During a visit to Fort Dodge Friday, the Republican senator also said he believes the process of writing a new Farm Bill is 18 months farther along than it was last year at this time.

Grasley offered those assessments during his first visit to the Iowa Central Community College Fuels Testing Laboratory on A Street West. Don Heck, the lab’s director, gave him a tour of the facilities. Heck explained some of the testing now being done to check for polymers in fuel samples. He also showed off the lab’s three stationary engines, which he said are usually only found in much larger labs in big cities. One of the engines is for testing cetane levels in diesel fuel. The other two are for testing octane levels in gasoline.

“It sounds like it’s unique and particularly unique for a community college,” Grassley said of the lab. “I’m impressed with it.”

Education and agriculture dominated the discussion when the senator sat down with about 10 people for a question and answer session after his tour.

Grassley said he does not believe President Donald Trump can shut down the Department of Education without congressional action.

“But he can change it a lot without congressional action,” the senator added.

For example, he said if the president wants to fire half of the department’s staff he can do so.

Grasley said Congress will continue to fund Guaranteed Student Loans, Pell Grants and various special education programs. He said all of those programs existed before the Department of Education was created and were managed by other agencies.

“Congress is going to continue to appropriate money for those programs,” he said.

Grassley said he voted against creating the Department of Education because he believes education is primarily a state and local issue.

Grassley said he believes Congress is in a better position to pass a Farm Bill this year. However, he said the first priority will be extending the tax cuts enacted during Trump’s first term in order to prevent a large tax increase.

Because of work done last year on Farm Bill proposals Grassley said he feels senators and representatives are about 18 months ahead on the process.

Trump is threatening to enact a new round of tariffs on April 2. Grassley said he does not know what will happen regarding tariffs.

“I’m somewhat questioning what the president is doing,” he said.

He said be believes tariffs will have a negative effect on farmers, prompting the need for federal relief programs to compensate them for lost export sales.

“Farmers want to make money from the marketplace, not the taxpayers,” he said.

Grassley, who typically makes his yearly visit to all 99 Iowa counties accompanied by perhaps just one of his staffers, had a security escort Friday that included two Fort Dodge police officers and at least three plainclothes officers from a federal or state law enforcement agency.