Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Archives for Chuck Grassley

Report: Trump has told EPA to ‘back off’ on RFS changes

By

Bloomberg News is reporting that President Trump has directed the EPA to table proposals that would weaken the Renewable Fuels Standard.

Governor Kim Reynolds spoke by phone with President Trump Wednesday morning and a few hours later she told reporters in Pella that she intends to keep lobbying on the issue.

“It’s not done until it’s done and if you ever think that it is, you’re mistaken,” Reynolds said, “so you don’t stop until you get the final numbers.”

Reynolds spoke at a news conference in Pella. She was joined by leaders in the renewable fuels industry. Grant Kimberley, executive director of the Iowa Biodiesel Board, said it was “discouraging” to see a federal agency “regressing” on Trump’s 2016 campaign pledge to “protect” the Renewable Fuels Standard.

“I urge President Trump and Administrator Pruitt in the EPA not to buckle in the interests of certain oil companies and refiners, but rather stay true on promises made on the campaign trail,” Kimberley said. “…This is about ‘America First’. This is about American jobs, American energy, national security and, certainly, it’s about rural America and the American heartland.”

Iowa Renewable Fuels Association executive director Monte Shaw said the EPA’s initial proposals weren’t “good news” and it was important that President Trump get that message.

“Quite frankly, it looked like the EPA was looking for just about any and every excuse it could find to lower the numbers for both corn ethanol, biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol,” Shaw said. “It kind of felt like the EPA was saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to put up a giant sign across rural America that says: “Closed for business.”‘ And people got upset. People were disappointed and, to a certain extent, people even felt betrayed.”

On another front, Republican Joni Ernst has used her authority as a U.S. Senator to block a confirmation vote on the man Trump has nominated to run the renewable fuels program inside the EPA.

“Able to hold their feet to the fire on a pathway to receive those strong reassurances on these biofuel volumes and the EPA’s commitment to follow both the letter and the spirit of the RFS,” Ernst told Radio Iowa this afternoon.

Chuck Grassley, Iowa’s other Republican Senator, hosted a meeting in his office earlier this week for a group of Midwestern senators who spoke face-to-face with Pruit about these concerns.

Senator Grassley says ‘bump stocks’ were made legal in Obama administration

By

Senator Chuck Grassley. (file photo)

Senator Chuck Grassley is joining two of his colleagues in the Iowa Congressional delegation in calling for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to take another look at its rule allowing so-called “bump stocks.”

Those devices were used by the sniper in last week’s mass shooting in Las Vegas. Grassley, a Republican, is shifting the blame, saying bump stocks were deemed legal for sale during President Obama’s time in office.

“I would advocate very much for ATF reconsidering their rule,” Grassley says. “I’m quite surprised that something like that would happen during the Obama administration when they tended to have more of an anti-gun attitude than the present administration does or the majority of Congress holds.”

Congressman David Young and Senator Joni Ernst, both Iowa Republicans, are calling on the Trump Administration to quickly review federal regulations on the devices, which enable semi-automatic weapons to fire much more rapidly. Grassley says he’s against making a knee-jerk reaction and will not introduce legislation right away on bump stocks or anything else relating to restrictions on firearms.

“We’re going to wait until we get all of the evidence that we need from the Nevada shooting, oughta’ wait until the police reports are done,” Grassley says. “Just today some new information came out, as an example, and I think that we will move accordingly.” Grassley says the ATF ruled in 2010 that it would not regulate the bump stock device.

“This tends to make a gun that you’ve got to pull the trigger each time you want to shoot a bullet kind of like an automatic,” Grassley says. “If automatics are outlawed, it seems to me like it was ridiculous for the Obama administration in the first place to put something in that would make a non-automatic gun an automatic gun.”

The shooter in Las Vegas opened fire on the night of October 1st from a 32nd floor hotel room window, spraying bullets into a crowd at a country music festival. A woman from northwest Iowa was among the 58 people killed, and more than 500 were injured in the stampede.

