Ranking Member's Press

*** “Individuals, families and businesses aren’t the only ones facing financial challenges because of Obamacare – Tennessee schools are also being hit hard by higher health insurance costs that are forcing districts to cut jobs or hours. Obamacare has forced schools to save costs by creating more part-time employees, from...

*** “The president’s broken promise that ‘If you like your health insurance, you can keep it’ was an unwelcome Christmas present for 82,000 Tennesseans buying insurance on their own. Now, since nearly 13 times as many Tennesseans receive health insurance on the job, Obamacare threatens to bring an Unhappy New Year for...

*** “Between putting many health insurance plans on the naughty list, and increasing health insurance costs for many families, Obamacare’s mandates are delivering an unwelcome Christmas present to Tennesseans.” – Lamar Alexander MARYVILLE, Dec. 24 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 – The senior Republican on the Senate health committee and the chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee released the following statements in response to the Obama administration’s announcement that it would allow Americans unable to replace their canceled health care plans to instead purchase...

*** “Unfortunately, at least 82,000 Tennesseans are losing their health policies this year, and that’s an unwelcome Christmas present. Even more unfortunately, an Unhappy New Year is coming in which hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans could lose the employer-sponsored policies they have and like when Obamacare’s burdensome...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 – Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) today introduced legislation that would reverse the Obama administration’s recent decision to delay next year’s Obamacare insurance enrollment deadline until after the 2014 election. “The Premium Disclosure Act”...

*** “The whole purpose of accreditation to begin with was an effort by autonomous institutions to regulate themselves with the sole purpose of determining quality. … Are the accreditors doing some things they don’t need to be doing? And are they spending enough time really focused on quality?” – Lamar...

MARYVILLE, Nov. 27– Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the Senate health committee, today praised the signing into law of The Drug Quality and Security Act, a result of a legislative agreement he reached with House and Senate health committee leaders to make injections of compounded sterile drugs safer. Alexander...

MARYVILLE, Nov. 27– U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today praised the signing into law of his bill to reduce infant deaths and disabilities by expanding research, education, and intervention activities related to premature birth. “This is...

MARYVILLE, Nov. 26 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the Senate health committee, today released the following statement on the Supreme Court’s announcement that it will review a mandate in Obamacare that requires business owners to offer employees reproductive services that violate the...

MARYVILLE – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the Senate health committee, released the following statement on a U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services announcement that it will delay the beginning of the next Obamacare enrollment season by one month, till Nov. 15, 2014, after the midterm elections, instead of...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 – The senior Republican on the Senate labor committee today led 15 of his Republican colleagues in calling on the Obama administration to conduct a proper assessment of a proposed rule on workplace silica exposure. In a letter to David Michaels, the Assistant Secretary of Labor, the senators requested that the comment...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 – Today, five Republican lawmakers wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and questioned the success of the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans (CO-OP) loan program – a new ObamaCare program that has issued nearly $2 billion in loans to non-profit health insurance issuers – and whether...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 – Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) today introduced a bill that would protect the right of employers to provide insurance to employees through self-insurance plans. Today, 100 million Americans receive health insurance...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Following media reports that the Obama administration is once again trying to find a way to exempt unions from ObamaCare’s numerous taxes and mandates, U.S. Senators John Thune (R-S.D.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and eight of their Republican colleagues today introduced the Union Tax Fairness Act...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 —Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and HELP Committee members Senator Al Franken (D-MN), Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) today hailed Senate passage of legislation to...

Task force of higher ed officials and experts will identify ways to reduce and streamline confusing or costly regulations WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 – Senate education committee Ranking Member Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and members Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) today announced the formation of...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15. – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and committee member Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) today praised the Senate passage of their bill to reduce infant deaths and disabilities by expanding research, education, and intervention...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – U.S. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), current member and former Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), current Ranking Member of the HELP Committee, introduced legislation today to significantly reform labor laws for the first time in more than 50...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the Senate health committee, today released the following statement on the president’s speech announcing a proposal to fix the Obamacare provision leading to millions of canceled health care plans: “The 5 million Americans – including...