Sen. Charles Grassley

Kay Henderson

The coming weeks and months look to be busy and contentious for lawmakers in Washington. We'll visit with Iowa's senior U.S. Senator, Republican Chuck Grassley, on this edition of Iowa Press.

 

Announcer

Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends the Iowa PBS Foundation. The Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the public's partner in building Iowa's Highway Bridge and municipal utility infrastructure.

 

Announcer

Elite Casino Resorts is rooted in Iowa. Elite was founded 30 years ago in Dubuque and owned by 1200 Iowans from more than 45 counties with resorts in Riverside, Davenport and Larchwood, Iowa, Elite is committed to the communities we serve.

 

Announcer

Across Iowa, hundreds of neighborhood banks strive to serve their communities, provide jobs and help local businesses. Iowa banks are proud to back the life you build. Learn more at Iowa bankers dot com.

 

Announcer

For decades, Iowa Press has brought you political leaders and newsmakers from across Iowa and beyond. Celebrating 50 years of broadcast excellence on statewide Iowa PBS, this is the Friday, September 15th edition of Iowa Press. Here is Kay Henderson.

 

Kay Henderson

On this edition of Iowa Press, our guest is a person who served 16 years in the Iowa House of Representatives, followed by six years in the U.S. House of Representatives. He's been a United States Senator representing Iowa since 1981. Senator Chuck Grassley, welcome back to Iowa Press.

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

And thank you for all that history.

 

Kay Henderson

Also joining our conversation, Brianne Pfannenstiel, the chief politics reporter for The Des Moines Register, and Erin Murphy, the Des Moines Bureau chief for the Gazette in Cedar Rapids.

 

Erin Murphy

Senator Grassley, your colleagues in the House have started an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Do you expect President Biden to be impeached?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Well, it's too darn early to know anything about that. But I want to emphasize, you use the correct terminology. Inquiry. It's got nothing to do with a step towards impeachment. It's a process to make sure that we can get information that we've been stonewalled. I should say the House, not we, the House, to get information that they've been stonewalled by this administration.

It seems like the DOJ and the FBI are more interested in stonewalling than being open and helping Congress do its constitutional responsibility. There is one thing about the inquiry that's different than the other process for issuing subpoenas because it's got to be in pursuit of a legislative duty or a purpose with most of the work of the Congress.

But when you have an impeachment inquiry, that's a constitutional responsibility of the House of Representatives. So it gives a little more force to the attempt by the House of Representatives to get it. And I wouldn't comment on impeachment for the reason that if we go, if the House would do that, I have to be a juror, and I think I should be very much impartial towards that and listen to the evidence.

 

Erin Murphy

Because that would come to a vote in the Senate. That's what you're talking about.

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Yes. Yes. Thank you, Erin.

 

Erin Murphy

Yeah, And maybe more broadly, stepping back, do you have any level of concern that impeachment and again, this is just an inquiry, as you noted at this point, but do you have any level of concern that impeachment is becoming a political tool rather than the process it was intended to be?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

I think Pelosi demonstrated that, and I think it'd be nice if we could cut an end to that. But I'm not in a position to tell the House of Representatives what to do or make a judgment until they get done with their inquiry.

 

Kay Henderson

Well, you kind of are. You're a United States senator. You can tell the House what you think, right?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

I can tell them, but they aren't going to do anything about it.

 

Brianne Pfannenstiel

Republicans on the presidential campaign trail here in Iowa have been complaining of a two-tiered system of justice. President Biden's son, Hunter Biden, was just indicted on criminal charges. Does that allay any of those concerns for you?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Well, I think it a sad situation, and you got to take that in consideration. You don't want to wish that on anybody. On the other hand, it shouldn't be seen as bringing balance to it. There should be balance all the time. There shouldn't be two levels of justice. That's why the statute over the Supreme Court is blindfolded, because we're going to be looking at the facts and not the personality or the political persuasion of the person.

And I think I hear that concern all the time from Iowans. But I don't want to see Hunter Biden being charged as he was just because Republicans are being complaining about charges against Trump. That's not the way we should look at it. But I think we've had for eight or so years in the Department of Justice and the FBI, too much political bias.

And I think you're going to find more of that as this inquiry moves forward, because we haven't talked to the when I say we in this case will be the House of Representatives, have not talked to the individual FBI agents that should be investigated if following up on these reports that you get and suspicion you get, they when we interview about 15 or 20 of those.

I think you'll find more political bias. That's an assumption on my part.

