Senator Grassley holds town hall meeting in Lansing as part of his annual 99-county tour

by B.J. Tomlinson

As a scheduled stop on his annual 99-county town hall tour, Republican Senator Charles Grassley met with a crowd of approximately 70 area residents for about an hour in Lansing Thursday, August 4 for his Allamakee County visit. Grassley answered questions and encouraged everyone to contact him whenever they have any concerns or questions.

Topics discussed included immigration reform, Medicare reimbursement, Social Security, the Zika virus, the closing of the Lansing Blumenthal plant, sustainable energy  and the minimum wage.  Grassley's briefest answer of the day concerned the question, "Do you support Donald Trump?" His answer was, "Yes", but he did not offer any other comments.

Questioned about what the Federal Government could do to help Lansing workers who have lost their jobs because of the Blumenthal plant closing, Grassley said other communities that have recovered from job losses were successful  because of community efforts. He also said incentives and job training are available from the State Economic Development Office; Grassley will write letters of support for grant applications.

He agreed to investigate a report that CSS Industries, who purchased the Blumenthal plant, is owned by the Federal Government. Grassley also agreed to look into utilizing ammunition tax for ATV and snowmobile trails.

After a Waukon resident objected to money being spent on immigrants coming into the country rather than for better health care for the elderly and veterans,  Grassley responded, "It is particularly essential in rural America that we obtain more fair reimbursements from Medicare. The ideal thing to do would be to take money away from high-cost states like Florida, Louisiana, Texas and California, but since they have so much power in the House of Representatives - because they have more representation - it's difficult to get things through the House.  So we tend to add on other things to Medicare for rural areas. The United States is a very inviting nation for people with documents who want to come here. Between 800,000 and a million people come here every year legally and they are welcome; they improve our society and we're a stronger nation because of it."

Regarding concerns about Zika virus funding, Grassley said $500 to $600 million has been available since April for use by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) but doesn't know why that money has not been spent yet. He said a report in the Wall Street Journal Thursday had reported that some of that money is being spent. President Obama had asked for $1.9 billion earlier this year, but  approximately $200 million of that was for a couple of new buildings for the CDC. "I don't know if these buildings have anything to do with Zika. There is a $1.6 billion bill before Congress still sitting in the Senate that has been brought up for a vote twice by the Republican majority and the Democrats won't give us the 60 votes to move it. I don't know why it is being held up."

Grassley did not endorse the proposed $15.00 minimum wage, but did say he was in favor of achieving the highest hourly wage possible, and agreed that too high a minimum wage would create job losses and increased unemployment. He is not sure if there will be an increase in Social Security payments; this will be determined after annual inflation figures are reported.
Grassley said the issues he would continue to work on if he is re-elected include the Judiciary Committee, justice and sentencing reform, patent reform and a Constitutional Amendment requiring a balanced budget like 46 out of the 50 United States have adopted.