Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)

Q: What’s ahead in the new year?

A: The appalling violence at Perry High School this week was a shocking and tragic beginning to the new year. Barbara and I join the Perry community, and all of Iowa, in grieving for those affected by this terrible event. Our prayers will remain with the city of Perry as it heals. I’ll continue to follow the Perry community’s recovery closely and am available to help if any additional federal resources are needed.

In Washington, lawmakers will return to a full plate of unfinished business, including must-pass legislation to fund the government through September 30. Congress divides discretionary federal spending into 12 appropriations bills that pay for government services and programs, from agriculture, to health care, national security and disaster assistance. Last year, the White House and Congress failed to reach agreement on federal spending and adopted short-term extensions that will expire on January 18 and February 2, respectively.

Iowans regularly tell me how fed up they are with business as usual that keeps Washington operating at the edge of a fiscal cliff, lurching from one potential government shutdown to the next. It’s time to stop teeter-tottering from one deadline to another and get the job done. In addition to approving the dozen appropriations measures, Congress also will consider a national security package that includes Republican-led efforts to beef up border security and tighten immigration laws. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, there’s been more than six million illegal crossings at our southern border since President Biden took office. Think about it. Mexican drug cartels and terrorist groups are taking advantage of the Biden administration’s abject failure to secure the border. As a result, migrants on the terrorist watchlist get into the country and deadly fentanyl gets pumped into communities across the country. The United States of America must put our own borders and sovereignty first. Border security is national security.

Q: What priorities will you be spearheading in 2024?

A: On top of restoring fiscal sanity to the federal budget and ramping up border security, my top legislative goals include passage of a five-year farm bill and lowering prescription drug costs. As a lifelong family farmer and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I bring first-hand experience to the policymaking table and make sure Washington knows what matters in Rural America. Don’t forget, farmers make up only two percent of the population that feeds the other 98 percent. First and foremost, Congress must do its part to tame inflation. Rising input costs and interest rates are hammering the bottom lines of farmers while families across the country are stretched thin to pay for groceries. I joined Rep. Chip Roy of Texas to spell out what needs to happen when Congress resumes work on the farm bill in the new year. In our bicameral letter, we urged the leadership in the House and Senate to be laser-focused on fighting inflation, cutting waste in farm and nutrition programs and curbing foreign influence in U.S. agriculture. Specifically, Congress needs to fix overpayments in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). With a $1.2 trillion price tag and growing overpayment rate, Congress can’t afford to keep SNAP on auto-pilot and must return the program to its pre-pandemic levels. Secondly, the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) has turned into a bureaucratic slush fund for the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. By tightening these purse strings, Congress could save $8 billion over the next decade. I’ll continue beating the drum to target farm support programs to full-time farm families to make the best use of limited resources and deliver the benefits to those who put in the work to feed and fuel the world.

I’ll also keep prescription drug costs on the front burner. Momentum is building in Congress to flush out anticompetitive practices in the pharmaceutical industry. Several committees in the House and Senate have passed bipartisan legislation in this Congress to strengthen price transparency and rein in obscure tactics deployed by the middlemen in the drug supply chain. So-called pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) effectively are pushing up drug costs to pad their profits, at the expense of patients, rural pharmacies and taxpayers. For several years, I’ve worked across the aisle, including with Sens. Ron Wyden, Dick Durbin, Maria Cantwell and Amy Klobuchar to expose pricing shenanigans and anti-competitive practices that are driving up drug prices. We’ll continue working to get much-needed reforms across the finish line without harming innovation and miracle cures. Pulling the curtain back on PBM’s would help end a domino effect in the industry whereby drug makers are enticed to inflate prices, push larger rebates, sideline lower-priced generics and get preferential treatment on a plan. Sunshine is a powerful disinfectant. As a watchdog for taxpayers and good government, I’ll keep championing price transparency in our health care system to deliver savings, foster innovation and improve patient outcomes.

As always, keeping in touch with Iowans will continue in the new year, as well. I look forward to kicking off my 44th annual 99 county meetings across the state.