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Senator Ernst raps U.S. Trade reps take on tariffs’ economic impact

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Senator Joni Ernst.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst says she’s frustrated by comments a Trump Administration official made about the impact of trade disputes. Yesterday, U.S. Trade Representative Peter Navarro said the impact of tariffs was a “rounding error” in an economy that’s the size of the United States and “much less disruptive” than news stories are suggesting.

“It’s basically a slap in the face to our farmers who are feeling the impact of the trade issue and the tariffs,” Ernst told Radio Iowa today. “For him to say it’s just a ’rounding error’ and people aren’t hurting because of the tariffs is absolutely incorrect and it is an insult to folks here in the Midwest.”

President Trump has tweeted today, saying he intends to fix “BAD trade deals.” Navarro, a top economic advisor to the president, is the author of a book titled “The Coming China Wars” and was an architect of Trump’s campaign policy statements on trade. Ernst said Trump made promises to Iowa farmers, too, and she’s urging Trump to wrap up NAFTA renegotiations and resolve the tariff fight with China as soon as possible.

“I keep reminding him how badly our farmers are hurting right now and we need these trade deals resolved,” Ernst said. “We want to come out winners, as the president has said, but I’d like to see them done sooner rather than later.”

Ernst issued a written statement yesterday, noting more than 456,000 jobs in Iowa are supported by trade and new tariffs are threatening $977 million worth of state exports.

Grassley says confirmation process for Kavanaugh will be expeditious

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Senator Joni Ernst tweeted a “pre #SCOTUSpick selfie at the @WhiteHouse w/@chuckgrassley”

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley says he has a “favorable” impression of President Trump’s nominee for the opening on the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I’ve been following him on the D.C. Circuit Court and he’s been pretty much a person that believes in the Constitution as basic law and something to protect the people from their government,” Grassley said this evening during an interview with Radio Iowa.

Grassley was at the White House tonight as Trump revealed Brett Kavanaugh was his pick for the opening on the nation’s highest court. Trump said he wants “swift confirmation” in the Senate for Kavanaugh. Grassley, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will lead the confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh.

“We’ll just be very expeditious, but we’re going to do it with certainty to do our constitutional job, so we can’t rush it just for the sake of rushing,” Grassley told Radio Iowa. “We’re going to give due consideration, as you would expect us to do.”

Kavanaugh has been a federal appeals court judge for the past 12 years and has written more than 300 opinions. Grassley says his committee will hire additional staff to conduct a thorough review of Kavanaugh’s judicial record. During a speech on the senate floor earlier today, Grassley criticized Democrats in the Senate who’ve been saying they could not support any of the 25 candidates Trump was considering for the court.

“Just thought it was ridiculous. I think I used the word silliness,” Grassley told Radio Iowa tonight.

Senator Joni Ernst, who was also present at the White House for tonight’s announcement, issued a written statement. Ernst said Kavanaugh is “highly-qualified, well-respected” and someone who deserves “timely confirmation” to the Supreme Court.

Groups in the “Why Courts Matter Iowa” coalition issued a far different assessment, calling Kavanaugh “as far from mainstream as you can get” and “handpicked” to overturn the 1973 court ruling that legalized abortion.

Iowa officials, biofuels industry hail EPA Administrator’s exit

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Scott Pruitt (file photo)

None of Iowa’s elected officials have used the phrase “good riddance,” but they are welcoming EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s resignation.

Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican, had called Pruitt “swampy.” Ernst was among those who accused Pruitt, who is from Oklahoma, of trying to undermine the federal ethanol production mandate.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said Pruitt had lost the public’s trust through his “ethical scandals” and undermining of the president’s promises on renewable fuels.

The new EPA Administrator is a former coal industry lobbyist and Republican Governor Kim Reynolds said she’s hoping he will “honor the president’s commitment to the Renewable Fuels Standard.”

The head of the National Corn Growers Association said it’s no secret farmers have been frustrated with Pruitt, who’d been granting waivers so big oil refineries didn’t have to blend as much ethanol into gasoline. The head of a biofuels industry group said Pruitt had driven “a wedge” between President Trump and his supporters in the Midwest.

