Q&A: Sunshine Week
With U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley
Q: Why is Sunshine Week important to commemorate?
A: James Madison is known as the father of open government. During the week of his birthday, March 16, we honor his legacy with “Sunshine Week” to celebrate the public’s right to know. Thirty-five years after drafting the...
WASHINGTON – Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and a bipartisan group of senators to introduce the NICS Denial Notification Act, which would help states enforce existing laws against individuals who attempt to purchase firearms but have no legal right to do so. This bill would require federal authorities to alert state and...
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley joined Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and dozens of their Senate colleagues in reintroducing legislation to permanently repeal the federal estate tax, more commonly known as the death tax. The Death Tax Repeal Act of 2021, would...
WASHINGTON – Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) introduced the bipartisan Fair Returns for Public Lands Act, legislation to update the nation’s outdated public lands royalty system and ensure that taxpayers and rural communities get fair returns on leases of public lands for oil and gas production.
“Big Oil continues...
WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) are seeking an expanded investigation of the circumstances leading to the placement of National Security Agency General Counsel Michael Ellis on administrative leave, following public reports that raise concerns of political pressure from the new...
WASHINGTON – Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and eight of their Senate colleagues today sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack urging the department to assist biofuel producers hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have been advocating for targeted relief for the biofuels industry since...
Senator Grassley's weekly Capitol Hill Report can be found here: Capitol Hill Report 03-8-21Topics include: Coronavirus economic relief, CVOID-19 vaccines, election laws and the 2022 election.
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Dems reject targeted COVID relief; adopt unrelated bailouts & extraneous liberal priorities
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today made the following statement after the Senate jammed through a partisan $1.9 trillion spending bill that, despite its name, was more focused on longstanding liberal policy priorities than COVID...
WASHINGTON – Sen.
Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) proposed an amendment to the $1.9 trillion spending
plan that would make derecho-ravaged farms eligible for federal assistance already
available for victims of costal hurricanes, wildfires and other natural
disasters. The plan, which was originally
offered in the House of Representatives by Rep. Randy Feenstra...
WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats blocked a motion by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to push for structural fixes to troubled multiemployer pension plans in their partisan $1.9 trillion COVID spending package. Instead, Democrats opted for an $86 billion bailout with no strings attached, all but guaranteeing that taxpayers will be on the hook for future...
WASHINGTON – Sen.
Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined 10 of his Republican colleagues in introducing a
$650 billion COVID-19 relief plan as a substitute amendment to the $1.9
trillion budget reconciliation bill. The amendment, which was built on the
COVID-19 relief plan that was unveiled
last month by a group of Republican Senators, was not adopted by a vote of...
WASHINGTON – U.S.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee
today joined a bipartisan, bicameral group of colleagues to introduce critical
legislation to strengthen the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) which Grassley
cosponsored years ago. This legislation, led by U.S. Sen. Majority Whip Dick
Durbin (D-IL), chairman of the...
WASHINGTON –
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee, reintroduced the Chris Allen Multiemployer Pension Recapitalization and Reform Act.
The legislation is based on a 2019
proposal to
avert the collapse of critically underfunded multiemployer pension plans and
reform rules for these...
Q&A: Celebrate Iowa
With U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley
Q: Could an Iowan be featured on a new quarter?
A: Many Iowans are familiar with the popular series of quarters that feature each of the 50 states in the America the Beautiful Quarter Program. Issued in 2004, the Iowa quarter was the 29th coin to join the series because it was the 29th state to...
WASHINGTON – The Senate unanimously passed the Concerns Over Nations Funding University Campus Institutes in the United States (CONFUCIUS) Act, legislation supported by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and introduced by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.). This legislation works to address concerns about Confucius Institutes suppressing free speech on American...
WASHINGTON – U.S.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) this week joined, U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)
and John Cornyn (R-Texas) to reintroduce the PROTECT Asbestos Victims Act, commonsense legislation that provides
much-needed oversight of asbestos bankruptcy trusts to ensure victims
receive fair and just compensation. “Fraudsters
and poor...
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today joined all six members of the Iowa congressional delegation in a letter requesting additional staffing for the Iowa Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) office.
In a letter to the head of the National Taxpayer Advocate office, the lawmakers highlight concerns that the Iowa TAS office does not have enough...
WASHINGTON – Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) today reintroduced bipartisan legislation beefing up a 2008 inspector general (IG) protection law that has been routinely flouted by successive administrations from both political parties. The Securing Inspector General Independence Act is cosponsored by Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio),...
WASHINGTON – U.S.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
today joined the committee’s chair, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin
(D-Ill.), in sending letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) urging
the agency to retain and expeditiously implement the H-1B selection rule
published on January 8, 2021,...
WASHINGTON – Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) are pressing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about a recently uncovered data breach and fraud case involving foreign nationals employed at U.S. embassies in Jordan and Russia stealing refugee case information and selling it for profit.
The employees were hired as...
