Jobs

Reid Casts Doubt On Unanimous Dem Support For Obama Jobs Bill

Brian Beutler | October 5, 2011, 1:27PM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)

At a Wednesday Capitol press conference, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) again couldn't confidently predict that President Obama's jobs bill has the support of the entire Democratic caucus -- even after leadership tweaked some of its controversial measures to broaden party support for the plan.

"I don't know what 'unanimity' means," Reid told reporters. "We'll get most all the Democrats."

Unanimity, of course, means all Democrats -- which will be important. If one or two Democrats defect from the bill, Republicans can (and will) say that the opposition to the plan is bipartisan.

There's a chance that he could unite the party, particularly after replacing Obama's proposed tax measures with a simpler five percent surtax on millionaires to pay for the jobs programs.

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Labor

Union Advocates Accuse GOP Of Interfering With Independent Labor Agency

Benjy Sarlin | May 11, 2011, 8:57AM

Labor allies are defending the White House from attacks by South Carolina Gov. NIkki Haley (R) and other Republican lawmakers over a union dispute with Boeing, accusing them of interfering with an independent federal agency.

At the Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Haley and other Republicans called on President Obama to condemn the independent National Labor Relations Board, which is tasked with enforcing labor laws, for suing Boeing over a production line in South Carolina that it says constitutes illegal retaliation against unionized Boeing workers in Washington State. Obama has no direct control over the agency, but does choose its members, and Republicans have sought to block appointments they consider too pro-labor.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, issued a statement accusing the GOP of an "overly dramatic response" to a "routine unfair labor practice charge." He added that it was unfair to target the White House when it has no say in the NLRB's lawsuit.

"That's what this all comes down to: powerful corporate interests are pressuring public officials to interfere with an independent agency, rather than let justice run its course," Harkin said. "And we should not tolerate this interference. Instead, we should turn our attention back to the issues that really matter to American families - how we can create jobs in Washington, South Carolina, Iowa, and across the country?"

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Social Security

Senate Democrats Rally Against Social Security Cuts

Benjy Sarlin | March 28, 2011, 4:33PM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

With Republicans pledging to address entitlement spending this year, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) led a rally in the Capitol on Monday to protest any cuts to Social Security.

While Republican budget cuts currently under negotiation would not touch benefits, Reid warned that a proposed $1.7 billion cut to the Social Security Administration would "really hurt Social Security" by reducing the program's ability to quickly process claims.

"They cut the money to allow Social Security to be funded properly so they can administer the programs they need," Reid said.

Attendees chanted "Raise the cap!" in response to a call by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) to fund the program by expanding taxes to higher incomes rather than lowering benefits or raising the retirement age.

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112th Congress

Sen. Harkin: "Greatly Disappointed" in WH Budget Negotiations

Benjy Sarlin | March 3, 2011, 4:20PM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Vice President Joe Biden is set to meet with House and Senate leaders today to jumpstart negotiations on a resolution to fund the government through September, but not every Democratic lawmaker is happy to see the White House take a more hands-on approach.

"It depends on what kind of hands they're putting on it," Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) told TPM. "I'm greatly disappointed so far in what they're advocating."

Harkin said that he objected to the White House's emphasis on non-security discretionary spending, which is about 12% of the overall budget but has drawn the overwhelming attention of both parties in their efforts to trim the deficit. Neither Democratic or Republican leaders are proposing raising taxes to help bridge the gap. According to Harkin, discretionary spending cuts disproportionately hurt working families by targeting safety net programs and education.

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Filibuster Reform

Tom Harkin Looks To Courts To Reform The Filibuster

Brian Beutler | January 28, 2011, 9:43AM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), a long-time advocate of filibuster reform, was the lone senior senator to publicly align himself with Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) in their effort to change the Senate's rules.

Those efforts were neutered this week by the leaders of both parties. With the exception of some modest tweaks, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) agreed that the rules would remain largely unchanged. Beyond that, though,they shook hands and agreed that for the next several years, neither party will attempt to change the filibuster rules on a majority-vote basis -- what's known as the "Constitutional option."

Under these circumstances, Harkin has given up hope that the Senate will ever reassess itself, and is looking to the courts to step in and shake things up.

"It's clear now that the Senate can not change its rules," Harkin told me in an interview Thursday evening. "It can not."

