Chair's Press

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 – In letters signed by every Democratic member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ben Ray...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 – Ahead of a vote on Senate Joint Resolution 43, that would deny student debt relief to millions of Americans, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, gave remarks today on the floor of the U.S. Senate urging his colleagues to vote "no" and instead work to...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today led a committee hearing titled, “Standing Up Against Corporate Greed: How Unions are Improving the Lives of Working Families,” which heard testimony from UAW International President Shawn Fain, Teamsters General...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 – With growing reports of horrific anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and racism occurring on college campuses and in schools across the U.S. since October 7, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today released the following statement: Given the horrific war taking...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), on Wednesday announced the committee will hold a hearing next week entitled, “Standing Up Against Corporate Greed: How Unions are Improving the Lives of Working Families.” Union leaders representing working people who...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 – As negotiations on new rules for addressing pandemics are underway at the World Health Organization (WHO), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today sent a letter to Ambassador Pamela Hamamoto urging her to push for the inclusion of strong reasonable...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 – Ahead of the final Senate confirmation vote today on nominee Dr. Monica Bertagnolli to serve as the Director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, spoke on the floor of the Senate on the need to lower the cost...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 – A new report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that financial aid provided by the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic helped millions of working-class Americans reduce their credit card debt. It was the first time in nearly a decade that the share of active credit card accounts with...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 – Ahead of tomorrow’s Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee field hearing in New Brunswick, New Jersey on the national nursing crisis, Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) asked Mark Manigan, the CEO of RWJBarnabas Health, and Alan Lee, the CEO of the non-profit Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, to...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today released the following statement ahead of tomorrow’s committee markup of Dr. Monica Bertagnolli’s nomination to serve as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH): Our health care system is broken and...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 – The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) on Wednesday, October 25, at 10:00 a.m. ET, will hold a markup on the following nominations: Nomination of Monica Bertagnolli to be Director of the National Institutes of Health     Nomination of Charlotte Burrows to be Chair of the Equal Employment...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today sent a letter to Christi Grimm, Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), urging a thorough investigation into the National Institutes of Health (NIH) after the NIH proposed, in...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today led the committee in a hearing to consider the nomination of Dr. Monica Bertagnolli to serve as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Sanders’ remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below and can be...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), along with 32 of their colleagues in the Senate, introduced a resolution today in solidarity with 150,000 members of United Auto Workers (UAW) bargaining for a fair contract, with 34,000...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, issued the following statement today on next week’s committee hearing in New Jersey: As the Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, I look forward to a very important hearing in New Brunswick,...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, announced today that on Friday, October 27 the committee will hold a field hearing in New Brunswick, New Jersey entitled “Overworked and Undervalued: Is the Severe Hospital Staffing Crisis Endangering the Well-Being of...

WASHINGTON, October 10 – A new report released today by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, shows that many nonprofit hospital systems across the country are failing to provide low-income Americans with the affordable medical care required by their nonprofit status – despite...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 – After Maximus, a major contractor that operates call centers for the federal government, failed to respect its workers constitutional right to organize, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today sent a letter to the company’s CEO Bruce Caswell requesting...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, on Thursday issued the following statement after the committee passed the Bipartisan Primary Care and Health Workforce Act: “Everyone in America understands that our health care system is broken and getting worse....

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP), today led the committee in marking up critical legislation to address the primary care crisis in America, including the major shortage of nurses, doctors, dentists, mental health professionals, and other important...