Chair's Press

  Sept. 28 (BNA) -- Health information exchange groups widely blame the federal EHR incentive program for making it too difficult for doctors and hospitals to digitally share patient information according to a GAO report made available to Bloomberg BNA Sept. 28. The report, requested by Senate Republicans, was an analysis of interviews with...

“Since when did OSHA get in the business of trying to figure out if a franchisee and franchisor are joint employers or not?  Why does OSHA care about that? Why isn’t OSHA interested in health and safety?” – Lamar Alexander WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 23 – The chairman of the Senate labor committee today said...

“Bullying is a serious problem. But the United States Senate doesn’t agree that the federal government ought to be telling the local school what its bullying policy ought to be. So how does the Department of Education get the right to make a guidance which will be under Title IX, when the head of Title IX thinks everybody she issues a...

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 22 – Small business owners and business groups are urging Congress to pass legislation introduced earlier this month by senior Republican lawmakers to roll back the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) “joint employer” decision, which the chairmen of the House and Senate labor committees...

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 18 – Senate labor committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and employment and workplace safety subcommittee chairman Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) today called for the Department of Labor (DOL) to resolve safety failures in its Job Corps program, after two students were murdered in separate attacks...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 16 – Senate health committee chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on the reauthorization of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act: “It is a top priority of the Senate health committee to reauthorize the legislation that provides health care and support...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 16 – Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today called for a delay until January 1, 2017, of making final rules for stage three of the federal government’s program to require doctors and hospitals to create electronic health records systems. He said that stage three...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 15 – Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today made the following statement on the nomination of Dr. Robert Califf to be the next commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: “Dr. Califf has impressive credentials. The committee will move promptly to consider his...

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 14 – Senate labor committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and retirement security subcommittee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) today called on the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) to take immediate action to prevent fraud and abuse in its occupational disability program. In 2008, a New York...

NLRB’s new “joint employer” standard “would make big businesses bigger and the middle class smaller by discouraging companies from franchising and subcontracting work”   Washington, D.C., September 9 — Senior Republican lawmakers today introduced legislation to roll back the National Labor Relations...

* * *  “Tennessee has been working hard to fight this fast-growing drug problem, but we are losing more than a thousand Tennesseans a year to drug overdose." –Lamar Alexander    KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Sept. 4 – Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said Tennessee will get a “big...

TULLAHOMA, Tenn., August 27, 2015 – Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today hosted a roundtable at Motlow State Community College in Tullahoma, Tenn., with area college presidents, students, student affairs and financial aid advisors, and high school guidance counselors to discuss his plan to simplify the FAFSA, or...

MARYVILLE, Tenn., August 27th – Senate labor committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on the National Labor Relations Board’s decision which retroactively revises the standard for determining joint employer status: “Today’s ruling seems intended to destroy a small business...

Is Congress finally ready to pass legislation that would make it easier for harried parents and students to apply for federal financial aid? Legislators and the Department of Education have been trying for years to radically simplify the standard form, known as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or Fafsa. But every time they cut a few...

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 17th – Senate labor committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on the National Labor Relations Board’s decision to dismiss a regional ruling which would have allowed college athletes to unionize: “The National Labor Relations Board has made the right...

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 5 – Senate labor committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said Senate Democrats’ proposals to create new mandates on American employers were “designed to make it harder to hire and harder to find work.” “With more than 10 percent of American workers either unemployed or...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 – U.S. Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on the “Student Protection and Success Act,” introduced today by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) to give colleges and universities a stronger role in sharing the risk of lending to...

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 5 – U.S. Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said federal aid policies should encourage students to make progress in college and complete on time, and higher education policies should help colleges and universities help their students finish their degree or...

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 31 – Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on the administration’s plan to make some state and federal prisoners eligible for Pell grants: “This may be a worthwhile idea for some prisoners, but the administration absolutely does not...

WASHINGTON, July 30 – House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.), Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Senate Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and House Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-Va.) today met to discuss proceeding with a conference committee to...