Grassley will not have his Agriculture Committee assignment this year because of a rule change restricting the ability of chairman of major committees from serving on three major ? or A-level ? committees. The change resulted from an effort by more junior senators to achieve better committee assignments.
"Make no mistake, although I'll no longer serve on the Agriculture Committee and I had hoped to be a member, I will still be a loud and clear voice for family farmers in the United States Senate," Grassley said. "I look forward to continuing my work for agriculture and rural interests at every level. Congress and the administration should never overlook the people who provide food and fiber for the world."
Grassley did not become a member of the Agriculture Committee until 1991. He has been a member all but one year since then. He has never been a member of the Agriculture Committee during debate on a farm bill. Even so, Grassley has had a dominant voice in agriculture policy matters on Capitol Hill. He is the only working family farmer serving in the United States Senate, and he has been an outspoken and active legislator on American agriculture.
This year, Grassley is the new chairman of the influential Senate Finance Committee, where all agricultural and estate tax, rural health care, and international trade matters are handled. In 1997, for example, he scored a major victory for agriculture by orchestrating congressional approval to extend the ethanol program for ten years.
In addition, Grassley is a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he has led the effort to ensure a competitive environment for family farmers with effective enforcement of anti-trust laws. He has addressed mergers affecting farmers from transportation to marketing. And he has aggressively sought to improve current law so it better responds to increased concentration in agriculture. Some progress has been made already with passage last year of a Grassley bill to require USDA to enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act. From the Judiciary Committee, Grassley authored and has worked for renewal of Chapter 12 of the federal bankruptcy code, which allows farmers to reorganize debt without losing their farm operations.
Grassley was not a member of the Agriculture Committee during debate on the 1996 farm bill. Instead, he formed an 54-member Farm Coalition to help senators develop and consider policy alternatives. The conservation reforms of the farm program resulted from proposals offered by Grassley.
A Butler County native, Grassley farms corn and soybeans in partnership with his son. He was elected to the Senate in 1980.