Press Releases

Washington, DC – Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) today touted recent progress in Medicare Advantage (MA) reining in costs, increasing coverage and maintaining high-quality care for seniors.  A new report from the Government...

WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sent a letter to Dr. Margaret Hamburg, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), urging swift action to set limits for total arsenic and lead in fruit juices. A study released yesterday by Consumer Reports showed...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, joined with Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK), Richard Burr (R-NC), and Johnny Isakson (R-GA) to send a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius with a call to...

WASHINGTON - Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, spoke on the floor of the Senate in response to news of a settlement between Boeing and the International Association of Machinists. Below are his full remarks, as prepared for delivery: "I rise today to congratulate the President...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, sent letters today to Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, and White House Chief of Staff William Daley expressing concerns about why the President has not submitted a nomination for the commissioner of the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today appointed Nicholas C. Geale as the director of Oversight and Investigations for HELP Committee Republicans.  “Nick has been a valuable member of my staff for more than two years and I am pleased...

The purpose of today’s hearing is to evaluate the performance of FDA’s device center. There are two main premarket pathways for medical devices. Premarket approval applications – or PMA’s – are for high risk devices. Few devices go through PMA.  The vast majority of devices go through a different pathway, known as...

WASHINGTON – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released the following statement on today’s announcement that the United States Supreme Court will review the challenges to the Affordable Care Act:  “I’m pleased that the Supreme Court has decided to promptly...

WASHINGTON – Three members of the Senate Finance Committee are concerned that the new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) within the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will place unnecessary financial strains on the nation’s health care entitlement programs, further threatening their future solvency. Ranking...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) along with Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act Reauthorization of 2011, a bipartisan effort to ensure that our nation is prepared to respond to a wide range of medical and public health emergencies,...

WASHINGTON – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, spoke on the Senate floor to discuss his ongoing efforts to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and in doing so, move beyond the law’s most recent iteration, the No Child Left Behind Act.  Last month,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN), Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R-WY), and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) issued the following statements on President Obama’s changes to the Head Start Program: “Despite claims of...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) today sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urging an immediate appeal of a U.S. District Court decision that...

*As Prepared for Delivery* “Today’s roundtable will focus on moving beyond NCLB—the current iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)—and towards reauthorization of the law for the needs of the 21st Century. Over the last two years the Committee has held 10 hearings on the full range of issues covered...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – During a hearing today on the Elementary-Secondary Education Reauthorization Act, Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said that more changes were needed for the school reform legislation that was reported out of the HELP Committee last...

WASHINGTON – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released the following statement after a federal district judge blocked the Food and Drug Administration’s effort to make Americans aware of the health risks of cigarettes through graphic warnings that, when finalized, will...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said a new report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), in conjunction with recently released data from HHS, shows that twenty-four companies received almost half of the funding for the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today said while he supports efforts to help struggling graduates with their student loan debt, he is disappointed that the President has chosen to blame Congress for failing to act before working to find a...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today made the following statement after the Committee reported the Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act of 2011:“Today’s markup of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was an...

WASHINGTON – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, announced that the bipartisan Elementary and Secondary Education Reauthorization Act passed out of committee by a bipartisan vote of 15 to 7.  The legislation, which overhauls the No Child Left Behind Act, will now be sent to...