Women, several carrying babies, filtered into the pole building first.  Men in work shirts followed, some clean, others covered in dirt.  They found seats at the long tables and waited, quietly speaking amongst each other.  

When the slim man in the navy pinstriped suit entered through the front door, perhaps a bit later than expected, the crowd gathered broke into applause.  

On Thursday, April 13, Gingerich Well and Pump hosted U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, 89, the longest serving senator in Iowa history.  First elected to the U.S. Senate in 1981, he’s been in office longer than half of Kalona’s residents have been alive.

“Thanks to Gingerich’s for giving me an opportunity to meet with all you folks,” he began, once set up with a microphone.  “I accomplish two things by going to a business: you learn a lot of what’s going on in Iowa that you wouldn’t know about it you didn’t go there.  And secondly, in case of the employees of Gingerich’s, if I had a town meeting at the courthouse or the down at the city hall or at the local library, you folks that work for a living wouldn’t be able to come.  So, as part of my travels of Iowa every year to the 99 counties, I try to take in a lot of businesses.”

He then invited questions. 

“I want you to know there’s no such thing as an inappropriate question from Iowans, so don’t be bashful about asking about anything you want to, about what we’re doing in Washington, or how we do it, or why we do it, or about me personally.  All that stuff is perfectly legitimate game as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

Sen. Grassley was asked for comment on the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) ruling on by a federal judge on April 12 that blocks the Biden administration’s new definition of waters that can be regulated under the Clean Water Act, which were extended to include those in non-coastal states including Iowa.  

“Back in the Obama administration, the Iowa Farm Bureau put out a map that 97% of the area of Iowa would be regulated by the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers,” Sen. Grassley said.  “That’s 86,000 family farmers in Iowa that, when they go to the field, need to worry about whether their violating some EPA [regulation].  So obviously you can tell that I don’t think much of it.”

He added that if the WOTUS rule went to the Supreme Court, “I’m not a lawyer, you know, but I can know a little bit of what the Supreme Court might say.  They come under the provision of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution that says, if the government deprives you of the use of your land, or they take it away from you, they’ve got to pay you for it.”

The worker shortage was another issue Sen. Grassley was asked to address.  He offered three potential solutions: legal immigration, Pell grants for students who wish to pursue certification in a trade, and trying to find a way to transition people from reliance on government welfare programs to working without them fearing a loss of income or benefits.

Sen. Grassley was also asked about fraud during the 2020 election and whether there is anything to claims about Hunter Biden’s laptop.  

Regarding the former, Sen. Grassley said, “Once those votes are counted, there’s nothing in the Constitution, even if you find out later that there was election fraud or irregularities, to say that Trump was elected.  There’s just no way to get Biden out except by impeachment.  Or resignation.”

On the issue of Hunter Biden’s laptop, Sen. Grassley discussed how he started investigating Hunter Biden in August 2019, but at the time was accused by the press of “spreading Russian disinformation.”  Now the press has admitted that is not true, but the issue of prosecution is difficult because “Congress doesn’t prosecute.  The Executive Branch prosecutes. Do you think that Biden or the Democrat Department of Justice is going to prosecute?  They should, otherwise they won’t have equal application of the law.  Lady Justice should be blind.”

Finally, a member of the crowd asked, “You’ve been in politics a long time, and you’ve probably seen a lot of things come and go over the years.  How do you not feel completely hopeless?”

“I have great hope,” Sen. Grassley responded.  “I do feel hopeless sometimes, but I never give up, because I wouldn’t be working for you if I did give up.  But I look at the 240-year history of our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and we’ve gone through a lot of things that are worse than what we’re going through right now.”

“As long as we keep the principle of limited government, and the Constitution protects you from your government, and you can do what you want to do within the law, to do whatever you want to with your own life, make out of yourself what you want to make, and you continue to have that freedom, I have hope in America.”

The 34-minute visit ended as it began: with applause.

Grassley1.jpg: Employees and families of Gingerich Well and Pump welcomed the opportunity to interact with Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Grassley2.jpg:  The Senator was happy to field a few questions from the media following the event.