Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) will block Thomas Perez, President Obama’s labor nominee, if he doesn’t get answers about Perez’s work in the Justice Department’s civil-rights division.

“At this point, I want to wait until I get answers to the questions,” Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, tells National Review Online in a brief interview today. “If I don’t get answers to the questions, I’ll work to block his nomination. But I think he ought to be forthcoming to my constitutional job of oversight and [answer] all the questions.”

“I’m primarily interested in why he hasn’t done more to make sure that the civil-rights division was more non-partisan,” Grassley adds, “and number two, I want to know all of these activities in regard to the St. Paul housing.”

Grassley is involved in a congressional investigation into whether Perez made a quid pro quo deal with the city of St. Paul, Minn., to make sure the Supreme Court didn’t hear a particular housing-discrimination case.

Senator David Vitter (R., Louisiana) said in a statement yesterday that he would block Perez’s nomination.