Congressman David Young, a Republican from Van Meter, said Pruitt’s exit was “long overdue.” Fred Hubbell, the Democratic candidate for governor, tweeted that he’s happy to see Pruitt go if it means “less scandal and a brighter future for Iowa farmers.”

Cedar Rapids flood management project gets $117 from Army Corps

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The 2008 flooding in Cedar Rapids inundated several neighborhoods with water.

A decade after flood waters ravaged Cedar Rapids, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded the city $117 million for structures to prevent future flooding.

Iowa’s congressional delegation has been complaining for years that the Army Corps of Engineering was bypassing Cedar Rapids as it handed out grant money for flood prevention and control measures around the country. The City of Cedar Rapids has a plan to protect homes and businesses with a series of levees, flood walls, gates and pumping stations along seven-and-a-half miles of the Cedar River corridor.

Senator Joni Ernst announced the Army Corps’ 117 million dollars award for that project. She said: “Hundreds of millions of state and local dollars have already been committed, but what has been missing is this critical federal share of the project.”

The cost for the envisioned flood control system is three-quarters of a billion dollars — and Cedar Rapids officials still need to raise another 350 million for the project. Congressman Rod Blum of Dubuque represents the Cedar Rapids. He says the flood-control project will not only protects personal property and lives, “it also gives business owners peace of mind that their economic investments….will be protected.”

Senator Ernst says President Trump is listening to concerns about trade negotiations

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Senator Ernst, Ambassador Branstad and Senator Grassley.

Senator Joni Ernst and the rest of the Iowa Congressional Delegation recently sent a letter to President Donald Trump expressing concern about the impact of trade negotiations on farmers in the state.

Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, says process for handling trade issues isn’t exactly the way she would do it — but she says she the president does listen. “This president is very, very open and accessible, and more so than the last administration where we had even Democrats, some of my colleagues have stated they had very little if any interaction with the president,” Ernst says.

Ernst says she favors a more linear approach to handling the trade issues. “He is juggling a number of trade deals right now, which makes it very complicated,” Ernst says. “Of course I would prefer that he take up a trade deal, we get that deal done and we move on to the next.” She says in her talks with the president he has expressed confidence he can get the North American Free Trade Deal done by this fall.

Ernst says the president says Canada has been the problem in NAFTA, so they’ve encouraged the president to do a bilateral deal with Mexico while continuing to work on Canada. “Trade is so important for us, so while we have all these trade deals up in the air, we need to have some level of optimism moving forward that these deals are going to get done. So, I want to see action on it. I want to see that we do have NAFTA done,” Ernst says.

Ernst says they continue to remind the president of the concerns of farmers. “I know they are juggling a lot right now — it’s probably not the preferable way for Joni Ernst — but if we can get these deals done, I think our farmers will be doing well,” according to Ernst. “But I am extremely concerned in the short term on what it’s going to do to our markets.”

Ernst and Senator Chuck Grassley recently met with Terry Branstad, who is the former Iowa governor and now Ambassador to China to discuss trade with that country. “The ambassador did give us good feedback. I won’t discuss it openly today because of course we have a number of ongoing issues with China,” Ernst says. She says they also talked with Branstad about North Korea and while they have trade issues with China — China is important in helping to ensure the de-nuclearization of North Korea.

(Photo courtesy of Senator Grassley’s office)

 

Iowa officials, ethanol industry blast EPA over oil industry waivers

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Key members in Iowa’s congressional delegation are expressing frustration about how the Environmental Protection Agency is managing the mandatory ethanol production target.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a slight increase in the amount of biofuels that must be blended into gasoline and diesel fuel next year. However, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley suggested EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt may be violating the law by granting waivers to oil refineries so they don’t have to blend ethanol into gasoline.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst said Iowa farmers aren’t getting the “honesty and transparency” they deserve from the EPA because Pruitt is handing out “an unprecedented number” of waivers. Congressman Dave Loebsack, a Democrat from Iowa City, said those waivers were intended for small refiners in danger of going bankrupt. Instead, Loeback and others in Iowa’s congressional delegation complain Pruitt has been granting waivers to huge companies that are making huge profits.

