ACCOMPLISHMENTS sked
PRESS RELEASE
December 29, 2016
CHUCK GRASSLEY
SENATOR
SENATE
GRASSLEY MARKS POLICY, OVERSIGHT ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN 114TH
CONGRESS - Part 1
CQ-Roll Call, Inc.
1255 22nd Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037
Transcript/Programming: Tel. 301-731-1728
Sales: Tel. 202-419-8500 ext 599
www.cqrollcall.com
CQ-Roll Call, Inc.
is a private firm not affiliated with the U.S. Government.
Copyright 2016 by CQ-Roll Call, Inc.
Washington, D.C. U.S.A. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law
and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed,
published or broadcast without the prior written permission of
CQ-Roll Call, Inc. You may not alter or remove any trademark,
copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
For Immediate Release
Grassley Marks Policy, Oversight Accomplishments in 114th Congress
Dec 29, 2016
WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa marked a series of policy and oversight accomplishments in the 114th Congress, continuing his tradition of grassroots engagement with Iowans and breaking the record for the longest period of service in the United States Senate without missing a vote.
Grassley will retain his committee seats in the new Congress and is expected to serve another term as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
``It`s an honor to be entrusted with the responsibility and privilege of representing Iowans in the United States Senate,`` Grassley said. ``As one of Iowa`s senators and as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I have worked to bring commonsense Iowa values to the job through bipartisan legislating and thorough oversight work to hold the federal government accountable.``
Grassley holds at least one meeting in each of Iowa`s 99 counties every year to hear concerns and answer questions on any subject in a free-flowing dialogue with constituents. In 2016, Grassley completed these annual county meetings for the 36th year in a row in September.
Grassley holds these meetings in a variety of formats to ensure that a broad cross-section of Iowans can participate, including offices, schools, churches, town halls, factory floors and other places of business. In Polk County alone, Grassley held more than 30 of these constituent meetings in 2016.
Outside of these annual county meetings, Grassley also attended or convened a variety of events and forums, including: an anti- human trafficking discussion, a foster youth roundtable, a taxpayer advocacy forum, an avian influenza roundtable with farmers and producers, a tax roundtable discussion with tax professionals and small business owners, a Judiciary Committee field hearing on the threat of methamphetamine and meeting with Iowans at the state fair. When the Senate is in session, Grassley sets aside eight 15-minute meetings every Monday through Thursday to meet with Iowans in Washington, D.C., including advocacy groups, associations, chambers of commerce and local business leaders, students and families.
This Congress, Grassley held meetings with nearly 1,500 groups of Iowans visiting the nation`s capital and discussed a variety of policy issues affecting Iowans such as Cedar Rapids flood protection funding, anti-opioid addiction legislation, the farm bill, infrastructure, juvenile justice and sentencing reform, expiring tax provisions, the Affordable Care Act and tax reform. In the 114th Congress, Grassley also held 19 telephone town hall meetings, and joined 20 Iowa school groups for Q&As via video conferencing, including six college classes, eleven groups of high school students, two middle school classes and one elementary school class.
Chairman Grassley`s Judiciary Committee held 99 hearings in the 114th Congress. The committee reported 30 bills, 24 of which were passed by the Senate and 17 of which became law. Major bipartisan legislation such as the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, the Defend Trade Secrets Act, the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, the PATENT Act, the Elder Abuse Prevention and Prosecution Act, the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, the FOIA Improvement Act and the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act, which included Grassley's Survivors` Bill of Rights, cleared the committee.
The Senate Judiciary Committee released a report detailing the increased productivity and bipartisanship under Grassley`s leadership.
Highlights of Grassley`s legislative and oversight work follow here:
Accountability for sexual assaults. After hearing whistleblower accounts of inadequate procedures to assist victims of abuse at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Grassley helped craft key provisions of a bill that would improve responses to sexual misconduct at NOAA and prevent future instances of abuse. The bill cleared the Senate Commerce Committee.
Grassley is leading an effort calling on federal agencies to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for employees who contribute to the demand for human trafficking by purchasing sex. He is also continuing to investigate sexual harassment claims from over 15 whistleblowers at the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.
Earlier this year, Grassley brought national and state anti-human trafficking experts together for an Iowa-based forum in Des Moines on ending human trafficking and modern slavery. The discussion served as a guide for medical professionals, first responders and the public at large in recognizing and combating trafficking.
