DAVENPORT- On Monday, December 16 the Iowa Finance Authority and Davenport area landlords and housing professionals will be launching a new rental housing locator service for landlords to list their properties for free. Scott County has 20,000 rental units that the site aims to link with eligible tenants.

The web site will provide real-time rental unit vacancy information and other unique, advanced search components, not available on other sites. The site will launch for use by the public in January.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 16

TIME: 1:00 P.M.

LOCATION:

River Walk Lofts
420 West River Dr.

Statement of Senator Chuck Grassley

Finance Committee Markup of John Koskinen to be IRS Commissioner

December 13, 2013

This committee meeting breaks long-standing precedent of bipartisanship that has largely characterized how this Committee has operated.  During my tenure as either Chairman or ranking member this Committee always sought to process nominees of either party on an evenhanded and bipartisan basis.

Unfortunately, the breakdown of the rules and tradition of the Senate that recently culminated in the use of the nuclear option by Majority leader Reid has been allowed to infect the workings of this Committee.

Ranking Member Hatch, with the support of his fellow Republican committee members, requested the markup of Mr. Koskinen wait until the Committee could finish its ongoing investigation of the IRS targeting scandal.  This request was NOT a delaying tactic.  In fact, Ranking Member Hatch expressed his support for the nominee at a hearing held a little over 48 hours ago.

The ranking member made a good faith request concerning important business of this Committee.  The ranking member's sincerely held view was that it would be better for the Committee to complete the committee's bipartisan investigation into the IRS targeting scandal before moving forward.  The ranking member and I don't doubt that Mr. Koskinen fully intends to keep his promises to do all he can to assist the investigation.

The ranking member's concern, a concern I share, is about opposition he may face from within the IRS and outside of it, particularly if the investigation leads to the larger Treasury Department.

The ranking member's request is not without precedent in this Committee.  A similar request was made while I was Chairman of the Committee and every attempt was made to honor that request.

Unfortunately this has not been the case with Mr. Koskinen's nomination.  His nomination has been rushed through the Committee with lightning speed.  Mr. Koskinen's hearing was held just over 48 hours ago.  This has resulted in members having little time to follow-up with the nominee concerning questions asked of him at the hearing.

Traditionally, members of the Committee are given ample time to submit questions for the record.  This allows members to follow up on responses to questions given by the nominee during the hearing and engage in some agency oversight. Usually this committee provides at least 24 hours or longer in which to submit questions for the record.  However, for Mr. Koskinen members had at most 6 hours to submit questions for the nominee.  Given that members and their staff keep busy schedules, members were hard pressed to meet the 5 p.m. deadline that was imposed.

For such an important nomination as IRS Commissioner whose role has vastly increased because of Affordable Care Act one would expect more time for questions, not less.

Rushing this nomination through the committee has reduced the quality of the oversight Members are able to exercise.  In less than 24 hours, Mr. Koskinen was NOT able to adequately respond to written questions for the record for myself and other Members.  The answers I received back reflect this.  Many answers look as though someone copied and pasted a form response and just filled in blanks to reflect the question being asked.

I think Mr. Koskinen is very capable.  I would have appreciated him taking the time to provide thorough and substantive answers to my questions.  Instead I received promises to look at reports or learn about issues in the future.  In the past, this Committee expected nominees to answer questions before they were confirmed, but the majority will accept evidence that the nominee merely read the question.

I hope the way this nomination was handled is not evidence of how this Committee will proceed in the future.  That would be a tragedy for a Committee that has a rich tradition of bipartisanship and collegiality among members.

Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013

WASHINGTON - Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa today received bipartisan committee approval for his child welfare policy improvements including promoting sibling connections in foster care and strengthening child support enforcement.

"Child welfare experts tell you and common sense tells you children benefit when they're kept together and have strong relationships," Grassley said.  "This legislation removes barriers to federal law that prevent families of siblings from knowing when a child is placed in foster care or siblings from losing ties when parental rights are terminated.  This will help maintain sibling relationships and in turn help the kids.

"The child support provisions help states recover money that family courts have determined is owed to custodial parents.   We ought to do more to make sure money owed gets to the parents and children who need and deserve it.  Child support enforcement helps make sure families are strong and independent."

The Finance Committee approved the Grassley provisions as part of broad child welfare legislation, the Supporting At-Risk Children Act of 2013.

The sibling provisions are based on the Sibling Connections Act introduced by Grassley and Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia this week.  The Sibling Connections Act follows the example of at least five states, including Iowa, that have passed legislation or regulation that recognizes the parents of siblings as "relatives" for foster care placement.

That means the parents of a child's siblings are notified when the child enters foster care, allowing the adult guardians to try to maintain the sibling relationships.

Also, the bill corrects the current situation in which siblings lose their status as siblings when their parents' rights are terminated.  The loss of sibling status undermines the requirement of the landmark Fostering Connections law that siblings be placed together whenever possible.

The child support enforcement measures are drawn from legislation from Grassley and Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey.   Provisions from their bill that passed in committee today would:

--Require the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to use federal and, if necessary, state child support enforcement methods to ensure compliance with any U.S. treaty obligations associated with any multilateral child support convention to which the United States is a party.

--Require states, in order to receive federal funding, to implement amendments made by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.

--Expand access to the Federal Parent Locator Service to assist states in locating noncustodial parents, putative fathers, and custodial parties to ensure compliance with their child support obligations.

In addition to the Grassley-authored provisions, the broad children's welfare bill that advanced today included several priorities of strong interest to Grassley, including reauthorizing adoption incentives; provisions to help reunite foster children with loved ones, and significant improvements to protect youth from sex trafficking.

Grassley is a long-time advocate for adoption and improving foster care, especially the challenges facing those who age out of the system.  He is the co-founder and co-chair of the bipartisan Senate Caucus on Foster Youth.  He has secured several key legislative improvements to promote adoption.  More information is available here.

Grassley is former chairman and ranking member of the Finance Committee.  He is a senior member of the committee.