Press Releases

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) delivered remarks at a committee hearing on Employer Wellness Programs: Better Health Outcomes and Lower Costs. In her opening statement, Murray highlighted that wellness programs are a key tool to help workers improve...

*** “If we’re going to have a conversation in this country about enabling high-quality, lower-cost insurance, we should start with the roughly half of Americans who have health insurance through an employer.”  – Lamar Alexander  WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 29 –U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the chairman of...

WASHINGTON - Today, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) introduced the American Job Protection Act, a bill to repeal Obamacare’s job-killing employer mandate.  Under the President’s health law, businesses with 50...

HELP Committee Executive SessionSenator Murray StatementsJanuary 28, 2015 Executive Session Opening Statement: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thanks to you and your staff for your cooperation with me and my staff on the items before us today. “I intend to support each of the items on today’s agenda and urge my colleagues to do so...

Bill makes research easier to access and more relevant at state, local levels WASHINGTON, January 28 – Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the respective Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate education committee, today announced that the committee passed legislation to improve the quality of education research...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 28 – Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) today announced assignments for the committee’s three subcommittees for the 114th Congress after committee members approved the subcommittees and rules in an executive...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 28 – The Senate health committee today unanimously approved the Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2015, bipartisan legislation by 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...

Washington, D.C., January 28 – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate labor committee, today introduced the NLRB Reform Act to turn the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from an advocate to an umpire and keep the general counsel from operating as an activist for one...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 – Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) commented on the release of House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton’s (R-Mich.) discussion document for the “21st Century Cures” initiative: “One of the committee’s top...

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) delivered remarks at a committee hearing on Fixing No Child Left Behind: Supporting Teachers and School Leaders. In her opening statement, Murray recognized the challengesteachers and school leaders face, and called for...

Given all of the great progress that states and local school districts have made on standards, accountability, tests, and teacher evaluation over the last 30 years—you’ll get a lot more progress with a lot less opposition if you leave those decisions there.”  –Lamar Alexander  WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan....

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 26 –U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today made the following statement on Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell’s announcement of goals for Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, proposed to pay providers based upon quality, rather than quantity of care: “Moving away from fee-for-service...

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) released the following statement on the announcement from the Department of Health and Human Services that the department will shift the Medicare program toward paying providers based on value and quality of care,...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 26 – U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate education committee, today marked the celebration of “National School Choice Week,” saying:‎ “America's higher education system is the best in the world because our colleges and universities have autonomy and compete for federal...

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., is among 22 Senate sponsors of the American Liberty Restoration Act, S. 203, a bill that repeals the requirement in the Affordable Care Act that requires people to have insurance. "How can we continue to enforce the individual mandate when the law doesn't clearly ensure that millions of Americans are allowed to...

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) delivered remarks at a committee hearing on Examining Job-Based Health Insurance and Defining Full-Time Work. In her opening statement, Murray criticized the Republican proposal to redefine a full-time worker under the...

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...

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) released the following statement on the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade. “Forty-two years ago today the Supreme Court issued a constitutional guarantee in Roe v. Wade to women across...

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) delivered remarks at a committee hearing on Fixing No Child Left Behind: Testing and Accountability. In her opening statement, Murray highlighted the critical role the federal government plays in ensuring no child falls...