Chair's Press

Says Obamacare’s definition of full-time as 30 hours is causing thousands of low-wage workers to lose hours and income * * * “Republicans have talked a lot about wanting to repair the damage of Obamacare. We have also talked about wanting to get results. This bipartisan bill should be an important step to doing both.” –Lamar...

A top Senate Republican says lowering the definition of a full-time employee to anyone who works 30 hours or more per week would lower the nation's work ethic. "It is a strange definition — one that sounds more like France than the United States,” Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Thursday during...

Hatch, Alexander Introduce Bill to Repeal Individual Mandate WASHINGTON – Today, Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), along with 20 other senators, introduced the American Liberty Restoration Act, S. 203, a bill that repeals Obamacare’s...

*** “Are there too many tests? Are they the right tests? Are the stakes for failing them too high? What should Washington, D.C. have to do with all this?”  –Lamar Alexander WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 21 –U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today gaveled in his first hearing as chairman of the Senate Health, Education,...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 21 –The following are excerpts of remarks prepared by U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, for his opening statement at today’s hearing: At the center of the debate about how to fix No Child Left Behind is what to do about the...

*VIDEO* WASHINGTON, Jan. 20, 2015 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement after President Obama’s annual State of the Union address: “Unfortunately, much of what I heard from President Obama tonight are partisan proposals that don’t have any chance of becoming law – and that...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 20 –U.S. Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) with Senators Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today introduced the Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2015, legislation that supports social and nutrition...

President Obama was in the right church but the wrong pew when he proposed providing free community college tuition for some students. The president was right to celebrate the Tennessee Promise to make two years at community colleges or technical institutes tuition free for graduating high school seniors. Using the presidential bully pulpit in this...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 15 –U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chair of the Senate labor committee, today made the following statement on President Obama’s call for mandatory paid sick time:  “Americans have great freedom when it comes to work—they can choose the career they like and negotiate with their employer...

There is nothing like a visit from the president of the United States to shine the spotlight on a really good idea. Gov. Bill Haslam's really good idea was to make Tennessee the first state to say to every high school graduate: Two years of community college or technical education are yours, tuition-free. For the last 30 years, Tennessee's greatest...

Calls latest court decision “more good news for nearly 240,000 Tennesseans who’ve had access to in-home care threatened” by DOL rule *** “The department should abandon any further attempt to force this rule on the 12 million seniors and individuals with disabilities who rely on in-home care to live independently.”...

Releases Staff Discussion Draft and Announces Committee Hearing on Testing and Accountability *** “During the last six years, this committee has held 24 hearings and reported two bills to the Senate floor to fix the law’s problems. We should be able to finish our work within the first few weeks of 2015 so the full Senate can act."...

WASHINGTON — The federal government’s involvement in student testing and school accountability would be greatly curtailed under draft legislation U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander is circulating as a starting point for fixing the Bush-era No Child Left Behind school-reform law. States would be required to set high standards to measure student...

Senate HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander has three main priorities for his committee: The first is fixing No Child Left Behind. Next, he’d like to turn to the Higher Education Act and the third is reforming the Food and Drug Administration. “That’s the agenda that I hope for,” Alexander said today on the Senate floor....

KNOXVILLE, Jan. 9 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on President Obama’s America’s College Promise proposal: “The right way to expand Tennessee Promise nationally is for other states to do for themselves what Tennessee has done. Then, instead of creating a new federal...

Washington, D.C., Jan. 7 – Senate Republicans today voted to elect U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to be the chairman—or lead senator—of the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “The work of no Senate committee affects the daily lives of more Americans more than this...

Bill introduced by Alexander, Bennet, Burr, Booker, Isakson, King will simplify financial aid application for 20 million Americans who fill it out each year WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2015 – Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) with Senators Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), and Angus...

“I’m glad to cosponsor this bipartisan legislation offered by Sens. Collins and Donnelly to overturn this damaging Obamacare provision and give a pay raise to more than 2.5 million low-income workers and their families. –Lamar Alexander WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 7 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today cosponsored...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.), along with Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), introduced legislation to reform federal student loan repayment programs. The Repay Act, which Senators King and Burr originally...

Republicans are hatching an ambitious plan to rewrite No Child Left Behind this year — one that could end up dramatically rolling back the federal role in education and trigger national blowouts over standardized tests and teacher training. NCLB cleared Congress in 2002 with massive bipartisan support but has since become a political...