Tom Harkin

Is your mine organized? Is it represented by a labor union?

I think that we need these people to be sworn in and everyone tell what they know, so we can get to the bottom of this.

I'll have one last question, after I yield to Senator Byrd, and it's going to involve your comment about this open investigation by MSHA.

Mr. Blankenship, you should have a chance to respond to that.

I don't think too many companies are out there looking to copy what's going on at Massey and implementing that at their operations.

We can't be at the mine daily.

I join you, also, in thanking you both for being here.

I do think it's wrong to have this hearing in private, and all of us try to figure out traipse behind to figure out what happened.

I have full confidence in the Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis. I think she was a fine appointment.

He is a true champion for West Virginia and coal miners everywhere.

That backlog needs to be reduced, and I'm here to say, it will be reduced.

I think I can assure you that the money will be there.

I would hope that you would pursue the second course of action.

In fact, in 2009, the number of fatalities in coal mines reached a low of 18.

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:28 p.m. in Room SD-430, Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Thank you for this invitation.

Special thanks go to Senator Tom Harkin and Senator Mike Enzi for their dedicated efforts to help children achieve the potential that is theirs through an active and healthy life.

I was honored by my appointment to the Board of Directors of the Partnership for a Healthier America.

We do not want to just limit this to smoking-gun cases. We want this more broadly applied.

As a citizen, I believe this body--Congress--has a long history of working together, on a bi-partisan basis, to create and maintain a level playing field in the workplace.

The legislation I introduced, the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act, is intended to return the law to what it was before the Court's decision in Gross v. FBL Financial.

I am not suggesting and do not mean to imply that a plaintiff in a discrimination case needs some kind of smoking gun in order to prevail.

I urge you, on behalf of myself and the millions of baby boomers behind me who have been paying the bills for a generation and want to continue working, to pass it in the same bipartisan spirit you have shown in the past.

What disturbs me lately, however, is the rhetoric that attaches itself to such efforts.

The ADEA simply states that it shall be unlawful to discriminate because of age. We get it. This Supreme Court apparently does not.