~ Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey

~ Iowa Rep.Renee Schulte, R-Cedar Rapids

~ Iowa Journalist Chuck Offenburger

~ Linn County Supervisor Brent Oleson

~ U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

~ Former Iowa Sen. Jeff Angelo, R-Creston

The law called for the death penalty for HIV-positive people convicted of having gay sex and life imprisonment for those found guilty even of touching someone from the same sex “with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality.” In Iowa, groups outraged at the legislation turned their focus to U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley due to his alleged association with the secretive group known as “The Family.”

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa (file photo).

The group, a fellowship of powerful Christian politicians, had ties to Uganda legislators pushing the anti-homosexuality legislation. Des Moines-based One Iowa, the state’s largest gay-rights organization, called on Grassley to denounce the law and use his position in “The Family” to stop its passage.

Initially, Grassley balked at their request, saying through a spokeswoman that he is not a member of the Ugandan parliament and is unfamiliar with the particulars of the law. He followed up that statement by telling reporters that he was too busy “reading bills in Congress without reading the bills in another 190 countries.”

Finally, after a week of pressure from activist groups and the media, and numerous other conservative politicians and Christian leaders that were linked to the law publicly coming out against it, Grassley denounced the legislation as “un-Christian.”

The senator was responding to a report by the non-partisan watchdog Partnership for Public Service said that the Finance Committee’s demands for extensive tax records and audits of Treasury nominees has helped delay their Senate confirmation. Grassley is the ranking Republican on that committee.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa (Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.COM)

The report says, “A number of reasons have been cited for the hold-up of nominees. In some instances, the Senate Finance Committee demanded extensive tax records going back many years and audits that ended up sidetracking some nominees and delaying others for Treasury posts.”

Grassley called this line of thinking “a myth,” saying the process has been the exact same since 2001 “and maybe even before that.”

“Occasionally a nominee delays giving responses to the committee’s questions, or gives responses that generate more questions,” Grassley said. “That stretches out the vetting process. But it’s a myth that the committee is asking harder questions of Obama nominees than prior administration nominees over the last nine years. The fact is, we’ve seen more and bigger tax-related problems associated with the current administration nominees than we’ve seen in the past.”

President Barack Obama’s administration has seen most of the Treasury Department’s 33 high-level nominees stalled in confirmation, including the agency’s secretary, Tim Geithner. Grassley personally held up four Treasury nominees in late December, according to D.C. newspaper The Hill.

And Grassley recently held up the confirmation of four nominees, ones for Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy, assistant treasury for financial markets and deputy undersecretary for international finance. Obama’s pick for the international affairs post at Treasury, Lael Brainard, has come under scrutiny for her tax returns.

Grassley said he would allow the nominations to be considered just before the holiday break, but the full Senate, away from Washington since Christmas Eve, has yet to take them up.

Overall, the Partnership for Public Service found that out of 500 top-tier positions in the federal government, just 305 of those were filled and another 67 had been nominated and were awaiting Senate confirmation.

The lie that stood out above all other in 2009, according to Politifact, was a Republican talking point that end-of-life planning provisions included in health care reform legislation will lead to the government deciding whether seniors and the disabled were worthy of care.

Or, as it was more commonly known, “death panels.”

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa (Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.COM)

The claim began on the Facebook page of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, but it was quickly picked up by other GOP dignitaries, including Grassley.During a town hall forum in Winterset, Grassley told the crowd that they “have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the end of life; you ought to have counseling 20 years before you’re going to die. You ought to plan these things out. And I don’t have any problem with things like living wills, but they ought to be done within the family. We should not have a government program that determines you’re going to pull the plug on grandma.”

Later in the day, Grassley repeated the euthanasia claim, saying the provisions lead people to believe “that someone is going to decide grandma’s lived too long.”

For the next month, Grassley and his staff took turns defending and distancing the senator from the statement.

By the end of the year, Grassley was blaming media reports for his association with the death panels meme. In a letter to a constituent forwarded to The Iowa Independent, Grassley said some “commentators” took his comments and twisted them as saying that health care reform would establish death panels.

