Grassley Opens Judiciary Committee Executive Business Meeting on U.S. Attorney Nominees

Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting
Thursday, March 12, 2026

On today's agenda, we have two bills and seven nominations.

Today, we'll vote on two U.S. Attorney nominees - Melissa Holyoak for the District of Utah and Phil Williams for the Northern District of Alabama.

The two bills and the remaining nominations will be held over for future consideration

Before we vote on the nominations, I want to mention that next week our committee will continue our bipartisan work to keep Americans safe.

In the last few weeks, our committee has taken concrete steps to advance legislation to protect American communities.

We've reported a bill to protect children from predators who coerce them to physically harm themselves, others or animals.

We've reported a bill that would modernize sentencing guidelines for child sexual abuse material.

We reported a bill that penalizes the extortion and coercion of children using child sex abuse material, known commonly as "sextortion."

And just last week, we reported a bill that would protect Americans who rely on ATMs for cash withdrawals from robbery and violence.

As I said a few weeks ago, at my town hall meetings in Iowa, people always ask me why Republicans and Democrats can't get along, and why we don't speak to each other.

While it's certainly true that we have our differences, our recent work demonstrates that this committee can work together to tackle real problems for the American people.

Next week, this committee is going to take another step in this direction.

We're going to consider a strong bipartisan bill sponsored by Senator Cortez Masto, a Democrat, and this senator to combat the threat of illicit xylazine and our country's drug epidemic.

Our bill will help protect Americans from a toxic sedative, commonly known as "tranq," that's often mixed with fentanyl and leads to tragic loss of American lives.

This bill does this while protecting its legitimate use by veterinarians, farmers, ranchers and wildlife personnel.

This bill is bipartisan, it's been a priority of both the Biden and the Trump administrations, and it's cosponsored by 14 Democrats and 15 Republicans, including several on this committee.

In drafting this bill, our committee has heard from victims who've lost loved ones to fentanyl and xylazine.

Just two days ago, we heard from a mother who lost her son to this poison. Her son will be forever 27, and her grief is palpable.

We'll never be able to return lost loved ones to their families, but we can work together to save other families from similar tragedies.

I'm looking forward to working with my colleagues, once again in a bipartisan way, to solve real problems for the American people.

I'd also like to mention a few other matters.

Regarding leadership changes at the Department of Homeland Security, I appreciate Secretary Noem's service as secretary.

As this committee's oversight hearing showed, improvements can be made.

I look forward to Senator Mullin's nomination process and working with him.

I'd also like to quickly bring up this committee's bipartisan hearing on Nazis and Swiss banks.

The witnesses included UBS, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Neil Barofsky.

The committee has done good bipartisan work on this historic matter. And my oversight continues in full force.

Accordingly, I'm considering calling a second hearing in the fall, if not earlier, to serve as another investigative update.

And finally, due to UBS's failure to fully answer this committee's questions for the record, I've kept the hearing record open for now.

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