Charles Ernest "Chuck" Grassley (born September 17, 1933) is currently the senior United States Senator from Iowa. He is a member of the Republican Party and has served in the Senate since 1981. From 1958 to 1974, he was an Iowa state legislator. Thereafter he served three terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He has twice held the chairmanship of the Finance Committee, from January to June 2001 and from January 2003 to December 2006; as of April 2009, he is the committee's ranking member.
Grassley was born in New Hartford, Butler County, Iowa to Ruth Corwin and Louis Arthur Grassley, and graduated from the town high school. At the Iowa State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa) he earned a bachelor's degree in 1955 and an M.A. in 1956. Also during the 1950s, Grassley farmed and worked in factories, first as a sheet metal shearer and then as an assembly line worker. Grassley married Barbara Ann Speicher in September 1954; the couple have five children: Lee, Wendy, Robin, Michele, and Jay. Grassley is a member of The Family, a Christian group that organizes the National Prayer Breakfast.