Grassley joined a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers and survivors of sexual assault urging the Senate to pass the Campus Accountability and Safety Act. This bipartisan legislation would protect students, professionalize the response to and reporting of sexual assault cases, and provide colleges and universities with incentives to solve the problem of sexual assault on their campuses.
President Obama signed into law Grassley-led legislation securing new rights for survivors of sexual assault. The Survivors` Bill of Rights Act was championed by Amanda Nguyen, a survivor and founder of RISE, which advocates on behalf of victims of sexual violence. Grassley added the legislative provisions to the Adam Walsh Reauthorization Act, which passed the Senate in May 2016. The Adam Walsh Act would reauthorize key programs to help keep communities informed about the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders, and must be considered again next Congress.
In a resolution authored by Grassley, the Senate voiced its continued support for survivors of domestic violence, victim advocates, domestic violence victim service providers and first responders. The resolution, which passed by unanimous consent, also acknowledged October as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
The Senate passed a bipartisan resolution introduced by Grassley commemorating April as National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.
Agriculture. Avian flu hit Iowa extremely hard and Grassley used his experience as a farmer and lawmaker to bring this devastating disease to the attention of the federal government. Based on conversations with Iowa poultry growers and a hearing before the Senate Agriculture Committee, he advocated for changes to procedures in dealing with the disease at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He also worked to educate colleagues on the extreme nature of the disease should another outbreak occur.
Grassley introduced the Family Farmer Bankruptcy Clarification Act to reverse a Supreme Court ruling (Hall v. United States) that makes it harder for family farmers to reorganize their finances after declaring bankruptcy.
Grassley and Senator Joni Ernst sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking for information on the administration of the Conservation Reserve Program. In their letter, they asked if a competitive analysis is conducted before enrolling acres in CRP and whether there is an emphasis on signing up entire farms versus just the marginal acres of a farm. Grassley and Ernst cited concerns raised by farmers about entire farms, composed of productive farmland being enrolled in CRP at rental rates many farmers cannot compete with. As landowners decide to enroll more acres in CRP, farmers have lost opportunities to farm some highly productive land. This has hit some young and beginning farmers especially hard.
Grassley introduced legislation to ban packer ownership of livestock after seeing continued consolidation within the livestock industry.
Grassley introduced the Farm Payment Loophole Elimination Act to close the farm subsidy loophole that was intentionally included in the 2014 Farm Bill. The current law allows non-farming family members to receive farm subsidies at the expense of young farmers and the American taxpayers.
Grassley has been conducting oversight of mergers to ensure that increased consolidation does not adversely impact small businesses and rural America. Grassley led a hearing to provide transparency to the many mergers and acquisitions taking place in the agrochemical and seed industries. Grassley also sent a letter to Ren Jianxin, Chairman of ChemChina, asking him to respond to outstanding questions for the record that Syngenta was not able to answer about the merger of the two companies. Grassley is pressing the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to consult with the Department of Agriculture and not scrutinize the proposed seed and agrochemical deals in a vacuum to ensure the full impact of the potentially numerous mergers and acquisitions in the industry is understood.
Grassley also introduced the Security American Food Equity (SAFE) Act to permanently add the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review process and clarify that agricultural assets are considered critical national security infrastructure that CFIUS must consider before it approves the sale of any major U.S. food and agriculture companies. The bill came after Grassley saw more and more foreign investors buying into the U.S. agriculture assets and the need to think strategically about who will control the U.S. food supply in the future.
Grassley worked to help clear legislation to end the piecemeal labeling laws in individual states that have the potential to restrict commerce and discourage investments.
Bureau of Prisons. After taking heat from Grassley for a decision to remove pork from the menu in federal prisons for alleged cost considerations and prisoner dislike, the Bureau of Prisons promptly reversed its decision after revealing that prisoners actually liked pork and the costs for serving pork were not prohibitive.
Grassley wrote to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) about its religious service contractor hiring procedures after learning that not only did the bureau hire an Islamic chaplain who made incendiary comments against individuals who spoke negatively about Islam but the bureau also, in error, allowed the chaplain access to federal facilities prior to the completion of a government background check. As a result of his inquiry, the bureau has performed an agency-wide audit of prison facilities to ensure compliance with federal background check procedure and is now searching social media as part of the background check process.
