Chuck Grassley

Mr. President, Procedure · 34 wordsmy colleagues know that I come to the floor quite often to talk about the issue of ethanol and the benefits of E15 for the State of Iowa but also for the whole country.Procedure Positioning · 32 wordsSo I would remind my colleagues that year-round E15 does, in fact, benefit people across the country even though Iowans probably talk about it more than any other State in the Nation.Positioning Claims · 134 wordsIt benefits not only consumers, who can see, at least sometimes, 40 cents per gallon in savings at the gas pump, ¹but I want to also remind you that farmers in every State benefit because, you see, the only grain in the United States that grows in all 50 States is corn.² Corn produces ethanol and is the key to American-grown fuel we call E15. America is the largest producer of corn in the world.³ While my home State of Iowa grows the most corn, farmers across the Midwest in this country benefit from permanent year-round E15. Economists have estimated that it would put $14 billion more in the economy through the increased price of corn.⁴ In addition, then, passing year-round E15 helps every State by adding $25.8 billion to the gross domestic product.⁵ Positioning · 18 wordsIt is good for consumers’ pocketbooks, for our environment, for our rural communities, and for our national security.Positioning Claims · 53 wordsNow I am going to turn to something that I am asking President Trump to do because he has done similar things--from chips for China--or President Nixon 55 years ago did it for the consumers of America when he put embargoes on soybeans.⁶ Another key way to help farmers is lowering diesel prices. The ask · 25 wordsSo along the lines of embargoes I just talked about, I encourage President Trump to put a temporary embargo on diesel exports through Executive action. Positioning · 11 wordsIt will help family farmers who feed and fuel the world.Positioning Claims · 37 wordsI have recently been reading some commentary, probably from Big Oil, where it is very difficult--because there are different kinds of diesel, that it might be difficult to separate it from exports and things of that nature. Reasoning · 27 wordsSo another way Big Oil could handle this would be to just sell diesel in the United States at a cheaper price than you sell it overseas. Promise · 30 wordsI am going to continue pushing to give farmers and consumers across the country the stability they deserve by making year-round E15 permanent and finding ways to lower diesel prices.Vague promise Procedure · 4 wordsI yield the floor.Procedure