GRASSLEY: Most of us in the agriculture community are mourning the loss of Dr. Norman Borlaug. It's easy for us to say that Dr. Borlaug is one of the greatest humanitarians who ever lived because of his efforts, you know, to feed the hungry and help the -- end the cycle of poverty that can be found in history books, and still there's poverty around the world, but there's a lot of people that are living because of his advancements in plant pathology.
What many of us don't often talk about is a combination of science and agriculture that has transformed a lot of countries which have been mired in poverty over a long period of time. It's important that we continue to talk about the biotechnology accomplishments of Dr. Borlaug because it provides a very tremendous success story for challenges that we continue to face with a number of countries not wanting to recognize these advancements in sciences for benefit of agriculture.
As we work to convince these other people to the benefits of genetically modified organisms, we can thank Dr. Borlaug for laying the groundwork for us. It was six years ago when Dr. Borlaug first began using his political skills to convince heads of government that his new biotechnology could help their countries.
We'll keep moving forward with his efforts as agriculture looks to feed and fuel the world.
Go ahead and call the names.
STAFF: Tom Rider, WNAX?
QUESTION: Good morning, Senator.
Senator, we're having problems with China over they're upset at the tire situation and now maybe retaliating against our U.S. agricultural goods. What position should the president and the USTR take with China on this? What should we be doing?
GRASSLEY: Well, I'm going to lay it -- raise it to a little higher level than your question about the tire surtax that we put on or what their retaliating with in regard to chickens. I think we've got to get back to something very basic, and that is their currency. It doesn't float, and that's one of the reasons why they have advantage over us in trade.
We need to put greater pressure on them to get their currency to float. That's going to do more than anything else we can to level the playing field on trade.
I suppose the second one, but still at a higher level, would be the extent to which China is not fully complying with WTO on a lot of things. And, for instance, the enforcement of intellectual property.
We need to keep clamoring on the very, very big things, it seems like, as well as -- I don't want to say unfair trade practices when they subsidize a product -- but those are relatively minor things compared to these bigger policy issues.
STAFF: Gene Lucht, Iowa Farmer Today?
Tom Steever, Brownfield?
Ken Root, WHO?
QUESTION: Good morning, Senator. How are you, sir?
GRASSLEY: Very good. Glad to talk to you. Missed you last week.
QUESTION: Yes. I'm sorry I wasn't here.
I have heard that Congressman Latham has brought up placing a statue of Dr. Borlaug in the capitol as one of the two that can go in from Iowa. I don't know if you've heard of that, but would you consider it?
GRASSLEY: I believe, as you walk down the line of statues -- and every state can have two. And I doubt if -- unless you tell me otherwise, I doubt if Latham is talking about removing one of Iowa's statues and putting Norman Borlaug in place of it.
QUESTION: He is.
GRASSLEY: Oh, he is? Which one does he want to remove? Harlan or Kirkwood?
QUESTION: I'm not sure. Now, did you know either one of them personally?
GRASSLEY: Yes. I was -- I was a veteran of the Civil War.
(LAUGHTER)
And I fought it to Atlanta, you know, and was with General Sherman as we marched through there and split the South up.
But, anyway, they were outstanding people and knew them both well.
But, anyway, getting back to this issue. First of all, I believe I'm going to join Senator Harkin today in the introduction of a resolution recognizing Borlaug and mourning his passing. And yesterday, I gave a speech that you could probably get into the congressional record and read if you want to or my staff could send it to you.
And -- and -- by the way, if you send that to him, send what I actually said as opposed to what was written because I added some things.
Then we'll be happy to send you that. Now, let's get back to the statue because I never thought of that. And I'd compliment Latham for thinking of that.
I'm not -- I'm not sure you've got to remove either Kirkwood or Harlan from Iowa's contribution to the statuary hall because there's been a lot of other statues that have been added that aren't in that collection. If we got one for the populous leader of Hungary, you know, -- for Kossuth -- for Kossuth County, Iowa -- we can surely have one of Bourlaug without moving them.
Now, let's put it this way. Borlaug is one of five people that have won a Nobel Peace Prize, a Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, and the Freedom -- Presidential Freedom Award. Only five people have ever been recognized by all three of those, and the extent to which Borlaug is an American and doing that, it seems to me that he could have a statue of his own.
And a person that has credit with saving a billion lives ought to be able to -- to get that honor. So I haven't thought about a statue. Let me give it proper -- but I believe that one of five people in the entire world to receive all three of those awards is pretty significant in and of itself.
QUESTION: All right. Thank you. And thank you for documenting your service in the Civil War.
GRASSLEY: Yes. I'm glad to do that. And anything -- if you want to know anything about the intricacies of burning down Atlanta, I'd be glad to tell you.
QUESTION: Thank you.
GRASSLEY: Yes.
STAFF: Stacia Cudd, National Farm Broadcasters?
