Chair's Press

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), ranking member of the HELP Committee, requested input from health care providers and stakeholders on the root causes of the current health care workforce shortage and...

WASHINGTON, March 1 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP), on Wednesday applauded people with diabetes for organizing to force Eli Lilly and Company to reduce the cost of insulin by 70 percent. Sanders also sent letters to other major insulin makers – Sanofi and Novo...

WASHINGTON, March 1 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, on Wednesday announced that next week the committee will hold a vote on issuing a subpoena for Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to provide testimony about his company’s lack of compliance with federal labor law...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP), announced Monday that the panel will hold a hearing this Thursday, March 2, at 10 a.m. ET titled, “Community Health Centers: Saving Lives, Saving Money.”Today, 30 million men, women, and children...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 – Ahead of the committee’s first hearing in the new session of the 118th Congress, Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ranking Member Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.) on Thursday released the full roster of the panel’s subcommittees.See below for the full...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, announced on Wednesday that Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel will testify next month in front of the committee for a hearing entitled, “Taxpayers Paid Billions For It: So Why Would Moderna Consider Quadrupling the...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, today issued the following statement after Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz refused to appear in front of the committee to testify about his company’s long-running noncompliance with federal labor law: “It is...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 – As Republicans threaten cuts to Social Security and other essential federal programs, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Val Hoyle (D-Ore.) in the U.S. House of Representatives, introduced legislation that would expand Social Security benefits by...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 – At a press conference on Thursday with union leaders and rail workers, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, demanded rail companies provide their workers with at least seven paid sick days.Sanders was joined by Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) who voted for the...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 – In a letter signed by all the Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ben Ray...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the new chairman of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, on Wednesday during remarks to Advocates for Community Health proposed a historic expansion of community health centers. “We must expand these programs so that every American has the ability to...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, on Monday, February 13, will host a town hall at the U.S. Capitol to discuss the pay crisis teachers are facing throughout the United States. Joining Sanders at the town hall, entitled “Respecting our...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) at 1:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 9th will hold a press conference with rail workers to demand companies provide them with at least seven paid sick days. Sanders will be joined by...

(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), issued the following statement on the Senate’s passage of the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers (PUMP) Act in a 92-5 amendment vote to add the legislation to the 2023...

Washington, D.C. — Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), issued the following statement on the Senate’s passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) as part of the year-end funding package. The amendment to the omnibus—offered by Senator Bill...

FDA package negotiated by Senator Murray, colleagues will finally empower FDA to regulate cosmetics, address the infant formula shortage, modernize accelerated approval, and more   Senator Murray: “I’ve been pushing hard to make progress on so many key reforms to ensure the FDA is living up to its mission and putting patients and...

Senator Murray: “In every room and at every opportunity, child care is at the top of my mind, and I push hard for progress—and that’s exactly what I did in this funding package … But make no mistake: even as I continue pushing for increased child care investments, I’ll never stop working towards the big, bold change...

Omnibus retirement package includes provisions from Murray’s RISE & SHINE Act to strengthen Americans’ emergency savings and retirement security   Murray: “Families in Washington state are trying to make ends meet, plan for the future, and get on solid financial footing—which is why I fought so hard to strengthen...

Murray’s bipartisan work with Senator Burr leads to robust mental health and substance use disorder package in end-of-year bill   Omnibus includes bipartisan steps on fentanyl, youth and maternal mental health, strengthening the new 988 Lifeline, and more   Murray: “Our communities need action—and that’s exactly...

Omnibus includes Murray-Burr bill to strengthen nation’s public health and pandemic preparedness systems   Senator Murray spoke at length about the need to pass the bill on the Senate floor earlier this month   Murray: “There have been many painful lessons to learn from this pandemic, and today, by passing my bipartisan...