The Public Record
Tom Harkin is a former U.S. Senator from Iowa who served from 1985 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Harkin was known for his advocacy on disability rights and health care reform. He played a significant role in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and was a strong proponent of mental health services and education initiatives. Throughout his tenure, Harkin focused on issues affecting working families and rural communities in Iowa.
I say to the leader, yes, that is right. In fact, I was part of a conversation that took place on the floor just last evening regarding that. There were no surprises. The amendment I have offered I actually read into the Record yesterday…
So, again, since we rejected a salary ceiling, why is there a separate test for highly compensated workers in this proposed rule?
I would like to get a little bit to the bottom, whether it is 644,000 workers or 8 million.
So what I hope we can find out at today's hearing is does this updated regulation reflect the intent of Congress that overtime protection and the 40-hour work week applies to all American workers with very few narrow exceptions.
The GAO found that employees who do not have overtime protection are twice as likely to work overtime than those who are covered.
I was disturbed that he believed that Congress gave the Labor Secretary authority to broadly define the terms of the Federal Labor Standards Act and the overtime protections within that law.
The people of Africa are fighting HIV/AIDS with courage. And I'm here to say, you will not be alone in your fight. In May, I signed a bill that authorizes $15 billion for the global fight on AIDS. This week, a committee of the House of…
The offset we use is also an offset supported by the administration. I have a letter Senators can look at--I put it in the Record last night--from the Department of Justice, supporting the offset we use to pay for this to ensure that we…
Does the Senator from Illinois think the drug companies are losing money on every bottle of pills a veteran buys? I can see him shaking his head. Obviously not. Veterans get their bottle of pills cheaper than anyone else. I bet my bottom…
I asked my staff--and I have good staff, and they do a lot of work on health care--to look at this 654-page bill. I said: What in there will help keep the cost of drugs down? Anything at all? Nothing. Zero. There is nothing in the bill…
Every time I go back to Iowa, I hear from consumers and others: Why do I get inundated with all these ads, and I cannot buy them unless I go to the doctor? Right now, the drug companies are spending more on advertising every year than they…
The Senator really has made an eloquent case for why we ought to have free trade with Canada in drugs as long as they meet the same requirements. I ask the Senator, do we not in fact have a free trade agreement with Canada?
I just wanted to say, this gives the CFTC the authority again to provide the oversight they need to make sure we have integrity in these markets for derivatives based on energy, but also for derivatives based on other things, too, such as…
I can say, about each one of you, you are sort of on the cutting edge of what we have got to be doing...
Well, these are all very stimulating, and I think there are some suggestions I got this morning...
I mean, we are open for suggestions, written suggestions, that you might have on some little fixes we might do.
Well, thank you all, again, very much. This has been a very intellectually stimulating morning for me, I am sure for our staff.
And so you have got to--as I have heard you this morning, there are ways of addressing it on both sides.
We really need to look at cost and quality, what is effective, what is scientifically sound, and have a mechanism for doing that.
Politicians like Tom Harkin