Funeral arrangements were announced today for 33-year-old Carly Kreibaum of Sutherland. Kreibaum was a Sibley native, married and a mother of two. Her funeral is scheduled for 10:30 A.M. on Saturday in Sutherland at the town’s community center. She’ll be buried at Waterman Cemetery in Sutherland.

Grassley to feuding Trump and Corker: ‘Cool it.’

By

Senator Chuck Grassley

Senator Chuck Grassley has some advice for President Trump and Tennessee Senator Bob Corker:

“Both ought to cool it,” Grassley advises.

Grassley was quizzed by reporters from NBC and WHO Television yesterday about what the two Republicans said of one another on Sunday. Trump claimed Corker decided against seeking reelection because Trump wouldn’t support him. Corker then spoke with The New York Times and unleashed a torrent of cricitism, suggested Trump “may be setting the U.S. on the path to World War III.”

Grassley told the reporters in Boone yesterday that this very public feud won’t hurt progress on issues like tax reform.

“Definitely not, you see, because the president is in the executive branch and we are in the legislature branch…As long as we do our job, it’s doesn’t matter what the president does, only if he doesn’t sign what we send to him,” Grassley said.”That’s the only place where he’s involved.”

Grassley says he’s got “more important things to do” than try to referee the conflict between Trump and the Tennessee senator. Grassley spoke with NBC and WHO Television after holding a town-hall meeting in Boone.

Young, Ernst seek ATF review of ‘bump stocks’

By

Congressman David Young.

Two of the Republicans in Iowa’s congressional delegation are calling on the Trump Administration to quickly review federal regulations on so-called “bump stocks.” The device was used by the sniper in last week’s mass shooting in Las Vegas.

“I can’t think of a good reason why these things are existing,” Republican Congressman David Young of Van Meter said Friday on IPTV’s “Iowa Press” program.

Young said he had no idea what a bump stock was before last week’s news stories about the product.

“My understanding is it is basically a tool, an accessory to make a legal weapon into an illegal weapon,” Young said. “And so I’m reaching out with my colleagues to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to revisit their ruling in 2010 when they decided not to regulate these.”

Young is not calling for congress to pass a law banning the sale of bump stocks. In the U.S. Senate, Iowa Republican Joni Ernst and a handful of other senators wrote a letter asking the ATF to “swiftly review” its permitting of bump stocks which “turn semi-automatic rifles into fully automatic weapons.”

Senator Chuck Grassley isn’t rejecting the idea the Senate Judiciary Committee might hold a hearing on legislation that would ban the sale of bump stocks. Grassley, though, has said he needs to “think through” the consequences since a bill that clears his committee could spawn a debate on the senate floor on a number of other gun-related proposal.

Republican Congressman Steve King tweeted on the “slippery slope” subject last Wednesday, asking: “How do good people defend themselves from murderers if liberals take our guns?”

The National Rifle Association last week called on the ATF to conduct an administrative review of its prior ruling on bump stocks.

Northey pledges to be ‘advocate…for producers in the countryside’ (AUDIO)

By

Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey.

Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture appeared before a U.S. Senate Committee this morning to discuss how he’d carry out the duties of a top official in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

On September 1, President Trump nominated Bill Northey to be an undersecretary in the U.S.D.A.

“I will be an advocate within the administration for the producers in the countryside,” Northey said to conclude his prepared remarks to the committee.

AUDIO of Northey’s 6-minute opening statement.

Three members of the U.S. Senate Ag Committee pressed Northey to consider lifting the acreage limit in the Conservation Reserve Program.

“Obviously this committee and members of the House will spend a lot of time looking at what the next Farm Bill should have in it for funding and for a cap for CRP and that’s going to be an important conversation,” Northey said. “I look forward to being a part of that conversation.”

A senator from South Dakota asked Northey to consider relaxing USDA rules, so ground enrolled in the Conservation Reserve may be used more often as pasture for livestock. Northey didn’t commit to making changes.

“I would love to be able to work with you and your staff in understanding the needs of your producers,” Northey said, “but I would need to do some homework on that issue.”

