Grassley Direct

I wrote an op-ed in the Des Moines Register about how bipartisan reforms to the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act will benefit Iowa families, farmers and businesses by providing relief to the community banks and credit unions that Iowans rely on to make their lives happen.

Q&A: Data Privacy

Q. Why did you call a congressional hearing to examine data privacy?
Q. What's at stake?

Quick Links

As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I will be holding a hearing on data privacy to improve awareness of how consumer data is harvested and used online. The hearing will broadly cover privacy standards for the collection, retention and dissemination of consumer data for commercial use. It will also examine what steps companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter can take to better protect personal information of users and ensure more transparency in the process. CEOs from those companies have been invited to testify.  

I wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen seeking information on a federal program that allows private institutions to manage visas for foreign students who are then permitted to work in the United States. The program is susceptible to abuse by entities that pose as education institutions in order to secure visas for tuition-paying foreign students who, in turn, are able to obtain work permits, and are exempted from payroll tax requirements. The Department of Homeland Security needs to establish stricter guidelines for this program to prevent abuse at the expense of American workers and taxpayers.