Tom Harkin

For more than two decades, Senator Bayh has embodied everything that is good about this body: a passion for public service, a sincere desire to reach out across the aisle, a great talent for forging coalitions and bringing people together…

In Division H of the explanatory statement accompanying the fiscal year 2011 Consolidated Appropriations Act, under the authority of the Center for Mental Health Services at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration…

A bounty. That was rolled back in 2001. We also had a provision that was put in the law then, that at least 50 percent of your students had to be campus based. That was done away with in 2005. So all your students can be online. Since…

There is a Federal law that says they can only get 90 percent of their revenue from Federal financial aid sources, loans or grants, Pell grants, loans, that type of thing, 90 percent. The University of Phoenix reported last year they got…

What is going on here? Sometimes you have to stop and say: What truly is going on here? We have lost touch with what is happening in America--to ordinary Americans, to the real middle class. What do we have here? We have Republicans who…

I have often said the one thing about the very wealthy in our country, they are pretty good at taking care of themselves. Obviously, they would not be rich if they were not. But what about the people who do not have much? Who is fighting…

Have the Republicans lost all sense of what's right and wrong? I mean, they can fight for the -- for their tax breaks for the wealthy and stuff. Fine. That's what they're fighting for. I -- I understand that. But to say that we cannot…

In this climate of uncertainty, PBGC's role is more important than ever.

In December 2010 U.S. Senators Tom Udall, Tom Harkin, and Jeff Bingaman requested an independent study from the National Academy of Sciences on whether chimpanzees are necessary as invasive research subjects.

First of all, the statistics are that Americans are getting sick and they are dying because of foodborne illnesses. You would think in this day with modernization and such we would not have this. Madam President, 325,000 Americans every…

The aim of the Food Safety Modernization Act, as it is called, is very simply to bring our Nation's antiquated and increasingly inadequate inspection service into the 21st century. This bill takes a comprehensive approach to reforming the…

I offered the legislation, but I had an ally named Helen Blank, who really made all the difference in the world years ago, working with Orrin Hatch, as my partner in all of that, to develop that legislation.

The goal is, or ought to be, to preserve full benefits and to maximize the retirement income of the tens of millions of households that depend on Social Security.

Do you think giving workers that kind of information would, No. 1, encourage retirement savings?

I hope this committee will recognize that the retirement income deficit we are leaving for the Gen Xers is at least as serious as the burden of debt for our grandchildren.

Doesn't come as any surprise to me.

The average benefit is about $14,000--less than a minimum wage income--and Social Security provides more than half the income for 55 percent of seniors.

Congress and the Obama administration will make matters worse for most Americans if they raise the Social Security retirement age.

Each year of raising the retirement age is a 6.5 percent cut in benefits that are already very modest.

I am going to count on Senator Sanders to be one of our lead persons in our hearings going into next year.

Most Americans are making what you make--$35,000, $40,000, $45,000, $50,000, $55,000 a year. That is the middle class of America.

You should both be commended for introducing S. Res. 664, your Sense of the Senate Resolution opposing any benefit cuts.

There is no rationale for providing a larger tax break to a millionaire than to a Wal-Mart cashier for the same dollar contribution to a 401(k) plan.

The system of relying on tax subsidies to expand the employer-based retirement system has proven a failure.

The most important thing I can say is that cutting Social Security benefits in this context would be disastrous.