By Robin Baumgarn Dailyglobe.com 

SIBLEY, Iowa — U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley visited Wednesday morning with constituents at the Osceola Community Hospital in Sibley.

State Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan, began the open forum with a question regarding avian flu and federal response. Johnson said Osceola County was one of the hardest hit during the outbreak earlier this year, adding that a faster turnaround was needed on the decision to euthanize infected birds.

“We had the largest outbreak at the time in the nation in this county,” Johnson said. “There’s been a lot of people out there. There’s been a lot of equipment moved out there. There’s a lot of questions about how the federal money flows, not only to the contractors for the USDA but to the producers.

“We weren’t ready for this,” he continued. “If you went out and visited with the neighbors, you’d find out that the stench was terrible because they composted the dead chickens. We’re talking 4.1 million. Also, the fly control was almost impossible. There were residences that were just covered in flies. … They may be small in number, but they are citizens, too.”Grassley noted that at a hearing he attended with the agriculture committee, the USDA agreed that in the event of more avian flu outbreaks, a faster time frame for making decisions on euthanizing birds would be needed.IRS scandal

Grassley was asked about the IRS scandal involving targeting of conservative organizations. Grassley said there was not a link to the White House.“There’s not a smoking gun that goes directly to the White House, which is what we thought existed,” Grassley said. “It may have actually happened, but we don’t have proof of that, and that’s a result of what the Senate finance committee does.”He also said he did not expect prosecutions to occur, particularly against Lois Lerner, an IRS official, in the near future.“I don’t think you are going to see any prosecution by a Democrat-appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia that would make that decision,” he said. “Within the Justice Department, you have a person who was a financial bundler for the president — that means raising big money for the president — (and) was appointed by then-Attorney General Holder to investigate the IRS scandal, and you can imagine what might come out of that just because of the connections I just told you about.

“Whether or not she’s prosecuted will probably depend on when’s the statute of limitations. … If that goes into the next administration, there might be an opportunity for prosecution and maybe others as well. But that I don’t think is going to happen under the political circumstances I just dictated to you.”Iran

Congress will soon take action on a nuclear agreement with Iran. One citizen questioned the timeframe for Congress to review the agreement when the legislators are currently on break until Labor Day.Grassley noted that Congress passed special legislation to be able to read the agreement prior to a vote. He said Congress was given two months to review the document. The agreement will need to be debated after Labor Day but before Sept. 16, according to Grassley.Grassley said Iran and the International Atomic Energy Commission, which reports to the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council, had made one or more agreements that have not been given to Congress for review.“We should have access to them,” asserted Grassley, who criticized the Obama administration for the change in the agreement process with Iran.Following nearly two years of negotiations, Iran would be allowed to return to having nuclear arms after a decade and inspections would not occur immediately, Grassley said. Inspection requests could also be delayed for several days or weeks, potentially allowing Iran to cover up any possible violations.“You can kind of tell that I’m very skeptical about it,” Grassley said. “I haven’t announced opposition to it at this point, but these things are going to be satisfied, and it doesn’t look to me they will satisfy me at this point.“I am going to wait until I get it thoroughly studied, and I probably ought to wait until we get into a few days of debate to finally make up my mind, but you can tell how I am leaning at least.”Immigration

Grassley shared that Obama’s executive order to grant legal status to 5 million undocumented immigrants is currently being challenged in district court by 26 different states. The current ruling on the matter is that the president went beyond his authority in making the order. Grassley indicated that the matter may continue to the Supreme Court for a final ruling.Grassley said he is waiting on the House of Representatives to propose immigration bills for the Judiciary Committee to review after spending time drafting legislature in the past that went nowhere in the House. He said the House was likely to propose a number of smaller bills rather than one large immigration bill, a move he favors.“I’m the head of the committee who handles immigration,” Grassley said. “I made up my mind I’m not going to spend three months on it if the House isn’t going to do anything.”In the interim, Grassley is working on three bills to address potential fraud in the immigration system relating to visas and sanctuary cities.“When I voted for the immigration bill in 1986, we sincerely thought we’d closed the border by stopping the magnet for people to come here, which was jobs,” Grassley said. “For the first time in the history of our country, we made it illegal to hire undocumented workers.“… But you’ve got to remember, only half the people that are undocumented and illegally in the country came across that border. The others overstayed their visa. So, you have to have an exit-entry system. You have to have e-verify … and you have to have more internal enforcement than what we have right now.”Grassley travels the state’s 99 counties annually to talk to voters on issues they view as important. Grassley has represented Iowa as a U.S. senator since 1981.