Senate Update
August 10, 2009:The Senate will convene at 1:00 p.m. on Monday, August 10 for a pro forma session only. Following the pro forma session, the Senate will adjourn under the provisions of H. Con. Res. 172, the adjournment resolution, until 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 8.
On Tuesday, September 8, the Senate will convene at 2:00 p.m. and will be in a period of morning business until 4:30 p.m. with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of S. 1023, the Travel Promotion Act.
Senator Harkin will be traveling around Iowa during the August recess. This map shows the stops he will be making. You may also want to view a detailed listing of these stops.
August 11, 2009
Building Iowa’s Medical Workforce
by Senator Tom Harkin
Day Four of my August trip brought me to Scott Community College in Bettendorf to tour the nursing lab and then talk with approximately 200 Iowans about the need for health reform. If there’s one thing we know about health reform, it’s that our mission will not be complete unless we have the workforce necessary to put these new improvements in place.
I heard from two students about their motivations. Sherry Hayes, a first year nursing student, told me of the rewards and challenges she has encountered in her training. Maureen Stoker, a recent graduate of the school, talked about the outstanding nurse that took care of her son when he was sick. Both were not what they considered “average students” – Maureen for example used the night/weekend program to get her training.
Community colleges train 70 percent of nurses, so in the Senate, we made sure that our health reform proposal includes loan programs for nursing students, loan repayment and scholarship initiatives to retain nursing faculty and support for nurse-managed health clinics.
After touring the lab, Chancellor Pat Keir walked me into the Student Activity Center for a larger conversation about health reform with the community. As I travel the state, I am finding that there is a lot of misinformation out there about Congress’s efforts and this is motivating me to talk to as many Iowans as possible this summer to correct the record.
After leaving Bettendorf, I traveled to Davenport to honor three veterans with the medals they so rightly deserve. I was so glad to award John Bohy, a Navy veteran who saw enemy action as the first Navy unit to enter Korean waters after the outbreak of the Korean War, with eight medals including the Navy Good Conduct Medal and the National Defense Service Medal. Wayne T. Simmons was wounded on more than one occasion after he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941. Before he passed away two years ago, he had been awarded a Purple Heart, but his wife Selma wanted to make sure he had received all of his medals. I was glad to present her today with a Bronze Star Medal and the European-Africa-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal on his behalf. Richard Williamson served in major battles in the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea and the Southern Philippines and Luzon. He earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart for valor in the battle of Manila. I was honored to present these and five other medals to his daughter Janet Rector on her father’s behalf.
After the medals presentation, I headed to Storm Lake where I will kick off Day Five of my trip with another health meeting.
August 10, 2009
Waterloo, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City
The start of National Community Health Center Week today gave me a perfect opportunity to come back to Iowa and visit our community health centers, and to talk with people about the health reform effort underway in Washington. I kicked off the week at the Peoples Community Health Center in Waterloo and was amazed at the size of this facility and the great services it offers for the insured, underinsured and, as patient Jennifer Schmidt described, those who were once uninsured, but received such great care, that they kept coming back even after they obtained insurance!
August 9, 2009
Day 2 – Building Iowa’s Economic Future
Today I met Labor Secretary Hilda Solis at the Ottumwa Industrial Airport for the groundbreaking of the new Job Corps Center. The Center, which is scheduled to open in 2011, will partner with Indian Hills Community College to provide academic and vocational training to economically disadvantaged youths. It is only the second facility of its kind in Iowa, and comes at a critical time with the economy shedding another 247,000 jobs nationwide in July.
August 8, 2009
Kicking off the ’Building Iowa’s Future’ Tour in Des Moines
I kicked off my August “Building Iowa’s Future” tour today at Des Moines Primary Health Care, Inc., a community health center in Des Moines. I was joined by Ted Boesen, Executive Director of Iowa/Nebraska Primary Health Care, by Kelly Huntsman, Executive Director, and by over 150 Iowans to talk about how health reform. One thing was clear from the start: Iowans are eager to hear how the choices being proposed in Washington will impact their families.
August 3, 2009
In Senate Floor Speech, Harkin Describes Iowans’ Struggles with Health Care; Cost-Savings from Prevention and Wellness
On Monday evening, Senator Harkin joined members of the Senate Health, Education, Labors and Pension (HELP) Committee to discuss the benefits of The Affordable Health Choices Act for all Americans. Harkin touted the prevention and wellness elements of the bill, which will reduce incidents of chronic disease and rein in the high costs of health care in America. He took to the Senate floor as his staff completed a state-wide listening tour of all 99 counties to hear Iowans concerns about health care.
July 23, 2009
Prevention Reforms Will Save Lives and Money
As you know, I am excited about the very robust wellness and prevention provisions in the health reform bill that we passed in the Senate health committee last week – The Affordable Health Choices Act. No question, these provisions are going to save lives and save money. And that’s why I am very disappointed – and, frankly, disturbed – by the Congressional Budget Office’s refusal to acknowledge these savings.
July 15, 2009
In Historic Vote, Senate Health Committee Approves The Affordable Health Choices Act
The Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, of which Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) is a senior member, today passed The Affordable Health Choices Act, landmark legislation that will reduce health costs, protect individuals’ choice in doctors and plans, and assure quality and affordable health care for all Americans. The bipartisan bill includes more than 160 Republican amendments accepted during the month-long mark-up, one of the longest in Congressional history.
July 9, 2009
Health Reform Moves Forward in Washington with a Public Option
The Senate health committee continues to make steady progress in marking up comprehensive health reform legislation. We have already produced a very robust Prevention and Public Health title, which I took the lead in drafting. And, yesterday, we began marking up the Coverage title.
July 1, 2009
The American Dream Lives
On the wall of my Washington Senate office, I have two simple framed items. One is a postcard dated July 19, 1939, inviting my unemployed coalminer father to report for work with FDR’s Works Progress Administration. The other is a picture of dirt-floor house where my mother was raised in Slovenia, before she immigrated to America.
June 25, 2009
Yahoo! News Carries Harkin Message Of A New “Wellness Society”
Yahoo! News (www.news.yahoo.com), the most-visited overall news site on the Internet, posted an exclusive op-ed feature from Senator Tom Harkin, the lead Senator in drafting the Prevention and Public Health section of the landmark health reform bill. Senator Harkin shares the statistics and reasons he feels this legislation is necessary to American’s health and well-being.
June 23, 2009
HELP Committee Readies Largest Investment in Prevention and Public Health
Over the past week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, on which I serve, has begun work on one of the most important bills in decades – the Affordable Health Choices Act. The goal of the bill is to reform our health care system to improve care, lower costs and make health care work for all Americans.
