The Senate Finance Committee’s top Republican slammed the Obama administration and some Democrats on Friday for seeking confirmation of several government nominees who have tax problems.

Charles E. Grassley , R-Iowa, claimed that the committee’s intensive vetting process has been undermined. The “bar has definitely been lowered with this administration’s nominees, in regard to tax compliance,” he said at a hearing for Treasury Department nominees.

Without naming names, Grassley claimed he had sidelined some Republican nominees over tax issues when he was chairman of the panel during George W. Bush ’s presidency.

Grassley focused his ire Friday on Lael Brainard, President Obama’s nominee to be Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, whose nomination was delayed for months after committee staff discovered late tax payments and questions about her use of a tax deduction for home office space.

“Anyone watching this process closely now knows that a nominee can get away with not paying taxes, or consistently pay them months late, or not follow normal procedures and still be confirmed,” Grassley said in his prepared opening statement. “All they have to do is blame it on their incompetent accountant, their spouse, or computer software or hardware.”

Grassley served as chairman of the committee for more than four years between 2001-07 and has long had a close working relationship with the current chairman, Max Baucus , D-Mont. Baucus says Brainard has addressed all the concerns through amended returns and that he supports her nomination.

The Finance panel’s rigorous vetting procedures have been on particular display this year, starting when Timothy F. Geithner , Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary, encountered a personal tax-related controversy on the road to his Senate confirmation. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. (1987-2005), saw his nomination to be secretary of Health and Human Services go down in flames early in the year during the tax vetting process.