The committee’s Republican chairman and the top Democrat on the panel urged Northey to protect crop insurance. Kansas Senator Pat Roberts was first to ask about it during the hour-long hearing.

“Will you protect crop insurance from attacks like premium subsidy reductions, caps or adjusted gross income limits? How will you work to improve these risk management tools for producers across the country?” Roberts asked.

Northey replied: “I look forward to working with you, Mr. Chairman; the committee as well; members of the House to support the very important tool that crop insurance is.”

Roberts, who is the committee’s chairman, told Northey his “boots on the ground experience” as a farmer would be invaluable once he moves into a new role inside the federal government. Northey began his brief opening statement to the committee by emphasizing that his ancestors began farming in Iowa 150 years ago.

“I’m a corn and soybean farmer from northwest Iowa. My farming roots go back several generations on both sides of the family,” Northey said. “Cindy and I raised our three daughters on the farm my grandfather bought in the 1930s.”

Northey’s wife and one of his daughters sat behind him in the hearing room today. Northey publicly thanked them and the rest of his family “who are all sitting in front of their computers at home in Spirit Lake, intently watching this hearing.”

The hearing was livestreamed on the internet. Video of the event is posted here.

Northey, who is 57 years old, was first elected state ag secretary in 2006 and he won reelection in 2010 and 2014. His nomination to be Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation in the USDA. is subject to a confirmation vote in the senate. Senator Roberts didn’t offer up an exact date for that vote.

“We’re going to do that as expeditiously as we possibly can,” Roberts said. “Expeditious and Senate are perhaps an oxymoron.”

None of the senators on the committee offered any objections to Northey’s nomination.

AUDIO Northey and Gregory Ibach, another USDA nominee, answer senators’ questions, 32:00

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley introduced Northey to the committee, saying he was returning a favor to Northey’s family. Northey’s father served as an advisor to Grassley’s first campaign to the U.S. Senate 30 years ago when Grassley said he was not the choice of the “Republican establishment.”

ITEP analysis: richest one percent in Iowa get half of benefits in GOP tax plan

By

A new report estimates 186,000 middle class Iowa households will pay more taxes under plans that are pending in the U.S. Senate. Mike Owen of the Iowa Policy Project said half of the tax cuts would go to the top one percent of wealthy Iowans.

“Under that analysis those tax cuts to the top one percent would average $50,000 in 2018 alone,” Owen said.

That analysis of the Iowa impact comes from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. A senate committee is scheduled to vote soon on a federal spending plan that will lay the groundwork for tax cuts. Seth Hanlon, a tax policy advisor to President Obama, is now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He spoke this morning to Iowa reporters who joined a conference call organized by the Iowa Policy Project.

“I think what we’re seeing is massive tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires,” Hanlon said, “and mystery meat for the middle class.”

ReShonda Young is a small business owner from Waterloo whose “Popcorn Heaven” outlets now operate in five locations. During the conference call, Young said the business tax cuts proposed by Republicans won’t lower her taxes.

“It will not help small businesses,” Young said. “In fact, the budget cuts will hurt small businesses like mine and make us less able to compete with the large corporations that take advantage of unfair loopholes.”

Young is urging Senator Chuck Grassley to vote against the budget plan coming up for a vote in the Senate Budget Committee that sets a framework for the GOP’s tax cuts. Republicans say they’re aiming for tax cuts that will stimulate economic growth. The GOP also argues it’s impossible to determine the full impact of the party’s tax cut package yet because the details are still being worked out.

Grassley says Republican tax plan will benefit Iowans

By

Senator Chuck Grassley. (file photo)

President Trump and Republican leaders are unveiling a tax code reform plan that promises to cut taxes for individuals and corporations, simplify the tax system, and nearly double the standard deduction used by most Americans.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, says the plan would benefit Iowans by reducing individual rates from seven to three brackets, while it would cut the corporate tax rate down from 35 to 20-percent.

