Floor Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Senate President Pro Tempore
“Affordability”
Monday, April 13, 2026
As I travelled Iowa during this Easter recess, holding Q&As in 25 counties, I ran into what I think all my colleagues do: concern about inflation.
We have to remember that inflation let loose by the reckless spending policies of the Biden administration has proven to be anything but transitory. And that word “transitory,” we heard so much during the previous administration.
And remember, [inflation] shot up to 9%. It’s still not low enough.
Inflation endures to this day, acting as a hidden tax on working-class Americans. While inflation is well down from the 40-year high that we knew throughout history, that’s of little comfort to working families struggling to make ends meet.
In the first six months of this new administration, Republicans led Congress, acting early to shield Americans battling rising prices from the additional burden of a record tax hike that would have happened if we had not intervened.
The Working Families Tax [Cuts] Act prevented the largest tax increase in our nation’s history.
It also included additional working-class tax cuts.
As a result, for working men and women, the average tax refund is up 11% over last year.
Moreover, thanks to no tax on tips and overtime, workers keep more of the hard-earned dollars with each paycheck, as the taxman takes less. This means Americans have more money in their pockets to provide for their families.
Still, much work remains to be done. And, with other colleagues, we’re addressing the rising cost of living. We’re all working to lower costs on health care, food, gasoline and housing, to name a few.
Congress recently passed reforms to rein in the powerful drug middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers, “PBMs,” for short. This will lower drug costs.
Now, more needs to be done in the area of getting prescription drugs’ [prices] down, but what we did about a month ago with PBMs, through more transparency, should lead to lower drug costs.
But, out of [the] bills I’ve introduced, there’s still several more provisions dealing with pharmacy benefit managers that we need to pass.
I’m also working to increase access to more affordable health insurance plans, increase competition and access to cheaper drugs and establish health care price transparency, which works very well for consumers that want to look to the marketplace.
There’s a wide variety of prices for a lot of operations and a lot of other health care costs. If people would compare prices, they could save a lot of money.
Another area of focus for me is the cost of groceries. We can lower food costs by supporting American agriculture and passing a Farm Bill.
Farmers have been hit by a sharp rise in [the] cost [of] their inputs which, eventually, a consumer pays for. Reducing these costs through transparency and competition on inputs such as fertilizer would also help ease food prices.
In this area, I’m happy to read that finally, the Department of Justice is looking at anti-competition in agriculture, particularly in fertilizer and seed companies.
A top priority of mine is enacting year-round E15 legislation. This policy would deliver lower prices at the gas pump and boost the farm economy.
And anybody who believes that E15 won’t reduce prices, you ought to check prices at the pumps in the eight states of the Midwest that have already received permission from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for E15 year-round, in those eight states.
What we need to do is make sure it’s by law, year-round, nationwide.
[The] top of the list of expenses for most families is housing. You know, it used to be that the average first-time homeowner was 30 years old. Today, he or she is 41 years old. We’ve got to get housing costs down for first-time homeowners.
The Senate has passed the 21st Century Road to Housing legislation. This should increase the supply of affordable housing by cutting red tape and unlocking private capital.
Last, but not least, affordability requires fiscal sanity. Fiscal recklessness by the Biden administration caused inflation, and fiscal restraint is the ultimate antidote.
Last year’s reconciliation bill took a step in the right direction by trimming $1 trillion in mandatory spending.
Yet, uncommonly high deficits and mounting debt continue to fuel inflation and put upward pressure on interest rates. To finally stamp out inflation, Congress must recommit to sound budgeting.
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