Stories

Two Iowa U.S. attorney’s offices are one step closer to being under new leadership.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley is a member with seniority, agreed today by unanimous consent to pass the nominations of Stephanie Rose and Nick Klinefeldt on to the full Senate.
“These individuals are enthusiastic, intelligent attorneys, and [...]

A social justice organization has taken a stand against the woman nominated to be the next U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Iowa.
Friends of Justice issued a statement Wednesday describing the nomination of Stephanie Rose for U.S. attorney as “just plain wrong.”

A Marion man who previously campaigned for U.S. Senate will officially throw his hat into Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District race this Thursday and kick off his campaign with a three-city tour.
Christopher Reed, who narrowly won a three-way Republican primary to challenge U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin in 2008, will officially become a candidate for the U.S. [...]

Two Iowa lawmakers played key roles in the debate and passage of the latest reauthorization of the Ryan White Program, ensuring that thousands of Americans living with HIV/AIDS will continue to receive the support and medical care they need.

While once again renewing his call that a Congressional health care reform will bill with a public option will be passed and on Pres. Barack Obama’s desk by Christmas, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin suggested that there are several reasons why speculation that Connecticut’s independent senator would block a bill with a public option won’t come [...]

CEDAR RAPIDS — U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin met with several small business owners this weekend to draw attention to the benefits of health care reform for those owners and the self-employed. “I think one of the best-kept secrets of our health reform bill that we have in Congress right now is that the biggest winners are going to be small businesses and the self-employed,” Harkin said.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), head of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told reporters on Friday that a public option will be included in the health reform bill ultimately signed by President Obama.
Harkin said that a “vast majority” — as many as 55 of the Senate’s 60 Democrats — support a robust public [...]

Although Senate Democrats seem to be moving toward a compromise on health care reform that would allow individual states to opt-out of a national public option, U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley is adamant that such a provision would defeat the overall purpose of health care reform.

It worked for Lilly Ledbetter and the Fair Pay Act, so why not for victims of discrimination on the basis of age?
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, has joined with two other influential committee chairmen to introduce a bill that takes direct aim at a U.S. [...]

There is no doubt, according to U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, that Pres. Barack Obama will have a health care reform bill on his desk by Christmas — and that the bill will include a public option.
“Reports of the public option’s death are greatly exaggerated,” Harkin said Thursday morning, noting once again that four out of [...]