 

Kay Henderson

Senator, you have some of your fellow Republicans who have suggested defunding the FBI. You have one presidential candidate who's saying dissolve the FBI. Are Republicans the law and order party still?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Anybody that takes that position is stupid for saying it. We've got to have an FBI. And secondly, as Republicans, because you made a good point about Republicans saying this, for the last three or four years, we've been making fun of the Democrats wanting to defund the police. It's the same thing. You can't defund. We don't want to defund the police.

You can't defund the FBI.

 

Brianne Pfannenstiel

Turning to some Senate business, there's about two weeks that Congress has to get together its spending plans, put together a budget. Are you concerned at all that that may not come together in time to avert a government shutdown?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Yeah. Before I answer that question, in regard to Kay’s question, I want to follow up and say that obviously things aren’t right with the FBI from my point of view. But you don't defund the FBI to make that point, Tou reform the FBI.

I don't think government is going to shut down. It's cost money to shut the government down. It costs money to open up the Government. Government’s a service the people of this country. And you can't be a service if you aren't operating. And not only that, but sometimes let's say you hear these rumors about shutting down government from a handful of members of Congress because they want to accomplish something. I've heard that before in government shutdown.

So you shut it down. You want to accomplish what you want to through the leverage of shutting down the government. And then you get so much public pressure, you open government up, cost money to open government up, and you still haven't accomplished what you wanted to accomplish. So there ought to be lessons learned from previous shutdowns. And not only that, but Senator Lankford spoke to this yesterday at a small group that we had, that he thinks that we ought to have in law something like I think he explained his idea like this. And I hope if I'm not a co-sponsor of this bill, I should be. But he would say, you don't shut the government down, that you have a process of you extend it for two weeks and if you don't get it done in those two weeks, another two weeks. But after a month, if you don't get it done, Congress works seven days a week until we get this thing settled.

That would take care of no worry about government job done. So I want to compliment Senator Lankford for that.

 

Erin Murphy

Speaking of votes coming up, the farm bill is being worked on and the current one is being renegotiated. It doesn't look like it's going to get done. Do you have votes to pass a new farm bill or even extend the current one until the new one can get done? What farmers always want certainty, right. Are they going to have that?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Yeah. Well, let me answer that question that point first before I go into more detail. If we don't get this done by Christmas and we should get it done by Christmas, but it doesn't look like that that's going to happen. We're going to have a one year extension of the existing farm bill. So at least for the next 12 months.

 

Erin Murphy

Have certainty that that you're confident of that extension will be done.

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

That's been done before. But the five year is a better certainty for the farmers. And we all know that. Now, in regard to it, first of all, yesterday, maybe a ten minute conversation with the chairman of the committee, Senator Stabenow, of all, and on Wednesday of probably a half hour meeting with the ranking Republican, Boozman, It seems like there's some things at the highest level for those two to work out that aren't getting settled.

And and they they deal with money spent on certain programs. And there's a feeling among the agriculture community that we have seen such increase in costs be fertilizer and they'll be gas and and everything else that goes into seed and fertilizer. I guess it goes into production of crops. We've seen those costs go up. We have not seen an incremental increase in the what we call reference pricing to support those farmers if the price goes down too low.

And and and we've seen other aspect of the farm bill, particularly nutrition go up. And if we've got to get more money to cover the aspects of it, of the increased costs for farmers. Now, on the other hand, there doesn't seem to be much discussion about the main thing that farmers want us to keep, and the farm bill would be crop insurance.

 

Kay Henderson

Senator, your colleague Mitt Romney from Utah announced this week that he wouldn't run for reelection and he said it was time for a new generation of leadership to be elected. You've made a different decision when making decisions about running for reelection. Why?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Well, I think I made that pretty clear on your program when you had a debate for me with my opponent that I, I can serve the people of Iowa, things that haven't been done with my seniority. Iowa is going to be I'll be number one in the United States Senate, is the most senior member of the Senate. I'll be in a position to accomplish things for the people of Iowa and the nation as a whole.

And that's why that's what I announce when I announce for reelection. That's what I said on the PBS debate. And and I very much like serving the people of Iowa.

 

Brianne Pfannenstiel

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell had an episode recently where he was addressing reporters and froze up in front of the cameras, prompting some concerns about his health. Are you confident in his ability to lead the conference moving forward?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Yes. And Brianne, thank you for that question. And I'd like to throw it back to you this way, kind of the way I answered a similar question for the Washington press corps right after a meeting with him. They said, well, do you think he can do his job like you just asked me? And I said, if you could, you ought to look at him the same way I look at him.

