Charles Grassley Quotations

Unless Europe changes its mind on agriculture, there won't be much accomplished in Seattle,

With this first initiative from the Finance Committee - and there will be more in other areas where we have jurisdiction - we want the victims through all of the affected areas to know that they can count on us to create a set of measures that will return vitality and vigor to the Gulf region.

We did not find anything alarming enough that required additional follow-up beyond what law-enforcement agencies are already doing.

There is a ship afloat without a captain,

We heard much higher numbers today of the stimulus package from our two experts than I anticipated we would hear. In other words, if you're going to do something, it better be something significant enough to get the job done.

the extent to which tax policy needs to be change to affect individual victims and particularly to help the rebuilding of lost businesses.

The real crime here is the Clinton-Gore record on drugs. He should explain why, during the Clinton-Gore administration, the number of teenagers using drugs nearly doubled.

We are talking about maintaining existing (tax) policy beyond whatever sunset we have now,

When I make a decision, I'm going to be applauded or rejected by the electorate once every six years. There's an immediate response to any decision that a coach makes, and it's either the booing or applauding of those people in the audience.

We need to look at the tax code to see what might be done to help investment, to help people in need,

significant flexibility to look at the special circumstances surrounding an individual's financial situation.

No one got everything they wanted, including the chairman, but I do believe that everyone got something they do believe is important to include in this relief act,

Money is wasted or lost to fraud, and quality of care can be jeopardized when products and services come from con artists rather than qualified suppliers,

Now that I've had more time to absorb the text, I'm very disappointed. The text moves us no closer to resolving the impasse on market access that's really at the heart of development.

Negotiators need to keep the focus on the biggest issues that are clogging up the works. At the top of this list is market access for agriculture.

only want judges who will do their political bidding on the bench, regardless of what is required by the law and the Constitution.

One of the results I hope from our hearing will be that HCFA gets on the stick and does its job, and its job obviously is to protect the vulnerable,

If we're going to be successful in agriculture (trade negotiations), we've got to have a broad number of issues on the table,

If we do not have changes that encourage investment, we're not going to be able to get a bill passed,

I do not want another savings-and-loan situation like we had in the late 80s, coming out of bad policy with the PBGC, ... As we've watched this corporation deteriorate rapidly in recent years, the possibility of such a bailout has become increasingly real.

I believe the victims of Katrina would certainly be covered under this provision, ... that there are no unintended results.

If (Boeing) knew these things presumably 10 years ago or even before that, perhaps the TWA 800 explosion would never have taken place and there would not have been 230 lives lost,

I expect the Judiciary Committee to conduct a fair and dignified hearing in a timely manner, followed by an up or down vote by the Senate.

If state surveyors are missing serious deficiencies in the quality of care, then the federal government has not yet achieved the necessary level of improvement in oversight of the inspection process.

If something is wrong, it is like locking the barn door after the horse is stolen, ... But we are still going to pursue it. I want to know what they bought with the money.

whatever it takes to get this information out.

There is a great deal of uniformity in our caucus about the necessity of moving ahead with tax relief for American families.

The purpose of this letter is to express grave concern and raise questions regarding allegations that a textile contractor has been using toxic substances in the production of fabric used by armed forces personnel,

We've got to make sure the unemployment program has enough flexibility in it to make sure the people that apply for it are going to get the benefits, and I suppose at some point look and see if there needs to be any extension,

Unless we do something about it, my children and grandchildren are going to be out in the cold.

We must ensure that this nightmare NEVER occurs again,

He is willing to go to the countryside to work hard to sell this, ... I think he is going to have the capability of turning a lot of Democratic senators.

I would suggest, then, to the chairman that we move quickly on that bill before he's got an opinion on it.

I think I should have kept my mouth shut back in January,

I think it's a matter of accommodating people who see unfair competition,

I think, without a doubt, it hasn't been very adequate, I think both at the state and federal level.

