SENATOR HARKIN'S COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
Tom Harkin serves on each of the committees listed below. Each link will take you to that committee's website
- HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE (Chairman)
- Public Health
- Employment, Safety and Training
- AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY COMMITTEE
- SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMMITTEE
- APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
- Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (Chairman)
- Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA
- Energy and Water Development
- Defense
- State, Foreign Operations
- Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, HUD, and Related Agencies
About Tom
A modest beginning...
Tom Harkin was born in Cumming, Iowa (pop. 150) on November 19, 1939, the son of an Iowa coal miner father and a Slovenian immigrant mother. He still lives in the house in Cumming where he was born.
Growing up in a close-knit family of modest means, Tom and his five siblings learned early in life the importance of hard work and responsibility. During his youth, he worked in a variety of jobs - on farms and construction sites, as a paper boy and at a Des Moines bottling plant.
After graduating from Dowling High School in Des Moines, he attended Iowa State University on a Navy ROTC scholarship, earning a degree in government and economics.
Following graduation, Tom served in the Navy as a jet pilot on active duty from 1962 to 1967. Later, he continued to fly in the Naval Reserves. He is an active member of American Legion Post 562 in Cumming and the Commander of the Congressional Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol.
In 1968, Tom married Ruth Raduenz, the daughter of a farmer and a school teacher from Minnesota.
Start in Washington...
Tom went to Washington in 1969 to join the staff of Iowa Congressman Neal Smith. As a staff member accompanying a congressional delegation to South Vietnam, he independently investigated and photographed the infamous "tiger cage" cells at a secret prison on Con Son Island, where prisoners - many of them students - were being tortured and kept in inhumane conditions. Despite pressure to suppress his findings, Tom's photos and eyewitness account were published in Life magazine. As a result, hundreds of abused prisoners were released.
In 1972, Tom and Ruth graduated in the same class at Catholic University of America Law School in Washington, D.C. They returned to Iowa and settled in Ames. Tom worked with Polk County Legal Aid, assisting low-income Iowans who could not afford legal help. Ruth won election as Story County Attorney, becoming the first female elected to this position.
In 1974, Tom was elected to Congress from Iowa's Fifth Congressional District. His energetic, person-to-person campaign carried the day against an incumbent in a long-standing Republican district.
In 1984, after serving 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Tom challenged an incumbent Senator and won. Iowans returned him to the Senate in 1990, 1996 and again in 2002. In November 2008, Tom made history by becoming the first Iowa Democrat to win a fifth term in the U.S. Senate.
During his first term in Congress, Tom became the first member to create a Mobile Office. It is a specially equipped van that Harkin staff members use to bring congressional services to every one of Iowa's 99 counties each year. Though the vehicle has changed over the years (the current vehicle is engineered to run on E-85 ethanol), its purpose has not.
A commitment to the issues...
As a young senator, Tom was tapped by Senator Ted Kennedy to craft legislation to protect the civil rights of millions of Americans with physical and mental disabilities. Tom knew firsthand about the challenges facing people with disabilities from his late brother, Frank, who was deaf from an early age. What emerged from that process would later become Tom's signature legislative achievement — The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
The ADA has become known as the 'Emancipation Proclamation for people with disabilities.' The legislation changed the landscape of America by requiring buildings and transportation to be wheelchair accessible, and workplace accommodations for people with disabilities. To preserve the intent of the ADA after several court rulings weakened its standards, Tom and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced the ADA Amendments bill to ensure that all Americans with disabilities are protected from discrimination. It was signed into law in September 2008.
Tom has also led the fight to advance collaborative research in paralysis and improve quality of life for people living with paralysis and mobility impairments from any cause including stroke, ALS, spinal cord injuries, and others. His Christopher and Dana Reeve Act, named after the actor and his wife, became law in March 2009.
He also led the fight to lift former President Bush's restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, which shows great promise for new treatments of conditions like Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries and juvenile diabetes.
Tom has long believed that in America, we have a "sick care" system, not a health care system. Rather than treating people once they get sick, he believes that we should remove the barriers to a healthy lifestyle, reduce chronic disease and rein in the high cost of health care, creating a "wellness society" in America.
He has done this in two ways — first as chairman of the Senate panel that funds medical research, where in tandem with Senator Arlen Specter, he led the effort between 1998 and 2003 to double funding for research into cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer's and other diseases. Second, as a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, where he crafted the prevention and wellness title of the Committee's health reform bill, The Affordable Health Choices Act. The proposal creates incentives across the full health care spectrum focused on fighting disease and creating healthier lifestyles and good nutrition with an aim toward doctor training and coverage of preventive services and the elimination of co-pays and deductibles for these services; and at the grassroots level with grants for community initiatives that will support more walkable communities, healthier schools and increased access to nutritious foods in safe environments.
As the chair of the Senate subcommittee that funds education, Tom has fought to improve education in Iowa and across the country. He has worked to reduce class size, give students better computer and Internet access, expand school counseling and safety programs, and improve teacher training. He has led the effort to modernize America's school infrastructure. Each year he secures funding for "Harkin Grants" to help school districts in Iowa update and repair their facilities.
Tom's dedication to agriculture dates back to 1975 when he first came to Congress and became a member of the Agriculture Committee. In that time, he has had the great privilege of serving as Chairman of the Senate Committee during enactment of the 2002 and 2007 farm bills — bipartisan legislation that passed Congress by an overwhelming majority. It is because of these bills that support for renewable energy and farm income grew exponentially, acres and acres of lands have been preserved through conservation efforts, rural developments efforts grew to help small towns that Americans have access to more fruits and vegetables and food assistance is covered for American families who need it.
In September 2009, Tom succeeded Senator Ted Kennedy in becoming chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Tom believes that to serve in this capacity is to carry on the legacy of Senator Kennedy, who dedicated his life to ensuring that our economy works for all Americans, guaranteeing every child the opportunity to pursue a quality education and, of course, the cause of his life: access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans.
Tom and Ruth have two daughters: Amy and Jenny, and two grandchildren. Ruth Harkin currently serves on the Iowa Board of Regents, responsible for leading Iowa's public universities.