Gary Digiuseppe, Arkansas Radio Network?
QUESTION: Thanks. I just joined the call, so I don't know what the senator might have talked about earlier, but there's a lot of interest down here, of course, in our new Senate Agriculture Committee chairman senator, and I'm wondering how you feel about working with Senator Lincoln in the future.
GRASSLEY: Well, let me give you very positive reviews from the standpoint of her knowledge of agriculture, her contribution to the Agriculture Committee, and what I know more about her -- her contribution to the work of Finance Committee and understanding tax law and trade issues.
She's well rounded to fit into that position. And the only thing that I can say -- and she would understand exactly what I mean when I say this -- she has different commodities and a broader base of commodities than what we have in the Midwest. And she and I have had some differences on capping farm payments to a certain class of farmers -- those that would be average, we'd say. And she would say, well, you don't understand the agriculture of the South. Rice and cotton is entirely different than corn and soybeans.
But except for those differences, I've had -- been on the simple page as Blanche Lincoln. And I intend to stay to the page.
And the old saying is if I agree with my -- with somebody on 95 percent of the issues, I'm not going to let 5 percent that we disagree on stand in the way.
QUESTION: The other question would be her perspective on issues related to regulation. Do you think she's likely to be, perhaps, closer to your perspective on, you know -- we're dealing with reform of the futures market. We're dealing with the climate change such and such. Closer to your perspective than Senator Harkin was?
GRASSLEY: I don't have the slightest basis for making a judgment. I don't know that I've had conversations with her specifically on those subjects in the 12 years we've served in the Senate. We, obviously, have been in committee meetings where those issues have been discussed, but they're so rare that I couldn't give you a judgment.
QUESTION: OK. Thank you.
GRASSLEY: OK.
STAFF: Philip Brasher, Des Moines Register?
QUESTION: Yes, Senator. Continuing on that same vein, what difference do you think -- where do you think she will have a difference in terms of this Congress and going into the next Farm Bill, assuming she's still chairman of the committee? What difference will she have in the direction that the committee or the Senate takes?
And, also, on cap-and-trade as well, does she effect, by being chairman does she have any effect on what happens with cap-and-trade? Two different issues?
GRASSLEY: I think she might bring a different perspective on it on cap-and-trade than Senator Harkin would; not how it impacts upon legislation or the agriculture community generally; not much different than what Senator Harkin has as it relates specifically to agriculture but maybe on a broader issue of how cap-and-trade ought to be handled and the effect -- and the extent it which it ought to be passed and things of that nature.
On the first point that you asked about, I think I've got a -- I've got to take time out on that the same way I did with Gary from Arkansas because, you know, once every five years, you have a Farm Bill up, so you're asking me how she might affect the next Farm Bill. I don't remember -- you know, she was not on the conference committee, at least not in the intense negotiations that I and Senator Baucus were involved with those.
And so I don't -- I'm just going to take a leave of answering that question because I don't have any basis of knowing how she might affect the next Farm Bill.
QUESTION: Well, let me just do a quick follow-up on the cap-and-trade part of that. The fact that she is chairman, does that make it harder for the administration to get leadership to get cap-and-trade through the Senate? Does it have any effect...
GRASSLEY: Oh, I don't think because she's chairman the committee. I think her posture is going to be more related to the fact that she's from the Southeast -- well, I mean, not -- she's kind of central United States, but I think her economy is associated with the Southeast of the United States and a great deal of electric generation from coal just like Iowa and the Midwest is. And I think that's more going to affect her posture than being chairman of the Ag Committee.
STAFF: OK. I've read through the entire list. Does anybody have a follow-up or did they get added late?
QUESTION: Senator, Ken Root here.
Back to Ms. Lincoln. And comments have been made lately about expanding trade with Cuba. The last time I brought this up to you, you said George Bush has got to be out of office before we expand trade with Cuba much.
How do you think it'll go now?
GRASSLEY: I think that there's going to be a big push to expand trade to Canada. And I have the same view I did under -- not Canada -- Cuba. Did I say Canada? I'm sorry.
Let me start over again.
I think that you're going to find a big push to enhance trade with Cuba before this president's first term is out. And I don't think my posture is going to change other than what I've had in regard to trade, and that's medicine and food.
Beyond that, I think -- I want to see evidence from Cuba, from Fidel Castro and his brother, that they're going to bring political freedom and economic freedom to the people. And the best judge of political freedom is to have dissenting points of view expressed and elections.
QUESTION: Thank you.
GRASSLEY: OK. Anybody else?
QUESTION: Yes, Senator, one more follow-up on that.
You said you agreed with Blanche Lincoln 95 percent -- I assume you're talking about agriculture policy, I don't know. But, in terms of agriculture policy, do you agree more with her -- do you find yourself more in agreement with her or with Senator Harkin?
GRASSLEY: Senator Harkin.
OK. Anybody else. OK. Goodbye, everybody.