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Filibuster

How Harry Reid And Mitch McConnell Could Upend Filibuster Reform

Brian Beutler | December 30, 2010, 12:10PM

A handful of junior Democrats, including Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), have done an impressive job building momentum for a package of modest, but meaningful, changes to the Senate's filibuster rules. But their plan could be completely upended and replaced by even more modest reforms, if Democratic and Republican leaders successfully negotiate a bipartisan rules reform compromise.

In a phone interview with me Wednesday, Udall described negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) as a "separate track" from his own efforts.

A Senate Democratic aide confirms that those discussions are ongoing, and haven't yet yielded consensus. But if they do, that consensus would serve as a stand-in for Udall's approach, not as an endorsement of it, as previous reporting has suggested.

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Barack Obama

Senate Democrats Slam Obama-GOP Tax Cut Framework

Brian Beutler | December 7, 2010, 4:05PM

President Barack Obama

It's been less than 24 hours since President Obama announced he'd reached agreement with Senate Republicans to temporarily extend all the Bush tax cuts, but already it's clear that it faces an uncertain future on Capitol Hill within the President's own party. Some Democrats criticized the plan in withering terms, and most Democrats refused to take an unequivocal position in favor of the plan.

Butt there were many other signs of uncertainty: Senate aides suggested that Republican members will have to provide the bulk of the votes for the plan; and one top Democratic aide worried that the President's hastily-announced press conference indicated that the plan "may be taking on too much water," and might sink.

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Food Safety

FAIL: Senate Dems' Unconstitutional Mishap Could Kill Food Safety Bill

Brian Beutler | December 1, 2010, 5:57PM

Democratic Senators Harry Reid, Chris Dodd and Tom Harkin

In what amounts to an epic constitutionality #fail, Senate Democrats may have blown their chances to see their food safety bill signed into law.

The U.S. constitution requires that any revenue-raising bill must originate in the House of Representatives. To honor this provision, the Senate often finds a discarded old House bill, strips it bare, and uses it as a "shell" and passes it back to the House.

They somehow forgot to do that this time.

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Chuck Grassley

Snowe, Hatch Poised To Take Top GOP Slots On Major Committees In January

Brian Beutler | November 10, 2010, 12:14PM

Republicans didn't pick up the Senate last week. But they did pick up six seats and will have several new members coming to town next year, which means the committees will be rejiggered -- and the leaders of those committees will play the biennial game of musical chairs.

According to top aides, the reshuffling won't be too dramatic this time around. On any particular committee, Democrats adhere to a seniority system to determine who moves up the ladder. Republicans let the members choose who gets the top spot.

With that in mind, here's one likely reshuffling scenario.

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Stem cell research

Harkin Will Hold Hearings On Court Ruling Ending Funding For Stem Cell Research

Christina Bellantoni | August 24, 2010, 3:49PM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

As Democrats in Congress scramble to figure out their options in the wake of a judge's decision to halt federally funded embryonic stem cell research pending trial, TPM has learned that Sen. Tom Harkin's Labor-HHS Appropriations subcommittee will hold hearings next month when the Senate comes back into session.

Harkin spokeswoman Bergen Kenny said the hearings will be held Sept. 16. Congress returns from recess earlier that week. They are still in the very early planning stages, so no title or witness list is yet available. The hearings will be raised in this subcommittee because it handles funding for the Department of Health and Human Services. The Dickey-Wicker amendment central to District Court Judge Royce Lambreth's ruling yesterday is attached to the HHS budget.

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Financial Reform

Wall Street Invite: Come Meet Privately With Congressmen Negotiating Financial Reform!

Brian Beutler | May 31, 2010, 12:04PM

Wall Street

A small Wall Street securities firm has teamed up with a lobbyist for the financial services industry to host an all-day event on June 15 -- right in the middle of the conference committee negotiations over the financial reform bill -- that will feature "the KEY House and Senate Conferees and majority and minority Committee staff, as well as leading financial lobbyists covering interchange, banks and major non-banks affected by so-called Wall Street Reform bill," according to an invitation obtained by TPM.

The firm, JNK Securities Corp., declined to comment about the event.

The other firm helping to organize the event, according to the email invitation, is Federal Advisory LLC. The registered agent for Federal Advisory LLC is Tim Rupli, according to Virginia corporation records. Rupli is a former aide to Tom DeLay and now a high-powered Republican lobbyist for the payday lending industry and the community banks trade association, among other clients.

Reached last week, Rupli declined to be interviewed, but suggested that the event may not take place after all. He hung up before elaborating.

