Chuck Grassley: “Today was a landmark day for the American people in hearings before two Senate committee on which I serve. As chairman…”

“Today was a landmark day for the American people in hearings before two Senate committee on which I serve. As chairman of the Special Committee on Aging and the request of my colleague, Senator Shelby, I assembled several panels to raise the awareness of the second-leading cause of cancer death for men: prostate cancer. In the Finance Committee, we opened up 3 days of unprecedented oversight hearings into systemic abuses of power by the Internal Revenue Service. The telephones were ringing off the hook in my office as these hearings were underway. That's how much these issues struck a chord with the American people. And suddenly, the hearings were canceled. Why? Was it a national emergency? The death of a colleague? An international crisis? Hardly. Instead, the Democratic leadership used the Senate rules to shut down the public's business. They shut down important policy debates on prostate cancer and IRS abuses. And that's only in the two committees I was involved with. Other committees were affected. What's apparently more important to the Democratic leadership than these issues is a partisan political issue in Louisiana.”