Lessons in legislation

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told a group of approximately 150 students at Nodaway Valley High School Monday that when he holds town hall meetings at various locations such as coffee shops, courthouses, or restaurants, young people aren’t likely to come. So, while only a fraction of the eighth-graders, juniors and seniors gathered at the question and answer session with the senator from New Hartford Monday can vote, he wanted them to be able to hear from him.

Grassley came to Nodaway Valley High School Monday afternoon and received plenty of questions on a variety of topics that ranged from the serious to the light-hearted.

“I come to interact with young people because you’re constituents too,” Grassley explained. “Just like I go to a factory in Roland because those factory workers can’t get off work to come, you try and spread out and kind of get a cross section of people. I do it in the spirit of representative government. If you’re going to have representative government, you’ve gotta have dialogue with those you’re serving, and this is one way of doing it.”

Topics the senator covered in his visit, via questions from students, included spending campaigns, border security, the health and need for rural schools, the appointment of supreme court judges, gun laws, health care, the death penalty, medical marijuana, aid for farmers suffering due to flooding here in the Midwest, wind energy and global warming.

Grassley, who began serving in the state legislature 60 years ago before moving to the federal level, had an interesting answer when he was asked what the biggest differences are between government of yesterday and government of today.

“At the state level, annual sessions. When I started, the legislature met only every other year and we only got $3,000 every other year for serving. Toward the end of my service in the state legislature, we served every year, and they’ve served every year since then,” Grassley said. “At the national level, I would think that things tend to be more partisan now than they were back then but probably not as partisan as you might think they are because controversy makes news.”

While the senator said he thought all of the questions asked were thoughtful, he said questions about the death penalty and Supreme Court justices are questions that were asked that aren’t always asked. He also enjoyed being able to recount some of the biggest accomplishments of his career for one young constituent.

“In 1986, I got the False Claims Act passed, which gave $1 billion back to the federal treasury in the last 30 years ,and that’s money nobody should’ve gotten away with, but they did. I’m the father of the wind energy tax credit. When I got that passed, I didn’t think it would be the big thing it turned out to be,” Grassley said. “I got the Congressional Accountability Act to pass so that laws apply to us. Trade is so important to Iowa, so I’ve been involved in a lot of trade legislation.”

Grassley explained to the media how being a legislator from Iowa in Washington, D.C. works. He says he has a town house not far from Capitol Hill. When asked whether senators or congressmen associate with each other outside of session, Grassley shared that unfortunately they oftentimes don’t.

“Hardly ever. That’s too bad that we don’t do more of that, but if you would study senators during the 30s, 40s and 50s, they probably would’ve, but I think the airplanes screwed everything up,” Grassley said. “When people had to travel by car or plane, they probably only went home two or three times a year. Now, I go home back to Iowa almost every weekend.”

Madi Berlau, a Nodaway Valley senior, shared after the session with Grassley that she really enjoyed learning from the legislator and hearing his answers to the questions that were asked.

“I and others at my school really appreciated getting to hear from someone firsthand who definitely knows what they’re talking about, getting questions answered if people maybe are unaware of where [he] stands on certain things,” Berlau said. “I thought there were a lot of really good questions asked. I thought he answered them very well and I like how he gave examples, especially when there were broad questions. He definitely answered every aspect of the question whether you’re for or against. I really appreciate his willingness to come talk with a bunch of small town Iowa students.”

Editor’s Note: Sara Eddy contributed to this report.