While the invitation says the event will be on Capitol Hill, it doesn't not specify the exact venue. Rupli's Capitol Hill townhouse on New Jersey Avenue within easy walking distance of the House office buildings next to the Capitol, has been the frequent venue for fund-raising receptions, ranking as the 10th most popular congressional partying spot of 2008.

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Health Care

Game Changer: Dems' Health Care Success Blunts GOP Momentum

Brian Beutler | March 23, 2010, 4:40PM

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), President Obama, and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

What a difference a day makes. And, you know, the signing of a sweeping health care bill.

Last week, the atmosphere in the Capitol--and indeed, all across political Washington--was tense, and ominous. Democrats hadn't rounded up all the votes they needed (and ultimately found) to pass health care reform, and Senate Republicans knew it. They kicked up as much dust as they could to scare House members into killing their own bill. Fixing the health care bill with reconciliation would fail, they warned over and over again, and Dems would be stuck having enacting an unpopular reform.

Today, that's all gone.

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Health Care

Senate Health Committee Chairman: 'We'll Have The Votes' To Pass Final Bill

Christina Bellantoni | March 19, 2010, 9:52AM

President Barack Obama and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)

Democratic Senators are sounding quite confident that these really are the last, final votes on health care reform and that something will be sent to President Obama's desk for a signature soon. "We'll have the votes to pass this," Sen. Tom Harkin told reporters on a conference call late yesterday, referring to the Senate. He also particularly praised Speaker Nancy Pelosi for pulling in wavering Democrats to secure the needed 216 votes in the House.

"Speaker Pelosi has just done a magnificent job, she has a very tough job keeping all of her troops lined up and it's been amazing to watch her do this," said Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee. (Despite a looming Sunday afternoon vote, she's not there yet, though.)

Is Harkin worried that something could go wrong and the Senate wouldn't pass the final legislation? Nope. He said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has the 50 votes he needs and isn't sweating it. I asked Harkin about Sen. Evan Bayh's objections to including student loan legislation in the health care bill, and he said he wasn't worried.

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Filibuster

Report: Support For Filbuster Elimination Growing Among Senate Dems

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 12, 2010, 12:17PM

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the number two Democratic leader is getting behind a plan to end the filibuster as we know it, according to a new report from Greg Sargent.

Sargent reports that Durbin is "throwing his weight behind" a plan to fundamentally alter filibuster rules proposed by Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH). The plan, unveiled yesterday, would create a series of votes that would mean filibusters could eventually be broken by a simple majority vote.

Durbin's endorsement of the plan shows support for the change could be growing among Senate Democrats, though, as the Washington Post reported yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid already said the changes Harkin and Shaheen have proposed would be impossible to implement.

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Max Baucus

Harkin And Baucus: Health Care Reform Isn't Dead Yet!

Jillian Rayfield | January 28, 2010, 6:16PM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)

Senators Tom Harkin (D-NH) and Max Baucus (D-MT) said today that the Democrats are not going to give up on health care reform.

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Health Care

Leading Health Care Experts Tell Senate To Step It Up

Brian Beutler | January 27, 2010, 9:37AM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Democratic insiders, members of Congress, and health care reformers are now ramping up pressure on the Senate to take procedural steps to assure a comprehensive bill can become law. The House is signaling that it's ready to pass the Senate's health care bill, but only if the Senate gives concrete signs that they will follow suit, and pass a separate amending bill through the budget reconciliation process--a move that is increasingly seen as a necessary precondition of a successful reform push.

Today, 49 leading health care experts--who recently urged the House to act--are now acknowledging that the House deserves an act of good faith from the upper chamber before it pulls the trigger on reform.

"Key differences between the bills, such as the scope of the tax on high-cost plans and the allocation of premium subsidies, should be negotiated through the reconciliation process. Key elements of a reconciliation compromise enjoy broad support in both houses," reads a new letter from the experts to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV); Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Max Baucus (D-MT); and President Obama. "Other discrepancies between the House and Senate bills can be addressed through other means."

Last Friday, we urged the House to adopt the Senate-passed bill along with improvements that can be immediately achieved through reconciliation. We urge the Senate to join the House in this effort, and we urge the President to sign both bills.