“It would try to treat small business and individual farm operations a little more fairly compared to C corporations,” Grassley says. “You’d have three tax brackets of 10, 25 and 35 for individuals.” Under the proposal, the bottom tax rate could increase from 10 percent to 12 percent. Grassley thinks there will be push-back by both Democrats and Republicans to have that stay at 10 percent.

“Why would you want to raise taxes on lower-income people?” Grassley says. “Of course, it would apply to higher-income people, because that’s where even if you’re a multi-millionaire, you’re still going to pay the tax, 10 percent, for part of your income, even though it goes up to about 40 percent overall. But you wouldn’t want to do it at a time when you might already be accused of giving too much tax breaks to higher-income people.”

Grassley says he thinks the tax reform bill will get through Congress quickly and be on the president’s desk by Thanksgiving.

(By Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City)

New EPA document on biodiesel raising alarms in renewable fuels industry

By

The renewable fuels industry is expressing frustration with action inside the Environmental Protection Agency on biodiesel. Monte Shaw, the executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, warns it could have a “ripple effect” on the federal ethanol mandate.

“The president says: ‘I support renewable fuels. I want them to be part of our “America First” energy plan,’ and you have an EPA that is doing everything in its power to come up with convoluted pretzel logic to lower the numbers and to rip the heart out of the RFS.”

The EPA’s administrator yesterday released new reasons for rolling back the federally-mandated amount of biodiesel that must be produced in 2018.

“It really appears that the EPA and Administrator Pruitt know the answer they want, which is to gut the RFS, and they’re just looking around for a justification to do it because (they’ve said): ‘if we have foreign biodiesel coming in, cut the number’ and ‘if we don’t have foreign biodiesel coming in, cut the number.’ That type of circular logic to get you to the answer you want is very frustrating and I can tell you it’s got the renewable fuels industry buzzing today.”

This is “not at all” a positive development, according to Shaw.

“It may be time for rural America to ring the alarm bell and say: ‘Hey, we need a course correction here,'” Shaw says. “‘This is not what we were promised by the president.'”

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, gave a speech on the Senate floor last (Tuesday) night, blasting the EPA’s latest proposal on biodiesel. Grassley calls it a “bait and switch” maneuver on behalf of “Big Oil.” And Grassley says it’s time for Pruitt to “keep his word” and fulfill the promises he made when Trump nominated him to lead the EPA.

Iowa Senators don’t think health care repeal has votes needed

By

Senator Chuck Grassley

The latest Republican-led effort to create a replacement for the Affordable Care Act is losing support in the U.S. Senate and probably won’t even go to a vote.

Both of Iowa’s U.S. senators plan to attend a caucus meeting this afternoon to discuss the so-called Graham-Cassidy measure, but Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says it’s likely already doomed.

“I’d be surprised if it even comes to a vote,” Grassley says. “If what the news is reporting, we’ve lost at least three and maybe five Republicans. What’s the point of bringing it to a vote?” Grassley, a Republican, says it’s a “regret” that the health care situation has ended up this way.

Grassley says, “We’re not delivering on a campaign promise of repeal and replace, although repeal is not a very good word to use because we’re just amending the really bad things about Obamacare.”

The Graham-Cassidy bill promised to shift ACA funding into block grants that would go to the states, while slashing funding to Medicaid and letting the states back away from some federal insurance regulations. Grassley say the original proposal didn’t favor Iowa in the least, but he would’ve supported the latest version.

“Evidently, there was some scoring that was done that Iowa would lose money,” Grassley says. “Now, the legislation’s been changed so that Iowa, over the course of the life of the bill, and it doesn’t sunset until 2030, that Iowa would pick up about $400-million.”

Senator Joni Ernst. (file photo)

Iowa’s other  Senator, Joni Ernst, says the bill, which appeared earlier in the month to be gaining popularity, just doesn’t have the votes it would need.

“People are still concerned,” Ernst says, “and we’ve had a number of our own Republican senators who’ve come out and said they won’t support it.” Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, says more flexibility at the state level is needed in whatever is crafted to replace the Affordable Care Act.

