Tag: tom harkin

The titanic piece of legislation known simply as "the farm bill" is being debated again in Washington. The legislation is critical for Colorado, where agriculture contributes $40.7 billion annually to the state economy, making it the second-largest revenue-generating industry after tourism.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, calls it “nonsense” for politicians to suggest doing away with the U.S. Department of Education, saying “that flies in the face of 200 years of U.S. history.”

Colorado US Senator Michael Bennet seems to love his job as much as he hates the senate. That is, he seems to relish the opportunity to make change that matters as much as he reviles the fact that senate rules and procedures and politics work against anyone making any kind of change at all. On Wednesday he said something just like that but more eloquently in a speech on the Senate floor, when Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, a libertarian Republican, invoked one of the chamber's myriad arcane rules to stall debate on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, legislation Bennet has helped write and that would remake the controversial "No Child Left Behind" act.

Occupy Wall Street and its many spinoffs may be on its way to getting at least one billboard. EpicStep will donate a billboard if at least 20,000 people go online and vote for a design and a city to place it in. If enough people vote, EpicStep has announced it will donate two billboards in the heart of Times Square.

A potpourri of libertarians, anti-war protesters, opponents of the Federal Reserve, combat veterans and labor groups descended onto Freedom Square today in the nation’s capital as part of the ongoing public demonstration occurring in the wake of the three-week long Occupy Wall Street event in New York City.

As lawmakers in Washington look for answers to ongoing economic woes, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin said he and his colleagues would be “foolish to ignore the voices” of people throughout the nation who have begun to protest and demonstrate against the current inequitable system that is “rigged against their interests.”

Congressional Republicans need to “take Medicare off the table” and deal directly with the nation’s debt-ceiling, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said Friday.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin reacted to news Friday that an appellate court overturned a ban of federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, noting that it protects the ability of scientists to continue to explore possible medical advances.

Student loan defaults are on the rise, according to a new federal tracking system. For students who began repaying their loans in 2008, 13.8 percent have since defaulted. For profit institutions had 25 percent of their graduates defaulting after three years, and public four-year colleges had 10.8 percent of their graduates defaulting after three years.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), in a floor speech Monday, called for expanding electric and natural gas vehicles legislation slated to come up for a...