Grassley also wrote to the BOP regarding inspector general reports that indicate contract waste is occurring in private prison facilities because of a failure of BOP personnel to properly oversee costs. In addition, Grassley has performed oversight of private prisons regarding allegations that they and the BOP are not appropriately managing how beds are allocated between private prisons, which are more expensive, and BOP prisons, which are less expensive.
Grassley responded to whistleblower allegations that a Miami Bureau of Prisons facility was not issuing bug repellent to employees despite operating in a CDC-designated high risk Zika area. Shortly after Grassley`s inquiry, Bureau of Prisons decided to change its policy regarding the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami and began issuing the Zika-preventing repellent.
Defense oversight. As a long-time watchdog of Defense Department spending, including fixing the broken accounting system within the agency, Grassley emphasized the need to fix the accounting system to identify waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon. The Defense Department inspector general withdrew a much-heralded clean opinion on the Marine Corps audit. Grassley praised the decision, which came about after his aggressive oversight.
In May 2015, the Defense Department inspector general released an audit showing a number of Pentagon employees used their government charge cards at casinos and strip clubs. The audit came about because of Grassley`s bill enacted in 2012 requiring federal agencies to beef up the oversight of purchases on government-issued credit cards. In December 2015, the Senate passed legislation Grassley co-authored to further crack down on agency abuse of charge cards.
Grassley worked with the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) to expose wasteful spending in Afghanistan and obstruction from the Pentagon toward the inspector general. An example is an investigation of a compressed natural gas filling station in Afghanistan that cost $43 million, many times more than it should have. Following continued reports of wasteful spending, Grassley called for a formal audit of the Defense Department`s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations.
Grassley and Ernst introduced the bipartisan Arsenal Installation Reutilization Authority Act to reauthorize the leasing authority at Department of Defense arsenals for unused office space to outside tenants. This legislation would allow the Rock Island Arsenal to resume its leasing authority, which expired in 2012, and would authorize the Arsenal to approve 25 year leases until September of 2019 - generating jobs and income for the Arsenal until 2044.
The Senate passed Grassley-supported provisions of the Senate National Defense Authorization Act that strengthen protections for military whistleblowers, including sexual assault survivors, and reform the military correction boards to ensure that service members who experience reprisal are provided relief. The Military Whistleblower Protection Act provides protections against retaliation for service members who report instances of waste, fraud, abuse and illegal activity.
Education. A tax package given final approval in December 2015 includes Grassley`s provisions to improve the already successful Section 529 college savings program. Grassley`s provisions allow 529 funds to purchase a computer on the same tax-favorable basis as other required materials; cut outdated, unnecessary rules that increase paperwork and costs on plan administrators; and provide tax and penalty relief in instances where a student may have to withdraw from school for illness or other reasons.
The education bill given final approval in December 2015 includes the bipartisan bill from Grassley and co-sponsors that makes certain the needs of high ability students are included in federal education policy. The bipartisan proposal is the TALENT Act, or the To Aid Gifted and High-Ability Learners by Empowering the Nation's Teachers Act. Earlier versions of the bill contained a grant program for developing innovative civics education programs. The provision Grassley negotiated in the final bill makes sure that a focus of the grant program is to support proven civics education programs that teach the history and principles of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Grassley authored the Need-based Educational Act, which extends an antitrust exemption that allows certain colleges and universities, like Grinnell College, to collaborate on issues of need-based financial aid. The bill was signed into law in August.
Grassley helped lead a bipartisan, bicameral group in urging the IRS and Treasury Department to lift barriers preventing nonprofit student lenders from offering refinancing options for student debt amid the growing student debt problem. Currently, a handful of for-profit lenders offer refinancing of student loans to qualified borrowers. Clarifying that nonprofit lenders can use tax-exempt bonds to refinance student loans will expand the pool of lenders offering refinancing of student loans. The members praised prior agency action in clarifying that such options are available and sought removal of remaining specific barriers to make even more students and their families potentially eligible for refinancing student debt at lower interest rates via tax- exempt bonds.
Grassley invited the director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to join him at Bettendorf High School in Iowa with Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds and the school`s principal and STEM leader. They led a discussion with students about the importance of studying the STEM fields and related career opportunities.
