The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S15841-S15842 on Oct. 26, 1995.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY
Mr. PRESSLER. Mr. President, Chuck Grassley is a man I much admire. Someday when I am out of here teaching a college course, I plan to cite Chuck as a model Senator. He is not aware that I am placing this into the Congressional Record, and I am sure that he would protest the cost. However, I believe it is well worth it because he is probably the hardest working, most decent Senator around here. I often say, ``Chuck Grassley is a real U.S. Senator. He is the real McCoy.'' He keeps a low profile but gets a lot done around here that never is credited to him. He is the type of a U.S. Senator that I particularly like. While some are retiring from this body with much fanfare, and others are holding press conferences about their achievements, Chuck Grassley keeps quietly working away. In the end, he will go down as one of the great U.S. Senators.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a recent article that appeared in The Hill on October 25, 1995.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
Sen. Charles Grassley--Iowa Republican Stands Out as Workhorse Among
Senate Showhorses
(By Albert Eisele)
You can't get much more grassroots than Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).
Early this month, the 62-year-old crusader against federal waste was at the wheel of an International Harvester 1450 tractor, hauling a load of soybeans to a grain elevator near his family farm in northeastern Iowa.
The only working farmer in the Senate, Grassley interrupted his farming chores to issue a press release informing his constituents he had regained his Agriculture Committee seat, which he was forced to give up in January when committee assignments were redistributed after Republicans took control of the Senate.
But last week, Grassley was back in the Senate, behind the closed doors of the Finance Committee helping Republicans work out disagreements over their controversial $245-billion tax cut package, and then defending that package from Democratic criticism in full committee.
``If you're concerned about balancing the budget, you'll be for this program,'' Grassley declared as he and his GOP colleagues sent their historic tax package to the Senate floor as part of the even more historic budget reconciliation bill.
Then, using a metaphor appropriate to his Iowa origins and his parochial view of his role in the Senate, once described by Congressional Quarterly as ``pigs and pork,'' Grassley said, ``The people of this country are tired of living high on the hog, and not worrying about our children or grandchildren paying for it.''
For the man who is the philosophical heir of the late Rep. H. R. Gross (R), the quintessential penny-pinching legislator whom Grassley succeeded in the House in 1974, it was a characteristic moment.
Never hailed as an intellectual giant or an inspiring orator, the easy-going third-term senator has made his name, and compiled a truly imposing campaign record, by balancing the needs of Iowa farmers and small businesses with the national yearning for fiscal discipline in government.
Despite one of the lowest profiles in the Senate, Grassley has managed, by stint of sheer hard work, country-bred political smarts and a low-octane ego, to place himself in the middle of the Senate debate over the big ticket issues of tax cuts, budget balancing and welfare reform at the heart of the Republican revolution.
As a member of the Finance Committee, the number two Republican on the Budget Committee behind Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), and a member of the House-Senate conference committee on welfare reform which holds its first meeting today, Grassley is perfectly positioned to add to his already impressive electoral achievements in Iowa, where he has never lost a race.
Elected to the state legislature while studying for a doctorate at the University of Iowa--he left school after he was elected and never returned--Grassley took over his family farm after his father died in 1960.
By 1974, when he won a narrow victory over a Democratic opponent to replace the retiring Rep. Gross, Grassley has bought additional acreage--it's now just under 600 acres--and turned the farm over to his son Robin, who still farms it, with weekend help from his father in the fall and spring.
Then, in 1980, after Iowa voters dumped liberal Democratic Sen. Dick Clark in favor of conservative Republican Roger Jepson two years earlier, Grassley took on Clark's liberal Democratic colleague, John Culver, after winning 90 of the state's 99 counties in the GOP primary.
His emphasis on pocketbook issues and his earnest demeanor, which belied Culver's charges that he was a tool of the Moral Majority and New Right, earned Grassley an unexpectedly comfortable victory with 54 percent of the vote.
Amazingly, for someone whose name and accomplishments are little-known outside of Iowa, and widely discounted inside the Washington Beltway, Grassley has one of the best records as a campaigner of anyone in the Senate. Of the 43 senators who have run for three or more terms, Grassley is the only one, other than John Warner (R-Va.) and two others who ran unopposed, who has significantly improved his electoral margin in each of the last three elections.
After winning 54 percent of the vote in 1980, he easily disposed of his Democratic challenger in 1986 by taking 66 percent of the vote, and crushed his opponent in 1992, highly touted state Sen. Jean Lloyd-Jones, by winning 70 percent of the vote.
The latter victory was one of historic proportions as he carried every single county while winning by the largest statewide margin in the county, and winning more votes than any candidate in the history of the state--President Eisenhower had the old record.
Grassley has an uncanny ability to translate national issues, such as defense fraud, tax reform, out-of-control government spending, congressional accountability, and international trade--especially for Iowa farm and manufacturing products--into issues of local appeal.
Grassley scored one of his major successes earlier this year when the 104th Congress enacted its first piece of legislation, the Congressional Accountability Act that made Congress subject to the same labor and anti-discrimination laws that apply to all Americans. Grassley has been pushing for such a law since 1989.
But it was his attack on government waste and fraud that first brought him public attention. In 1984, as chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Practices, he publicized the notorious $7,600 coffee maker bought by the Air Force. Then, in 1990, he won headlines by uncovering Pentagon purchases of $999 screwdrivers and $1,868 toilet seats.
Grassley is proudest of two major achievements, passage of the Congressional Accountability Act and his work with Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) in promoting the 1986 ``whistle blower'' provisions, known as the ``qui tam'' amendments to the False Claims Act, which enabled the Justice Department to recover more than $1 billion in civil fraud cases since 1986.
Over breakfast in the Senate Dining Room last week, Grassley, who had a very un-Iowa-like breakfast--a grapefruit with honey and black coffee--commented, almost apologetically, on the fact that very little major legislation bears his name.
``Sometimes I think the passage of legislation might not necessarily be the best way to measure a person's most important accomplishments,'' he said. ``Sometimes, it's what you might do to stop a bad administrative action or get an amicus brief before the Supreme Court on child pornography.''
Grassley has already signed onto Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole's (Kan.) presidential bandwagon, so it's no surprise he predicts Dole will win the bellwether Iowa caucuses next February. But he concedes that Dole will have to beat the 38-percent figure he got in 1986.
And for those who want to bet a long shot, the most successful politician in Iowa history offers this startling advice: ``Keep an eye on Phil Gramm [R-Texas]. He's the one to watch.''
____________________
