Tom Harkin: “I rise to continue to address the key pending piece of legislation that has not been enacted this year. It has been…”

“I rise to continue to address the key pending piece of legislation that has not been enacted this year. It has been passed by both the House and Senate. In the conference committee, we finished our work. But it is sort of hanging in limbo. That is the funding bill for Education, Health and Human Services, other important programs such as the National Institutes of Health, and, of course, the low-income heating energy assistance program which is so vital to many of our low-income and elderly citizens who live in the northeastern part of the United States and in a lot of the other northern parts of America. That bill right now is in limbo. We passed the appropriations bill in the Senate; the House passed the bill. Then ensued about 4 months of very tough negotiations between the House and the Senate, culminating in a marathon session that took place one weekend before we left, a couple weeks before the election, in which we agreed. When I say ``we,'' I mean Chairman Stevens of the Appropriations Committee; Senator Byrd, our ranking member on the full Appropriations Committee; Senator Specter, who is the chairman of the education appropriations subcommittee; and me. I am the ranking member on the subcommittee.”