Chair's Press

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 21 - Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) today announced several bipartisan, full committee staff working groups to address four major issues related to the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act: “The Higher Education Act we see today—a...

*** “If colleges and universities have this incentive, it may not only help students make wiser decisions about borrowing, it could help reduce the cost of college -- thereby reducing debt.” –Lamar Alexander WASHINGTON, D.C., May 20 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said that giving colleges and...

“EEOC is spending too much time initiating lawsuits from investigations which were begun without any individual filing a complaint, and with a clear intention by the agency to achieve a maximum amount of publicity.” –Lamar Alexander   WASHINGTON, D.C., May 19 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today told...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 19 –U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate health committee, today praised the work of Tennessee and other federal, state, and local health department officials for their swift work that saved 124 lives and prevented thousands of additional infections, during the multistate fungal...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 18 – Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) led a bipartisan group of 32 senators in urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide clarity to businesses before requiring compliance with its final rule requiring chain restaurants and similar retail...

*** “I’ve seen over the last 30 years how our right-to-work law has attracted the auto industry to our state, created competitive industry, good jobs, helped families. … I’m very concerned that this request for briefs on law that has been settled for years suggests to me that the board is thinking about undermining a state...

WASHINGTON, May 13 – Nearly 8 million undergraduate students next year will see their student loan rates drop from 4.66 percent to 4.29 percent, saving borrowers millions of dollars in interest, according to senators who sponsored the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Angus King (I-Maine),...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 13 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate labor committee, led a group of 36 Senate Republicans today in a letter to Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez requesting an extension of the comment period from 75 days to 120 days on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed rule to redefine...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.), along with Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) today introduced common sense sunshine reforms as a part of S. 1298 to help...

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander gave the commencement address to the nearly 700 graduates of the Walters State Community College on Saturday. WSCC’s 48th commencement exercise took place Saturday at the Great Smoky Mountains Expo Center. Alexander said his late friend, author Alex Haley, loved commencement exercises. “Everyone is so...

* * *  “Nothing used to make me madder as governor than to look up towards Washington and see some member of Congress coming up with a big idea, holding a press conference, passing a law, taking credit for some great leap forward in sending the bill to me as governor. Then the next thing I know, that congressman would be home in...

*** “We are concerned that federal agencies are increasingly using guidance that appears to create new requirements without the benefit of notice and comment but with the expectation that the public comply.” – Senators’ letter to agencies  WASHINGTON, D.C., May 7 – U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)...

It’s very hard to pass a federal law in the United States, and for good reason. Our revolution was against a king; our Founders established a government of elected representatives who would reflect the voters’ will and who were expected to show restraint in making laws. In fact, the Constitution made sure that they were well...

Washington, D.C., May 6 – Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) along with 21 cosponsors, this week introduced a resolution congratulating the students, parents, teachers, and administrators of charter schools across the nation, expressing strong support for public charter schools and marking the 16th annual National...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 6 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today said that the government has done a better job of collecting information from colleges and universities than it has in sharing that information with students, and suggested that the federal government should enable its dissemination, rather than try to do it...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 6 – After Senate Democrats yesterday blocked a simple up or down vote to override President Obama’s veto of a Congressional Review Act resolution that would stop the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) ambush election rule, Senate labor committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), House Education and the...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 2015 – Senate Democrats today refused to allow the United States Senate to vote on overriding the president’s veto of a Congressional Review Act resolution that would stop the National Labor Relations Board’s ambush election rule.  A Senate majority voted to stop the rule on March 4. A House...

“Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National institutes of Health, has told us that a properly functioning records system is essential both to help assemble the genomes of one million individuals and for doctors to be able to use a patient’s genetic information when they write a prescription for individual patients.”...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 7 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate education committee, today released the following statement recognizing “Teacher Appreciation Week,” being celebrated this week:  “This week we honor the 3.4 million teachers who work so hard each day so our nation’s...

WASHINGTON, April 30 – Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today led a group of nine Republicans on the Senate health committee in urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to immediately finalize all guidance regarding the approval of biosimilar drugs.  Alexander was joined by Sens. Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Johnny...