Yesterday, it was Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., citing “Climategate” as reason to doubt the legitimacy of the EPA’s recent finding that greenhouse emissions threaten public health. Today it’s Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, offering the same critique. In a call with reporters, Grassley said Congress never intended for the [...]
It was inevitable that conservatives would attack the Senate health care reform legislation over the proposed 0.5 percent hike in Medicare’s payroll tax for the country’s highest earners. Now they’re drilling down into the specifics.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has asked the Joint [...]
The push is on to dilute the climate change bills moving through Congress, and it’s not coming only from conservatives. Mother Jones’ Kate Sheppard reports today that 14 Senate Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, are urging their leadership to amend the proposal to grant more free polluting permits [...]
Though it’s been little mentioned throughout the health reform debate, there’s a showdown brewing between House and Senate Democrats over the future of the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, previously known as SCHIP.
House lawmakers have proposed to do away with the program at the end of 2013, transitioning millions [...]
WASHINGTON — On Thursday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will consider legislation designed to overhaul the nation’s criminal justice system by creating a commission to examine that system and make reform recommendations to Congress. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Arlen Specter [...]
The Senate finance panel just shot down an amendment to the committee’s health reform bill that would have required beneficiaries of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program to show a photo ID in order to enroll. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the senior Republican on the Finance Committee and sponsor [...]
Arguing that the town hall forums of August have “changed the direction” of the health care reform debate, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), said Thursday that he nonetheless expects a bill to pass before Christmas — though it “may be kind of miniature to what we’re talking about.”
Grassley, on the front [...]
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) didn’t succeed Thursday in his effort to amend the cash for clunkers program to disqualify those drivers earning more than $50,000 a year. (In fact, he ended up pulling his own amendment after discovering a drafting error that the Michigan delegation wouldn’t let him fix.)
Is that [...]
Yesterday we mentioned that Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee and a fierce opponent of public health plans, had left the door open to including a public option in the sweeping health care reforms he’s currently drafting with panel Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.).
Today, [...]
Among the greatest obstacles to sweeping health care reform this year (or any year) is the question of whether to include a government-sponsored insurance plan to compete with the multitudes of private coverage options. It’s a concept that then-Sen. Barack Obama supported on the campaign trail, and one he hasn’t [...]
In the aftermath of Sen. Arlen Specter’s (D-Pa.) defection from the Republican Party earlier this week, we wondered about Sen. Charles Grassley’s (R-Iowa) plans for leadership slots on the various committees where he sits. Briefly, because of GOP conference rules, Grassley faces the dilemma of either dropping his ranking [...]
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said today that Iowa has “been fortunate” that emergency funding for highways is soon to arrive, while additional funds for teachers and low-income health programs will likewise prevent imminent job losses within the state. He forgot to mention that voted against the stimulus package that will [...]
Much is being said — some praise and some criticism — of the bipartisan outreach that’s marked the first weeks of the Obama administration. But you won’t convince Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) that’s it’s happening everywhere.
Grassley, the highest ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said this week that his [...]