Trade groups are raising the same issue. According to the Iowa Corn Growers Association, the EPA administrator is granting oil refiners a “back-door” option that has already cost farmers and the ethanol industry more than five billion dollars. One ethanol industry executive said the EPA’s proposed ethanol production mandate for 2019 “isn’t a real number” because of the waivers Pruitt is granting the oil industry.

Senator Ernst says EPA Administration Pruitt is a ‘swampy’ liar

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Senator Joni Ernst. (file photo)

Republican Senator Joni Ernst is calling for a senate hearing “on EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s scandals.”

Ernst, who made the statement last night on Twitter, recently said she appreciates “some” of the regulatory changes Pruitt has made.

“But I’ve got some real heartburn over the fact that he has been undermining the RFS,” Ernst told reporters this weekend during her ‘Roast and Ride’ fundraiser. “I’ve called him a liar. What he put on paper to me, he is not standing by.”

Pruitt served as attorney general in oil-rich Oklahoma and Ernst said Pruitt has repeatedly failed to follow through on the president’s promises on the federal ethanol production mandate. Ernst opposes the so-called “hardship” waivers Pruitt recently has granted, exempting oil refineries from the federal requirement to blend ethanol into gasoline.

“He’s got a long ways to go to repair any damage he’s done in our relationship,” Ernst said, “what little there was.”

According to Ernst, Pruitt “is about as swampy” as it gets.

“He is swampy and we’re trying to drain the swamp, right? Ernst asked rhetorically. “So even outside of the RFS and the fact that we do not agree on the RFS, there are a lot of other transgressions out there that Scott Pruitt has had that the American taxpayer does not appreciate.”

The Washington Post reported Pruitt asked EPA staff and political donors to find his wife a job, That prompted Republicans like Ernst to call on Pruitt to testify before the senate about those actions, as well as his lavish office spending, first-class travel and private security paid for by taxpayers.

Ernst calls talks with North Korea a first step on a long road

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Senator Joni Ernst talks with reporters Saturday.

Senator Joni Ernst says she is “excited about the opportunity” President Trump’s summit with North Korea’s leader presents.

“We have faced a nuclear North Korea for quite a while now. That’s something we don’t want to face and so the president is attempting to address that,” Ernst said this weekend. “Now, it’s a two-way street. The North Koreans have to want to play as well and so we hope that Kim Jung Un will step up to the plate.”

Trump is scheduled to meet one-on-one with North Korea’s leader tomorrow in Singapore and Trump told reporters there this morning he is “hopeful things could work out quite nicely.” Ernst cautioned that the meeting in Singapore is “just a first step.”

“This is a long road, but we hope that the North Koreans will be compliant,” Ernst said.

On the way to Singapore, Trump lashed out at Canada’s prime minister over unresolved trade disputes. Ernst spoke with reporters on Saturday morning — before the dust-up.

“Canada is not good for our agricultural products. They push back on our dairy and if they want to negotiate in good faith, they’ve got to give a little as well,” Ernst said.

Ernst has said it’s important that the renegotiation of NAFTA be completed or Trump may strike a deal just with Mexico. Trump’s blast at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came after Trump, Trudeau and the other leaders of the world’s top seven industrialized nations met in Canada. Ernst downplays the idea U.S. alliances would be easily damaged.

“You have to remember it’s not just the president who works with delegations from other countries,” Ernst said Saturday during a news conference at her “Roast and Ride” fundraiser. “We hae senators. We have congressman. We have the state department. We have a lot of wonderful folks that will work through any difficulties that might seem to appear on the surface.”

On Sunday, Trump’s top trade negotiator said there was a “special place in hell” for Trudeau, who he accused of stabbing Trump in the back by saying Canada would not be bullied by the U.S.

Ernst boosts Reynolds’ bid for governor, calls Hubbell ‘ludicrous’

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Senator Ernst talks to the Roast and Ride crowd.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst is joining her friend and political ally Kim Reynolds in questioning whether weathly businessman Fred Hubbell — the Democratic nominee for governor — has the proper kind of Iowa roots.

