Chair's Press

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...

WASHINGTON—Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, today expressed his disappointment at the failure of a Senate cloture vote on a measure that will keep interest rates on federal student loans from doubling in July, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.  Harkin helped develop and is...

WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, sent a letter to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Terence Flynn, requesting his resignation after the NLRB Inspector General uncovered Flynn’s repeated ethics violations. The Inspector General’s...

WASHINGTON—Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, today called for bipartisan support for a measure that will keep interest rates on federal student loans from doubling in July, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.  Harkin helped develop and is one of the lead cosponsors of the Stop...

WASHINGTON – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, today released the following statement calling for the resignation of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Terence Flynn after the NLRB Inspector General revealed additional evidence that Flynn violated ethics rules by...

WASHINGTON, DC –In an effort to prevent the cost of college loans from doubling for millions of students, U.S. Senators Jack Reed (D-RI), Tom Harkin (D-IA), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have teamed up to introduce the Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act, a short-term remedy that will freeze the interest rates on subsidized federal...

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Ranking  Member Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) today said the Committee’s markup of FDA user fee reauthorization reflected a strong  bipartisan effort.  “Today’s markup of the user fee agreement...

WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Representative George Miller (D-CA), Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) reacted to a new Government Accountability Office report  on workplace safety, released at a HELP Committee...

*As Prepared for Delivery* “We are here today to discuss the important issue of workplace safety and, specifically, why it takes so long for OSHA to issue a new safety standard.  We are going to hear from GAO about a new study finding that there are alarming delays in this process.  But before I get into what the report says, I...

WASHINGTON--Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, spoke on the floor of the Senate about the Rebuild America Act, a bill he introduced to create good jobs, strengthen the economy, and rebuild America's middle class. Below is the full text of the speech, as prepared for...

WASHINGTON – Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Mike Enzi (R-WY), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today announced the release of the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act Committee Print that will be considered at next Wednesday’s Committee...

WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released the following statement on Equal Pay Day, which falls on April 17th to mark the extra days a woman would have to work beyond 2011 and into 2012 to match the average wages of a man in 2011 alone. “When women earn...

Today, Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Enzi release a bipartisan Drug Approval and Patient Access Draft: Click here to view the pdf. This discussion draft reflects bipartisan efforts to develop consensus policy proposals to accompany the FDA human medical product user fee legislation. Our goal is to solicit feedback on the policy merits,...

Today, Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Enzi release a bipartisan Drug Approval and Patient Access Draft: Click here to view the pdf. This discussion draft reflects bipartisan efforts to develop consensus policy proposals to accompany the FDA human medical product user fee legislation. Our goal is to solicit feedback on the policy merits,...

Today, Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Enzi release a bipartisan Drug Approval and Patient Access Draft: Click here to view the pdf. This discussion draft reflects bipartisan efforts to develop consensus policy proposals to accompany the FDA human medical product user fee legislation. Our goal is to solicit feedback on the policy merits,...

WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sent a letter to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Member Terence Flynn, asking him to release information and documents relating to findings by the NLRB Inspector General that Flynn committed ethics misconduct. “With...

WASHINGTON – Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced the Rebuild America Act, a far-reaching bill that will create jobs, restore fairness to the tax code, and rebuild America's middle class through investments in areas like education and workforce training, our nation's infrastructure, manufacturing jobs, and retirement security. After a...

*As Prepared for Delivery* “Our topic today is ‘Stay-at-work and Return-to-work Strategies:  Lessons from the Private Sector.’  This is the latest in a series of hearings we have convened since last March to explore issues that impact the employment of people with disabilities in America.  Of course, our goal is to...

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 commemorate the second anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act, the health reform law that he helped to craft.  Harkin cited the real world impact of the law for...