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.
there is a new policy with respect to personnel standards in section 612(a)(15)(c) of the bill that sets forth parameters by which a State may deal with a documented shortage of qualified personnel. In that subparagraph, I want to clarify…
To sum it up, Mr. President, what this bill says is that prior to 1974, almost 1 million kids were totally excluded from not receiving education only because they were disabled. Now they are in school, they are learning, they are becoming…
I want to take a couple minutes to thank a lot of people because this has been indeed a long journey and a tough journey. It started, as I said, 2 years ago, on May 9, 1995, when Senator Frist had the first hearing on the reauthorization…
Public agencies may modify an IEP for bona fide security or compelling penological reasons. For example, the public agency would not be required to develop an IEP for a person convicted as an adult and incarcerated in an adult prison who…
If a State makes such a transfer and if the Secretary finds that the public agency is in noncompliance, the Secretary must limit any withholding action to that agency. Furthermore, any reduction or withholding of payments must be…
The Senator is correct that any withholding of Federal funds will be limited to the proportional share attributable to disabled students in adult prisons. Other funds would not be withheld.
Mr. President, listening to my friend from Missouri expound on the wonders and benefits of this bill, once again, reminds me of what I have often said about the U.S. Senate and the 100 Members that comprise this body. There are no bad…
Mr. President I thank Senator Jeffords. First of all, I thank Senator Coats for his recent statement that he just made on the floor. He hit all the right points. He talked about how long this bill had been in the making and the delicate…
The bill allows the Secretary flexibility in the mechanisms used to provide State and local entities the technical assistance they need to improve results for children, youth, infants, and toddlers with disabilities. A Federal resource…
Under the legislation, States are authorized to transfer the responsibility for educating juveniles with disabilities convicted as adults and incarcerated in adult prisons from State and local education agencies to other agencies deemed…
Lastly, Mr. President, we just had a report from the Census Bureau which did a study that showed the employment population ratio for persons with severe disabilities increased from 23.3 percent in 1991, when ADA went into effect, to 26.1…
I rise in support of S. 717, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997. On February 20, 1997, a bipartisan, bicameral working group was established to develop a bill reauthorizing the Individuals with Disabilities…
I want to join with our committee Chair, Senator Jeffords, in reluctantly perhaps opposing the amendment offered by the Senator from New Hampshire. As I said in my opening remarks, Senator Gregg has been a leader on the issue ensuring that…
I also wanted to respond--and this is something I always like to point out when we talk about the high cost of educating kids with disabilities--I know it seems like it is a high cost, but then you have to look at the other side of the…
I have always said that it took a disabled President to lead a disabled nation. President Clinton has taken the right step in improving the FDR Memorial by allowing Americans to view a more complete picture of one of our Nation's greatest…
the National Guard has a history of superb performance in supporting the needs of law enforcement agencies and community antidrug coalitions. Every day the National Guard has nearly 4,000 soldiers and airmen on full-time counter drug duty…
I rise today with Senator Specter to introduce the National Fund for Health Research Act. This legislation is similar to legislation I introduced with Senator Hatfield during the last Congress which gained broad bipartisan support in both…
this legislation providing transfer authority to the Secretary of Agriculture is designed to help address the wide gap that exists between the need within the WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program and the level of resources that we have…
I am pleased to that we are today seeing Senate passage of this important legislation. I especially want to thank Senator Kassebaum for her efforts in working out the details of this consensus bill and in arranging for its passage as a…
I have been generally supportive of the practice of shipping a certain percentage of our U.S. foreign food assistance on U.S.-flag ships. I have in the past supported amendments designed to reform that program to ensure the costs of using…
again, I would just point out under the amendment of my colleague from Iowa, money that would go to pay for the ocean freight differential would still come out of the Agriculture budget, out of food aid. That is what I am basically opposed…
I rise to introduce the Child Labor Free Consumer Information Act of 1996, legislation to establish a voluntary labeling system to help inform American consumers whether wearing apparel or sporting goods they see on the store shelves are…
if that article had not appeared, I probably would have blindly gone forward and voted for the McCain amendment and voted for this bill, assuming that Iowa would get a 2.4 percent increase in its VA health care budget. After all, that is…
I ask my colleagues, what is the Department of Veterans Affairs planning to do to the veterans of your State? We are doing something here in the dark without any information on their impact on the States. My amendment simply says this…
this body is making a major change in the dark, without adequate information of its impact on the States. I have asked the VA for a State-by-State breakdown of their draft reallocation plan so I could share it. However, the VA will not…
Politicians like Tom Harkin
