Grassley marks 12,000 votes

CEDAR RAPIDS — Twelve thousand votes after becoming a member of the U.S. Senate, Sen. Chuck Grassley is the first to admit there might be one or two he might like to do over.

'Well, gosh, out of 12,000 votes I could probably think of a lot that I'd take back,' said Grassley, who has cast 7,474 of those consecutively since missing a vote in 1993 when he was touring flood damage in Iowa with President Bill Clinton.

He has the second-longest consecutive voting record of the 1,963 members who have served in the Senate since 1789, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

The Iowa Republican cast his 12,000th Senate vote Oct. 30 when he voted against a motion to waive all applicable budgetary discipline with regard to a budget deal.

Only 17 senators in the institution's history have cast more votes than Grassley, the fourth most senior member of the Senate and the third most senior Republican senator. In a few months, Grassley, who first entered the Senate by defeating Democratic Sen. John Culver 53 percent to 46 percent in 1980, will become the longest-serving senator in Iowa history.

He doesn't recall his first vote, but said it likely was a procedural vote when the Senate organized after that election.

'I'm not so sure that would have been a big thing for me because, don't forget, I was a member of the House of Representatives for six years before that,' Grassley said Wednesday.

One he remembers — not because he would take it back but because it was a difficult vote and because he often is asked about it, especially by students more than by reporters — was his 1991 vote against military involvement in the Persian Gulf War. The resolution was approved 52-47.

Ten Democrats joining 42 Republicans. Grassley and Sen. Mark Hatfield of Oregon were the only GOP senators to oppose the invasion.

'That's not a vote I want to take back,' Grassley said. 'That's just a vote that I was most distraught about casting probably because I was one of two Republicans to votes against every other Republican that voted for it.

'I got a lot of negative feedback from my constituency about it,' he said.

However, Grassley said that feedback from constituents, including those he meets when he visits each county every year, factors into his votes.

'I'm bringing the benefit of every comment, question and criticism heard from Iowans to the vote,' he said. 'I think of the many conversations and pieces of correspondence behind those votes.'

On the occasion of his 10,000th vote in April 2009, Grassley said he has a responsibility as an elected officials to ask Iowans for their views and answer their questions.

'And they have a responsibility to let me know what they think,' he said. 'I want to foster that process, and going to every county every year is a way to do so.'

No mystery

Whether that communication happens at his annual town hall meetings, in his Senate office in Washington or at University of Northern Iowa volleyball matches near his New Hartford farm, Grassley said 'the time people take to visit with me is time well-spent for me, and I hope they consider it time well-spent for them.'

Given that level of commitment, 'I don't think it's any great mystery why the people of Iowa keep sending him here,' McConnell said.

He is easily the most popular politician in the state, according to a Public Policy Polling survey earlier this month, and an overwhelming favorite for re-election in 2016. PPP found 50 percent of voters approve of the job he's doing, while 34 percent disapprove.

Among current senators, Grassley joins Republican Sens. Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Orrin Hatch of Utah and Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy in the 12,000-vote club. Leahy recently cast his 15,000th vote.

Grassley is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a senior member and former chairman of the Finance Committee, serves on the Agriculture and Budget committees, chairs the Caucus on International Narcotics Control and co-chairs the Caucus on Foster Youth, a group he co-founded.

Grassley's legislative record includes 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.