Let's say I'll give you a specific example. The first thing that happened on July 27th, we were in session at 9:00 that night. I made a point of talking to him. He's saying McConnell. And then I think he made very more clear something that's got more substance to it than my opinion in answering your question. He had the the his doctor have consulted with all of the specialists and put out a letter saying that he's there, that I don't I don't want to say nothing wrong.

But basically it put a stop to all of the questions that were raised about McConnell.

 

Erin Murphy

Ambassador Haley, Nikki Haley from South Carolina, one of the many Republican presidential candidates visiting our state these days, has been saying on the campaign trail that she believes any elected official, any officeholders, 75 years or older should have to pass a competency test. Do you agree with Ambassador Haley on that?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Well, you get a you get a competency test every time the people have an election and vote for you or against you and people aren't going elect Chuck Grassley if they didn't think he was competent to do the job.

 

Erin Murphy

You think that that ballot is sufficient for the…that that's the competency test?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Well, for first of all, if you're going to put that in place, you'd have to amend the Constitution to do it. The Constitution has four requirements to be a United States Senator. And and I don't think the people are going to amend the Constitution to do it. But I think in a democracy like ours, you rely on the voters and the voters gave me a 14 or 15% margin.

I think that speaks for itself better than anything I can say about what Haley, what she’s saying.

 

Brianne Pfannenstiel

You know, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is said to make an appearance in Washington, D.C. next week to help shore up support for continued aid to Ukraine. Is that something that you would continue to support monetary aid to Ukraine?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

As of now, the answer is yes. But I think that in a representative government like we have, you have to always be consulting with the people. I got three and 2/10 main constituents. I think some of them had come up at my town meetings, questioned it, and but I think that that if you believe in the rule of law and if you realize that in a, let’s see, 1993, there was a Budapest Accord.

Russia, United States, England, other countries in Europe thought that Ukraine had nuclear weapons. They should give them up. We agreed to that. Russia signed the agreement to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine. And he's not respecting that sovereignty. And if you believe in the rule of law, you got to you've got to enforce it.

 

Erin Murphy

I'm curious, your respective Senator, when we cover events with these presidential candidates, the Iowa Republicans in the room are largely in large swaths against ongoing aid for Ukraine. And Brianne's outfit, newspaper, has pulled on this as well. That shows a majority of Republican primary voters are against ongoing aid for Ukraine. I'm just curious how you feel that might be influencing this process and these presidential candidates and how Republicans who feel the same way that you do and there are many of the candidates who do can talk to these voters and then come together on this topic.

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

I can only say it the way that I would if you were a constituent at my town meetings. I'd say I'm not I'm only asking you to consider these things. We're spending billions but minuscule compared to what we would be spending if we let Putin go through Ukraine into Poland. And it kicked in Article five of the NATO agreement, and then we would be spending hundreds of billions of dollars and the other 29 countries would to pull together, just like NATO pull together for the United States on 911.

The only time Article five has ever been instituted was that day when NATO agreed that they were going back the United States. Now, we didn't need it in the end because we just had that one day of attack. But they pulled behind the United States when we needed them. And we ought to be we in other words, we we either got to abide by the NATO agreement or get out of it.

And I haven't had Iowans tell me we ought to get out of the NATO agreement.

 

Kay Henderson

Another military issue for people who may not be familiar. One of your colleagues, Senator Tuberville, has placed a hold on nominations for generals and military leadership to advance over the abortion issue. At some point, given the fact that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is fairly soon going to be exiting, do you and your other Republican colleagues need to intervene so that those advancements, those generals can take their jobs?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

There is only one person that has to act to get this job done of getting a successor to Milley appointed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and that's Schumer. He could bring it up for a vote and we'll vote on it and get it filled.

 

Kay Henderson

What about the other openings that haven't been filled because generals are being prevented from advancing?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

I, I believe if we start down this process that if Schumer will move with the first four or five, that’d be the people on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it would settle pretty quickly.

 

Erin Murphy

Senator, we just saw a report recently that said child poverty doubled over the last year, and that was in large part due to the Congress's decision to not extend the increased child tax credit that expired at the end of 2021. Then child poverty doubled in 2022. Was that a mistake? Should Congress look at expanding that child tax credit again?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

You are falling in to accepting the Democrat cover up by using that statistic with what the Biden administration's policies have done to family cost of living. About $7,000 because of the bad policies of the Biden inflation and other tax policies. And that's $7,000. Minuscule compared to what it's done for child poverty. And remember, poverty went down from 12.4 down to 5.5 because of the child tax credit.

