Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) held roundtable discussions in Scott County, Clinton County and Jackson County. Discussions centered around a variety of topics, both local and national.
Agriculture Economy: Grassley went to Cinnamon Ridge Farm in Donahue to talk with local farmers and food banks. The main topic covered was the agriculture economy. Dairy, corn and soybean prices have plummeted. This is due to an excess of supply and not enough demand to keep up. Normally, people think of low prices as good, but in this case, it strains the economy. Farmers are having to decide between selling their crop for less than the price of production or hold onto it. Dry corn can last for years when stored properly. John Maxwell, the owner of the farm, said farmers won’t be able to wait too long.
“H-U-R-T, hurt, in the agriculture community,” said Grassley. “We need to be cognizant that things are getting close to a pandemic sort of situation in the agriculture economy.”
Maxwell told Our Quad Cities News that Grassley believes the tariffs will help. The idea is the tariff’s placed on other countries by the US will make the other countries stop their tariffs on US products. Then the US will drop their tariffs, and free trade can be accomplished, which would be beneficial to farmers. This is much easier said than done and farmers are currently left with their surplus of supply.
Law Enforcement: Grassley’s stop in Clinton County was at the county offices in DeWitt. He talked there with local law enforcement about Fentanyl, the drug war, mental health and the shortage of recruits. The discussion at the meeting tied those topics all together. Grassley pointed at the new bill, ‘Halt Fentanyl,’ signed into law a couple of weeks ago as a way the US Capital is helping out the drug war. It makes all chemical forms of Fentanyl illegal, according to the senator.
Law enforcement officers hope this bill can help relieve the emotional toll on officers who go to overdose and mental health calls.
“They have hearts, and they do care,” said Sheriff Bill Greenwalt. “When they have to deal with that every day, it does tug at them.”
He said it’s one of the reasons they believe they have a shortage of new quality recruits. Greenwalt said he has noticed the number of recruits drop from hundreds for five jobs when he went through training, to now 20 for the same five jobs. The shortage of officers has added to the strain as departments sometimes have to pick up the slack from others.
“Repeated interaction and repeated dealing and not seeing successful outcomes is very difficult on a law enforcement officer,” said Greenwalt. “We do think it has an impact on how long they can effectively be a police officer or deputy sheriff.”
Nationwide Redistricting: During the day Grassley took a moment to speak with Our Quad Cities News about his thoughts on nationwide redistricting. Texas announced their plans to add five Republican seats to the house, after receiving pressure from President Trump. California governor Gavin Newsom responded with their own redistricting. Now, it has spiraled into including states from across the nation. Grassley believes the country should look at Iowa as the standard.
“You got a perfect example right here in Iowa,” said Grassley. “We have a non-partisan, bi-partisan commission that draws the lines. As long as the legislature approves of it, it goes through. The legislature has always approved, never had to go to the courts. That’s the way Texas should do it.”
Iowa law says favoritism for a political party or incumbent cannot be a factor in redistricting. It also does not allow for counties to be split into more than one district.