Grassley expects Branstad confirmation will happen quickly

Sen. Chuck Grassley predicted Wednesday that the U.S. Senate could confirm Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad as the new ambassador to China in a little more than two weeks.

Grassley, R-Iowa, on a conference call with Iowa reporters, said he and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, are prepared to introduce the governor at his hearing next Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And, he said, he expects a two-hour hearing, followed by a vote the next week by the committee.

The week after that, he said, he expects the full Senate would vote on the nomination. Grassley cautioned that schedule might not hold if Democrats were to filibuster, but he added he saw no reason for that to happen.

President Donald Trump announced in December that he would nominate Branstad to be the new ambassador. Iowa's governor has a long-standing friendship with China's president, Xi Jinping, and Iowa has been preparing for Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds to take his place in the likely event that he is confirmed.

The Foreign Relations Committee announced Tuesday that it had scheduled a hearing on Branstad's nomination for 9 a.m. Central Daylight Time on May 2.

The governor is in Washington, D.C., this week for meetings related to the hearings.

Asked whether he had given Branstad any advice, Grassley said that he told him only to prepare for 'gotcha” questions, in the event somebody might want to embarrass him. He added he did not expect there would be such questions.