Tom Harkin

I agree with the concerns raised by the Senator from Pennsylvania. Since the 1970s, the percentage of obesity has more than doubled for preschool children ages 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years, and more than tripled for children…

Experts predict that the current generation of children could be the first in history to live shorter lives than their parents' generation. To fight this public health epidemic, it is going to take collaboration and partnership amongst all…

Children's Hospitals GME provides freestanding children's hospitals with the same support for graduate medical education that all other teaching hospitals receive through Medicare--as my colleagues have said. In Iowa, we don't have…

We are facing a real crisis in Iowa and across the Nation. Last year in Iowa the average LIHEAP benefit was reduced by 30 percent. With record energy costs projected for this winter, many Iowa families are worried about how they will pay…

I agree that COPD is an important health threat facing the American public. In part that is why Senator Specter and I have fought hard to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and…

I am well aware of the problem of compensating workers affected by radiation from my efforts to secure a special exposure cohort under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant. Have…

Yes. I think this is a great program. Because the vast majority of our seniors are aging in place, the Community Innovations for Aging in Place program will help leverage new, human, financial, and neighborhood resources for the benefit of…

I do support implementation of this innovative program. I assure the senator from Maryland that I will do my best to find funding for the Community Innovations for Aging in Place program during the conference process.

I am aware of that provision, and point out that America Competes also recognizes that other highly rigorous, evidence-based, postsecondary preparatory programs can also qualify for funding under this authorization.

I agree. Strong math and science education is critical if we, as a nation, are going to continue to have a skilled and educated workforce that can compete in the global economy.

We should honor Congressman Rangel and others who have served with distinction as he has. CBS brought out that the college had not made the decision or at least would not make the decision as to how to name the center. So there were a lot…

I appreciate the sentiments by the Senator from Louisiana and accept this proposal to move the funding for this project to other priority projects for the State of Louisiana in the bill when it goes to conference committee.

I want to make it clear, we stay within our budget, the budget we have, and we have a pay-go budget. We are not adding anything new this year. We are severely constraining spending to get out of the deficit hole. I want to compare this…

This Commission is significantly understaffed.

We have to change this Commission and the work that it does.

We're going to increase it, and we're going to make a dedicated effort to make the Consumer Product Safety Commission a better Commission.

This is totally inadequate. It is not up to the task of building any kind of confidence among American consumers that we are really watching out for them.

Quite frankly, this is a bad use of taxpayers' dollars. It's inefficient. It hurts smaller farmers. We could use money to go out to help young farmers get started in agriculture.

This has been a very helpful discussion, because Senator Hatch and I could never support legislation that would interfere with DSHEA and we are glad to receive the assurances of the chairman and the ranking Republican on the committee.

So to make this absolutely clear, what you are saying is that the bill we are debating would in no way interfere with consumers' access to dietary supplements?

Yes, I have received a good many calls as well. And, I have to say that I would be very concerned, as I know the Senator from Utah is, if anything in the bill we are considering, S. 1082, would overturn DSHEA, a law we fought side-by-side…

I hope that our subcommittee here will do you a favor and give you more money than what you requested.

I started this whole debate yesterday morning by talking about hope, hope for cures for Parkinson's, to repair spinal cord injuries, to end the scourge of juvenile diabetes, to lift the death sentence of those afflicted with Lou Gehrig's…

I challenge anyone, any Senator to come and take S. 5 and show me anywhere in there where there is one dime used for the destruction of embryos. It is not there. I get the feeling that a misrepresentation repeated and repeated somehow…

Certainly, we have been funding adult stem cell research. Senator Specter and I have made certain of that in our Appropriations Committee.