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BUDGET, ECONOMY & TAX

Senator Grassley has served as the top republican on the Senate Budget and Finance committees. He’s advanced Iowans’ priorities from those platforms, advocating for nimble spending policies that foster growth, provide certainty and safeguard Americans’ tax dollars. 

SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEE

Grassley’s ranking membership on the Senate Budget Committee is marked by his work to promote fiscal responsibility. Among other things, he: 

  • Urged the committee to draft a sound budget, in stark contrast to the Democrats’ committee agenda that consisted of 20 climate-related hearings; 
  • Successfully pushed the Democrat chairman to invite the Congressional Budget Office Director to testify;  
  • Underscored the need to rein in wasteful spending and get our nation’s debt and deficit under control;  
  • Exposed the Biden-Harris administration’s plan to use $21 billion in taxpayers’ money to cover up consequences Democrats’ so-called Inflation “Reduction Act” is having on Medicare Part D enrollees;
  • Sought to improve efficiency in government and the budget process, including by encouraging a return to debating, amending and passing issue-specific annual appropriations bills; and 
  • Reiterated his unwavering messages to save Medicare and Social Security – which Grassley says are “woven into America’s social fabric” – often recalling the bipartisan Reagan-O’Neill negotiations that have sustained the programs for nearly 50 years. 

As a top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Grassley co-sponsored the Chief Financial Officers Vision Act to boost performance data availability on the federal level, as well as increase accountability in government programs and operations. He also helped shepherd through the committee in 2019 a package of budget process enhancements to encourage long-term planning, responsible budget assumptions and an end to brinkmanship surrounding the debt limit. The explosive federal debt, which topped $35 trillion in 2024 and is largely driven by reckless spending, threatens to stifle economic opportunities. The bipartisan budget solutions Grassley has championed, introduced or backed would help restore fiscal discipline.

SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE

As a two-time chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, Grassley helped steer through Congress the landmark 2001 and 2003 tax relief laws that lowered marginal tax rates, establishing a first-ever 10-percent bracket. He played a leading role in enacting the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which provided significant relief to middle-income taxpayers, simplified the tax code and facilitated fairness and growth. 

Grassley is a proponent of embracing renewable fuels to diversify our domestic energy portfolio, lower prices for consumers, limit U.S. dependence on foreign fuels and create jobs in rural America. That’s why he has enacted key tax incentives for American producers. Grassley has successfully guided through Congress bipartisan measures to extend the biodiesel tax credits. His Wind Energy Tax Credit in the 1990s proved instrumental in jump-starting the bustling wind energy industry Iowa knows today and earned Grassley the moniker, “the father of wind energy.” 

He also harnesses every chance to tout biofuel benefits on the national stage. Grassley’s efforts to expand markets for grain feedstocks are many and ongoing. Most recently, in the 118th Congress, he pushed back on bureaucratic tax regulations that failed to consider farmers’ realities and restricted producers’ opportunities to contribute to Sustainable Aviation Fuels.  

Throughout his Finance Committee tenure, Grassley has ferreted out tax avoidance schemes and shelters in his longtime efforts to plug the $381 billion tax gap, as well as empowered whistleblowers to help improve compliance with U.S. tax laws. He investigated  potentially abusive syndicated conservation easements, which he exposed in August 2020. Additionally, after years of bipartisan collaboration, Grassley championed the 2019 Taxpayer First Act to reform the IRS, chart a comprehensive customer service strategy and better combat tax-ID theft. 

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Grassley developed portions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to enable economic health and safety as the nation battled a public health and resulting economic crises. The CARES Act helped families navigate local stay-at-home orders and temporary business closures through direct payments to low- and middle-income earners, expanded unemployment insurance benefits for jobless workers and more. The legislation was also a lifeline for Main Street storefronts: it included a refundable employee retention credit, along with provisions to defray some operating costs and stimulate cash flow. 

Grassley will continue promoting fiscal responsibility and pro-growth tax policies that position Americans to thrive – today, and for generations to come.

Tell Senator Grassley what you think about these issues.

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