Disaster Funding

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, the Senate will soon vote on the disaster spending bill. That bill contains funds for the 2018 hurricanes and wildfires and renews the extra funds for nutrition assistance in Puerto Rico, which is about to expire.

The Senate amendment also expands eligibility to include ongoing Midwest floods like we presently have in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska, but other States will have it as well.

At a time when some families in Iowa have everything that they own underwater and the people of Puerto Rico are facing a funding cliff, now is not the time to play politics with the disaster relief bill.

To my colleagues across the aisle who have been spending a lot of time in Iowa lately as Presidential candidates, if you vote against moving forward with the Shelby amendment, how are you going to look Iowans in the eye and justify a vote against moving this disaster relief bill ahead?

Tariffs

Mr. President, now I will talk about trade. I am calling on the administration, specifically on President Trump, to promptly remove section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico. This will help to clear the path for the USMCA agreement and have it ratified not just in the Congress of the United States but in all three countries.

These tariffs and the retaliations are having a negative impact on Americans. The agreement for Mexico, Canada, and the United States is supposed to be a free trade agreement, but we don't have free trade with these tariffs in place.

As Finance Committee chairman, I look forward to helping the President with this important task. I had a chance to be at the White House with several other Senators on that very same issue. I said to the President something like this: You said you put the tariffs on because Mexico and Canada weren't going to negotiate. They have negotiated. Mr. President, you say that you have a good agreement, and I agree that you do have a good agreement. They negotiated in good faith. Then, wouldn't you think that the right thing to do would be to remove the tariffs so we can move ahead?

Now, one of the important things about this is the situation in Canada more than in the United States. Their House of Commons will adjourn in June for their elections in October. This must be done in the next 2 months. Well, I guess now you would say in the next 3 months, if this is going to be done this year, and I would think the President would want to get it done this year.

Holds Disclosure Requirements

Mr. President, this is my last 1-minute comment. All Senators now have a copy of my letter sent with Senator Wyden's signature explaining the holds on nominations and bills and the disclosure of those holds and the requirements that come with such holds.

After many years of working on the issue, the two of us, meaning Senator Grassley and Senator Wyden, worked in good faith with the leadership of both parties to craft a measure everyone could accept, and it passed the Senate overwhelmingly in 2011.

The last I checked--and this is sad to say--Senator Wyden and I are the only ones that have holds listed in the calendar. Surely, we aren't the only ones who are holding up nominations or legislation.

I urge all Senators to comply with the holds disclosure requirements. I also want to remind our leaders, meaning my colleague from Kentucky and my colleague from New York, that anyone with a hold, meaning any of the 100 Senators with a hold, must give permission to object in their name.

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