The Iowa Standard was able to be part of Sen. Charles Grassley’s Capitol Hill Report on Monday afternoon. Here is what was discussed:
On Iran and War Powers Act: First of all, we’ve been at war with Iran since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. We’ve seen what damage they can do to our embassies in East Africa. What they’ve done to Hezbollah, to kill marines in Lebanon, what they have done killing an American very recently here. So, the President’s job under the Constitution is to protect the American people and I think that people would expect him to do that. If he’s been involved in killing 600 American soldiers in Iraq, how many more Americans would we wait for (him) to kill? I haven’t been briefed, so I don’t know the exact intelligence behind it. But, if we’re worried about what he did and whether or not there was an imminent threat to the lives of Americans, and the general got away with killing several Americans, I’m sure he would be criticized because he didn’t do anything. Under the War Powers Act, the President has the authority to take the action he took. If the War Powers Act ought to be reformed, or other Congressional approval of the President’s use of military power, certain things ought to be done if people feel that ought to be changed. I’m willing to enter that debate. But I’m not willing to say that the President has done anything wrong at this point. Maybe that will change after I get my intelligence briefing.
On signing a legal brief urging the Supreme Court to weigh in on Roe v. Wade: There is a case before the Supreme Court involving Louisiana law. I’m in support of that case and upholding the Louisiana law. The Louisiana law doesn’t do away with Roe v. Wade and we’re not asking the Court to change their mind on Roe v. Wade. We’re just asking for the Court to give states leeway within Roe v. Wade to make sure that abortions are limited and that they’re safe abortions.
On potential legislation dealing with Missouri River flooding: There’s a lot of things we’ve got to do with the operation of the Corps of Engineers and how they run the Missouri River. I don’t think any laws have to be changed. I was in Missouri Valley talking to farmers about the Missouri River situation. One of the farmers gave a very common-sense suggestion to me. Under the 1964 regulations, until those regulations were changed in the 1990s, there was not much flooding. What has been different? Under the 1964 manual, the No. 1 responsibility of the Corps was flood control. Now, flood control is mixed up with five or six different things. We’ve got to get the Corps back to basically doing what was set up when these dams were set up to protect flooding on the Missouri River. So, we can talk about laws that exist, or laws that need to be passed, but carrying out the original intent of the purpose of the dams on the Missouri River is what needs to be done.
On today’s (Tuesday, Jan. 7) open executive session on USMCA: It’s an actual mark-up to let members speak their minds on it and then vote the bill out of committee and get it ready for the Senate floor. It’s really that simple. And I do expect it to get out of committee. There are a few other committees involved. Normally those committees don’t have primary jurisdiction like my committee does, and hopefully, they don’t take a long time to make a decision. They ought to do what the Finance committee is going to do. If we don’t have impeachment up next week in the U.S. Senate, I expect that we will pass USMCA within 10 days. And if we do have impeachment up, then I expect it’s going to be put off until after impeachment, which could put it into the end of this month.
Reining in pharmaceutical companies: They would be limited to what the inflation rate was, which let’s say roughly is 2 percent for the last 12 months. If they raise their prices more than 2 percent, they would have to pay the money back to the federal treasury. One, to have price increases slower than what they have been within the inflation rate on Medicare. That saves the taxpayers money, but it will also save consumers that pay insurance companies that pay other than Medicare. It will save them money. So, this bill generally was voted out of committee in a bipartisan way 19-9 in July. And, it’s one that can get through both the House and Senate, whereas the bill that passed the House of Representatives would never get 60 votes in the U.S. Senate. This is a very bipartisan bill, saving taxpayers $100 billion. It lowers Medicare out of pocket cost, would lower premiums, would lower cost to commercial market, cap out-of-pocket costs, give people peace of mind, keep price increases within the inflation rate, increases the transparency, maintains market forces, reduces taxpayer subsidies — it is not price control as the pharmaceutical companies are telling you through their paid ads. It’s the first bipartisan reform of Medicare in our generation, endorsed by AARP, the Libertarian thinktank Cato, conservative economists and a lot of organizations.
On the importance of unity should there be foreign conflict: Until maybe 20 years ago, ever since World War II, the philosophy on foreign affairs is that politics ends at the shoreline. Well, for sure in the last 20 or 25 years, there’s been a lot of partisanship and I think it weakens our position and international leadership.
