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  • “We are meeting here today to better understand what caused one of the worst public health crises this country has experienced in recent years: the meningitis outbreak that has claimed the lives of 32 Americans and sickened at least 461 people.              “While those...
  • WASHINGTON—Today, Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R-WY) and members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions issued letters requesting documents to aid in the committee’s investigation into the recent fungal meningitis outbreak, which has sickened more than 300 Americans. The Committee sent...
  • Policy Options Draft for Stakeholder Discussion This discussion draft reflects an ongoing effort to develop consensus policy on drug distribution security. This draft contains brackets and a menu of policy options for some issues around which developing consensus is most challenging. Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Enzi of the HELP...
  • *As Prepared for Delivery* “I want to welcome everyone to the extraordinary roundtable we are holding today.  We have brought together a number of very experienced and thoughtful participants to talk about an issue that is critically important for the middle class –rebuilding the pension system.  “Defined benefit pension...
  • WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, unveiled a report on the findings of the Committee’s two-year investigation of the for-profit higher education industry. The report outlines widespread problems throughout the sector, as evidenced by the thousands...
  • WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, released a new report  examining the retirement crisis in America and laying out a bold proposal to rebuild the private pension system.  The report comes after a series of HELP Committee hearings on retirement...
  • WASHINGTON – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), issued the following statement after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Department of Education released a report today illustrating the misleading practices and debt that stemmed from the financial boom...
  • WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and the Senate author of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, released a report detailing the current state of employment for adults with disabilities, and describing policy recommendations that would help to increase...
  • *As Prepared for Delivery* “The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will come to order.  The title of this hearing is ‘The Americans with Disabilities Act at 22:  A New Generation of Iowans Approaches the Labor Force with High Expectations.’ “Later this month, on July 26, in celebrations...
  • WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, released the following statement in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act: “Today’s decision by the Supreme Court is a rigorous, resounding confirmation of the constitutionality...
  • WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, heralded final passage of the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (S.3187), bipartisan HELP Committee legislation that would ensure that the FDA can approve...
  • WASHINGTON--Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, spoke on the floor of the Senate to urge his colleagues to invoke cloture on the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act. Below is the full text of Harkin's statement, as prepared for delivery: "Mr. President,...
  • WASHINGTON, D.C. –  Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) today released the following statement after the House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (S.3187), which would reauthorize the user fee...
  • WASHINGTON, DC– Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R-WY), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) today announced a bipartisan agreement on the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act, S...
  • WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, spoke on the floor of the Senate in support of the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill to help close the wage gap. Today, an American woman makes an average of 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man.  In Iowa, that figure...
  • WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions applauded the Walt Disney Company for updating its nutritional standards and for announcing new guidelines ensuring that junk food won’t be advertised on Disney’s kid-targeted TV programming and websites: “I...
  • WASHINGTON—Today, Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R-WY) of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee issued a joint statement welcoming Senate passage of the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA), bipartisan HELP Committee legislation that would ensure that the FDA can...
  • WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today joined Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) and a bipartisan group of Senators in introducing legislation so that families and students will gain a more accurate picture of exactly how much college will cost them before deciding which school to attend.  Harkin is Chairman of the Senate Health,...
  • WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, spoke on the floor of the Senate to call for passage of the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA), a bill which passed out of the HELP Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support. Below is the full...
  • WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released the following statement in response to the announcement by Education Secretary Arne Duncan of a new resource document aimed at reducing the use of seclusion and restraint practices in schools: “I am pleased that...