“Kim is Iowa through and through and I wish I could say the same about her Democratic opponent, Fred Hubbell,” Ernst said Saturday, “but I can’t.”

Ernst’s fourth-annual “Roast and Ride” fundraiser attracted about a thousand people in Boone Saturday afternoon. Ernst led a long line of motorcycles on a 49-mile ride to the event, with Governor Reynolds alongside, riding on the backseat of her husband’s motorcycle.

Ernst told the crowd the governor’s opponent “doesn’t appreciate” the state. “Fred was asked if he thought that Iowa was the best place in the country to live and what did he say? ‘No,'” Ernst said. “Are you kidding me? We have a gubernatorial candidate…who doesn’t think this is the best place to live. I have never heard anything more ludicrous in my life.”

AUDIO of Ernst’s speech, 22:00

Governor Kim Reynolds and her husband on the ride.

During a debate in late May, Hubbell said voters are “dissatisfied” with the status quo and he disagreed with a recent magazine analysis which ranked Iowa as number one among the states in terms of infrastructure, health care and education.

Reynolds mentioned Hubbell’s remarks during her speech at the Ernst fundraiser.

“Well, Fred, if you don’t think Iowa’s the best place to live, then you just don’t know Iowa,” Reynolds said Saturday, to cheers.

AUDIO  Reynolds after  introduction by Iowa GOP chairman. 9:30

And Reynolds again suggested Hubbell, as part of a prominent Des Moines family, is unable to relate to ordinary Iowans.

“I want Iowa to continue to be a place where it doesn’t matter where you come from, only where you want to go,” Reynolds said, “…a place where hard work and big dreams are more important than famous names and big checks.”

Senator Ernst and Governor Reynolds with their husbands

The Hubbell’s family fortune dates back to the mid-1850s, from investments in real estate, railroads and the founding of a Des Moines-based insurance company. Fred Hubbell has contributed $3 million of his own money to his campaign so far and he’s offered this response to Reynolds’ criticism.

“She can attack me all she wants. My wife and I have had a lot tougher experiences than that and so that doesn’t bother me a bit,” Hubbell said on Iowa Public Television this weekend.

That’s a reference to the couple’s experience as hostages to airplane hijackers back in 1981. Hubbell touts his experience in corporate boardrooms as an asset.

“We’re going to continue to talk about where we want to take this state,” Hubbell said. “You know, she has done a terrible job of balancing the state’s checkbook.”

Hubbell pointed to last fall’s withdrawal from the state’s cash reserves to balance last year’s budget and the mid-year cuts to this year’s state budget.

Iowa Senators not happy with report of retroactive refinery waivers

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Iowa’s two U.S. Senators are not happy about a new report that says the EPA granted retroactive waivers to refineries to allow them to get around the requirements for blending ethanol in gasoline under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley talked about the issue during a meeting at Northwestern College in Orange City. “We’re guaranteed from the White House that these waivers would be hardship waivers only. But there’s been some news out in the last 24 hours that it’s even worse than we thought it was,” Grassley says. “Evidently the Obama Administration didn’t give some waivers somebody thought they could get from (EPA administrator) Pruitt and so for the years ’13 and ’14 they are going back and giving those waivers.”

Reuters reported the story of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt granting the retroactive waivers. Grassley says this is another case of what he calls “detractors” from keeping Pruitt in the position and says he needs answers on paper about them.

Grassley says if he doesn’t get the answers on the items he requested from the EPA head, “then I think it is time for Pruitt to go.”

Iowa’s other Senator, Joni Ernst, issued a statement on the issue saying “Pruitt needs to understand that his actions to continue to grant waivers, now retroactively, to oil refineries is undermining the Renewable Fuel Standard — a program that Administrator Pruitt told Congress he was committed to upholding.”

Ernst a Republican from Red Oak went on to say that the waivers to oil refineries and the delay in on the year-round use of E-15 is undermining the RFS.

(Mark Buss, KSOU, Sioux Center contributed to this story.)