Energy, including renewables. In December 2015, the Senate gave final approval to Grassley priorities including the five-year extension of the wind energy production tax credit. The extension is meant to lead to a phase-down of the industry-specific tax credit. The Senate also gave final approval of an extension of the existing biodiesel fuel blenders credit, the small agri- biodiesel producer credit, the tax credit for cellulosic biofuels producers, the alternative fuel vehicle refueling tax credit and bonus depreciation for cellulosic biofuel facilities. Grassley authored the initial version of many of the alternative fuels provisions when Finance Committee chairman. In 2016, the Senate passed a bipartisan amendment offered by Grassley to restore wind energy research funding for fiscal year 2017 to the level provided for the current fiscal year.
The measure allocates an additional $15.4 million to wind energy research from within existing research programs at the Department of Energy, so it does not increase overall spending. Continued funding for the provision will be taken up in April 2017. As of 2016, wind power supplies more than 35 percent of electricity in Iowa. The state is the first in the country to generate more than one-third of its electricity from wind energy. Wind energy supports up to 7,000 jobs in Iowa.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced its final Renewable Fuel Standard renewable volume obligations for 2017 and biomass- based diesel volume for 2018. In a significant achievement, the EPA reached the 15 billion gallon level required by statute for conventional biofuels, a victory for corn ethanol producers in Iowa. For biodiesel, the agency continues to set levels below the potential of the biodiesel and renewable diesel industries. Grassley fought efforts by the EPA, Big Oil and Big Food to reduce the RFS. Earlier this year, Grassley led a bipartisan coalition of 39 senators to urge the EPA to abide by the congressionally-passed Renewable Fuel Standard for traditional ethanol. Grassley also led a bipartisan coalition of 40 senators urging the EPA to increase biodiesel levels.
Exports. Grassley was part of a request to the United States International Trade Commission that it consider specially outlined factors in a trade case involving steel producers, including SSAB Iowa Inc. with a facility in Montpelier in Muscatine County. The senators wrote to express their concern about unfairly dumped and subsidized carbon and alloy steel cut- to-length plate imports that are harming U.S. producers.
FBI. As a watchdog of the federal bureaucracy, Grassley continued efforts to protect whistleblowers with introduction of the FBI Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. The bipartisan bill brings the FBI`s whistleblower disclosure protocols in line with all other federal law enforcement and civil service agencies. A modified version of the bill, which passed the Senate and was signed into law by the President, protects from reprisal FBI whistleblowers who disclose wrongdoing to their direct supervisors. Previously, FBI employees were not protected when they disclosed wrongdoing to their supervisors. Instead, Justice Department regulations required disclosures to be made to a limited group of senior officials even though FBI policy encourages employees to report to supervisors. As a result, FBI whistleblowers often make their initial disclosure to a supervisor, but previously had no legal protection in the event of retaliation.
Grassley began investigating instances of alleged retaliation against FBI whistleblowers, including the use of so-called ``loss of effectiveness`` orders. Grassley asked the FBI to provide details of the legal framework governing its largely secretive aerial surveillance operations to ensure Americans` privacy rights are protected.
Federal judiciary. The Senate Judiciary Committee provides oversight of the federal judiciary. Even before becoming Chairman, Grassley launched several initiatives to bring more transparency to the federal courts. His long-standing efforts to bring cameras into the federal courts continued with the introduction of his bill to improve public access to the federal judiciary by granting judges the ability to allow cameras in federal courtrooms.
Grassley authored the Judicial Transparency and Ethics Enhancement Act, which would establish the Office of Inspector General for the Judicial Branch, an independent office to investigate claims of fraud, waste and misconduct, and ensure that the judiciary is carrying out its duties free from corruption, bias and hypocrisy. The bill creates whistleblower protections for individuals within the judicial branch.
Grassley is working to curb frivolous lawsuits that are clogging up the court system. He`s the author of the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, which would impose mandatory sanctions for lawyers who file meritless suits in federal court.
Foster youth, adoption, missing children. As a founder and co- chair of the bipartisan Caucus on Foster Youth, Grassley examined kinship care and how to support relatives who serve as foster care providers; the homelessness of youth and the housing challenges they face, especially as thousands of foster youth age out of the system, many times at age 18; and the mental health needs of foster youth, including the need to better train caseworkers and foster families about the trauma that many foster youth face on a daily basis.