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Health Care

Dean Softens On Senate Health Care Bill: If The GOP Hates It, It Can't Be So Bad

Brian Beutler | December 23, 2009, 12:52PM

Governor Howard Dean raised the ire of the White House and Democratic leaders last week when he publicly denounced the Senate health care bill, and urged liberal members to kill it. Dean's influence with progressive reformers goes without saying, so members weren't shy about dismissing his proclamation.

But he seems to have changed his tune.

Here he is on the Rachel Maddow show last night.

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Health Care

Earlier Benefits Could Be On The Table In House/Senate Health Care Conference

Brian Beutler | December 22, 2009, 3:44PM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

With the public option dead, progressives are looking for something else to get out of negotiations and moving up the list is the possibility of speeding up implementation.

When the two chambers meet in conference, House leaders will have a prioritized package of goodies in mind, and they'll be pushing hard for them. On the list will likely be familiar issues like financing--should wealthy Americans pay for reform, or should a tax on high-end health insurance policies cover the cost, or should it be a mix of the two?

But a separate issue is beginning to come into focus.

"I think one other one, is starting date," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) told reporters today.

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Health Care

Harkin: I Assumed--Wrongly--The White House Pushed Strongly For Public Option

Brian Beutler | December 22, 2009, 9:05AM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Yesterday, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) articulated surprise and disappointment that the White House had not done more to push Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to support a public option. Moments before a vote this morning, I asked him to elaborate.

"All I'll say, I was surprised to hear this because I had assumed all along that the White House was pushing strongly for the public option," Harkin said. "I just assumed that."

"Regardless of that, I mean it was clear that in the end that we did not have the votes for it," Harkin added. "This bill is too important in its entirety to let it sink on that issue."

"As I said yesterday, the issue of a public option will be revisited," the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee insisted. "I guarantee it."

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Health Care

Are Pro-Public Option Senators Mourning The Loss Of The Medicare Buy In?

Brian Beutler | December 14, 2009, 7:46PM

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)

Joe Lieberman is the man of the hour. But though he's threatening to filibuster the Democrats' health care bill, he did not speak at an impromptu caucus meeting on the legislation this evening. Perhaps that's because he appears to have won this round: The Medicare buy-in--the key feature of a public option compromise reached tentatively last week--is now being discussed in the past tense by some of its most ardent proponents.

One member who did speak, according to a source briefed on the meeting, was Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), who offered an impassioned plea. "Don't let these obstructionists win," Specter reportedly said. "I came to this caucus to be your 60th vote." His words were met with a loud applause, which was audible through the doors of the LBJ room, and down the hall toward the Senate chamber.

But that applause may belie the reality--that the chief items on the Democrats' wish list appear to be dead or dying. The public option is gone from the Senate bill. The Medicare buy-in, which was supposed to take its place, is on life support at best.

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Health Care

Harkin: 'There's Enough Good In This Bill' Without Medicare Buy-In

Evan McMorris-Santoro | December 14, 2009, 6:06PM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) just walked walked into the Democrats all-important caucus meeting tonight sounding defeatest about the chance that a Medicare buy-in or public option trigger will survive Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-CT) decision to block the compromises this weekend.

Asked by a reporter if the Medicare buy-in will be pulled out, Harkin said "looks that way," before praising a Democratic health care bill without the two public option compromises.

"There's enough good in this bill that even without those two, we gotta move," he said. "All the insurance reforms, all the stuff we wrote so hard for prevention and wellness in there, the workforce development issues that we have in there, the reimbursement based on quality not on quantity -- there's good stuff in this bill. It's a giant step forward, changing the paradigm of health care in America."

With that, Harkin turned and walked into the caucus meeting. Shortly after him came Lieberman, dashing into the room and taking no questions from the reporters swarmed around him.

Filibuster

With Health Care Reform Tied Up In The Senate, Harkin Revisits Call To End Filibuster

Brian Beutler | December 14, 2009, 11:06AM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Opening up Medicare isn't the only issue Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) seems to have flip-flopped on lately. In 1995, he joined Tom Harkin (D-IA)--one of the most ardent supporters of reform in the Senate--in a call to end the modern filibuster. Today, Lieberman is threatening just such a filibuster on a major health care reform bill, which could easily kill the initiative altogether.

It's amid this episode that Harkin is revisiting his call to end the filibuster.

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Harry Reid

Face Off: Liberal And Conservative Democrats Huddle To Reach Public Option Compromise

Brian Beutler | December 4, 2009, 6:32PM

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

It's crunch time! In a rare face-to-face meeting between conservative and liberals members, a number of key Democrats huddled behind closed doors tonight to discuss the public option in the hopes of reaching some sort of compromise in time to salvage the health care bill.

