Chuck Grassley: “I find myself this afternoon speaking against a lot of my friends with whom I generally agree most of the time, and so I…”

“I find myself this afternoon speaking against a lot of my friends with whom I generally agree most of the time, and so I am somewhat chagrined that I have to oppose my good friend from Alabama and the position he has just taken as he spoke in favor of the Thompson amendment. I rise in opposition to it. This amendment is not about conflict of interest laws. That is not its intent. It is about having an employee representative serve on the oversight board. I believe very strongly that we must have the employee representative on this oversight board. As you have already heard Senator Kerrey say, he agrees with that. We both had the honor of serving on this National Commission on the Restructuring of the IRS. We were the only two Senators to do so. I think our year's experience there taught us something, and that is the value of having people who speak for and work with the employees, other than in a management capacity, to show their good intent, that they want Government to function in an efficient manner and to serve the customers well. That would be true of Rob Tobias, who is the current President of the National Treasury Employees Union. He served with us on this Commission. I was very impressed with him and with his work.”