contributed photo On Monday, April 14, 10 area high schools participated in Grassley's summit at the U.S. Courthouse in Cedar Rapids. Chief Judge C.J. Williams spoke to the attendees, followed by a question-and-answer session.

One of the first orders of business for each new Congress is securing committee assignments. Lawmakers are assigned to committees to divide up the work. This allows members to dive into policy areas and conduct the people’s business, from the budget to taxes, health care, agriculture and more.

I’ve served on the Senate Judiciary Committee since I was first sworn in to represent Iowans in the U.S. Senate. It’s one of the original standing committees in the upper chamber and arguably one of the most influential. The committee’s jurisdiction touches on kitchen tables issues for American families, from safety on our streets, schools and skies to protecting seniors and children from exploitation on social media.

As a lifelong family farmer, I bring Midwestern commonsense and a tireless work ethic to weed out wrongdoing and cultivate good government. My amendments to the False Claims Act have returned more than $78 billion to the federal treasury, and saved countless more by deterring would-be fraudsters. Since 1981, I’ve worked my way up the seniority ladder to give Iowa a front row seat in the Senate. When Republicans held the Senate Majority, I chaired the Senate Aging (1997-2001), Finance (Jan.-June 2001; 2003-2007, 2019-2021) and Judiciary Committees (2015-2019), respectively. In the last Congress, when Democrats had the Senate Majority, I was the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee.

When the 119th Congress opened for business on Jan. 3, 2025, I resumed the helm of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Having served on this committee for more than four decades, I divide the nuts-and-bolts of its work into three buckets: legislative, oversight and nominations.

Legislative

The Judiciary Committee has legislative jurisdiction over bankruptcy; constitutional amendments; immigration; anti-trust, criminal and juvenile justice laws; whistleblower protections; intellectual property; the federal judiciary and more. One of my leading legislative priorities has been to rein in anti-competitive business practices that harm consumers and impede innovation vital to economic growth, including in the agriculture, health care, technology and pharmaceutical sectors. I’ve also leveraged my chairmanship to push for victims’ rights; support law enforcement; combat elder abuse, human and drug trafficking, sexual assault, including sexual abuse of athletes, and support whistleblowers.

Oversight

The committee’s oversight responsibilities include keeping check on the Department of Justice and agencies under its umbrella, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Marshals Service, as well as parts of the Department of Homeland Security, including the U.S. Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and others. For years, I’ve led a crusade to root out mismanagement, inter-agency turf wars and the weaponization of government that undermines public confidence in our government institutions. Most recently, I’ve exposed federal agencies’ gross negligence to protect unaccompanied migrant children victimized by human trafficking.

Nominations

The Senate Judiciary Committee leads confirmation hearings for nominees to the federal bench, including the Supreme Court. Since the Reagan administration, I’ve participated in 17 hearings for Supreme Court nominees, as well as hundreds of nominees to appellate and district courts. Article II, Section 2 gives the Senate “advise and consent” authority to keep check on lifetime appointments made by the president. Article III empowers Congress with authority to establish lower federal courts. Below the Supreme Court, the federal judiciary has 13 appellate and 94 district courts across the country, including the Northern and Southern Districts in Iowa.

In Federalist 78, Alexander Hamilton said the federal judiciary, “from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution, because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them.” He wrote the executive branch has “the sword” of enforcement and the legislature holds the power of “the purse.” Hamilton said the judicial branch would “have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.”

In recent years, the lower courts have abused judicial powers to exert themselves into policymaking, rather than deciding “cases and controversies” as the Constitution tasks them to do. Federal district courts’ abuse of nationwide rulings veers outside of their constitutional lane, defies nearly two centuries of precedent, politicizes the courts and incentivizes “forum shopping” to find a sympathetic judge. This practice undermines public confidence in the federal judiciary. I’ve introduced legislation to clarify the constitutional role of the lower courts. My bill would ensure the lower courts decide only the case before them, rather than applying a universal order to the entire country.

In April, I hosted my sixth Federal Judiciary Youth Summit. The role of the judicial branch is arguably less understood than the other two branches, particularly by younger generations. Far too few Americans know how court rulings impact their everyday lives, and the federal judiciary can seem complex and unapproachable. That might be because cameras aren’t allowed in the federal courthouse, something I’ve long pushed for to improve transparency and understanding of the judicial branch. From my top seat on the Judiciary Committee, I’m tilling the soil to nurture good government and civic engagement to help ensure our republic endures for generations yet to come.

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Chuck Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford,

represents Iowa in the United States Senate.