On hand were Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)--who's been trying to broker a compromise between competing factions for months--Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE)--who's been floating a potential compromise modeled on Olympia Snowe's trigger--and Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Ben Nelson (D-NE).

According to Rockefeller, the range of views is an indication that things are coming down to the wire.

"There's no question about that," Rockefeller told reporters. "This should have started a long time ago and thankfully Harry Reid caught it in time to put us together."

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Health Care

With Health Reform At Stake, Senators Scramble To Reach Public Option Compromise

Brian Beutler | December 3, 2009, 2:12PM

Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL)

Key Democrats in the Senate, accompanied by party leadership, are bearing down on a solution to the public option problem that has dogged the caucus for months now. They're holding a constant series of meetings, bringing liberals and conservatives together to reach a compromise--seemingly modeled on a trigger--that can garner 60 votes. And interestingly, one key public option supporter seems pleased.

"There's sort of a new initiative on the public option, which is highly useful, without saying anything more about it," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). "There's going to be a group of people representing various points of view who are going to just closet themselves and try and resolve this so we can have something on the floor that can pass," he said.

"It's been taking place, it's ongoing, several different rooms, several different groups," said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin.

Included in the meeting, according to Durbin, are the well-known public option skeptics, and, on the other side of the party, Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

"I'm doing my best to do what I can do," Sanders said.

"It's one of the two, i think, really critical issues remaining, with the issue of abortion," Durbin said.

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Ben Nelson

Dems To GOP: Obstruct Health Care Debate, And We'll Be Here 'Til Christmas

Brian Beutler | December 2, 2009, 12:47PM

Sen. McConnell (R-KY) Sen. Reid (D-NV)

A fragile gentleman's agreement between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is breaking down, and now, three days into the health care debate, having held not a single vote on a single amendment, Democrats are saying enough is enough. And if they have to stay in session through Christmas to pass the bill, that's what they'll do.

After an impromptu caucus meeting on health care, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) told reporters, "the Republican leadership is stalling us and we have decided that we are going right through Christmas." If it comes to that. "We go through as long as it takes, including Christmas day, if it takes it to pass it."

In response to a question from TPMDC, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin told reporters, "unless the Republican leadership comes forward with a reasonable approach to these amendments, I think our patience is wearing thin."

"We're just not going to sit here forever and watch this bill go down," he said.

"There was a lot of talk about, if we have to be here Christmas, we'll be here Christmas," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

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Health Care

Harkin On Senate Bill: 'We've Rounded Third Base And We're Heading To Home'

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 19, 2009, 8:40AM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) says that the health care reform bill Democrats presented in the Senate last night has what it takes to turn the months-long legislative fight into a home run for reform advocates.

"To put it in baseball terms, we've rounded third base and we're heading to home," Harkin told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow last night. "No member of our caucus is going to want to be the one person that stops us from getting to home plate."

"I believe now that the team is together," he added. "And our team is going to hold together and we'll have those 60 votes to move ahead."

Harkin said that the Senate bill is a "reasonable compromise" for health care progressives like him and he called on Democrats to remain unified through the rest of the legislative process.

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Health Care

Carper: Conservative Democrats Not Likely To Support Senate Public Option

Brian Beutler | November 17, 2009, 5:22PM

Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE)

Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) cast serious doubt tonight on whether conservative Democrats will ultimately vote for cloture on the Senate health care bill if it retains a public option with an opt-out clause, and gave new details on yet another compromise that he says might work for them.

Carper, who voted for a public option amendment during the Senate Finance Committee proceedings, first floated his idea last week as a potential alternative, in the event that Reid's public option proposal failed to muster enough Democratic support to overcome a filibuster. Now he says he doubts the support is there.

"We're concerned that a number of centrists aren't prepared to vote for a national public plan, even with an opt-out," Carper said in response to a question from TPMDC. "We're trying to find something that addresses their concern about government run, government-funded, but still addresses the need for the affordability needs and the need for more competition in states that don't have it."

"What we're asking centrists is, What concerns do you need to have addressed so that you can vote for cloture, either to bring the bill to the floor, or to take the bill off the floor and to go to conference? And the two concerns we keep hearing over and over again: government-run, government funded."

