Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today held his 99th county meeting in Iowa for the 42nd consecutive year with an hour-long public town meeting in Taylor County.
With this meeting, Grassley marks the conclusion of another year in his 42-year practice of holding at least one question-and-answer session with Iowans in every one of Iowa’s 99 counties. Grassley has done so every year since he was first elected to serve in the U.S. Senate in 1980. The hallmark of his meetings are the open-topic question-and-answer sessions where Grassley invites and responds to questions and comments on any subject. Grassley’s efforts to go to Iowans where they work, study and live set a standard for representative government. Grassley also makes himself available for 15 minutes after each meeting to answer questions from local news media.
“Representative government is a two-way street. I’m one half of the process and the people of Iowa are the other half. You can’t have representative government without dialogue between elected officials and the people we represent. I appreciate the opportunity to hold these meetings, answer questions and listen to comments on any subject from Iowans. The cross-section of people I get to meet with during town meetings and in their workplaces, offices and factory floors, in schools and at service organizations, helps me keep in touch and take the common sense of Iowans from all perspectives to work in Washington.
“In 42 years, our state has changed and grown a lot. This year, Iowans are particularly concerned about the high cost of living impacting their family budgets. I look forward to hearing from Iowans at additional question-and-answer sessions as I continue to travel the state to keep in touch, so I can better represent Iowans,” Grassley said.
Topics frequently raised at this year’s meetings included inflation, prescription drug pricing, workforce labor shortages, my Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act, high gas and food prices, bipartisanship, the border crisis, congressional oversight and investigations, high input and fertilizer costs, international trade and rural health care.
Grassley kicked off this year’s meetings in Fayette, Wright and Chickasaw Counties.
To view the full list of meetings this year, check out Grassley’s 99 County Meetings page on his website HERE. To view Grassley’s photos and tweets from the meetings, search #99CountyMeetings on Twitter and Instagram.
