Tom Harkin

Oh, relevant amendments. See, there you go. The last ESEA bill we had up was 4 years ago. We had amendments offered on the Republican side that were not relevant. We didn't say anything. We debated them. We debated them and we voted on…

To this Senator, it makes eminently good sense. We are talking about education and safety in education. Senator Lautenberg has an amendment on gun safety. That is what the Republicans do not want to vote on. Yet the Senator from New…

I must say, when I turned over the gavel to Senator Specter in 1995, there was not even a bump in the road. We always worked together on this. When he took over as chairman, we continued our strong support for NIH and our strong support…

Community health centers are really the last sort of backstop for so many people in this country who don't have health insurance--44 million people in America don't have health insurance. Mainly, these are the ones who, right now, for…

I feel constrained also to talk about the problems we have with high gasoline prices in the Midwest. It occurred to me there are all kinds of rumors going around about why this is happening: There is a broken pipeline; there is a shortage…

I am pleased that the Labor-HHS bill has reached the floor relatively early this year. In the past few years, we have been sort of on the caboose end of the train. It is an extremely important bill. It addresses many issues that are vital…

Would the Senator tell us under which Secretary of Labor and how long ago this proposed ergonomics rule was promulgated? How many years of study have we put in on it?

Again, it was my understanding that it was former Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole who first committed the Department to issue an ergonomic standard to protect workers on carpal tunnel syndrome and MSDs, as they are called. It has been…

In my State of Iowa, Sioux City, seniors regularly take bus trips to Mexico to get their drugs. Drugs that cost $68 in Sioux City are $7 in Mexico. Seniors in Waterloo, IA, are being bussed to Canada to buy their drugs. Seniors in Cedar…

I wanted to briefly discuss two important provisions regarding child soldiers and methamphetamine lab cleanup that are included in this supplemental spending package in the Foreign Operations bill before us. Over the years, Iowa and many…

That is if we lease them rather than buying. So we are compounding it, adding insult to injury. The taxpayers are getting socked for airplanes the military doesn't really need, and then they are leasing them, which means we are paying even…

I say to anyone who is watching this debate, get on your computer, get on the Internet and dial up www.gulfstream.com. Dial up gulfstream.com and take a look at the Gulfstream V and Gulfstream III, I say to my constituents, or anyone who…

Let me just finish this. The GAO found there is no justification for how many times a day airports are connected. There is no criterion for why some airports are key airports and others are not. There is no consideration of how large…

Frankly, I say to the Senator from California, if we have to swallow this, they ought to at least buy the airplanes, not lease them. The taxpayers are going to get stung, big time, for leasing these aircraft, but it looks as if it is less…

Why? Why 5,000 miles? That is the threshold. The objective is the ``Aircraft shall be able to fly no-wind range of 5,000 nautical miles carrying a full passenger and crew complement, plus their baggage.'' Why? We do not know why, but that…

What happened to the six airplanes last year that we fought against? Have they started leasing those airplanes yet?

I am proposing a very simple amendment. All it says is the Department of Defense thoroughly test its trailers and the trucks that pull them before they spend more money to modify them or to buy new ones. I understand there is a rule XVI…

Mr. President, I express my support for the conference report to the Agriculture Risk Protection Act of 2000 which we conferenced yesterday. I thank Senator Lugar, our chairman, for his hard work and persistence, as I said, over a couple…

I thank the Senator. Read the language of the Lott amendment. "The right of each law-abiding United States citizen." No age limit; 10-year-old kids or 14-year-old kids can own any amount of guns they want. "For any legitimate purpose…

First of all, I take a back seat to no one in being a legitimate hunter. I hunt every year. I have hunted since I have been a kid. I will take on anyone over there in trap shooting. That is not what this is about. It is not about…

I must at the outset admit that due to the press of business around here, and I am not on that committee that formulated this bill, I had not really looked at the bankruptcy portions of it in depth. A lot of people I admire and have…

I rise to, first of all, support enthusiastically the Trade and Development Act of 2000 known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act. I thank Chairman Roth, Senator Moynihan, and the staffs for their hard work to retain the amendment I…

I must say this debate on class size sort of reminds me of the movie ``Ground Hog Day.'' We keep having this debate over and over and over again, even though we know what the reality is. We have already had 2 years of funding, and 1 year…

The issue before us really is whether or not we are going to change gears on education. The Republican bill changes gears in reverse. It puts us in reverse. The Democratic alternative offered by Senator Daschle puts us in a forward gear…

As we enter the 21st century, the American people have their eyes firmly focused on the future, and they know education is the key to that future. This morning's USA Today newspaper reported that of all the issues the American people care…