Grassley: Congress gives final approval of trade agreements

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

A change in trade policies affecting Iowa agriculture products can’t take place without Congressional approval, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley told Iowan and national media in a press conference following Thursday morning’s town hall at the Floyd County Courthouse.

Grassley responded to a Charles City Press question regarding his claiming in a Feb. 14 news release that a Mexican lawmaker had proposed purchasing corn from Brazil and Argentina in a reported response to President Donald Trump’s administrative policies. Grassley said he spoke with Peter Navarro, President Trump’s economic advisor.

“I said, ‘Remember, when you’re doing these negotiations, you got to consider that if we do something that some other country doesn’t like in regard to trade relations, usually agriculture and the farmers are the first ones hurt by it, so take that into consideration,'” Grassley told the Press. “Up until this point, advising — that’s about the only role we have, because the president does the negotiation. Remember, Congress has the final word.”

Asked if foreign countries such as Mexico would retaliate in response to Trump’s Twitter posts, Grassley said, “They aren’t going to take any action until the United States does something they don’t like, and hopefully the United States won’t do that.”

“Hopefully, any changes to NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) is done by good-faith negotiation,” he added.

Grassley did not address many agricultural issues during his public forum, where Floyd County Supervisor Linda Tjaden had hoped to hear more regarding the Farm Bill, or the Agricultural Act of 2014.

“One of the concerns that I have is that if there is any discussion that President Trump is having with these other counties, and if it goes in a negative manner — there is a direct impact to us as farmers,” Tjaden told the Press later. “I get concerned about what could happen with our trades, our exports and what could happen with our grains.”

Affordable Care Act

The House of Representatives will release the first bill detailing plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, Grassley said in the press conference.

“I think there’ll be a bill made public next week, and I don’t know what it will say, but I think it will have some of these things in there that we’re talking about,” Grassley said, referring to issues like pre-existing conditions and young adults on parents’ health insurance.

Town hall reports

The recent reports of crowded and sometimes hostile town halls across the country are similar to public forums from 2009 Tea Party groups, Grassley said.

“Compared to 2009 and Tea Party people coming around, sometimes it’s easier to deal with some Democrats than some Republicans,” Grassley said. “I went through it last year because I was a focal point of the effort to get a hearing for (Merrick) Garland … and this is nothing compared to those other two instances.”

Although a 10 a.m. town hall schedule prevents some working constituents from attending, Grassley said, he tries to schedule other events throughout the year to be accessible to both students and workers.

“Your question’s very legitimate,” Grassley told the Charles City PAN network in response. “I go to maybe 10 high schools a year, a few Rotary or Lions Clubs a year because those small business people generally can’t come to my town meetings, and then for the factory and production workers, I’ve had a lot of good meetings on the factory floor answering questions … I think over the course of a year I get a good cross section of people, both that can come to town meetings and those that can’t come to town meetings.”

“They are a way for people to express their views to Congress, which is a very necessary part of the representative process,” Grassley said. “It’s a two-way street … Remember, there’s all the letters and the emails and the phone calls that come in, that are equally a part of that process of communication. They’re probably the impact of any town meetings you have, except now they’re a little more vigorous, and a little stronger opinions expressed as well.”

President Trump

“Trump was elected, and now he’s serving,” Grassley said. “So far, almost everything he’s done is the things he said ought to be done in the election, and you ought to remember, he was elected by a majority of the people in a majority of the states, and he’s in office now, and he’s only been in office for 33 days. I don’t know whether people should make too quick of a judgement of how he’s going to be.”

“There’s a lot of Democrat obstruction,” Grassley later said. “This is the longest it’s taken to get a Cabinet in place since George Washington. The process is not going very smoothly, and it’s going to be a long time before we get the entire Cabinet picked.”

Grassley also addressed concerns over the price of Trump’s three weekend visits to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida golf estate.

“Maybe in six months I’d be willing to (look into) it, but I would want to compare it to what other presidents have done,” Grassley said. “I think most of what you’re talking about is travel in the airplane, but don’t forget, that’s probably a small part of it compared to Secret Service and all the other stuff that goes on to protect the president.”

Freedom of press

“I said very clearly the press is not an enemy, but also, I think it’s fair to say if they are willing to admit that they vote 90 percent for a Democratic president for president of the United States, it might be reasonable to question whether they’re unbiased or not,” Grassley said.

In the town hall, Grassley told the public that 93 percent of “Washington establishment journalists” had admitted in a survey they voted for Democratic candidates. When questioned in the press conference for the source of the statistic, Grassley did not say where it came from.

“I think there’s a recent statistic and I think there’s a 1990s statistic,” Grassley said. “We’ll be glad to find it.”

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