Grassley: U.S. Air Force Academy Selects Jewell Student
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said today that Sidney Jo Alsager of Jewell has received an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., for the 2016-2017 school year.
Alsager is the daughter of Stacy and Jerry Alsager. She will graduate in May from South Hamilton High School in Jewell. Alsager has participated in cross country, basketball and golf. She is a member of the National Honor Society and serves as the treasurer of her Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter. Alsager volunteers at the Jewell Animal Hospital, is a member of Rock in Prevention and works as a lifeguard. She also enjoys fishing and snowmobiling.
“Students work very hard to earn this kind of opportunity. Admission to the service academies is highly competitive and a great honor,” Grassley said. “I wish Sidney well and thank her for her commitment to serve our nation.”
Alsager was among the 41 Iowans Grassley nominated this year for appointments to the U.S. service academies. Upon receiving an appointment, the student then decides whether to attend the academy. Information about seeking nominations can be found on Grassley’s website.
For more than 200 years, these academies have educated and trained individuals to lead and command the U.S. armed forces.
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Grassley Summer Internships Available, Applications Due March 18
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said today that summer internships for college-age Iowans are available, and applications are due March 18.
Internships are available in Grassley’s Washington, D.C., office as well as his offices in Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Sioux City and Waterloo. During the summer there are two, six-week sessions. The first session will run from May 23 to July 1 and the second session will run from July 5 to August 12.
Interns assist staff members with administrative, legislative and communications work, including that of Grassley’s staff on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where he serves as Chairman. An internship allows for a wide range of learning experiences and exposure for students on Capitol Hill. A firsthand account of a Grassley internship can be read here.
Grassley said he encourages young Iowans who are interested in learning more about the government to apply. “Interning in a congressional office is a good way for college students and new graduates to learn more about the legislative branch of the federal government while gaining valuable experience. Internships in my offices are available to students in all areas of study,” Grassley said.
Application forms are available on Grassley’s website and in Grassley’s offices in Iowa. Due to security-related delays in postal mail delivery to U.S. Senate office buildings, internship applications should be emailed to intern_applications@grassley.
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The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act goes by the acronym, CARA, for short. CARA is a bipartisan bill authored by two Democrats and two Republicans. It’s a bill that was reported out of committee unanimously. The bill deals with the opioid epidemic and the follow-on heroin problem. A very important piece of legislation.
Opioid abuse is a real problem out there. A massive hearing that we had in committee demonstrates that. I'm very proud that the Senate has taken the CARA bill up after this public health crisis festered for so long while the Senate was controlled by the Democrats. Tragically, for example, heroin overdose deaths more than tripled from 2010 to 2014.
It's a bipartisan bill that addresses the public health crisis of heroin and prescription opioid abuse. Through the hard work of many on both sides of the aisle, because it's a bipartisan bill, it passed out of our committee, as I said. And you can't say so often, unanimously, because everybody at the grass roots of America thinks everything here is always partisan between Republicans and Democrats. Not when it comes to the opioid issue or a lot of other issues. This bill came out of committee unanimously, and we ought to get it to the House of Representatives as fast as we can and to the President.
In just a few weeks after it came out of committee, here we are working on it; we have the opportunity to pass it. This reflects the Senate working in a very constructive bipartisan way on behalf of the American people and the people who are addicted to heroin and opioids.
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Grassley Continues to Work on Completion of Congolese Adoptions
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley today praised recent progress from the Congolese government in processing the legal adoptions of children by American families and asked for continued review of the remaining adoptions that remain in limbo.
“But while Members of Congress are greatly encouraged and grateful for the progress made, we cannot forget about the nearly two hundred American families who remain separated across oceans from their legally adopted children,” Grassley wrote to His Excellency François Balumuene, the Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United States. “For them, the crisis continues. These children continue living without the loving homes they deserve, while their anxious parents struggle to support them from abroad.”
Over the last few weeks, roughly 200 children received the exit visas they needed to complete their pending adoptions by American families. Grassley today sought continued help from the Congolese government to consider the remaining pending cases. Families across the country, including several in Iowa, have been waiting to finalize adoptions after the Democratic Republic of the Congo stopped issuing the necessary exit permits in 2013.
