Chair's Press

Alexander to NIH Director: “The reason Congress has devoted so much funding to biomedical research is captured in testimony you, Dr. Collins, made in April 2016, when you offered ten ‘bold predictions’ of what we might be able to achieve in the next ten years if we continued to invest in research.” WASHINGTON, D.C., August...

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 15, 2018 – Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said legislation signed into law by President Trump yesterday will help farmers in Tennessee keep their animals healthy. “A farmer in Tennessee knows the drug he has given to his calf is safe for the same reason we know that the...

WASHINGTON, August 13, 2018 – United States Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement after President Trump signed into law a defense bill the Republican Congress passed that supports pay raises for troops at Ft. Campbell and nuclear weapons and national security programs at the Y-12 National Security...

WASHINGTON, August 1 — Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on the Trump Administration’s final rule to expand the availability of short-term, limited-duration health insurance: “Millions of Americans who are between jobs and who pay for their own insurance will...

“A farmer in Tennessee knows the drug he has given to his calf is safe for the same reason we know that the medicines patients take are safe—the Food and Drug Administration has approved it.”  WASHINGTON, D.C., July 31, 2018 – Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said legislation passed...

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 31, 2018 – Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said the federal government is at fault for some of the administrative burden that the nation’s doctors and hospitals face—which means “more time spent on paperwork, less time actually treating patients, and an increase to...

“The hope is that with a modernized approach to apprenticeships, industries that weren’t around when Paul Revere was training to be a silversmith or even when Elvis was learning to be an electrician, would be able to start apprenticeship programs.” WASHINGTON, July 26, 2018 — Senate labor committee Chairman Lamar...

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2018 — Senate Democrats today blocked a common-sense bill to help restaurants with more than 20 locations comply with a federal rule that they provide calorie counts for Americans. “If I’m a 21-year-old manager at the Chick-fil-A in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I would be pretty hesitant to sign a...

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 25, 2018 – Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) released the following statement after the House of Representatives passed the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act: “At a time when our economy is booming, companies everywhere are in the market for skilled workers. Over...

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 25, 2018 — Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement after the U.S. Department of Education released a new regulation on borrower defense to repayment: “Secretary DeVos is right to propose new regulations that set important safeguards and...

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2018 — The Senate health committee today approved four important pieces of legislation, including a bill that will help Americans who are struggling to afford their prescriptions, and a bill that will encourage research to help treat sickle cell disease. “Many Americans struggle to afford their prescriptions,”...

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2018 — The Senate health committee today passed legislation sponsored by Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) to reduce infant deaths and improve infant health by continuing research and education programs aimed at preventing preterm births. “In Tennessee, about 11 percent of babies...

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 26, 2018 – The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee today approved reauthorizations of the PREEMIE Act, aimed at preventing premature births, and the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.  “In Tennessee, about 11 percent of babies are born preterm,” Chairman Lamar...

WASHINGTON, June 25, 2018 — United States Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said that “bipartisan support for government-sponsored research should be part of the president’s ‘America First’ agenda,” after the Republican-led Senate passed the first appropriations bills for the next fiscal year, including the...

WASHINGTON, June 21, 2018 — United States Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said the bill approved today by the Senate Appropriations Committee will take another step in the fight against the opioids crisis by helping stop illicit opioids, including heroin and fentanyl from entering the United States. Alexander said, “The...

“To the plumber in Memphis, the songwriter in Nashville, or the bakery owner in Chattanooga, who have been paying through the nose since Obamacare took effect, who might be making $60,000 dollars per year and paying $20,000 for health insurance and who is very likely not receiving a subsidy, the Trump Administration appears to have found...

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2018 — Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said Congress needs more accurate information to determine how to make the 340B Program work better for patients and hospitals. “There is no consistent data that shows how hospitals and clinics are spending the money they save through the 340B...

Lamar Alexander, a Republican, represents Tennessee in the U.S. Senate and serves as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Today, if you’re a self-employed plumber or a farmer or a waitress at a small restaurant, you likely don’t have access to the same kind of lower-cost health insurance, tax breaks...

“I have tried to fix this problem in Congress. Unfortunately, not a single Democrat would work with us to repeal and replace Obamacare. When efforts to repeal the law stalled, I tried for seven months to find a short-term, bipartisan solution to help Americans trapped in the Obamacare marketplaces – and I appreciate your assistance on...

“These plans include the important patient protections that apply to the roughly 160 million Americans who receive coverage from large employers. An AHP cannot charge a higher premium because a patient has a pre-existing condition, deny coverage of a pre-existing health condition, cancel an employee’s plan because the employee gets sick...