“Assuming Trump reads your stories, or somebody there reads your stories, tell them that they’ve got to deal with Chuck Grassley if they don’t treat whistleblowers right.”

That’s the message Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley wants the White House to hear. And given how important the Iowa Republican is to advancing the agenda of President Donald Trump, his words carry weight.

Much of the immediate focus on Grassley’s committee is on confirming Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to be attorney general and then processing Trump’s pick of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the vacant associate justice position on the Supreme Court.

But Grassley has long been a stickler when it comes to congressional oversight, regardless of which gavel he has held, especially on the matter of protecting executive-branch whistleblowers from intimidation and retribution.

The seven-term senator was the lead GOP sponsor of the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, joining with Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan. And before that, he worked to establish an appropriations rider, declaring that “no money could be used to enforce any nondisclosure agreement that interferes with the right of individuals to provide information to Congress.”