As a result, the adoptive families face challenges and added expenses of caring for the children who remain in a foreign country. In the meantime, the child’s U.S.-issued visa needed to enter the United States expires after six months. Families must then continually renew the American visas, a process that can cost up to $550 each time.
Also today, Grassley met in Des Moines with adoptive parents Alyssa Walker and Kevin Walker and their children, Manasseh and Sayira, whose adoption recently came through. Grassley’s office helped with the case. The children’s grandparents who contacted Grassley’s office live in Johnston.
Grassley chaired a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee about the problems some families faced in international adoptions from certain countries. He then led through the committee a bill to allow U.S. visa fees to be waived or refunded for families facing adoption delays in any foreign nation for any reason beyond the family’s control. The bill was signed into law on Oct. 16, 2015.
In addition, Grassley and other members of the Senate met with the Congolese ambassador to the United States to discuss the adoption issue and a way forward for these families.
Grassley has championed several other policy initiatives that help families overcome some of the roadblocks that make it difficult to bring a child into a permanent home. His work includes the expansion of the federal adoption tax credit, which is now permanent and indexed to inflation, as well as authorship of several pieces of legislation that improve the ability of children to secure permanent homes.
Grassley's letter to the ambassador is available here.
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Q/A: Public Safety Tools for Communities with U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley
Q: What updates are you proposing to the 2006 “Adam Walsh” law that tracks sex offenders?
A: Many parents in Iowa will recognize John Walsh for turning a terrible tragedy into his life’s mission to save young lives and prevent other families from experiencing a parent’s worst nightmare. His six-year-old son, Adam Walsh, was kidnapped and murdered in 1981. This father from Florida established a nationwide network to help find missing and exploited children. A decade ago, he worked closely with me and a bipartisan group of lawmakers on a measure to prevent sex offenders from exploiting gaps and loopholes in state sex offender registration laws. It was signed into law on the 25th anniversary of his son’s abduction. Getting criminal sex offenders on the grid through a public registry provides school officials, law enforcement officials, neighborhood watch groups and parents with tools to exercise vigilance and take extra precautions to protect innocent children. From my chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I’m steering another bipartisan bill that would extend the authorization for key programs in the 2006 law. My bill renews a federal grant program that provides resources to improve information sharing among agencies and close compliance gaps that allow repeat offenders to slip through the system and target new victims. Moreover, the bill authorizes continued resources for the U.S. Marshals Service to operate its fugitive apprehension operation to track sex offenders who fail to register or re-register. As a society, we are obligated to protect and keep the next generation among us out of harm’s way. Renewing the Adam Walsh Act merits approval from Congress as well as the President’s signature. I am working to secure approval this year on the 35th anniversary of Adam Walsh’s abduction.
Q: How will “Kevin and Avonte’s Law” protect some of the most vulnerable people in our local communities?
A: Families with developmentally disabled children and aging parents often experience challenges that others do not face on a daily basis. For example, it’s common for many children with autism or seniors with Alzheimer’s disease to wander away from their caregiver’s supervision—with sometimes tragic results. I’ve introduced a bipartisan bill with Sen. Chuck Schumer in honor of two young boys from our home states of Iowa and New York. Each boy was diagnosed with autism. Each boy wandered away from a supervised setting. And each boy drowned. One of the boys, nine year-old Kevin Curtis Wills, died in 2008 after jumping into the Raccoon River near Jefferson. Parents and caregivers who have ever experienced the frantic search for a missing loved one with special needs no doubt feel powerless, or even hopeless, if the search turns from hours into days. I’m working to give these parents and families some peace of mind. My bill would make resources available to deploy the use of technology to help unite missing family members before tragedy occurs. This bill also would make resources available to train first responders, school officials, and parents so that home town communities can take steps to prevent a child’s disappearance or, in the event a child with developmental disabilities or a senior with dementia goes missing, take immediate action to return that family member to safety. The prevalence of children who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders keeps climbing. Consider that Iowa has the fifth highest Alzheimer’s death rate in the United States. Right now about 63,000 Iowans are living with the disease. If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, I’d say this federal patient alert measure makes incredible sense for public policy and public safety. And for the thousands of Iowa families keeping watch 24 hours a day, 7 days a week of a vulnerable family member, this initiative may someday turn into a lifeline that saves lives.
