Working for Iowa puts Grassley on list with 23 others in Senate history
WASHINGTON - Senator Chuck Grassley has cast his 11,000 Senate vote. Only 23 senators in history have cast more votes than Grassley.
In addition, no senator serving today has gone as long as Grassley has without missing a vote. Grassley has cast 6,473 consecutive votes.
"Not missing votes is a way to demonstrate respect for the public trust I hold in representing Iowans and to do the job I'm elected to do," Grassley said. "When the Senate's in session, I'm in Washington voting, and when the Senate is out of session, I'm in Iowa holding meetings with constituents."
Click here for comments made this afternoon by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. Grassley's 11,000th vote was last evening.
Since Grassley was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1980, he has held at least one official meeting in every one of Iowa's 99 counties every year. He calls the process of representative government a two-way street. "I have a responsibility to go to Iowans to ask for their views and answer their questions, and they have a responsibility to let me know what they think. I want to foster that process, and going to every county every year is a way to do so."
In the Senate, Grassley is the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He is a senior member and former Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee on Finance. He serves on the Agriculture and Budget committees and co-chairs the Caucus on International Narcotics Control.
Grassley is committed to congressional oversight of the executive branch of government. His efforts have been recognized by whistleblower advocacy and government reform groups and journalist organizations for protecting press freedom and the First Amendment. He fights for transparency in government and wherever tax dollars flow.
Grassley's legislative record of achievement includes expansive tax relief and reform, approval of international trade agreements, renewable energy and conservation incentives, farm program reforms, rural health care fairness, Medicare modernization, adoption and foster care incentives, access to health care for children with disabilities, updates to patent and trademark laws, expanded consumer access to generic drugs, measures to fight fraud against taxpayers, whistleblower protections, pension program reforms, bankruptcy reform, and making certain that members of Congress live under civil rights, labor and health care laws passed for the rest of the country.
Grassley is the eighth most senior member of the U.S. Senate and the fourth most senior Republican senator.
Other senators currently serving who have cast more than 11,000 votes are Senators Max Baucus of Montana, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Carl Levin of Michigan, and Richard Lugar of Indiana.
Since 1789, there have been nearly 2,000 members of the U.S. Senate. The last vote Grassley missed was in July 1993, when he accompanied President Bill Clinton to Iowa to inspect flood damage.
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