(Audubon, Iowa) – Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley made stops in Council Bluffs, Atlantic and Audubon, Friday, before heading home to his farm in rural New Hartford. In Audubon, Grassley spoke at the Feed Mill restaurant with a small group of farmers and those with Ag interests, as well as a Waspy’s owner Lawrence Handlos & his wife Lois. He was asked questions about the county’s Debt Ceiling and Farm Bill, Reparations “being pushed by the Biden Administration,” EPA control over WOTUS (Waters of the U-S), E-15, the Cattle Bill and the recent U-S Supreme Court 5-to-4 ruling in favor of California’s Proposition 12, with regard to animal confinement operations and the sale of pork and chickens.

Grassley was able to make his planned stops because Congress was not in session. Otherwise he would be in Washington, D-C Monday through Friday’s.  He said he enjoys having the opportunity to speak with Iowans face-to-face.

Grassley said “We have a lot of serious issues facing our country.” He said the Farm Bill get can’t get any traction right now, because it’s tied in with other bills related to the Debt Ceiling.

Senator Charles Grassley speaks at the Feed Mill restaurant inside Waspy’s Truck Stop in Audubon, 5-12-23 (Ric Hanson/photo)

He says “Until we get an agreement on what we call the “Top Line” in spending for all government for the next year, we really don’t know what will be allocated to agriculture.” Grassley says farmers have told him what their most important Ag issues are: Crop Insurance; Increase Ag Research & Foreign market sales; and a “tweaking of CRP.” He said if he can’t get his Cattle Bill passed separately, he wants to include it in the Farm Bill.

Grassley said also, with regard to the U-S Supreme Court passage Proposition 12, he’s in favor of adding the “Exposing Agriculture Trade Suppression Act” to the Farm Bill which would federally preempt laws like those in California. But it must be bi-partisan to get a better chance of getting in the bill. Proposition 12, the “Humane Pork Law,” bans the sale of pork within the state of California unless pregnant pigs are allowed at least 24 square feet of space and the ability to stand up and turn around in their pens. The National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation, which sued in 2019, say the measure violates the so-called dormant commerce clause, a doctrine that says the U.S. Constitution limits the power of states to regulate commerce outside their borders without congressional authorization.

Senator Grassley, a former chairman and senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, began his day, Friday, welcoming juniors and seniors from southwestern Iowa high schools to his fourth annual Federal Judiciary Youth Summit in Council Bluffs. Grassley was joined by Chief Judge for the Southern District of Iowa, Stephanie Rose, who gave high school students and educators a glimpse into the daily workings of the federal justice system. Each high school was invited to bring juniors or seniors to the summit. In total, 13 high schools from eight counties participated in the program with 57 students in attendance.  Students and teachers from Griswold, CAM and Tri-Center were among those in attendance.

Federal Judiciary Youth Summit in Council Bluffs May 12, 2023 (Photo courtesy Grassley’s Office)

From there, he traveled to Atlantic for a luncheon, Q&A Town Hall at the Nishna Valley Family YMCA, where he spoke about the “Stop Pills that Kill Act,” which would implement new penalties for counterfeit pill production.