Ranking Member's Press

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) was officially seated as the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) for the 118th Congress. Cassidy will lead Republicans on the HELP Committee, which include U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Susan Collins (R-ME), Lisa Murkowski...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), sent a letter to each State education agency chief operating officer asking about steps being taken to comply with the Supreme Court’s Janus decision and protect the First Amendment rights of teachers who choose not to...

Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Minority oversight staff released an interim report titled, “An Analysis of the Origins of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The interim staff report summarizes a review to date of publicly available, open-source information related to the potential origin of SARS-CoV-2, the...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), sent a letter to U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh questioning the agency’s rule rescinding recognition of Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs). In his letter, Senator Burr emphasized the...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), sent a letter to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf condemning FDA’s severely inadequate internal review and continued failure to answer for its role in the devastating infant formula...

U.S. Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Patty Murray (D-WA), Ranking Member and Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), released the following statement on the language they negotiated for passage this week reauthorizing the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) user fee programs and their commitment to...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement on the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announcement that President Biden’s illegal student loan debt cancelation scheme will cost taxpayers $400 billion: “Just last week, President...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, sent a letter to President Biden questioning his Administration’s many policies that contradict his announcement that the COVID-19 pandemic is over. “I watched with great interest your 60...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, took to the Senate floor to call on Congress to immediately pass their resolution to prevent a...

Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing titled, “Stopping the Spread of Monkeypox: Examining the Federal Response.” This is the Committee’s first hearing to examine the federal government’s response to the monkeypox outbreak. In his opening statement, Ranking Member...

Yesterday, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) submitted their official comment to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in response to proposed changes to Title IX, asking instead for the enforcement of existing Title IX regulations. Joining the...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS), Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, introduced a resolution that would prevent a disastrous rail worker strike if contract negotiations are not soon...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, released the following statement on the announcement that American students’ test scores have plummeted over the last two years: “Lockdowns and fear caused the biggest ever drop on the Nation’s Report Card for...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement on President Biden’s announcement that he intends to cancel broad swaths of federal student loan debt, transferring more than $300 billion of debt onto American taxpayers: “President...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP),  to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to again demand details on the agency’s plan to combat and contain monkeypox.  In the 22 days since Senator Burr sent his first...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), along with Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) launched a new oversight investigation into potential waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars by the National Science Foundation (NSF).  The...

Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing titled, “Fighting Fentanyl: The Federal Response to a Growing Crisis.” The Committee examined the federal government’s response to the fentanyl crisis with testimony from federal health officials. In his statement submitted for the...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), led a group of Republican colleagues in sending a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Christin Grimm requesting an audit of the Biden Administration’s $10 billion...

Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) released analysis showing Democrats’ proposal to significantly expand Obamacare tax subsidies would add billions of dollars to the federal deficit to the benefit of wealthy Americans. The analysis was in response to a letter requesting...

Today, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) led a letter to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona criticizing the Administration’s proposed changes to Title IX and urging an extension of the public comment period by 30 days. Joining the letter were...