for over a hundred, a master retreat, master retreat bathroom, receiving room, conference room and private office with sweeping views of West Lake Okoboji, a commercial caterers kitchen, guest suite with its own bar, caretaker suite, caretaker suite kitchen, exercise room, upper level art studio, a movie theater with its own Lakeland Theatre Concession stand, and a large Irish Pub known as Kevin O'Sullivan's Pub.