Grassley Opens Judiciary Committee Executive Business Meeting on Combating Illicit Xylazine Act, Additional Legislation and Nominations

Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting
Thursday, March 26, 2026

Before I get to the agenda, I'd like to address this week's Arctic Frost hearing.

First, this committee won't give in to the Democrats' ill-advised strategy to bring Jack Smith in before the record is ready.

As Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal said of my recent document productions, the facts continue to roll out about Jack Smith, and "those facts are getting uglier."

Second, my Democratic colleagues and the partisan media continue to sing a sob story about fired partisan DOJ and FBI personnel.

Let me remind my colleagues that many of the fired personnel retaliated against my whistleblowers during the Biden administration.

I didn't hear a peep from my Democratic colleagues then about their lives being upended and destroyed.

Third, and lastly, this committee is investigating government weaponization because my Democratic colleagues didn't lift a finger during the Biden administration.

Four years of uninterrupted, consistent and sustained political attacks on Republicans by the previous administration.

This committee's work exposing that political corruption will continue.

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

[W]e'll vote on two nominations: Brian Gootkin to be Marshal in the District of Montana and James Stuart to be Marshal in the District of Minnesota.

We'll also vote on three bills today: S. 545, Combating Illicit Xylazine Act; H.R. 2159, Count the Crimes to Cut Act; and S. 2934, Protecting Americans from Russian Litigation Act of 2025.

I want to take a moment to talk about the Combating Illicit Xylazine Act, which I lead with Senator Cortez Masto.

We began considering this important bill last week, and I hope to complete our committee's work on it today.

Our bill will classify this highly toxic drug as Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act, while protecting its legitimate use by veterinarians, farmers and ranchers.

I explained last week that this is critical, bipartisan legislation that has a wide range of support from law enforcement, the agriculture community and from victims.

It's been a priority of both the Biden and the Trump administrations, and it's cosponsored by 14 Democrats and 18 Republicans.

We heard the tragic stories of families devastated by this poison last week. We're here today for them.

Last week, it became clear that the committee needed a few additional days to clarify some language.

We want to ensure that our bill solves an important problem while also promoting transparency.

We've taken the week to work with members on both sides of the aisle to reach an agreement on some clarifying language.

This new language is explicit about what documents we expect to be produced by both HHS and DEA.

My staff and I engaged multiple offices on both sides of the aisle in good faith.

I was glad to work with Senators Whitehouse, Coons and now Senator Booker on a revised manager's amendment that I think achieves the right balance.

I want to be crystal clear about the intent of this manager's amendment.

This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to submit their scientific and medical evaluation and scheduling recommendations for xylazine.

They will submit this along with DEA's law enforcement, regulatory and abuse evaluation in a combined, public and prompt report to Congress.

This way, the information available to the public will closely mimic the data that would have been published in the Federal Register if xylazine was administratively scheduled.

It's important for the American people to see the drug scheduling information from both DEA and HHS because that is how Congress intended the process to work.

Congress granted DEA the authority to schedule drugs in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

If the HHS scientific and medical evaluation was released alone, it would not provide the public with the complete picture, because it is just one part of the administrative process.

The manager's amendment will release this information, but in its proper context with the combined views of the relevant agencies.

The committee wants to see the analysis from HHS. I want to see it, but I also want to see the analysis from the Drug Enforcement Agency, which is the other half of the equation.

That's what the manager's amendment that I called up last week would do, and that's what the new language now spells out with absolute clarity.

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