George, Iowa — Iowa’s Senior Senator and current President Pro Tem of the U.S. Senate, Chuck Grassley was in northwest Iowa on Wednesday to continue his 2020 99-county tour.
At Grassley’s Lyon County appearance, he toured Sudenga Industries of George, where he was introduced to a number of products made there and marketed worldwide. Sudenga is Lyon County’s second-biggest employer.
The 86-year-old Senator told those in attendance that after the pandemic hit, he stopped doing public town hall meetings to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19. He says people who work in plants like Sudenga may not have the time to come to a public town hall meeting anyway, so every year he does some of his county visits in plants like Sudenga’s.
Grassley was asked several questions at the question and answer session following the tour. They focused on capitol gains, trade with China, what help can be provided for people to attend trade schools or community colleges, and access to broadband internet in rural areas. Grassley says that not much good could come from the pandemic, but that’s one positive — that people who are trying to go to school or work from home, and those trying to access telemedicine have brought to the forefront the need for better high-speed internet service. Grassley was also asked what could be done to stop the “Defund The Police” movement. He told those gathered that it was more of a local issue, and maybe a state issue, but he’d do what he could. Grassley was also asked about a perceived imbalance in the exchange rate with Canada.
Grassley was also asked about the CARES Act provisions to pay unemployment. He says the amount paid should have been done on a state-by-state basis because wages in New York and wages in Iowa are not the same. But, he says, it needed to be decided in a hurry to get aid out quickly, and so they didn’t take the time to customize it for each state. Therefore, in some states, unemployment is currently paying better than a job. Grassley says that’s still a sticking point about the next CARES Act bill.
We also asked Grassley about the United States Postal Service and what the current situation is with the fall election and mail-in ballots. He says people are highlighting the fact that the USPS has to put away money for pensions 50 years in advance. But he says that’s necessary.
(as said:) “They ought to be glad that the money is being put away so when they retire they’ll make sure they got full retirement. There’s a lot of people on Social Security that in 10 years. They may not get a hundred percent of retirement. They may only get 78 percent based on what the law is.”
Grassley admits that there may be problems in some isolated areas with mail-in voting, and he tells us why.
(as said:) “There’s about 10 states or less that their own laws say you can’t get an absentee ballot until maybe a few days before the election. So he says in those instances, not because of the postal service, but because of the state law not getting the ballots out earlier and if they got them out on time and people put them in the mailbox the next day there wouldn’t be any problems, but suppose they drop them in the day before the election. They can’t guarantee delivery in those states. So that’s a problem.”
The man Grassley is talking about is the new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy. Senator Grassley says he doesn’t think the postal service needs money — at least not right now.
(as said:) “Pelosi wants 25 billion dollars more for the postal service. Why? They aren’t going to run out of money until a year from now and then already in the first CARES Act we put ten billion dollars in there. So that gets them well into the next year and then we’re talking about if we get another CARES package… I think even Republicans are willing to put in maybe another 10 billion dollars, but how far out do you fund it with 25 billion dollars and all that?”
He says the reforms that are being made — removing machines, mailboxes and so forth — are reforms that were suggested maybe five years ago, and are to help make the postal service run more efficiently.
He gives us an update on the second CARES Act stalemate.
(as said:) “There’s a lot agreed to but two things that haven’t been agreed to that seem to be holding it up: Pelosi wanting six hundred dollars more for unemployment versus the Senate bill of 200 and then how much more money should go to state governments for lost revenue because of the virus. If we get agreement on that, I think we’ll have something.”
Grassley’s staff says the stop in George was their third for the day, after starting in Primghar and then heading to Sibley. After his stop in George, he was headed for Rock Valley and Le Mars. The stops are among 17 this week in northwest Iowa.
Photo caption: Grassley visits with Sudenga Industries President Chuck Sjogren about a product they sell. Vice President Greg Ver Steeg is in the background.
