The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee says he is delaying another one of President Barack Obama's nominees to the State Department to protest what he calls the administration's continued failure to respond to inquiries about the department's use of private emails and other questions. Read More
A bipartisan group of Senate leaders has reached a deal on criminal justice legislation that would allow well behaved prisoners to earn time off their sentences and effectively reduce long criticized mandatory minimums for non-violent drug offenders. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Republican Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) have agreed to a package aimed at making the criminal justice system fairer, particularly for African Americans, following the Baltimore and Ferguson riots. Read More
The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee want to expand the government’s commitment to obtaining a warrant before using controversial spying devices that pick up information from people’s cellphones. Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and top Democrat Patrick Leahy (Vt.) on Tuesday asked Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to follow the Justice Department’s lead and commit to getting a warrant before using the “StingRay” devices. Read More
By Stephen Dash- Forbes.com The number of people attending college has grown… Read More
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa on Tuesday received the 2015 Fueling Growth Award from Growth Energy for his work to develop policies that support clean-burning, domestically produced ethanol. Grassley was presented the award at the Growth Energy Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C., where he spoke about renewable energy and the Renewable Fuel Standard. “I’m honored to receive this award,” Grassley said. “I’ve been an advocate of renewable fuels for a long time, starting with ethanol. Alternative energy sources reduce our dependence on foreign oil, increase national security, and create jobs for American workers in addition to extending our fuel supply and lowering prices at the pump.” Read More
It has been 65 years since two Plymouth County men saw each other after attending boot camp in Idaho. Wednesday, the two World War II veterans were honored for service to their country. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley presented Robert L. Taylor, of Westfield, and John Hart, of Le Mars, with a World War II Victory Medal during a brief ceremony. Read More
The chairman of the powerful SenateJudiciary Committee on Thursday demanded the Obama administration explain why it allowed Hillary Rodham Clinton to be the only Secretary of State in more than a half-century without a permanent independent watchdog to police conduct inside the department. Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, wrote in a letter to Mrs. Clinton’s successor, John Kerry, that he thinks some of the problems uncovered after the fact about Mrs. Clinton’s tenure, such as improper handling of classified information on a private email server, may have been prevented or detected had President Obama named a permanent inspector general at the State Department much sooner. Read More
SIBLEY, Iowa — U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley visited Wednesday morning with constituents at the Osceola Community Hospital in Sibley. State Sen. David Johnson, R-Ocheyedan, began the open forum with a question regarding avian flu and federal response. Johnson said Osceola County was one of the hardest hit during the outbreak earlier this year, adding that a faster turnaround was needed on the decision to euthanize infected birds. “We had the largest outbreak at the time in the nation in this county,” Johnson said. “There’s been a lot of people out there. There’s been a lot of equipment moved out there. There’s a lot of questions about how the federal money flows, not only to the contractors for the USDA but to the producers. Read More
LE MARS -- U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, held a town hall meeting at Floyd Valley Hospital, in Le Mars, Wednesday. During the meeting, Grassley urged Le Mars residents to stand and ask any question they wanted answered. He said he believes town hall meetings are important because they give people a chance to speak with their representatives face to face. Read More
Higher renewable fuel standards keep demand high in the industries of corn, soybeans and other crops. That’s why trade associations and legislators alike have been publicly encouraging the Environmental Protections Agency to increase its 2016 and 2017 volume objectives before it releases its final target on Nov. 30. U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley spoke with the Newton Daily News about RFS issues in a recent conference call. Grassley said there are number of ways Congress can attempt to persuade the EPA to raise its targets before the final RFS numbers are released. Read More
