Chuck Grassley: “after the holiday season it is good to be back to do the people's business in the Senate. We have a lot of unfinished…”

“after the holiday season it is good to be back to do the people's business in the Senate. We have a lot of unfinished business, and we need to do some of this unfinished business right now. I think the American people are looking for the bipartisanship of the post-September 11 environment to continue. I think they are hopeful that a lot of very important legislation will pass, and I hope they are in a position of helping all of us reject political posturing and dueling with press statements. The American people really want results. I guess one would say they want action, not words. Yet we adjourned before the holidays before we could take steps necessary to aid our economy. We did not pass an economic stimulus bill, and we did not pass Trade Promotion Authority. We must do better. We need to pass both of these because they are very central to stimulating the economy, which we always think of being short term, but with the President's authority to negotiate trade agreements, we can have a long-term revival of the economy. I emphasize trade by often quoting President Clinton, who said one-third of the jobs created during his administration were created by trade, which means trade is very important to the betterment of our economy. Generally, trade-related jobs are very good, higher paying jobs. So we did not pass a stimulus package and we did not pass trade promotion authority, although there was bipartisan support for both.”