Senator Grassley's 99 county meetings
Questions have been raised by political entities about Sen. Grassley’s meetings with Iowans during the on-going Senate recess. I’m writing with information about these meetings, which are structured as they have been for years, despite partisan assertions to the contrary.
Sen. Grassley’s had at least one official business meeting in every Iowa county every year that he’s represented the state in the U.S. Senate. Any political meeting or event that Sen. Grassley attends does not count as one of his county meetings. This is the 36th consecutive year that Sen. Grassley has held an official meeting in every one of Iowa’s 99 counties.
The meetings are a mix of formats. There are open-to-the-public town meetings, where Sen. Grassley has Q&A with Iowans on any topic they’d like him to address. He invites comments and questions on any subject. There are also hour-long Q&A meetings planned at high schools, factories, offices, hospitals, and service clubs, where Sen. Grassley is the guest of a local host and, again, invites questions and comments from Iowans on any subject. Sen. Grassley makes a point to have this second form of meeting so that Iowans who are unable to leave work to attend an open town meeting have an opportunity for Q&A with their U.S. senator. He also likes to meet with young Iowans for Q&A in high schools and on college and community college campuses. When meetings are at plants and other workplaces they typically include a brief tour, but the vast majority of the time is spent in Q&A with a gathering of employees, which is sometimes hundreds of Iowans.
Every county meeting of Sen. Grassley’s is scheduled with 15 minutes after the meeting for media availability with local reporters before he heads to the next meeting.
The open town meetings are announced in a news release. Here’s the news release for this recess’ open town meetings: http://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-hold-three-town-meetings-northwest-iowa
In addition to the three open town meetings, during this recess Sen. Grassley is holding 16 meetings at two local schools, 10 businesses and factories, two hospitals, a community roundtable and a service club for Q&A meetings with Iowans. As stated earlier, these meetings provide Sen. Grassley an opportunity to hear from Iowans who are unable to leave work or school to attend an open town meeting. While specifics had not been finalized, the decision to hold meetings in Northwest Iowa during this recess was made the first week in February, as part of the annual overall planning to travel to every one of Iowa’s 99 counties for constituent meetings.
As a reference point, during the same congressional recess a year ago, Sen. Grassley held four open town meetings and 15 Q&A sessions at local businesses and factories, schools and service organizations. The mix of constituent meetings has been conducted the same way for years and has allowed Sen. Grassley to hear from a cross-section of Iowans.
Sen. Grassley’s office notifies local reporters about the other meetings so that reporters have access to the routine media availabilities following every Q&A session. This approach is designed to avoid confusion about the meeting being hosted by the business, school, hospital or organization rather than an open town meeting.
Please call or email Sen. Grassley’s press office if you have any additional questions.
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