GRASSLEY: I am asking the secretary of labor to make a prompt decision so that the federal government can assist 850 workers in Iowa who will lose their jobs due to closing of two Electrolux plants, one in Webster City and the other Electrolux plant in Jefferson.
There's a pending request for money from a program called the Regional Innovation Grant Program, designed to attract new business or maintain workforces and create jobs. A nine-country economic development organization called Mid Iowa Growth Partnership made application in February.
The Labor Department should also immediately process any requests for funds from the emergency grant program, the trade adjustment assistance program to help these workers.
I've worked in the Finance Committee to reauthorize the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act. It's been expanded in the last couple years. Those dollars can help workers get back on their feet and find new employment as quickly as possible.
Jason Clayworth?
QUESTION: Yes.
GRASSLEY: Yes. Go ahead, Jason.
QUESTION: I hear there was an amendment to a bill tomorrow that would legally prevent some of the government's top advisers from -- according to some of the memos we've seen -- even discussing the idea of legalizing or decriminalizing drugs.
Can you talk a little bit about that? I understand that you pulled that amendment, but, nonetheless, I wanted to ask you what your intent is with that.
GRASSLEY: Well, my intent on that amendment isn't any different than any other amendments that are coming up. The Congress is setting up a commission to study certain things. And the commission is a -- is an arm of Congress, because Congress doesn't have time to review some of these laws.
And -- and -- and the point is, for them to do what we tell them to do. And one of the things that I was anticipating telling them not to do is to -- to recommend or study the legalization of drugs.
Their -- their program would be what we tell it it is. And one of the reasons that maybe there's -- there are several amendments that I floated around. And I probably only anticipated offering two or three of them anyway. You always circulate more amendments than you want to offer because you want everything on the table because once the agenda goes out, then it's too late to put something on the table without unanimous consent.
So -- and this isn't one of them.
But, getting back to what I started to say -- I got -- digressed there a little bit on explaining how the system works -- and that is that one of the things I think is going to come up is whether or not this commission on making recommendations has to have a simple majority or a super majority or maybe even by consensus. And the extent to which you get a larger percentage, particularly if it's consensus recommendations, you're probably going to get more reasonable and -- recommendations, and probably a narrower set of recommendations.
Actually, this is similar to, for instance, you probably don't remember this, but I was involved in rewriting the bankruptcy laws. Well, we set up a commission in the early 1990s, or maybe it was mid 1990s. They studied for two or three years and made recommendations. And -- and that was the basis for our legislation.
And so, this commission that Webb is suggesting would be a -- a basis for possible legislation in the future.
QUESTION: Would your amendment have even stopped the discussion of legalized marijuana for medical purposes?
GRASSLEY: I think that would not -- let's see. Yes, the extent to which it would be decriminalization, the answer is yes.
QUESTION: OK. OK.
GRASSLEY: Yeah.
QUESTION: OK. Thank you. Thank you, Senator.
GRASSLEY: Yes, you bet.
Let's see, that was Jason.
James Lynch, Cedar Rapids Gazette?
QUESTION: Senator, hi. I was wondering, in terms of the things you're working on in Congress, especially health care and, oh, issues like cap-and-trade and some of the economic issues, I was wondering, in terms of the things you're working, is there any message there, for Congress?
GRASSLEY: Well, I don't know whether you could really put it on any one issue, because I don't know that one of those issues were prominent -- I don't think any of the issues we're dealing with -- with in Congress were prominent in any of those elections, but I think there's an accumulation of things that have gone on since the first of the year that would be a basis for the election.
And most of them would deal with government deficit, government takeover of industry, like General Motors, or partial nationalization of banks and -- and budget deficits and stimulus not working.
GRASSLEY: I don't think it's a referendum on Obama. I think it's a -- it's a referendum on some of this programs -- not that his programs are not well-intentioned, but are they working and, in some instances, are they going too far?
And I think you -- you see it mostly reflected in independents that were supporting Obama. And, actually, independents made the difference in Obama's election. And you see them very concerned about the future of the country, scared and pulling away. And you haven't seen Republican numbers go up. You haven't seen Democrat numbers go down. But in the last three months, you've seen a dramatic drop in the independents.
So I think it's more the impact that it made on independents. It's not -- you mentioned cap-and-trade. You mentioned health care reform. Those may have played a part in people's thinking, but not in and of themselves, only that they are examples of further irresponsible spending by a Congress that's already shown that -- that a stimulus doesn't work and the Federal Reserve shoveling money out the airplane door and -- and partially nationalizing banks or Congress nationalizing General Motors -- they don't see a lot of good coming from it.
And -- and it's the policies that, I think, were a reflection.
Now, I think, on the other hand, I stand by what I just said, but the Democrats, or I should say the White House, saying that it didn't have anything to do with Obama, when he campaigned three days in New Jersey and at least one day in -- in Virginia.
It doesn't say that -- that people are against Obama, but it sure says it doesn't do much good to have him campaign for you.
Does that answer your question, James?
QUESTION: Thanks, Senator.
GRASSLEY: Mike Glover? Ed Tibbetts?
QUESTION: Just a brief follow-up. I guess I'm trying to understand why you don't think this would be a reflection on Obama but it would be of his policies?
