Grassley offers policy positions in Q&A session

Sigourney- As part of his 99-county tour through the state, Senator Chuck Grassley swung through Sigourney on March 21, stopping at Sigourney Jr-Sr High for a question and answer session with students. Grassley’s visit came on the heels of a factory tour in Fairfield, as well as several other stops on his annual tour.

Sigourney students were given the opportunity to ask virtually any question they desired of the Senator, with Grassley often giving candid answers on topics ranging from global warming, to school vouchers, to bi-partisanship. One of the first questions dealt with whether or not Grassley supported “trading” a wall at the US-Mexico border, in exchange for protected status for DACA recipients. Grassley said such an action is oftentimes quite common in Congress.

“Because the way you get things done in congress, you have to put together 60 votes in the United States Senate out of 100. So that’s 60 percent. In the house you have to have a majority. And sometimes if you just put a bill up to have DACA kids legalized, it wouldn’t get 60 votes, and if you put just a wall up, it probably wouldn’t get 60 votes. So, if you put the two together, you can get 60 votes and you may satisfy everybody,” Grassley said.

In response to a question on bi-partisanship, Grassley pointed to a recent study by the Lugar Institute, which he said shows that he is the “eight” most bipartisan member of the Senate.

“I hope I’m an example of that bipartisanship,” Grassley said.

Grassley recounted his tenure as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He said in a four-year tenure, the committee passed 61 bills out of committee 

“Every one of those bills were bipartisan,” he said.

Grassley added that perhaps where people saw the most bickering and hyper-partisanship was in the confirmation of various judges and supreme court justices. He added that he believes the impression from the news media that Congress is dysfunctional is inaccurate.

For more on this story and others, catch the March 27 edition of the News-Review.