Chuck Grassley encyclopedia topics

Early life

Born in New Hartford, Iowa to Ruth Corwin and Louis Arthur Grassley, Grassley lived in Iowa during his youth. He graduated from the Iowa State Teachers College in 1955 where he was elected to the prestigious Pi Gamma Mu international honor society and where he received a graduate degree in 1956.

In 1987 Grassley was made an honorary member of Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity at Iowa State University.

Political career

Grassley, a former assembly line worker and farmer, has been involved in politics for much of his adult life. An active runner, Grassley served as a citizen legislator in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1959 until 1974, when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, of which he was a member from 1975 to 1981, being reelected in 1976 and 1978. He was elected to his Senate seat in 1980, defeating the Democratic incumbent, John Culver, who had only served one term. Grassley was reelected in 1986, 1992, 1998, and 2004.

Grassley was one of two Republicans to vote against authorizing the first Gulf War. He is a senior member of the Finance Committee and has a moderate record on tax cuts.

Since 1976, Grassley has repeatedly introduced measures that increase the level of double taxation on American citizens living abroad, including retroactive tax hikes. The effects are particularly dramatic in countries where the taxation structure differs from the United States. These tax increases were amplified as the dollar declined precipitously against world currencies. Even if a citizen's income remains the same, they could expect a double digit percentage increase to the US portion of their double tax.

In July 2007, a Grassley-commissioned report was released claiming that more than US$1 billion in farm subsidies were sent to deceased individuals. Grassley said: "It's unconscionable that the Department of Agriculture would think that a dead person was actively engaged in the business of farming."

At one time, Grassley was ranked as the third most powerful senator. As of March 2007, he was ranked 25th on the list. A late December 2007 poll shows Grassley remains popular in Iowa, with 66% approving of his job, and 26% disapproving.

Committee Assignments

Committee on Finance (Ranking Member)

As Ranking Member of the full committee, Sen. Grassley is an ''ex officio member of all subcommittees.
Subcommittee on Health Care

Committee on the Judiciary

Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

Committee on the Budget
Caucus on International Narcotics Control (Chairman)
Joint Committee on Taxation

Environmental record

In 2005, Charles Grassley received a 7 percent rating on the Republicans for Environmental Protection's (REP) environmental scorecard. He voted in a manner inconsistent with what the REP considers pro-environment on 14 of 15 issues considered environmentally critical by the REP. He voted with REP on an amendment to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 proposed by Senator Jeff Bingaman to require at least 10% of electricity sold by utilities to originate from renewable resources. Issues in which Senator Grassley voted anti-environment are all other amendments to the Energy Policy Act proposed in 2005, the issue of authorizing drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, and fuel economy standards for vehicles.

Senator Grassley received a 10 percent rating on the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) scorecard for his pro-environment votes on the issues of renewable energy and farm conservation programs. These pro-environment votes, however, were balanced by his anti-environment votes on the energy conference report, global warming, natural gas facilities, undermining fuel economy, increasing fuel economy, and various other issues.

In 2006, Grassley received a 0 percent rating from the REP and a 14 percent rating from the LCV. According to these organizations, he voted pro-environment on the issue of energy and weatherization assistance, and voted anti-environment on drilling, environmental funding, peer review, renewable resources, and The Gulf of Mexico Security Act.

Other Scorecard ratings

Senator Grassley has a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee , 84 percent rating from the American Conservative Union , 100 percent rating from the Family Research Council , and 100 percent rating from Eagle Forum .

Whistleblowers

Grassley has campaigned to increase protection and provide support for "whistle-blowers". He has supported a number of FBI whistle-blowers, including Coleen Rowley, Michael German, and Jane Turner. Grassley received a lifetime achievement award on May 17 2007 from the National Whistleblower Center.

Personal life

Grassley married Barbara Ann Speicher in September 1954; the couple have five children: Lee, Wendy, Robin, Michele, and Jay.

Grassley is a member of The Family, a Christian group that organizes the National Prayer Breakfast.

Grassley, the Senate's Investigator

On November 6, 2007, Grassley announced an investigation of televangelists Benny Hinn, Paula White, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, and Kenneth Copeland by the United States Senate Committee on Finance. In letters to each ministry, Grassley asked for the ministries to divulge financial information to the committee to determine if any of the evangelists made any personal profit from financial donations, and requested that the ministries make the information available by December 6, 2007. As required by law, many of the evangelists freely responded with financial reports from their respective ministries.Grassley's office issued a statement which said the ministries' response has fallen "far short," and that while lines of communications are open, "additional steps in the congressional review" also would be considered. However, at this point, Grassley has not identified any specific violations of the law or Internal Revenue Service regulations by the ministries whatsoever.

Grassley also began an investigation about unreported payments to physicians by pharmaceutical companies. The New York Times reported that Dr. Joseph Biederman of Harvard University had failed to report over a million dollars of income that he had received from pharmaceutical companies. Weeks later, Business Week reported that Grassley alleged that Alan Schatzberg, chair of psychiatry at Stanford University, had underreported his investments in Corcept Therapeutics, a company he founded. Dr. Schatzberg had reported only $100,000 investments in Corcept, but Grassley stated that his investments actually totalled over $6 million. Dr. Schaztberg later stepped down from his grant which is funded by the National Institutes of Health.