Press Releases

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.) – Today, Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) issued the following statement on the federal court ruling that would strike down a Department of Labor rule to extend minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers.  “Home care workers, including tens...

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...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) today commended President Barack Obama’s proposal to expand paid sick days to more workers. Both legislators reiterated their strong support for the Healthy Families Act, a bill to let workers earn paid sick leave to use when they are sick, to care for a sick...

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.”...

(Washington, D.C.) –Today, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) released the following statement on Chairman Lamar Alexander’s No Child Left Behind proposal. “Anyone I talk to, Republican or Democrat, agrees that No Child Left Behind is a broken law that needs to be fixed. Now...

Murray outlines priorities to ensure all students have access to a quality education Murray: “Everyone should be able to agree that this law needs to provide every student, in every school, in every state a quality education. And that’s exactly what I’m going to be fighting for.” (Washington, D.C.) – Today, Senate...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement on the Obama Administration’s proposal to make two years of community college free for qualifying students. “Expanding access to college and making it more...

Washington, D.C—Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) released the following statement on her intention to serve as Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee when the new Congress convenes in January. Senator Murray served as Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee this past Congress and will...

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...