Floor Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Senate President Pro Tempore
“Silos & Smokestacks”
Monday, February 2, 2026
I want to congratulate an Iowan today, Cara Miller, on her retirement.
For the last decade, Cara has led Silos & Smokestacks National Heritage Area in the state of Iowa as its president.
For those that don’t know, Silos & Smokestacks is a 37-county, congressionally-designated heritage area that shares the rich history of American agriculture.
Mr. President, I’m going to put a short list of some of the historical things that are in Silos & Smokestacks in the record. I just would like to name a couple of these because there’s dozens of them, and I’m only going to submit a list of about ten.
But one is the childhood home and birthplace of Dr. Norman Borlaug, famous for the “Green Revolution” because of the research that he did to take disease out of wheat and rice, that increase[d] production very much.
Another is the home of Carrie Lane Chapman, one of the original suffragettes. Her home is in Iowa, and that’s one of these sites as well.
Another one would be the Rural Electric Association Power Plant Museum, because [it was] the first rural electric cooperative plant built west of the Mississippi in Iowa.
And then other examples that people can read in the record, so I ask permission, Mr. President.
As a lifelong family farmer, I think it’s important that we celebrate this history that Silos & Smokestacks exemplifies in Iowa, all connected with rural and American agriculture.
The fuel you put in your car and the meals on your table are every[day] commodities that are made possible by the hard work of family farmers.
I always like to remind people that 2% of the people in this country produce the food for the other 98%, and one-third of that production is exported, just to show you how a small group of people [have] led to the social cohesion of the United States, because we don’t have food riots and because food is the backbone of our national security.
From the beginning of our nation when farms were where most Americans lived and worked, and through the “Green Revolution,” of Dr. Norman Borlaug and the development of modern agricultural practices, Cara Miller overlooked Silos & Smokestacks which preserves and displays Iowa’s rich agricultural heritage.
For the last decade, Cara has been dedicated to advancing the missions of Silos & Smokestacks, and, once again, I want to thank Cara for her hard work and wish her well in retirement.
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