Tom Harkin

What they are proposing to do on the Republican side is to reward the worst companies: Those companies that will not negotiate in good faith and bargain with their workers; those companies that will drag down the other companies. That is…

I thank the Senator. It is also my understanding that the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 includes a definition of the term Federal intergovernmental mandate and this definition explicitly excludes discretionary grant programs--except…

The ADA and sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are civil rights statutes protecting individuals from discrimination on the basis of disability. It is my understanding that these statutes are explicitly excluded from…

that is a letter from the heart. This is not a canned letter. That letter comes from the heart. I do not believe I know Sherrie Wallace personally, but I sure know a lot of people like her, and I know some of my cousins are in the same…

No. Because there are times when a President can, in fact, issue Executive orders. I am not speaking out against this one either.

And it shows that we basically all increased at the same rate, no matter what income level.

Again, I appreciate the frankness of the Senator from Kansas. To be honest, I did not know about it myself. I am saying that these things take place by a President. Quite frankly, they have a right to do so in these kinds of situations. It…

I listened carefully earlier when the Senator was going through his charts about the decline in middle income, and the disparity in who is getting the money in our country. I was intrigued by the charts and how up until the 1960's, I…

I thank the Senator for going over that again, because as the Senator was going through these charts it reminded me of an article I read, from May 23, 1994, ``Why America Needs Unions.'' The slide in unions has been linked to a lower level…

Here is part of the article from the Wall Street Journal. It says: When he took the wheel at Bridgestone Corp's U.S. operations 3 years ago, Japanese executive Yoichiro Kaizaki warned managers that he's a born gambler, and that he always…

I very strongly oppose the amendment offered by the Senator from Kansas. Instead of passing this amendment, we should be saluting the leadership of President Clinton in providing a good degree of protection for workers that Congress failed…

I am not suggesting the labor law in Japan is the same as in United States. I am just saying in regard to this one company, what they are doing here in the United States of America they would not be allowed to do under Japanese labor law…

But they have the right to strike and they can strike and they cannot be permanently replaced. It is against labor law in Japan to have a striking worker permanently replaced.

again the Senator was here in 1992 when President Bush issued Executive Order No. 12818, October 1992, that prohibits prehire agreements in Federal contracts. These are collective bargaining agreements that set labor standards for…

it is widely rumored that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates today for the seventh time in the past year. Hard-working Americans all across this country can only hope that the Fed will give a second thought to an unnecessary and…

I congratulate and thank my colleague from North Dakota for offering this amendment, for his thoughtful insight into what some people in the Republican party over on the other side are calling a technical correction in the Consumer Price…

So, while some say the CPI is overestimating inflation, we now know that for the elderly the CPI underestimates inflation. So if you are now going to arbitrarily cut back the CPI with this sort of technical correction, by 1 or 1.5 percent…

I believe we need to set the record straight about where the Senate stands on this critical point.

I rise today in honor and recognition of National Autism Awareness Week, January 9-15. Many of you may recognize autism from Dustin Hoffman's character in ``Rainman.'' What some of you may not know is that autism is a neurological disorder…

In other words, if the bill enhanced the well-being of children, that report would point that out, too?

I have just read it. It would provide that it is the sense of the Congress that we should not enact legislation to increase the number of children who are hungry or homeless. And then, if I might direct a question to the Senator from…

There is so often the assertion some of these programs designed to attack poverty and hunger actually make the problems worse. For the record, I am looking here at figures showing that in 1960, the percent of American children below the…

So it is not just an amendment dealing with measures that could be detrimental to children. It is also saying, how might a bill help them? So if a bill came up, and the question arose: How can we help children, make sure they have an…

I was pleased to be a cosponsor of it. As Senator Simon said before the vote, what Bridgestone Corp., a Japanese-owned corporation, is doing with our workers at the Firestone plant in my State of Iowa would be illegal for them to do in…

In fact, the Department of Labor has had the Federal Mediation Service working on this case for quite some months. They have been working in good faith to try to resolve these differences. They have been very close. There is not that much…