Obviously, I thank you for holding this hearing. It is important to study the relationship between bankruptcies and foreclosures and whether there is, in fact, a need for change in the Bankruptcy Code.

Absolutely correct. One of the defects of the watered-down secret holds provision that was included in the ethics reform bill in the 110th Congress was that it allowed for large windows of secrecy before disclosure was required. Our…

the time has come to end secrecy on the floor of the Senate. The time has come for Senators who think they ought to put a hold on a bill to be able to continue to put a hold on a bill or a nomination, but it is also time to show that you…

I rise to support the Wyden-Grassley- McCaskill public hold proposal. I apologize to my two colleagues from Oregon and Missouri that I was not on the floor at the proper time. It is all my fault. I am pleased to see this day come where the…

Senator Baucus and I first introduced a bill to ban patents for tax inventions in the 110th Congress. Since then, we have worked with the leaders of the Judiciary Committee, the Patent and Trademark Office, the American Institute of…

As we begin the 112th Congress I want to discuss one of my continuing concerns with the Medicare Program. For the last 10 years, I have served most recently as ranking member and previously as the chairman of the Senate Committee on…

I emphasize that because I think the public ought to know that not everything in the Senate is partisan. Senator Wyden and I have been chipping away at the informal, backroom process known as secret holds in the Senate. We have been…

it is with great sadness and concern that I report that more and more kids are turning to drugs. Recently released annual studies that track drug use trends among youth and adults are indicating rapid increases in drug use among all age…

The Senate should not simply ratify this treaty to appease Russia or as a signal of cooperation with them. The treaty should be considered based on its impact on our national security and the security of our allies. A nuclear arms control…

I rise today to pay tribute to a friend and a trusted adviser, Wythe Willey, who lost a 2-year battle with cancer on Saturday. Wythe Willey was a person who left a mark. If you ever met him, you would be hard pressed to forget him. He was…

today, I rise to thank a longtime member of my staff who is retiring from the Senate. Mary Day began working in my Cedar Rapids office in 1987 as a constituent services specialist, and in 1996 rose to become the regional director based in…

I would like to take a moment to discuss my vote today against ending debate on the Dream Act, a bill that would provide legal status to millions of people in this country who are illegally present. Before I discuss the substance of the…

on November 3, 1918, an American hero-- Robert William Andrew Feller--was born in Dallas County, IA, near the town of Van Meter. Sadly, this same hero died on December 15, 2010. Van Meter is nestled between the steady and rolling Raccoon…

I would like to congratulate the students from Iowa City West High School who will participate in the We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution national finals in Washington, DC. More than 1,200 students from across the United States…

We keep having ethanol referred to as a subsidy. Let me tell you about some of the subsidies that are in this bill because you might think that ethanol is the only one. Think in terms of the research and development tax credit. That is…

But I must say, in the brief time I have, there is almost an Orwellian experience on the floor of the Senate as compared with the rest of America. Here we are, about to pass these necessary tax extenders--necessary to give some kind of…

this bill is about stopping the biggest tax increase in the history of the country that will happen if we do not pass something between now and the end of the year. That happens because the 2001 tax law, the present tax policy, was only…

the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, S. 372, will strengthen and modernize protections for Federal whistleblowers. May I ask the Senator from Hawaii to clarify the intent of the provision providing relief for the consequences of…

First of all, I remember before the President was sworn in he announced that--even though he ran on a platform of increasing taxes on higher income people--you do not raise taxes during a recession. So during the year 2009, there were no…

there are a lot of issues that have been brought up in the last hour that need to be responded to. I probably will not get to all of them, but I would like to start with a recent one that was just stated. It is not a case that tax cuts are…

Yes; I thought I made that point very clear. Because the taxpayers are smarter than we in Congress are. They know if they give another $1 to us to spend, it is a license to spend $1.15. So it just increases the national debt. When it comes…

since yesterday, we have witnessed in this Chamber the resumption of a set of tired and worn out taking points that the Democratic side drags out whenever they are forced to finally get around to discussing tax policy. Well, once again…

It seems as though every few weeks or so there are a lot of misleading and misinformed accusations launched at our Nation's renewable fuel producers. It is impossible to come to the Senate floor to respond to all of them. But sometimes the…

I, Senator Chuck Grassley, intend to object to proceeding to H.R. 5717, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute Enhancement Act, for the following reasons. The Smithsonian has had well documented problems keeping up with the…

I want to first start off by thanking my Senate colleagues and in particular the Senate Agriculture Committee for addressing a new cause of action in Federal court for those African-American farmers who may have been discriminated against…