Sen. Chuck Grassley wants Senate to pass ‘clean continuing resolution’ as government shutdown looms

As the federal government faces what would be its first shutdown in nearly seven years at midnight, Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said he hopes lawmakers advance a “clean continuing resolution,” as both parties continue to disagree on health care and spending.

To avoid a government shutdown, which is set to go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, the Senate would need to pass a House measure extending government funding for seven weeks, giving lawmakers more time to get annual spending bills out the door.

But party leaders have been locked in a standoff, with Democrats refusing to vote for it unless they strike a deal on health care spending and the White House considering government layoffs instead of temporary furloughs if the House measure isn’t advanced.

Speaking to reporters on a call Tuesday afternoon, Grassley argued that demands by Democrats to reverse Medicaid cuts included in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” signed by President Donald Trump in July and extend Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire Dec. 31 would cost taxpayers over $1 trillion.

“Just six months ago, these same Democrats voted again for a nearly identical bill, but today they're rejecting a clean funding bill to appease the radical activists in their base,” Grassley told reporters.

Grassley also claimed the Democrats’ plan would roll back the $50 billion Rural Health Care Fund included in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” set to distribute grants to states for rural hospital funding. He said there is not enough time to negotiate the health care spending that Democrats want to see and they can return to those discussions in the next few weeks if a continuing resolution is passed by Tuesday night, adding that a government shutdown would be costly.

“Government is a service to the people. How can you serve the people if government is shut down?” Grassley said. “It costs money to shut government down. I hope my Democrat colleagues will drop their partisan proposal and work with Republicans to keep government open.”

The last government shutdown in 2019 cost an estimated $3 billion in lost GDP, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Grassley: Employers are responsible for affirming immigration status

Less than a week after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested the Des Moines Public Schools superintendent, Grassley told reporters the responsibility to vet the immigration status of employees falls on employers, not the federal government.

On Sept. 26, Ian Roberts, who resigned from his position Tuesday, had his state-issued license revoked and was briefly put on paid and then later unpaid leave after he was arrested by ICE on Friday.

ICE claims Roberts is living in the country illegally and was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge in May 2024.

The Des Moines Public School Board, which hired a company to conduct a background search of Roberts, said the district wasn’t aware of the judge’s final order of removal for him.

But Grassley said it is up to employers to ensure they don’t hire someone who doesn’t have legal status.

“Every responsibility under the law has always been the responsibility of an employer to make sure that they don't hire somebody illegally into the country,” Grassley said. “How would you expect the government to know out of millions and millions, and maybe it's 10 millions of employers in the country … who might be employing somebody illegally in the country.”

The Iowa Department of Education, in a statement issued Saturday, said the Board of Educational Examiners conducted a criminal history check with the state Division of Criminal Investigation and the FBI before issuing a license to Roberts in 2023.

The DOE said it is the school district’s responsibility to affirm a person’s eligibility to work in the U.S., and that it is reviewing the Des Moines Public School District’s hiring procedures “for verifying individuals are legally authorized to work in the United States.”

Grassley also noted that he will contact ICE and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to get more information on Roberts’ background. Later Tuesday, Grassley released the text of a letter he had sent to Noem seeking more information, requesting a response by Friday.

“We're a country of laws, and Iowans expect those laws to be enforced,” Grassley said during the call with reporters. “I've noticed the concerns of some parents in Iowa and schoolchildren in Iowa about this situation, because presumably the superintendent was very well-liked. I'm just sorry for them when they have a role model that it turns out to not be such a good role model.”

Gazette Des Moines Bureau Chief Erin Murphy contributed to this report.