Tom Harkin

I talked about helping disadvantaged students with reading and math skills in the title I program.

I will shortly send an amendment to the desk that deals with education, which I think should be the No. 1 priority of this Congress. Quite frankly, the President has said it should be our No. 1 priority. The American people think it should…

The Grassley amendment, first of all, does not meet the legitimate needs of agriculture. It falls far short of what we need. The Johnson amendment meets that need. Secondly, in terms of conservation, where we want to really move forward…

Sometimes they ask can we afford it. I ask: can we afford to add 600,000 additional individuals under their bill by giving a tax incentive for health insurance that costs $18,000 per person per year that gains coverage, how can we afford…

This is not fair. After listening to the Senator, it raises another question in my mind. Sometimes it seems that Republicans don't believe there is anybody in this country who makes $20,000 or $30,000 a year. Maybe they think this is a…

Again, I will just add on top of that, the other unfairness part of this bill is that they didn't what they should have to really expand health insurance coverage in a meaningful way to low-income people. I am talking about people who are…

The Senator points out that most people pay payroll taxes. Especially in the income brackets where they are lacking health insurance, they are paying more in payroll taxes than they are income taxes. That is why you are only getting…

The Senator is right. It does not pass the fairness test at all. I might ask the Senator one other question. We know that there are a lot of people in this country who lack health insurance. As I understand it, in this tax bill, there is a…

That is true. That is the way the legislative process works. I am not always right. You are not always right. Republicans are not always right. But if we work together in that kind of a spirit, it can be worked out. That is the way it…

I would say, if you want to end the partisan gridlock, Republicans should start working in a bipartisan fashion around here to fashion. I hear George Bush out there. He is saying he wants to come to Washington and end this gridlock. I say…

I want to ask the Senator, did he hear the quote by about Governor Bush--there was a question asked about agriculture. Vice President Gore answered the question and it came to Governor Bush. He started talking about using food as a weapon…

Will the Senator work with me to ensure that the current USAID Administrator and the Administrator in the new administration provides $30 million for global polio eradication for fiscal 2001?

I recognize that this Act is silent on the requirements of a formal cost-benefit analysis. I would like to ask you, Mr. Chairman, if it is your understanding that each project should be completed using the most-effective option possible…

Every day I raise it and every day the Republican majority objects. It is still a shame that Bonnie Campbell has been tied up in that committee since May. She has had her hearing. She has done a great job running the Violence Against Women…

What did this Rand study show? Let me read the first couple paragraphs: What Do Test Scores in Texas Tell Us? Do the scores on high-stakes, statewide tests accurately reflect student achievement? To answer this critical question, a team of…

The actuaries of the Social Security Administration did a study. They said the Gore plan that would apply the interest savings, improve the widow's benefits, and end the motherhood penalty, would, in total--when you take the total…

I did not realize until now the Senator is making the point that the average person out there, maybe listening to what I said about the fact that we have not brought up or voted on a Patients' Bill of Rights or prescription drugs or…

I am very proud of my service on the agriculture appropriations subcommittee, and I am very proud of our chairman and ranking member for the bill they put together. It is a good bill. I am going to vote for it because it provides needed…

If I might reciprocate, I thank the chairman and Senator Levin, the ranking member, for including this in the bill. These were hard workers. They were good people. They work for a contract employer, not the Department of Defense. With this…

I was not saying anything about the Senator from Utah. I was just pointing out, as he just did, some good judges on the appellate level never had trial experience.

I am saying here is a guy on the court, probably doing a great job for all I know, but he didn't have any courtroom experience either.

He was criticized for his lack of experience because he had been in private practice for 5 years out of law school, and the rest of that time he was a law professor. Now he is on the Eighth Circuit.

Again, every day I will come out and ask unanimous consent to get Bonnie Campbell's name out of the committee and on the floor for a vote. Yet the objections come from the Republican side of the aisle. Why, I don't know. As I said, no one…

So it only seems fair and right we bring her out here and have a vote. If people want to vote one way or the other, that is fine. But it is not fair, 217 days. I will end my comments again by saying the standard bearer of the Republican…

Bush's plan would leave rural Americans out in the cold. Thirty percent of seniors live in areas with no HMOs. And contrary to what the Senator from Minnesota said, if I heard him correctly, under the Bush program, the Government would pay…