Tom Harkin

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…

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 wish to make a few brief remarks about one of our colleagues and a good friend of mine who is retiring this year. Senator Lautenberg is a perfect example of the American dream come true. He grew up the son of immigrants, joined the Army…

one of the most serious issues facing our national air transport system is the shortage of space--both in the air and on the ground at key airports. We've seen this most clearly this past summer in the backups at Chicago O'Hare and in much…

today, Senator Craig and I are introducing the National Rural Cooperative and Business Equity Fund Act to create a new public/private partnership designed to attract equity investment in cooperatives and other businesses in rural America…

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…

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…

The Grain Standards Act contains the Small Watershed Rehabilitation Amendments of 2000, legislation that enables the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to provide cost-share money for local sponsors to rehabilitate dams that…

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…

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…

As I have almost every day we have been in session, now, for the last few weeks--I brought up the issue of Bonnie Campbell, who has bipartisan support, who has had her hearing in the Judiciary Committee, yet has not been reported out for a…

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…

we are now 23 days from the end of the last fiscal year, and 15 days before the election. So far, this Congress can be defined more by what it has failed to do than what it has done. The majority has so far succeeded in killing a number of…

I would like to make a few more points on the hunger relief provisions. The centerpiece of this package would allow states to reform their treatment of cars and trucks when determining whether a household meets the food stamp resource…

I want to talk about the stalled nomination of Bonnie Campbell for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Bonnie Campbell's name is not on the agenda. We are in session. We are going to be in Friday. We are going to be here next week, yet…

I knew it would be objected to. But I am going to do it every day to make the point that her name is unfairly being bottled up in the Judiciary Committee. No one has said she is unqualified, or anything such as that. I can only assume it's…

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 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.

I just point out, J. Harvie Wilkinson is another judge in the Fourth Circuit. Again, he never had any courtroom experience either. I am just pointing out, the Senator from Alabama yesterday, on the same TV show, said Bonnie Campbell was…

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 intend to make my point every day. And as you can see, an objection to bringing Bonnie Campbell's name out of the Judiciary Committee so we can have a debate and vote is made every time on the Republican side. That is who is holding this…

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…