News : Grassley answers questions from VSHS students

VSHS teachers Kelly Steffen and Kyle Engdahl with Sen. Charles Grassley.

Senator Charles Grassley speaks to 60 VSHS government and history students Monday morning.

The Vike of the Week won't use the parking space at Vinton-Shellsburg High School this week.

That's because he works in Washington, D.C.and has not been a student in high school for 60 years.

Sen. Charles Grassley received the honorary "Vike of the Week" T-shirt after speaking to approximately 60 students in the choir room on Monday morning.

A request via Twitter from VSHS teacher Kyle Engdahl was part of the reason for Grassley's visit to the school. The Senator spent most of the time answering questions from the students (and a few from teachers and administrators).

Kelly Steffen, another VSHS teacher who helped bring Grassley to the school, said that Josie Rundlett, a V-S alum and former intern for Sen. Grassley, suggested that he visit our high school and gave the Senator Steffen's name as the contact person. Last week, Mr. Engdahl demonstrated to the students that Sen Grassley could be reached via Twitter, in preparation for his visit.

Oversight

One student asked Grassley about his favorite part of his job. Grassley replied that his favorite part of the job was meeting with Iowans. But he said that in Washington, one of the most important jobs of Senators is "oversight," or making sure that the agencies of the federal government are doing what the law intended for them to do.

The Senator offered a current example from recent headlines. He told the students that on Sunday, he was on television, talking about his investigation into an apparent ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) sting operation that turned out badly. He told the students how the government agency tried to catch Mexican drug cartel leaders by authorizing illegal shipments of guns to them, and tracking those guns. However, some of those weapons were seemingly used to kill a border patrol agent.

Delegate or trustee?

Student Bradley Bergen asked Grassley a question right out of a civics textbook: Are you a delegate or a trustee?

Neither, replied the Senator, who used the word "representative" to describe his philosophy.

A delegate is one who casts votes based on what the people want; a trustee makes his or her decisions based more on their own ideas.

Grassley said that with just two exceptions, he believes in being a representative -- in doing what the people say they want.

The two exceptions, he said are:

1. If a politician makes a campaign promise, he should keep that promise.

2. In cases of national security or intelligence, a politician at times must act on information he has, information that may not be available to the general public.

Interns

Grassley encouraged students interested in government to consider applying for an intern position at his office. He has several groups of several interns working with his staff throughout the year, and many of his full-time staff members first worked there as interns.

Energy policy

The first question was about energy and gas prices. Grassley said the U.S.policy should include four things:

1. Drilling here and now for oil. He criticized President Obama for going to Brazilto praise them for their drilling of off-shore oil, which the U.S. is importing, but not supporting efforts to drill for oil at home.

2. Alternative fuels, including ethanol, biomass, solar energy and others.

3. Conservation efforts, including energy-efficiency programs.

4. Nuclear energy.