Grassley says shutdown nearly over

Discussions are open between U.S. Senate Republicans and Democrats to open back up the federal government, according to Senator Chuck Grassley.

The government shutdown, SNAP assistance and agriculture were the main topics during a Capitol Hill Report with the CNA. Regarding the government shutdown, Grassley said the senate was told to be in Washington, D.C. over the weekend as both sides discuss how to amend the budget bill needed to fund government services.

“I can’t speak about the substance, but [Monday] was the first day in a month that we’ve had some positive news that some Republicans are sitting down with some Democrats trying to work out an agreement to open up the government,” Grassley said. “Now, it could all fall through, but I think that we should at least understand that there seems to be some progress going.”

The federal government has been shut down since Oct. 1, making it the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The shutdown has resulted in more than 1 million federal workers not receiving paychecks, with another 600,000 being furloughed.

In addition, there have been delays and shortages with air traffic control, national park sites, Smithsonian museums and the IRS. Many Head Start programs have not received their funding and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are not being given out, resulting in food insecurity for 42 million Americans.

As low-income families work to find food, two federal judges ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration must continue to fund SNAP using emergency reserve funds.

Grassley said that this seems like overstep from the judges, though he did vote to reopen the government.

“There’s about 650, 700 district judges in the United States, and for one judge in Rhode Island and another judge in Massachusetts can make a decision that affects all states of the United States, it seems to me that yes, judicial overreach,” Grassley said. “I voted 13 times over the last month to open up government, and if the government had opened up, we wouldn’t even be dealing with whether or not there’s enough money for people to feed themselves through food stamps.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt siad the Trump administration is fully complying with the court orders but that it may take time for Americans to see the benefits.

“We’re getting that partial payment out the door as much as we can and as quickly as we can,” Leavitt said. “It’s going to take some time to receive this money.”

Regarding agriculture, the sales of soybeans and beef have been hot topics nationally. A deal has been made with China regarding the purchase of American soybeans for the next three years. However, Grassley said dealing with China can be unpredictable.

“If I knew that China always keeps its word, I’d say it’s good for the future as far as you can see, but China’s very unpredictable and we know that they’re supposed to buy on a regular order in the future, but who knows,” Grassley said. “They could stop short of doing that. But the fact that we’re back in the market gives us some hope for the prosperity of the soybean farmers of America.”

However, Grassley has more hope when it comes to the beef situation. He said the beef industry has been loudly against importing beef from Argentina to cut costs for customers, something various senators have made known to the administration.

“[Vice President JD Vance] came to the Republican caucus and six or seven senators spoke up very strongly about how most of the time, people producing beef aren’t making any money. You get a chance to make money and in this case, it’s kind of big money, but we shouldn’t resent cattle people getting big money when they only get it maybe one out of every ten years,” Grassley said. ”The beef producers of the United States can know that their voices are being at least messaged through the vice president to the president of the United States."

Editor’s note: The Senate continues to meet despite the federal government shutdown. They most recently met last night for a 5 p.m. vote. This story was written prior to the meeting and does not contain new decisions from the Senate.