Grassley discusses ag issues during local stop

Local residents peppered Sen. Chuck Grassley with a variety of questions during a town hall meeting Monday afternoon in Ocheyedan.

The 90-year-old Republican from New Hartford greeted a dozen guests during the event, which was held at the Senior Activity Center. Many of the questions centered on agriculture issues like the Farm Bill.

The quinquennial piece of federal legislation was last passed in 2018 and is due for an update. Grassley expected another extension this year as the new bill passed in the House has languished in the Senate.

The eight-term senator blamed Democrats for the hold up, specifically differences regarding the food stamp program.

"They passed a bipartisan bill in the House and they don't want it in the Senate," he said.

Other topics of discussion touched on implementing a standardized carbon impact score for U.S. farm goods. One farmer in the audience believed doing so would make American goods more valuable abroad.

Grassley agreed there was a need to get everything on a level playing field internationally. When asked if he believed global warming was caused by carbon emissions, the senator sidestepped.

"If I said there was not global warming, I'd be called a denier," he said. "There's no doubt that temperatures are going up because you can measure that. The question is if it's human-caused or not...even the United Nations has changed its opinion considerably on how dire it is."

Grassley cited Al Gore's climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, saying it was alarmist in its claims.

"[Gore] said we'd all be dead by the middle of this decade. Well, we aren't all dead," said Grassley.

Discussion shifted gears to the stability of Social Security. Grassley explained it's funded through the Unified Budget, and though it may seem that the federal government is spending Social Security funds on other things, it isn't.

"Those are separate accounts," he said. "We aren't spending the Social Security money, it's just that it's part of the Unified Budget and it's accounted for."

However, Grassley said long-term funding for the program needs to be addressed before 2032.

"There aren't any Ronald Reagans and Tip O'Niells in the Senate anymore," he said, citing a lack of bipartisanship in Congress. "There's nobody in Washington anymore with the guts they had. It'll be easier to fix it yesterday than it will be tomorrow."

Also addressed were election laws, specifically voter photo identification. Grassley said it's unlikely that Congress would ever pass a law requiring photo voter ID because states have jurisdiction over how their elections are run.

Still, Grassley believes it makes sense to require a photo ID when voting to ensure election security and prevent fraud.

"You'd think everybody would be for photo ID," he said. "What's wrong with needing a photo ID to vote?"

Other topics broached included palm oil imports, sustainable aviation fuel, carbon pipeline, tariffs, grocery prices, meat packer consolidation and national defense. Grassley's visit to northwest Iowa this week concluded his 44th annual 99-county tour of the Hawkeye State. Other local visits on Monday included O'Brien County Ag Supply in Primghar.