And the fact that it didn't have work requirement is the only reason it wasn't continued, because you don't want to encourage people not to be in the workforce. There should be a not a there should not be a government policy discouraging work, because you got to be in the work force if you're ever going to get out of poverty.

And so consequently, it was that helped that made the difference. And you can't have one tax policy being a deciding factor whether or not you're going to have child poverty. So where's child poverty today? Back where it was pre-pandemic. So this was done because of the pandemic. So things that are done because of the pandemic and once the pandemic is over, and that's May 11th of this year, then you go back to what the policy was before that.

Just common sense. But see, the administration had this news conference to emphasize child poverty because they don't want to be talking about their bad economic policies that have increased forever. Even if cost of living gets down to 2%, the cost of living to you as a family is still going to be $77,000 every year into the future.

 

Erin Murphy

Is this is this not maybe a a walk and chew gum at the same time question? Could we not keep trying to address inflation and also look at this tax credit and the impact it had and say that maybe it’s a good thing?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Sure. Have a work requirement with it and we'll probably be able to get something done in that area.

 

Brianne Pfannenstiel

Speaking of tax policy, sweeping Trump era tax cuts are set to expire in 2025. What should follow that if Republicans remain in control?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

Well, yesterday it happened in one of the financial papers of the United States, there was a story about that kind of surprise me that it looks like that Republicans obviously want to extend this just as is beyond 2025. And the and the supposition is the Democrats don't want to raise taxes on the middle class. And so they're going to go along with that.

And right now, there's not much discussion of that. But evidently somebody has been talking to members of Congress or the administration come to that conclusion because they even implied Biden might be in that direction. The only thing I think that maybe you might end up having in conjunction with that, if the Democrats would be controlling the Congress, you might have some increase in taxes on higher income people than is in the in the existing legislature.

But as it affects the middle class and they are you said see, the Democrats in 2017 said this was always a tax cut for the rich. Well, they're acknowledging now that it was a tax cut for the middle class because the Democrats don't want to increase taxes on the middle class. So that would happen without even a vote of Congress if we don't act.

 

Kay Henderson

Senator, you voted against the Inflation Reduction Act. It included some new federal tax credits that are spurring development and potential operation of carbon capture pipelines. If Republicans win the White House and Congress, will they do away with those tax credits or retain them?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

There's no way I could answer that question. There's speculation.

 

Kay Henderson

Do you think it's a good idea.

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

I would only say this, that I had this same question in my town meetings this year in a few of them. And I said, it's not the question kind of came like doing away with that right now. And I said, we probably won't have any tax policy discussion until 2025 because when you put a tax bill together in the United States Senate, you put together a package that's going to have enough support to get 60 votes in the United States Senate.

So it will come up at that time, but not till then. And there's no way I could speculate on whether or not that will come up or not.

 

Kay Henderson

About half a minute left. One more issue.

 

Brianne Pfannenstiel

The President Biden administration just announced a list of ten prescription drugs that they plan to begin negotiating the prices with with Medicare. Is that a good idea?

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

You use the word negotiation. They use the word negotiation. Government doesn’t negotiate. Government dictates. And I'm fearful that that it's going to bring in less money for research on miracle drugs. And CBO and outside groups and even some companies, when that bill was passed a year ago, stopped certain research that they were doing. And I want miracle drugs to be created.

Prescription drugs are too high. And I've got four bills in that will reduce pressure to drug prices. And particularly I support a $35 cap on insulin. But I want I want money available for the development of miracle drugs.

 

Kay Henderson

Senator, I have to cap off this discussion. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Iowa Press.

 

Sen. Chuck Grassley

You bet. Thank you.

 

Kay Henderson

You can watch every episode of Iowa Press online at Iowa PBS.org. For everyone here at Iowa PBS, thanks for joining us.

 

Announcer

Funding for Iowa Press was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation. The Associated General Contractors of Iowa, the public's partner in building Iowa's Highway Bridge and Municipal utility infrastructure.

 

Announcer

Elite Casino Resorts is rooted in Iowa. Elite’s 1600 employees are our company's greatest asset. A family run business, Elite, supports volunteerism, encourages promotions from within, and shares profits with our employees.

 

Announcer

Across Iowa, hundreds of neighborhood banks strive to serve their communities, provide jobs and help local businesses. Iowa banks are proud to back the life you build. Learn more at Iowa bankers dot com.