The Iowa Standard was able to be included in Sen. Charles Grassley’s Capitol Hill Report on Tuesday morning. Sen. Grassley was asked by another reporter for an update on the USMCA agreement:
Former secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, implored Congress to ratify the agreement earlier this week.
“First of all I want to thank Secretary Vilsack for his statement because he probably has summed it up the same way I would sum it up and I think that Vilsack saying that shows that this should not be a partisan issue.
“So now that we got the tariffs off, the President will be submitting it when Pelosi says that she’s ready for it. I met with her a week ago yesterday (Monday) and had a nice conversation on this whole issue because it starts in the House of Representatives and I think there are some things dealing with labor, environment and enforcement that need to be worked out, but I don’t think those are game changers or blocks to getting it done.
“Her main problem is procedural. She’d probably bring it up this very day if she didn’t have the most new members in the House of Representatives at any time since the 1974 election. You know every day she’s got to negotiate with new members of the House. We’re going to have to be patient until she works through getting them comfortable with it.”
