Congress lurched into its August recess when the Senate adjourned in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, Aug. 8. With elections for five of the six seats in the Iowa contingent coming in November, it’s a good time to see how our delegates are doing.
It isn’t a pretty picture.
In the votes that are both controversial and important, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst and Reps. Randy Feenstra, Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn can usually be counted on to go the wrong way. Particularly disappointing is their disinterest in resisting the White House when President Donald Trump asserts authority that Constitution says is theirs.
Some scattered legislative victories don’t change the overall conclusion. Iowans in Congress have affirmed Trump’s worst decisions when he’s deigned to consult them. They’ve dutifully stood aside when Trump has elbowed Congress out of the way. These six Republicans may have been enthusiastic foils to Democratic President Joe Biden, but they haven’t met the moment and provided any check on Trump in any of his frequent detours from what’s helpful for Iowa. By design, Congress is supposed to rein in a president who uses his office for personal gain and assumes responsibility for tasks that belong to the legislative branch. This president’s temperament demands an active Congress. These Iowans have instead sat back.
Republicans make Congress a subservient, not independent, branch
Eighteen days into Trump’s second term, this editorial board was aghast at his moves to ignore the laws Congress passed detailing how money should be spent: “Donald Trump’s White House has made clear that it believes Congress’ instructions are, at most, advisory. If the members of the Iowa delegation share that view ― and none of them has been saying differently ― they should all stop pretending their well-paid jobs are all that important.”
Eighteen months after that, the only thing that’s changed is that the Department of Government Efficiency ran out of gas and Trump lost interest in “feeding” agencies into the wood chipper,” as Elon Musk memorably described the demise of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The U.S. Supreme Court rebuked Trump in February 2026 for imposing worldwide tariffs without permission for Congress, but Trump just moved to set up a similar scheme of taxes on imports. Even though tariffs scrambled agricultural markets, hurting Iowa and its farmers, the Iowa delegation has mostly kept quiet about them publicly.
The apparently indefinite war with Iran follows the same dynamic. No Iowans have been among the Republicans who’ve crossed the aisle in a series of votes to try to re-assert Congress’ role in declaring war. It’s triply tragic: because the war itself has killed U.S. service members and Iranian civilians without achieving anything lasting. Even if the attacks had been a huge success Trump trampled on the Constitution to carry them out. The war has also driven up gas and fertilizer prices in further blows to Iowans.
Iowans backed an awful bill, made little headway on a farm bill
Republicans running for office like to talk about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act because it slashed income taxes. But it also deepened the national debt and included a slew of bad policies that won’t take effect until after Iowans vote this fall. Fewer people will be eligible for food and healthcare assistance. There will be more red tape, more often for people to keep their Medicaid benefits. Tax credits for environmentally friendly and solar power projects will be phased out.
A bill that really could be a boon for Iowa, the three-year-overdue farm bill, continues to founder, in contrast. The Senate Agriculture Committee failed to advance the legislation before the start of this recess after Democrats refused to vote for it.
Todd Blanche vote was another error for Grassley and Ernst
In two final votes before leaving Washington, senators couldn’t agree to debate a bill about photo identification for voters, and they confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche, 50-49, with Grassley and Ernst voting yes.
Blanche was chosen because he seems to see Trump’s personal interest as indistinguishable from the national interest. That should have been enough to earn a rejection from Grassley and Ernst, even if it would have meant Blanche continued serving anyway in an acting capacity. Instead, Grassley gushed that “Mr. Blanche has led major successes in thwarting federal program fraud, ending racial discrimination and restoring the safety of every American.” He claimed that he had shared some Republican colleagues’ reservations about Blanche’s role in a Trump-friendly resolution to the president’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. But Grassley rushed the nomination through his Judiciary Committee after Blanche made a few concessions.
Don’t lose track of how disappointing the delegation has been
The start of the Iran war was the last time the members of the Iowa delegation found a truly novel way to show off its determination to always give Trump his way. But their fecklessness should not fade from our consciousness just because it’s become familiar. The people we send to Congress should stand up for our interests above all else, and defend their branch’s independence as another priority. That would take mettle, unlike being the president’s cheerleaders.
Lucas Grundmeier, on behalf of the Register’s editorial board
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa delegation keeps proving it’ll never push back on Trump | Opinion
Reporting by The Register’s editorial, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By The Register's editorial, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
