Sen. Grassley is a senior member of the Judiciary Committee. He has conducted extensive FBI oversight in recent years and expressed serious concerns about a management culture at the FBI that "worries more about public relations and headlines than the fundamentals of investigation." In May, Sen. Grassley formally urged President Bush to select a new FBI Director "who understands this problem and is willing to take the bull by the horns to make sweeping changes at the FBI." Sen. Grassley catalogued a number of specific goals he wanted to see accomplished by the next FBI director.
Last month, Sen. Grassley and Sen. Leahy, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, announced their plans for legislation to empower the Inspector General for the Department of Justice to oversee the FBI. Currently, the DoJ IG is prevented from looking into FBI activities unless the FBI specifically authorizes the scrutiny. Sen. Grassley has also urged the creation of a permanent Senate Judiciary Subcommittee that would be directly responsible for oversight of the FBI.
Here is the comment made today by Sen. Grassley's on the Mueller nomination:
"I look forward to sitting down with Mr. Mueller and talking about the systemic problems I've identified with the FBI and the kinds of dramatic reforms that must be made in order to restore public confidence in federal law enforcement. I will carefully consider Mr. Mueller's nomination based on this meeting and the confirmation process conducted by the Judiciary Committee. I want to make sure he's equipped to take on the serious problems facing new leadership at the FBI. There's a management culture with an air about it that the FBI can do no wrong. That attitude is at the root of the problems we've seen in high-profile cases.
"I'm also committed to a sustained oversight effort by Congress. We need to ride herd on the FBI and work closely with the new director to overhaul a law enforcement agency in crisis."