The education bill given final approval in December 2015 includes the bipartisan Educational Stability of Foster Youth Act, which Grassley co-authored, that supports students in the foster care system by strengthening connections between child welfare agencies and state and local education institutions. Often, schools may be the only familiar place for a child in foster care, and the measure helps make sure that those kids can go to school in a safe, stable environment.
Grassley led through the Judiciary Committee legislation to help families facing challenges with international adoptions. The bill was signed into law in October after families encountered numerous delays by other countries, often as simple as the issuance of an exit visa by the foreign government.
Grassley joined a bipartisan group of colleagues to urge the Department of Health and Human Services and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to improve access to Medicaid coverage for eligible former foster youth. Under the Affordable Care Act, young people who emancipated from foster care are eligible for Medicaid coverage up to age 26 - parity for former foster youth and other young adults who are eligible for coverage on their parents` health plans until the same age. Unfortunately, many former foster youth are either unaware that they qualify for Medicaid coverage under this provision, or are unable to easily access this coverage.
Grassley took part in a roundtable discussion on foster care prevention and child welfare with foster youth, parents and services providers in Cedar Rapids.
The Senate passed a resolution from Grassley recognizing May as National Foster Care Month.
The Senate unanimously passed legislation written by Grassley and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York to help families locate missing loved ones with Alzheimer`s disease, autism and related conditions. Kevin and Avonte`s Law is named in honor of two boys with autism, one from Iowa and one from New York, who died after wandering from safety. The law would not only reauthorize the expired Missing Alzheimer`s Disease Patient Alert Program, but it also would make changes to the program to support people with autism and other developmental disabilities. Specifically, the bill would allow Justice Department grants to be used for state and local education and training programs to help prevent wandering and reunite caregivers with missing family members who have a condition that`s linked to wandering.
Fraud fighting. In addition to his work to protect specific agency whistleblowers who come forward, Grassley launched the Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus. The caucus helps raise awareness about the positive impact made by whistleblowers and helps foster discussion about legislative action needed to ensure whistleblowers are protected.
Grassley is the author of reforms to the False Claims Act to encourage whistleblowers to come forward with information involving fraud against the government. Since the reforms were enacted, the government has recouped more than $53.1 billion that otherwise would have been lost to fraud. Many of the recoveries were initiated by whistleblowers who took advantage of Grassley`s provisions allowing them to bring their own case on the government`s behalf. The False Claims Act is the government`s most successful tool in rooting out fraud, especially health care fraud in recent years. In fiscal 2016 alone, $4.7 billion was recovered.
The Senate unanimously passed a resolution introduced by Grassley acknowledging the contributions of whistleblowers to shed light on fraud, waste and abuse in the United States. It designated July 30, 2016, as National Whistleblower Appreciation Day. The resolution was cosponsored by the Whistleblower Protection Caucus.
Good government (paid leave, State Department). In 2015, Grassley released a report from his oversight and investigative staff analyzing 18 federal agencies` responses to his inquiries on paid administrative leave and endorsed the report`s recommendations for reining in this largely unproductive, expensive practice. Grassley then sponsored bipartisan legislation, the Administrative Leave Act, to reform federal paid leave and put a cap on the practice, which was later passed by the Senate and is expected to become law.
In June 2015, the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General noted that it is now posting certain investigative summaries on its website. These summaries relate to misconduct by senior agency employees or high profile cases. Grassley had urged more disclosure and worked to impose it government-wide.
In June 2013, Grassley began seeking answers from the State Department on its use of the Special Government Employee designation. His questions came after revelations that a top aide, Huma Abedin, used the special status to work at the State Department and private sector entities at the same time. His inquiry continued during this Congress. For example, Grassley extended his probe of the SGE designation government-wide and asked the Government Accountability Office to study the SGE designation to see whether it works as intended to serve taxpayers. The GAO report was released in August 2016 and showed that government agencies were having trouble determining who should qualify for the SGE designation and what is needed to properly process the designation once a person qualifies. The SGE designation is only supposed to last 130 days, and Grassley found that in the case of Ms. Abedin she served well beyond that without any repercussions. Grassley also found that the violation of the 130 day limit is government-wide and the executive branch has wrongly interpreted the law to allow extension of the designation beyond 130 days. He is looking into legislation to make clear that the SGE is a temporary designation and the 130 day deadline is the law.