Grassley is the senior senator from Iowa and is a Republican. He has served since Jan 5, 1981. Grassley is next up for reelection in 2022.
He is also President Pro Tempore of the Senate, a party leadership role. Party leaders focus more on setting their party’s legislative priorties than on introducing legislation.
He was previously the representative for Iowa’s 3rd congressional district as a Republican from 1975 to 1980.
![Photo of Sen. Charles “Chuck” Grassley [R-IA]](/static/legislator-photos/300048-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Legislative Metrics
Read our 2018 Report Card for Grassley.
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Grassley is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our liberal–conservative ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Grassley has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 2015 to Dec 11, 2019. See full analysis methodology.
Ratings from Advocacy Organizations
Committee Membership
Charles “Chuck” Grassley sits on the following committees:
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Chair,
Senate Committee on Finance
- Ex Officio, Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness
- Member, Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure
- Member, Subcommittee on Health Care
- Member, Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy
- Vice Chair, Joint Committee on Taxation
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Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
- Member, Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management, and Trade
- Member, Subcommittee on Conservation, Forestry, and Natural Resources
- Member, Subcommittee on Livestock, Marketing, and Agriculture Security
- Senate Committee on the Budget
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Senate Committee on the Judiciary
- Member, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights
- Member, Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration
- Member, Subcommittee on Intellectual Property
- Member, Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts
- United States Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control
Enacted Legislation
Grassley was the primary sponsor of 84 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:
- S. 744: Effective Prosecution of Possession of Biological Toxins and Agents Act of 2019
- S. 1091: Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019
- S. 928: Taxpayer First Act of 2019
- S. 897: Family Farmer Relief Act of 2019
- S. 317: ACE Kids Act of 2019
- S. 1312 (115th): Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2017
- S. 3747: First Step Act of 2018
Does 84 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Grassley sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:
Crime and Law Enforcement (28%) Health (22%) Education (12%) Government Operations and Politics (10%) Commerce (8%) Taxation (6%) Law (6%) Immigration (6%)
Recent Bills
Some of Grassley’s most recently sponsored bills include...
- S. 2895: SARMs Control Act of 2019
- S. 2838: A bill to amend the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act to ...
- S. 2777: Family First Transition Act
- S. 2770: Survivors’ Bill of Rights in the States Act of 2019
- S.Res. 405: A resolution expressing support for the designation of October as “Brain Health Awareness ...
- S. 2764: Stop the Importation and Manufacturing of Synthetic Analogues Act of 2019
- S.Res. 358: A resolution designating the week beginning October 20, 2019, as “National Character Counts ...
View All » | View Cosponsors »
As President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Grassley may be focused on his responsibilities other than introducing legislation, such as setting the chamber’s agenda, uniting his party, and brokering deals.
Voting Record
Key Votes
Missed Votes
From Jan 1981 to Dec 2019, Grassley missed 36 of 13,229 roll call votes, which is 0.3%. This is better than the median of 1.5% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
- Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
- GPO Member Guide for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