(The opt-out plan Reid has proposed would not be government funded, though it's not clear whether it would be run directly by the government, or outsourced to a non-governmental body accountable to Congress.)

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Health Care

Senate Dems Will Force Republicans To Debate Long Hours If They Obstruct

Christina Bellantoni | November 16, 2009, 12:36PM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

The health care debate will be restarted in earnest tomorrow as Senate Democrats expect the Congressional Budget Office to score their version of the bill, which includes the opt-out public option.

But Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) today on a radio show laid out a schedule that would put the bill on Obama's desk in January, another delay.

Harkin was not very optimistic about the timing of final passage, saying on the "Bill Press Radio Show" the Senate would need to work every weekend in December to pass the bill by Christmas, according to The Hill.

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Filibuster

Harkin, Again, Hints At Consequences For Off-The-Reservation Chairmen

Brian Beutler | October 30, 2009, 9:17AM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)--chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee is rare among senior Senate Democrats. Whereas many in the party view seniority as akin to tenure, Harkin thinks it should come with responsibility. And when powerful chairmen stray, he doesn't keep quiet.

"[Lieberman] still wants to be a part of the Democratic Party although he is a registered independent," Harkin said. "He wants to caucus with us and, of course, he enjoys his chairmanship of the [Homeland Security] committee because of the indulgence of the Democratic Caucus. So, I'm sure all of those things will cross his mind before the final vote."

Lieberman suggested this week that he'll filibuster health care reform legislation if it includes a public option.

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Health Care

Harkin: Handful Of Public Option Opponents Should Bend To 'Vast Majority' Of Dem Party

Brian Beutler | October 19, 2009, 9:54AM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

Here's another nugget exemplifying the intense pressure Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is facing from both elected Democrats and grassroots liberals to make sure health care legislation includes a public option.

"There are 52 solid Democrats for the public option," said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA). "Only about five Democrats oppose it. Should the 52 give in to the five? Or should the five go along with the vast majority of the Democratic caucus?"

Last Thursday, at a heated Democratic caucus lunch, several Democrats rose to give impassioned arguments in favor of the public option. And, with the exception of Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), who gave a counterargument for private co-ops, the handful of public option opponents in the Senate were silent.

Health Care

Major White House Players To Run Point On Senate Health Care Bill

Brian Beutler | October 6, 2009, 9:17AM

Rahm Emanuel

We've known for a long time now that, as soon as the Senate Finance Committee reports out a health care bill, Majority Leader Harry Reid, along with Finance chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), Senate HELP Committee chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), and White House officials will sit down to produce a single piece of legislation to bring to the floor.

And we've known for a long time now that the White House's role in the negotiations will be key. Already, Senate aides are letting it be known that the White House will have to lead on all the issues around which Democrats have been unable to find consensus--issues like the public option.

So which White House players are likely to be in the room? Roll Call reports:

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Health Care

Harkin: Mark My Word, Health Care Reform Will Have a Strong Public Option

Brian Beutler | September 14, 2009, 11:37AM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)

In taking up Ted Kennedy's mantle as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) is leaving no doubt that he plans to fight hard for a politically contentious feature of his panel's health care reform bill.

"That bill -- mark my word, I'm the chairman -- is going to have a strong public option," Harkin told constituents at his annual Steak Fry in Iowa.

He made it clear, too, that he views a strong fight for the public option as part of his role in carrying on Kennedy's legacy. "We lost a great progressive, a great leader on so many issues," Harkin said. "It now falls to me to pick up the torch."

Harkin's ability to impact the fight over public option will be determined in no small part by whether he's selected as a negotiator if and when House and Senate health care legislation are merged in a conference committee. Though he now chairs the HELP committee, the panel's health care process was overseen by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) who acted as chairman until shortly after Kennedy's death.

Blanche Lincoln

Harkin Getting HELP Chairmanship, Lincoln Taking Agriculture

Eric Kleefeld | September 9, 2009, 2:30PM

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) will reportedly be taking over the chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee -- which was vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy -- after Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) declined to take the post.

This was a widely-expected move after Dodd turned down the position, as Harkin was next in line in seniority.

Another key development here in the committee shuffle is that Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) will take over Harkin's chairmanship of the Agriculture Committee -- which could potentially give her a real boost as she goes into a tough re-election fight in 2010. Lincoln would be better positioned to argue that she can advocate for her rural state's interest.

On the other hand, Lincoln's move to the Agriculture gavel could also be bad news for climate change legislation.