Chair's Press

Washington, D.C., April 26 – Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), with Senators Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and other members of the HELP Committee, today released draft legislation that would...

WASHINGTON – The top Republicans on the Senate Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committees want to know why American taxpayer dollars are being used to promote collective bargaining rights in foreign countries. Finance Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and HELP Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today wrote two...

Washington, D.C., April 25 – At a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said the health care law’s definition of a full-time workweek at 30 hours...

Washington, DC –U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) as well as the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), today unveiled a bipartisan plan to strengthen and improve our nation’s drug distribution supply...

Washington, D.C., April 18 – At a hearing today of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on the nomination of Tom Perez for U.S. Secretary of Labor, Ranking Member U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) questioned the nominee’s role in dismissing a whistleblower case during his time at the Department of Justice, and...

Washington, D.C., April 18 – An amendment offered by U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the Chairman of the committee, to reauthorize and improve programs dealing with awareness, prevention, and early identification of...

Washington, D.C., April 17 – At a hearing Tuesday of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Ranking Member U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), praised Nashville native and Lipscomb University student Derrica Donelson, who is earning a bachelor’s and Master’s degree in five years, saying Donelson’s...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Senators John Thune (R-S.D.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) today released a white paper, “REBOOT: Re-examining the Strategies Needed to Successfully Adopt Health IT,” outlining concerns with current federal health information...

Washington, D.C., April 12 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, today released the following statement about the House of Representatives vote to bar the National Labor Relations Board from taking any actions that require a quorum until the Senate confirms...

Washington, D.C., April 11 – At a hearing today of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on the new health care law, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) encouraged the Obama administration to review and respond to Tennessee Governor Haslam’s request for flexibility in using the federal dollars provided to expand...

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 10 —Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-TN) today urged the Senate to pass the Mental Health Awareness and Improvement Act, a mental health package passed by the Committee this morning that reauthorizes and improves programs...

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senators Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), Richard Burr (R-NC), and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) today introduced the “Comprehensive Student Loan Protection Act,” a bill to provide a permanent solution to the problems created by temporary, arbitrary interest rates on federal student loans.  The bill requires that,...

Washington, D.C., April 9 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, today released the following statement on the president’s announcement that he intends to nominate Harry I. Johnson, III and Philip A. Miscimarra, and renominate Mark Gaston Pearce, to the...

Washington, D.C., April 8 – U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), and John Cornyn (R-Texas) today urged the administration to reexamine its plan to raise the cost of in-home companion care and perform “a more accurate analysis” to determine the “the...

March 28 – Tennessee Republican Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker today urged the Obama administration to quickly consider Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam’s request for flexibility in using the federal dollars provided to expand health care coverage to 175,000 Tennesseans under the new health care law. In a letter to U.S....

Washington, D.C., March 27 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, today released the following statement on a report by the Society of Actuaries that finds insurance claims in the individual market will rise an average 32 percent for Americans and 46.4...

WASHINGTON, March 21 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today sponsored a budget amendment in the U.S. Senate that would repeal what he called a “wasteful federal taxpayer subsidy for unreliable, expensive wind energy” to help pay for the repeal of the federal government’s excise tax on medical devices. “This...

Washington, D.C., March 22 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, today introduced an amendment to expand the Teacher Incentive Fund program, which encourages states and school districts to evaluate and reward teachers and principals based on their...

Washington, D.C., March 21 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, today offered an amendment to defund the enforcement of any decisions or regulations made by an invalid National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) “quorum” that includes individuals...

Washington, D.C., March 21 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) today offered a budget amendment to end the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services practice of ignoring and stalling state Medicaid waiver applications, in...