“I said no such thing,” Grassley said. “As I said then, putting end-of-life consultations alongside cost containment and government-run health care causes legitimate concern.”

The death panel rumor and all its derivatives has been repeatedly debunked and dubbed a “Pants on Fire” lie by Politifact.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa (Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.COM)

Grassley said his “commitment to traditional values” and “respect for life” holds true both in the United States and around the world. So with that in mind, after he learned more about the proposed legislation through the U.S. State Department, he was able to conclude that it is wrong and should be rejected.

“Based on what I’ve been able to learn about the legislation and from the stand point that I’m a born again Christian, I can tell you that I don’t agree with this un-Christian and unjust  proposal, and I hope the Ugandan officials dismiss it,” he said.

For days, Grassley has taken heat from gay-rights groups that felt he should speak out against the legislation. They targeted the Iowa Republican because of his reported association with a secretive group of Christian politicians that has ties to Uganda legislators who introduced the anti-homosexuality law.

Initially, Grassley balked at their request, saying through a spokeswoman that he is not a member of the Ugandan parliament and is unfamiliar with the particulars of the law. He followed up that statement by telling reporters that he was too busy “reading bills in Congress without reading the bills in another 190 countries.”

After a week of pressure from activist groups and the media, numerous conservative politicians and Christian leaders that have been linked to the law have publicly spoken out against it, including Rick Warren, author and leader of California’s Saddleback Church, and U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla..

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (Photo: Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.com)

“Subsequent to inquiries like yours this week, [Sen. Grassley’s] office contacted the U.S. State Department to get more information,” said spokeswoman Beth Levine. “The office was told that the administration hasn’t made an official statement, but an assistant secretary has privately relayed concerns to the Ugandan president.”

Des Moines-based One Iowa is conducting a petition drive demanding Grassley denounce the bill, which originally called for people convicted of being a homosexual to be  sentenced to life in prison. People who test positive for HIV would have been executed along with anyone who has homosexual sex more than once.

According to a report by Bloomberg News, the death penalty and life imprisonment portion of the law have been dropped, however it still contains portions that would sentence homosexuals to prison. The bill is expected to be presented to the Ugandan parliament in two weeks.

Activists felt Grassley could have an impact on the situation due to his reported affiliation with a group of lawmakers known as “The Family.” Investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet, who has written a book about the group, said Grassley has been involved with the secret fellowship of Christian politicians since the 1980s and has been active in African affairs on the group’s behalf.

Levin said Grassley has not been in contact with “The Family” on this or any other issue and has never lived at or attended a prayer meeting at the group’s townhouse on C Street near the U.S. Capitol.

“He worships at Prairie Lakes Church in Cedar Falls, and on the rare occasion he’s in Washington on a weekend, he worships at Woodlawn Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia,” Levin said.

She said Grassley hasn’t participated in a Sunday prayer breakfast often associated with “The Family” in “probably 10 years,” and when he did it was made up of senators of all faiths and denominations, “including Protestant, Catholic, Mormon and Jewish.”

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa (Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.COM)

“I’ve always considered this a free-trade issue,” Grassley said. “Imports create competition and keep domestic industry more responsive to consumers.  If Americans could legally access prescription drugs outside the United States, then drug companies would be forced to re-evaluate their pricing strategy.  The pharmaceutical industry would no longer have free rein to force American consumers to pay more than their fair share of the high cost of research and development.”

Grassley joined a bipartisan group of 19 senators in sponsoring the amendment, which could be debated Wednesday. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the legislation would save $19.4 billion over the next 10 years.

The Associated Press reports that President Barack Obama’s administration is raising safety concerns about the idea, which could be a roadblock to its passage. Opponents argue that unsafe or ineffective drugs could find their way to American consumers.

Grassley said the legislation contains safeguards to prohibit counterfeit drugs from entering the system or other practices that would put the consumer at risk, and applies only to FDA-approved prescription drugs produced in FDA-approved plants from countries with comparable safety standards.

As a senator, Obama supported an earlier version of the bill, and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was a leading advocate of drug reimportation when he was in the House.

Pharmaceutical companies also stand in opposition to the plan, which some predict could cost them billions of dollars.

Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge, right, visits with Cedar Rapids flood victims on the one year anniversary of the massive 2008 floods (Iowa Independent file photo).

However, while the figure may be massive it remains less than a third of the $3.6 billion in disaster recovery funds that have been promised to Iowa.

While more than 20 individual funding streams exist, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s funds have been the most utilized by Iowans. The agency’s Other Needs Assistance (ONA) funds, jointly administered by FEMA and the Iowa Department of Human Services for victims immediately following a disaster, has spent all but roughly $1 million of the $136.5 million allocated to Iowa.

More than $750 million of the total disaster recovery funds promised to Iowa remains unallocated or earmarked for specific projects or entities.

State officials involved in recovery efforts are to quick to point out that such a massive recovery will take time, and that especially mitigation projects need to be methodical and thoughtful in order to prevent future disasters. They also point to the fact that Iowa remains ahead of other natural disaster sites in the nation in terms of receiving and distributing recovery funds.

Much of the recovery effort in Iowa centers in northeastern Linn and Johnson counties, where Cedar Rapids and Iowa City were both hard-hit by June 2008 floods. Local officials in Cedar Rapids, who were displaced from their facilities by the flood, continue to debate and accept public comment regarding the future of certain structures. Until plans such as those are closer to reality, it is difficult for the Rebuild Iowa Office or other state and federal agencies to allocate funds to the projects.

According to figures from the Rebuild Iowa Office, more than 39,800 Iowans have registered with FEMA, and more than 35,000 Iowans have visited disaster recovery centers throughout the state. In addition to the 85 Iowa counties eligible for federal assistance, 77 counties are also eligible for state and public assistance.

A detailed look at the various funding streams, the amounts that have been promised/allocated to Iowa, what’s been approved for local use and the totals spent as of Dec. 4 are in the chart below:

The Iowa Legislature Web site also makes a document available for download with estimated disaster recovery funding by county.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa (Lauren Victoria Burke/wdcpix.com)

Des Moines-based One Iowa is conducting a petition drive demanding Grassley denounce the bill and use his influence to stop it. The reason they believe Grassley could have an impact is his association with a group known as “The Family.”

“The Family, a fundamentalist group of powerful politicians in America and abroad has ties to Uganda legislators pushing this horrific affront to human rights,” the group said in a press release. “Our very own Sen. Grassley is a member of this so-called ‘family.’”

If the law were passed, gays and lesbians convicted of having gay sex would be sentenced to life in prison. People who test positive for HIV would be executed, as would anyone who has homosexual sex more than once.

The bill also criminalizes advocacy of LGBT issues, which most believe would ultimately ban organizations  from working in the country on HIV and AIDS prevention.

According to National Public Radio, “The Family” is a secretive fellowship of powerful Christian politicians that centers on a Washington, D.C., townhouse. Investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet, who has written a book about the group, told NPR’s Terry Gross that Grassley “has been very involved in African affairs on behalf of ‘The Family.’”

Sharlet says Grassley has been involved with “The Family” since the 1980s.

Grassley’s office could not be reached for comment.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (Lauren Victoria Burke/WDCPIX.COM)

The medical use of marijuana is legal in 14 states and is being considered in several others, including Iowa. During the Bush Administration, agents raided several centers that dispense marijuana in California, where state law permits its medical use.

In a memo sent earlier this week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder made it clear that federal officials would no longer prosecute medical marijuana use that was allowed by state law, even if it broke federal regulations.

“I think that marijuana is a gateway to harder drug use,” Grassley said. “Medical marijuana brings a certain amount of legitimacy to an illegal drug, even though it attempts to do it in a legal way. We have a federal law that is intended to outlaw its use. That federal law ought to be enforced.  It was enforced in the previous administration and I think having a national program against drug use is very, very important.”

Grassley said that while some of the people who produce and distribute marijuana may be law-abiding citizens in the eyes of their state, people should not forget that “most of the marijuana that flows into the United States comes from the drug lords.”

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy held hearings earlier this month regarding medical marijuana. State Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, introduced a medical marijuana bill during the last legislative session, although it did not make it out of committee.