(Radio Iowa) – Another deadline to avoid a federal government shutdown looms in September and there’s already bitter division between the two parties over defense spending. President Trump is asking for one-and-a-half TRILLION dollars for the military, which Democrats say is far too much, but Republican Senator Chuck of Iowa says the war in Iran has turned the tables and the Pentagon needs more backing.
“We need to spend more on defense, whether that’s a trillion-and-a-half or a trillion-point-four or whatever,” Grassley says. “We’ve fallen behind during the Biden administration. We got to make it up.” Grassley says there’s an “immediate concern” about America’s stockpile of weapons, especially missiles and ammunition.
“We’ve emptied our war material warehouses about empty and they’ve got to be replenished,” Grassley says. “I haven’t reached a determination on the amount, but we’ve got to spend more than we typically spend.” If there’s a supplemental spending bill on defense, Grassley says he would try to add an amendment authorizing the nationwide sale of E-15 year-round.
“Since the war has increased the price of input costs for farmers, getting E-15 passed would be some help,” Grassley says, “to the tune of $14 billion of increased income for corn farmers.”
The U-S House passed a bill last month that eliminates the E-P-A rule that cites smog concerns as the basis for preventing fuel with a 15% blend of ethanol from being sold during the summer. The bill is stalled in the Senate.