GRASSLEY: You know, it's this way. When I have people come up to me, either on an ad hoc basis or in my meetings in Iowa I have, two words that they generally always will spout out, when they are urging me to fight or they're thanking me for what I'm doing -- they say two words: "I'm scared."
They never -- I never hear anything bad about Obama. Now, maybe -- maybe you can read a lot into "I'm scared" as being anti-Obama, but nobody brings up that, you know, the Obama name very often, compared to the words "I'm scared."
QUESTION: And just one other follow-up. Do you think there's anything that happened yesterday that could be applied to Iowa's political situation next year? After all, you're on the ballot.
GRASSLEY: Yes, I think the emphasis upon people that are independents, to pay close attention to independents.
Oh, yes, I think there's another one. Well, not necessarily based on the election, but I think Republicans have to enhance our brand with the voters.
QUESTION: Is there anything that happened yesterday that -- that -- that drives that home -- that point home? Maybe I'm missing that.
GRASSLEY: No, I don't think there's anything yesterday that drives that home. I think that's over a longer period of time.
QUESTION: OK. Thanks.
GRASSLEY: OK. Kerry Cathcart?
QUESTION: Thank you. Senator, if the Democrats can't get a health care bill to the president by the end of the year or if what they come out with, even after early next year, if it's somewhat by Democratic standards watered down, do you expect them to take a very, very heavy hit next fall?
GRASSLEY: No, I wouldn't say -- on health care, no. I think that -- that it's an accumulation of things, and health care is just one example.
OK. Let's see. I've gone through the list, does anybody that I didn't call drop in that I need to answer, or does anybody have any followups?
QUESTION: Back on the health care. Senator, do you think that there's any lacking of leadership on the Democratic side, where they had the 60 votes, that they're -- if they cannot get something out by the end of the year?
GRASSLEY: No. Let me answer your question, and give you kind of a long answer. And I would ask everybody that's listening to maybe review an article by David Drucker of Roll Call, yesterday, where it says that Harry Reid's in no hurry to get a bill done. He's not going to be by any artificial timetable.
And I think that Harry Reid is coming to the same conclusion that the group of six did, after three months -- or during the three months that we were negotiating, that this is a terribly complex issue.
When you decide a policy, as Harry Reid decided some policy here recently and sent it over to CBO, it takes a long time to get it scored. And then when you get it scored, if it's too high, you got to readjust your policy.
And -- and -- and I think he's in a situation where he's finding out maybe what he put together, it obviously takes a long time to score. But it brings me back to some criticism from people in his caucus that were criticizing Baucus for taking so long on the Finance Committee, that -- that they just -- they weren't there at the table and they didn't realize how complex it was.
And I don't know how many times I sat in with meetings on -- with Harry Reid, and he raised questions about how things were going, but he kind of said that, you know, in a sense, he wasn't getting deep into the policy.
Well, he's getting deep into the policy, and he's finding out the same things that Baucus and I knew and -- before we even got into the group of six, and then the group of six found out, that -- that this is a very, very big issue. There -- every time an issue comes up, it brings up other issues you never thought about.
And I'll end with this, by saying that I think Harry Reid's finding out right now that he's in the middle of putting a bill together, and he's doing it pretty much by himself, because I heard other senators that I thought would be in the room and be very much involved in what Harry Reid would send to CBO that said to me they didn't know for sure what he was sending.
Now, they obviously had some input, but they didn't know what that final product was.
So, you know, these are the things I found out.
So get back to -- we're trying to now realize that we did the right thing, when we didn't get things done by the first of August, like Pelosi thought her House ought to get them done by the first of August. And Reid thought we ought to have a bill out of the Finance Committee before the August recess.
It's -- it's -- it's complicated. And they wanted things done -- you know, I said, when they pushed us aside as Republican negotiators and ended the bipartisanship on September the 12th, 13th or 14th, in that period of time, that they wanted it done right now instead of wanting it done right.
Well, I think Harry Reid's finding out that he better do it right. And doing it right takes a little bit of time.
QUESTION: Senator, do you think, if this goes into next year, that it's more or less likely to pass?
GRASSLEY: I think it's a rule of thumb, not just on health care but on anything, any year that it's a little more difficult to get it done during election year than a non-election year.
QUESTION: Senator, this is Christinia from the Hawkeye.
GRASSLEY: I'm sorry. I didn't call on you.
QUESTION: That's OK. I joined late. I was just wondering -- I noticed that you said that you were afraid that the -- the climate change bill was moving a little too fast. Do you think that there will be parallels, or there have been parallels between that and the health care debate?
GRASSLEY: Yes. I think -- I think the parallel goes back to the Friday before July 4th recess that we had. And that Friday, or Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that wasn't well-received at the grassroots of America.
And I found that in my town meetings July the 4th break. And I -- and I think it started waking people up to looking more carefully at the health care reform bill and how much it cost.
And I think you can see, in a downturn of independent support in polls of approval of Obama is starting to go down, at that point...
QUESTION: Thank you.
GRASSLEY: ... and pretty consistently going down since then.
OK, anybody else?
OK, thank you all very much.
END