(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he hopes to see the U-S Senate work more in the new year than it did in 2023. He says they only worked two-and-a-half days each week. “That’s not 52 weeks of the year probably more like 40 weeks or 35 weeks of the year. We come in on Monday, start at 5:30 with one vote, work Tuesday and Wednesday go home mid afternoon Thursday,” Grassley says. Grassley is a Republican, and says lawmakers are doing work on the days they are not working or voting on legislation.

“Let me make very clear another aspect of this,” he says, “a senator himself deciding his own schedule probably has enough work for seven days a week. That doesn’t mean you work seven days a week, but he could be busy seven days a week.” Grassley says the Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer needs to do a better job in the New Year of having senators work on legislative issues.

“You can’t make policy if the Senate’s not meeting and the fact that we’re only putting in two and a half days a week gives Schumer an “F” for running the United States Senate,” he says.
Grassley was elected to his eighth term in the U-S Senate in 2022.