I think the FBI has shown, going back to January of 1997, its ability to use its power and prestige to curb statements and truths other agencies were willing to give out,

I think that the states will conclude that the committee proposals will help them better serve their beneficiaries, but in the event a state doesn't, this kind of flexibility may be helpful to states such as Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi right now,

I think there's a management culture here that's at fault. I call it a cowboy culture,

Our investigation needs to find out whether Enron's actions were legal, somewhat questionable, highly questionable or even illegal, ... In the end, what's legal for any company could be the most shocking of all.

Our committee has a lot of work to do before we truly think about implementing a guest worker program in this country. I say that because our Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents drive by day-labor centers knowing that illegal aliens loiter the street corner in search of illegal work but do nothing. I don't know how we can reasonably create a system for 10 million illegal aliens when we cannot currently handle the workload on our desks.

Ottumwa Regional Hospital and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Regional Office are attempting to work through the issues at hand. It is very rare for CMS to withdraw Medicare funding due to these types of violations, especially when the hospital is working to correct them. And, it is my understanding that the hospital will be submitting a plan of correction to CMS shortly.

Some of the things they're recommending were hot issues in the 1990s, and they were dropped after being pushed by predecessors of mine very strongly and just didn't get anywhere.

Some of their recommendations are bound to be politically unpopular.Ê Cutting the home-mortgage interest deduction is an example.ÊBut it's important to have a comprehensive starting point that will get everyone talking and thinking,

Some of their recommendations are bound to be politically unpopular.  Cutting the home-mortgage interest deduction is an example. But it's important to have a comprehensive starting point that will get everyone talking and thinking,

Some of us in Congress wanted more family tax relief in this package than what we ultimately passed,

My perception is that we're making considerable progress. But not as much progress as we thought that we would make.

lines corporate coffers for a select few, and too many innocent companies and workers end up paying the tab. We need to end this unfair subsidization as soon as possible.

I wonder to what extent a 4-cent reduction in fuel is going to help airlines that are going into bankruptcy anyway. Maybe you might as well let the bankruptcy court sort it out,

The American taxpayers have spent a lot of money on this report and they deserve the right to see it,

I would imagine we have 55 or 56 votes to repeal it, but it's not going to get done,

while the devastation caused by Katrina in Louisiana is severe, initial reports indicate that the situation could be worse from the standpoint of resuming grain exports.

We've looked at Army regulations, and it specifically states there are no toxins allowed in textile fabrics,

We need to know whether that was an isolated incident or whether similar tragedies have happened or could happen because doctors aren't present during emergencies.

Today the message to the taxpayers is this: Substantial tax relief is on the way. The government will ease its grip on your wallet.

You know there are powerful interests here -- we call them K Street lobbyists -- that are very prone to defending this sort of things, ... There's big fees for defending them on the Hill.

Unlike our trade remedy laws, where all producers of an unfairly traded product get relief, (the Byrd Amendment) funnels money to a select few.

Unfortunately, the White House is working against me behind the scenes, and I resent that, considering how I've delivered so much for the White House over the last five years,

We want to just alert people that it's just as serious in suburbia for younger people as it is for older people in urban areas of America.

The fact that the FISA court released this opinion today is an important breakthrough for our oversight effort, ... We have never had access to this kind of information before. It will contribute to the analysis we've got under way and help us determine what is wrong with the FISA process...

The only thing that's going to be fatal to this nomination is how she performs before the committee. If she performs all right, then she's obviously going to be approved. But if she doesn't perform well, she probably won't be approved.

We need to get these tax incentives on the books and help Katrina victims make a fresh start,

Well, I don't want to directly comment on what Justice Souter said. He is either going to be a colleague or continue to be one of my bosses. So I want to maintain good relations in either case.

The Red Cross in its disaster response was more than a charity. It was also a federal contractor. It's appropriate for Congress to verify whether taxpayers got their money's worth.

We've heard too many stories of top executives of bankrupt companies sticking workers with unfunded pensions while running off with millions of dollars of so-called nonqualified pension benefits.

We've got a lot of strong opposition, but we did have 66 votes three years ago, so I think we have the opportunity to get it passed,

This was truly a heroic effort. They produced a historically quick rollout of a new major benefit program and surprised us all.

