WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, on Tuesday welcomed her colleague, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, back to the Senate after he tested positive for COVID-19. It was the 87-year-old senator’s first day back after announcing he tested positive on November 17, 2020. Ernst also urged Congress to pass additional COVID-19 relief and the defense bill.
“I want to welcome back my senior Senator, Chuck Grassley, to the United States Senate and our work schedule, whether Chuck is working from his Iowa farm, whether he’s working from his office here in the United States Senate, or whether he’s teleworking because of the virus – Chuck Grassley works, he is always working,” Ernst said.
“Many of you have probably heard the Chuck Norris jokes out there, you know, the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris. Well, we have our own Chuck Grassley jokes too. And right now the COVID is afraid of Chuck Grassley,” she joked. “So we are just very thankful to have him back and in good health and continually working for Iowans. He has just such a tremendous asset to our great state of Iowa, and we wish him continued health.”
Ernst pointed to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ call on Tuesday that Congress pass COVID-19 relief.
“We have people across the state of Iowa and across this nation that are hurting, we want to keep a strong economy. We want to keep our citizens safe and healthy,” she said.
Ernst also called for Congress to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense appropriations spending bill.
“We need to work together to ensure that we get this completed. We have done this for many decades now in a bipartisan fashion, we need to do it again. It includes a lot of provisions that are very good for our servicemen and women. things as simple as body armor for females in a body armor that conforms to the size and shape of a female,” she said.
“So it is vitally important that we are putting our service members there their safety first and getting that over the finish line. So I’m just encouraging our Democrats to come back to the table. Let’s work through these issues,” Ernst added.
