Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today applauded House passage of the bipartisan Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization Act. Led by Harkin as chairman, this bipartisan health bill was passed by the HELP Committee in December 2013 and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, joined Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) to announce their introduction of the Students Before Profits Act to help protect students from deceptive practices and bad actors in the for-profit college sector. The...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today issued a statement in response to the proposed cuts to multiemployer pensions programs included in the fiscal year 2015 Omnibus by the U.S. House of Representatives. “We in Congress should have done more to help working people in recent years as the middle class has been squeezed by...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, applauded today’s release of a new study highlighting the outstanding return on investment of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Tips From Former Smokers campaign. According...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and HELP Committee members Sens. Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) today praised unanimous passage in the Senate of the bipartisan Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 9 – Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and HELP Committee members Sens. Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) today praised unanimous passage in the Senate of the bipartisan Newborn Screening Saves Lives Reauthorization...

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today applauded Senate approval of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) nominee Lauren McGarity McFerran to serve as a Member of the NLRB. “Today I am pleased the Senate took the important step of approving...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, applauded Congressional passage of two bipartisan health bills: the Adding Ebola to the FDA Priority Review Voucher Program Act and the Sudden Unexpected Death Data Enhancement and Awareness Act. Led by...

“Mr. Lopez has been chiefly responsible for the agency’s pursuit of high-profile lawsuits that have been rebuked by the courts."   –Lamar Alexander  WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 3 –U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today voted against the president’s nominee for general counsel of the Equal...

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today applauded Senate approval of two Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) nominees – P. David Lopez to serve as General Counsel of the EEOC and Charlotte Burrows to serve as a Member of the EEOC....

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-TN) today applauded unanimous Senate passage of the Adding Ebola to the FDA Priority Review Voucher Program Act. The bill was unanimously approved by the HELP Committee in...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 2— Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-TN) today applauded unanimous Senate passage of the Adding Ebola to the FDA Priority Review Voucher Program Act. The bill was unanimously approved by the HELP...

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today applauded HELP Committee approval of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) nominee Lauren McGarity McFerran to serve as a Member of the NLRB. Her nomination now goes to the Senate floor for...

WASHINGTON, DC— Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee, released the following statement on the final menu labeling rule announced by the White House today. “I commend FDA for issuing a sensible rule that puts the health of the American people first. Every American family...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—This week marks the one-year anniversary of the landmark Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA), which Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-TN) introduced and led to passage in the Senate. The DQSA significantly improved...

*CLICK TO READ REPORT* WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 24  –U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the Senate labor committee, today released a staff report that finds litigation missteps at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are costing taxpayers millions while EEOC faces a deep backlog of discrimination...

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today applauded Senate passage of the Sudden Unexpected Death Data Enhancement and Awareness Act, a bipartisan health bill that will help to address the more than 25,000 stillbirths that occur in the...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Senior Democrats from the House and Senate today proposed sweeping reforms to the federal program that provides benefits to coal miners suffering from black lung disease.Federal law requires that coal companies compensate disabled miners who contract black lung, which is caused by inhaling coal dust over an extended period of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today introduced the Higher Education Affordability Act (HEAA), his bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. The bill takes a comprehensive approach to rein in rising college costs and ensure the system...

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered the following statement at the HELP Committee hearing on the nomination of Lauren McFerran to serve as a Member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Harkin praised McFerran, urging swift...