Iowa’s Grassley ‘offended, ‘disappointed’ by Trump’s push to ditch judicial nominating step

DES MOINES — Saying he was “offended” and “disappointed” by what President Donald Trump said about him, longtime Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley this week defended his work guiding the process of confirming federal judges.

In a post Tuesday to his social media site Truth Social, Trump called for Grassley, who chairs the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that considers judicial nominees, to bypass a decades-old rule that gives home-state senators a say in nominees, even if those senators are in the minority party.

Under what’s known as the “blue slip” process, both U.S. Senators from a judicial nominee’s home state — regardless of their political party — must approve of the nominee before the committee deliberates.

The process has been used in the Senate since 1917, Grassley wrote in a 2018 op-ed, and its purpose he said is “to gather insights about judicial nominees from home-state senators and encourage the White House to consult with them before choosing a nominee.”

During Trump’s first term, Grassley and then-committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham ended the blue slip process for circuit court judges but maintained it for District Court and U.S. Attorney nominations.

Trump in his social media post this week said Grassley should ignore the blue slip process so Republicans can confirm their top choices to judicial posts. Trump called the process a “scam” and “probably unconstitutional,” and called Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee “sleazebags.”

Trump also claimed credit for Grassley’s 2022 re-election victory — Grassley won a seventh U.S. Senate re-election by 12 percentage points — and said Grassley should no longer adhere to the blue slip process.

“He should do this, IMMEDIATELY, and not let the Democrats laugh at him and the Republican Party for being weak and ineffective,” Trump’s post said, adding later, “Chuck, I know you have the Courage to do this, DO IT!”

Trump then reposted a series of 13 posts by random accounts joining Trump’s call for Grassley to ignore the blue slip process, including one that called Grassley a RINO — a derisive acronym for Republican in name only.

Grassley responded the next morning during his opening comments at a committee hearing on nominations. Grassley said he was “surprised,” “offended” and “disappointed” by Trump’s post.

“Now to people in real America — not here in Washington, D.C., an island surrounded by reality — the people in real America don’t care about what the blue slip is. But in fact, it impacts in their states the district judges who serve their communities and the U.S. Attorneys who ensure the law and order is enforced,” Grassley said during his opening comments. “I was offended by what the President said and I am disappointed that it would result in personal insults.”

On Wednesday, Grassley’s office issued an additional statement on the topic.

“Chairman Grassley has already successfully moved U.S. Attorneys through committee who have received blue slips from Democrats, including Sens. (Mark) Warner and (Tim) Kaine of Virginia and (Amy) Klobuchar and (Tina) Smith of Minnesota,” the statement said. “When a nominee comes out of committee all 100 senators have a say on the nomination and part of their consideration is based on the home state senators’ input.”

Grassley questions USDA reorganization

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Grassley’s office said he submitted a series of questions to the U.S. Department of Agriculture about its planned reorganization after a committee hearing on the proposal.

USDA last week announced its plan to reduce its workforce in the nation’s capital by more than half and relocate much of that staff to five regional hubs, in North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, Colorado and Utah.

Grassley’s office said he questioned USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden about why Congress was not notified or consulted about the plan ahead of the announcement and asked the agency to share its view on the role of Congress in the reorganization process, including whether Congress may have a role in the transition to regional hubs.

Grassley also asked whether USDA might consider moving any projects or staff to Ames, where USDA already hosts the Agriculture Research Service’s National Animal Disease Center and the National Laboratory for Agriculture and The Environment.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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