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Sen. Grassley's Battles
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Published: February 7, 2008
Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Baptist and member of Prairie Lakes Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa, is a Capitol Hill expert on change in the tax-exempt arena.
As former chairman and now ranking member of the Senate Committee on Finance, his oversight has resulted in legislation, encouragement of the IRS to offer more guidance to taxpayers, and several agencies correcting their own questionable practices. Among them:
After hearings called by Grassley on concerns about the American Red Cross and its handling of Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina victims and donations, the agency launched an independent review of its operations and concluded changes were necessary. Grassley sponsored legislation to make some of the corrections.
After a series of news reports about questionable practices at the nonprofit The Nature Conservancy, the world's largest environmental organization, Grassley's Senate Finance Committee began investigating in 2003. The conservancy eventually made significant changes.
An inquiry into The Smithsonian Institution, where the U.S. inspector general and The Washington Post had found generous compensation packages and other questionable expenditures, led to several changes. Those included the resignation of the institution's secretary, an overhaul of management practices and a commitment to making long-term changes to restore the museum's value to the public.
Grassley has stated that he prefers voluntary cooperation and self-correction over subpoenas and Senate hearings. The only time his committee has issued a subpoena relating to nonprofit groups was in 2006 in the influence-peddling investigation of now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Michelle Bearden
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