This was truly a heroic effort, ... They produced a historically quick rollout of a new major benefit program and surprised us all.

we find out two years later ... that we still have the problems and nothing was done on the recommendations.

We have about 48 votes for it, and obviously you don't pass anything in the United States Senate with 48 votes,

Twenty to 25 percent of our resources are going to be directed toward making sure companies don't drop programs.

You have a responsibility to help less fortunate Americans cope with the high cost of heating fuels. It's not unreasonable to expect corporations with 50, 75 or 100 percent growth in earnings this quarter to contribute a mere 10 percent of those profits to fuel fund programs,

What bothers me is that loudmouths two weeks ago were saying that they had this conversation and that conversation. I see most of them wanting to be big shots and ... want to be more than they really are,

We here in Congress have to find solutions. They don't have to, ... The answer is, they are both running for president.

We're going to work on 4 or 5 senators to see if we can take care of their objections,

At that point, the Brussels bureaucrats decided to perpetuate the FSC/ETI dispute in an ill-conceived effort to gain some sort of leverage in the civil aircraft dispute. Their blatant linkage of WTO disputes serves as a dangerous precedent,

Director Mueller has clearly stated that he wants to turn the FBI around. This new report from the inspector general makes it very clear that he's going to need new, forward-thinking leaders at the FBI to make this happen,

And when we expect trading partners to respect science, we should be willing to do the same. So I don't support depriving the Department of Agriculture with the funding it needs to make decisions based on sound science even while we need to send a loud and clear message to Japan.

Are you against cameras in the courtroom like Justice Rehnquist was?

Even documented pledges by FBI bureaucrats to write threat assessments were never kept, and no one was held accountable,

FDA scientists and employees are by and large hardworking and committed to fulfilling the agency's mission. They deserve a commissioner who will reinvigorate the agency.

There's people that have the ability to repay. They go into bankruptcy. They go into Chapter 7. Everything would be wiped clean. Somebody else would pick up for them. They're not paying their bills.

Is there any room in constitutional interpretation for the judge's own values or beliefs?

The wisest thing to do is disregard revenue that was never supposed to come in anyway,

The world can come down on a football coach much more quickly than it can come down on a U.S. senator, ... Even considering the salary they get, I would not trade places with them. And you know most of them get six or seven times what I get.

The rules are full of serious holes that need to be fixed as soon as possible,

I've seen this office become involved in many questionable projects despite strong and persistent opposition from senior staff. It appears to me that this has created a lack of respect and trust, and has resulted in an ineffective Office of the Inspector General.

The serious nature of the reported findings and allegations, coupled with the grave implications if these allegations are meritorious, compel me ... to refer these matters to the Department of Justice and to the Securities Exchange Commission for consideration.

Rather than delay help for seniors, we need to fix the problems.

probably the Securities and Exchange Commission and the attorney general should have been on top of, but aren't.

People at the White House need to know that the chances of our getting a (budget cut) bill moving out of my committee are very difficult if we don't get this behind us,

No Senator has the right to insist on his or her own issue-by-issue philosophy, or seek commitments from nominees on specific litmus test questions likely to come before that court.

The oil companies ought to contribute something to LIHEAP with the profits that they have,

Now is the time for each of us to stand up and demand change. Call your senators at once,

Compared to the situation in Ukraine just one year ago, I think the progress they've made is impressive, ... I wish all our trading partners demonstrated that kind of respect for the rule of law.

And the provision included to offset the cost of these programs recognizes that taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for certain lifestyle prescription drugs through Medicare and Medicaid.

The bottom line (is) the NTSB did not have this information, there has been a lot of time wasted, a lot of wasted money and a compromise of public safety,

That's kind of like saying it's all right for a bank robber to rob a bank three times before the FBI's going to investigate the bank robbery,

A little research can go a long way to stopping the con artists who try to turn this tragedy into a profit-making venture. By making sure a charity checks out, those who are giving can make sure their valuable contributions reach the countless victims of this devastating natural disaster.

You see the sort of inconsistency that I get from my members,