“We know in Iowa, Obamacare is failing,” Ernst says. “We have many folks that can’t afford their insurance on the individual market anymore. We have to craft a way forward.”

Minnesota-based Medica is the only company left on Iowa’s exchange that’s selling individual policies. In May, the company announced plans to raise rates an average of 43 percent next year, but now Medica says it may have to go even higher with the premiums. Those with the so-called silver plan may be facing a hike of nearly 57 percent.

“Obamacare is broken,” Ernst says. “We have to do what’s right for our constituents and that doesn’t mean boxing out our hardworking small business owners, farmers and ranchers, boxing them out of the insurance industry by making it too expensive.” Ernst says she’s “very frustrated” by the situation.

(Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City contributed to this report)

Trump gets ‘enthusiastic’ praise at gathering of Iowa Christian conservatives (AUDIO)

By

Nearly 600 Iowa evangelical Christians rose with enthusiastic ovations when their president was praised last night during the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s fall fundraiser in Des Moines.

Steve Scheffler, the organization’s president, said since he’s not an elected official, he could speak frankly about the “unhinged…socialist, borderline Marxist” Democrats who he said “are doing everything in their power to destroy America.”

“And also, I have to tell you, I know that he makes mistakes, but I am an enthusiastic, passionate supporter of our great president, President Donald J. Trump,” Scheffler said and the crowd rose to applaud and cheer.

Scheffler added, however, that the people he was “the most disgusted” and “angry with” were Republican senators who have openly questioned Trump’s conservative credentials.

“I’ll just name ’em — Ben Sasse (of Nebraska) and Jeff Flake (of Arizona), who could have a nice conversation with the president, but they want to write books and try to demean him and I’m sick of it and the people that live in those states need to find a primary and take them out and put people there that want to lead and make this country great again.”

The crowd cheered those sentiments as well.

AUDIO of Scheffler’s speech, 6:40

Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann blasted two other Republican senators — Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Arizona’s John McCain — for blocking the “rapid rate” of change that Trump seeks.

“I want to be crystal clear about what this party and the spokesperson of this party thinks about our president. We will absolutely stand behind President Donald Trump. We will not waiver. He is our president and we are proud of him as the Republican Party of Iowa, period!” Kaufmann said, shouting at the end his sentence, and the crowd rose again to applaud his sentiments.

AUDIO of Kaufmann’s remarks, 9:00

Congressman Steve King spent part of last week sending warning flares on Twitter after Trump met with the top two Democrats in congress about President Obama’s program that protected young immigrants from deportation. King did not mention immigration or even say the name Donald Trump during his remarks.

“We just elected a president and things are working along with some degree of significant success and some degree of frustration,” King said.

AUDIO of King’s speech, 12:30

King did post a picture of the event’s main organizer on Twitter, mentioning that “Scheffler just mentioned @RealDonaldTrump name and triggered a standing ovation at Faith & Freedom Coalition dinner.”

Iowa’s two Republican U.S. senators spoke at the Saturday night event, too. Senator Chuck Grassley used most of his time on stage to talk about political philosophy and the inspiration for his own governing strategy. Senator Joni Ernst mentioned a few issues, including Trump’s roll-back of federal regulations, like the Waters of the U.S. rule that was unpopular with farmers.

“I am here tonight just to offer you a little bit of inspiration and encouragement because it seems like in the media, all that we hear nowadays is all of the negativity and the controversy, but there have been some really positive steps forward this year. For one, we confirmed a new supreme court justice,” Ernst said, drawing whoops and cheers from the audience.

AUDIO of Ernst’s remarks, 9:00

Oklahoma Senator James Lankford was the event’s keynote speaker. Lankford was a youth pastor for 22 years and he began by talking about leading a Christian youth camp for 15 years before his election to congress.

“Learning how to deal with thousands of juveniles did prepare me better than you would think,” Lankford said, to laughter and applause.

Lankford spent much of his speech, though, urging the crowd of Christians to work “locally and individually” rather than relying upon government to address every societal ill.

AUDIO of Lankford’s speech, 47:30