Ranking Member's Press

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), and Richard Burr (R-NC) sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Hamburg asking for comprehensive data on the risks and benefits associated with the Expanded Access, or “compassionate use”, program.  Expanded Access allows patients to access non-FDA...

*** “Offering amendments on behalf of the people who elected us is a job I’m proud to do. If senators aren’t willing to do what they’re elected to do, no one is making them be here.” –Lamar Alexander Washington, D.C., June 12 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today called on his Senate colleagues to...

*** “College graduates don't need a $1-a-day subsidy to pay off their $27,000 loan, which is the average for a four-year degree. They need a job.” –Lamar Alexander Washington, D.C., June 11 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the Senate education committee, today voted against moving to the...

*** “College graduates don’t need a $1-a-day taxpayer subsidy to help pay off a $27,000 loan, which is the average federal loan for four-year degrees. They need a good job.” –Lamar Alexander   Washington, D.C., June 9 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the Senate education committee...

“Last year, the President and Congress worked together to cut nearly in half interest rates on all new student loans for undergraduates. Hopefully he will work that way again instead of joining Senate Democrats' political stunt to give some former students a $1-a-day subsidy to help pay off loans while raising income taxes by $72 billion and...

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Since a bipartisan, bicameral group of legislators announced a deal to improve the nation’s workforce development system through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), a broad array of labor, business, and workforce development leaders, as well as governors and mayors from around the country, has...

*** “Republicans would like to repair the damage that Obamacare has done. We would like to prevent future damage, and as responsibly and rapidly as we can, we want to move in a different direction to put in place proposals that provide more freedom, more choices, and lower costs. We trust Americans to make those decisions for ourselves. We...

*** “The purpose of the compounding law is to end confusion and improve communication so we can help prevent another tragic meningitis outbreak. If FDA isn’t sitting down with doctors, patients and pharmacists and communicating how it is implementing the law, then I will stay on FDA until it does.” –Lamar...

WASHINGTON, DC – Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Senate Finance Committee, and Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions yesterday sent a letter to Marilyn Tavenner, Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, regarding the backlog of Medicaid applications in the states....

WASHINGTON, May 22 –Representatives Stephen Fincher (R-Tenn.) and Diane Black (R-Tenn.), and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today introduced legislation to protect small businesses from Obamacare’s job-killing mandate to provide employees government-approved health insurance or pay a fine. Fincher said: "Across the 8th District, I've...

WASHINGTON, May 22 – Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) welcomed the administration’s reversal this week on electronic health records deadlines, after officials earlier this year refused to grant providers additional time to comply with regulations...

(Washington, D.C.) - Today, a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers announced that they have reached a deal to improve the nation’s workforce development system through new legislation, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).  The bill, which will now be considered by both the House and Senate, modernizes and improves...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Ranking Member on the HELP Committee, and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee, today highlighted a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report entitled, International Labor Grants: Labor Should Improve Management of Key Award Documentation, which found...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 15 – U.S. Senators Roy Blunt (Mo.) and Lamar Alexander, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), sent a letter to the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week pressing for...

*** “Under my proposal, in Tennessee, we’d have about $440 million a year. If we were given this kind of flexibility, we could increase the vouchers for child care from 39,000 to 139,000; or the state-funded voluntary preschool program, from 18,000 4-year olds to 109,000; or we could expand Head Start, from 17,000 children to 56,000; we...

Nashville, Tenn., May 9 – U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the senior Republican on the Senate education committee, today praised the House of Representatives’ passage, by a vote of 360 to 45, of legislation to encourage the replication and expansion of charter schools, and urged Senate action on a similar bill he cosponsored...

*** “Republicans want to repair the damage Obamacare has done and prevent future damage.  As responsibly and rapidly as we can, we want to move in a different direction to put in place proposals that provide more freedom, more choices and lower costs. We trust Americans to make these decisions for ourselves. That is the American...

WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; Mark Kirk R-Ill.; Mary L. Landrieu, D-La. and Michael Bennet, D-Colo. introduced the Expanding Opportunity Through Quality Charter Schools Act -- which makes smart updates to the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP) that provides startup, replication and expansion...

*** “We have Article I of the Constitution for a reason. We represent the people for a reason. We are here, ready to do our jobs, and I am extremely disappointed that the secretary of health and human services, who helped write this budget over the last six months, is not here to do her job.” –Lamar Alexander Washington, D.C., May...

*** “Please explain to me how using your waiver authority to place conditions on states about common standards, about performance targets, about teacher evaluation systems that are not otherwise required by federal law and in the case of standards, in my opinion, is prohibited by the law—how does that not amount to, in effect, a...