HELP HEARING: Sens. Mike Enzi, R-WY, ranking member, left,. and Tom Harkin, D-IA, at Harkin's first hearing as chairman.Photo: HELP Committee
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-IA, presided over his first meeting Sept. 30 as new chairman of the catchall Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, a pivotal moment for the veteran legislator considering he was replacing the late Sen. Edward Kennedy who died in August after a lengthy illness.
Replacing a transcendent figure as Kennedy who was respected on both sides of the aisle puts Harkin in an enviable – and powerful – position in the Senate.
Certainly Harkin, the longest-serving Democratic senator in Iowa history and a 1992 candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, long has been viewed publicly as an "upper-tier" senator in terms of power, influence, stature and popularity -- like contemporaries that include a John McCain, Chuck Schumer, Arlen Specter, Dick Durbin, Tom Coburn, Olympia Snowe or Max Baucus, for instance.
With such standing among his colleagues, you don’t imagine Harkin getting bullied by some of the committee’s heavy hitters, which include Ranking Member Mike Enzi, R-WY, Orrin Hatch, R-UT, who served as chair in the early 1980s, or even fiery supporter Barbara Mikulski, D-MD. Harkin, who won’t have to seek reelection in Iowa until 2014, has the name to push back when he needs to.
With HELP firmly under his control, Harkin now gets to put his stamp on U.S. domestic policy in wide ranging areas, including education, labor, human services and healthcare. Other than defense, these areas command the largest share of the federal budget each year, though their funding is authorized through the congressional appropriations committees. Kennedy had come to symbolize the committee’s legislative work, and, as such, had a hand in shaping most major domestic proposals considered by the Congress over many years.
Harkin: "Enormous responsibility"
At a committee session Oct. 7, Harkin pronounced, "We have an enormous responsibility to our fellow citizens, and it is one I intend to deliver on."
In taking the reins at HELP, Harkin gives up the chairmanship of another powerful Senate committee, Agriculture, to Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-AR.
Surely lacking some of Kennedy’s Yankee sophistication, Harkin’s challenge at HELP will be to replicate and build on the work of his predecessor. Harkin is an affable, folksy, true-to-the-core progressive, so expect him to approach his challenge in his own unique way.
After it was announced that Harkin rather than the next ranking Democratic member on the committee, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT, would take the helm of HELP, liberals were ecstatic. One online posting described the move as "terrific news" and "finally someone in the Senate that will speak up strongly and loud for our side."
Harkin’s ascension to the top of the 23-member HELP Committee announced on Sept. 9 comes at a particularly sensitive time in Congress and the country – the riveting debate over healthcare reform. Harkin is an unabashed supporter of a government insurance option, and his influence will weigh heavy as the Senate seeks to reconcile a healthcare proposal passed during the summer on a straight party-line vote in HELP with a dramatically different one – without a public option – passed this week by Baucus’ Finance Committee.
Where Kennedy was considered relevant and strong on most if not all issues before the committee, Harkin’s niche has been focused on healthcare and human services. He gets credit for getting passed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. And Harkin is a big proponent of legislation targeted at HIV and the AIDS prevention and treatment. Additionally, one of his pet projects is the promotion of wellness in the workplace as a way to reduce healthcare costs.
Stance on Workplace Safety
Workplace safety and health typically isn’t the hottest of hot-button issues as it falls under the greater labor category. Surely, Harkin, as Kennedy did, will abdicate much of that realm to Sen. Patty Murray, D-WA, who chairs HELP’s Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety. Only Kennedy still pushed personally on worker protections until his death and had pursued OSHA reform legislation vigorously in recent sessions of Congress.
While Harkin certainly supported those efforts and was a member of Murray’s subcommittee, the safety community should be eager to see if his approach will be as high-profile as Kennedy’s now that he is chairman.
Kennedy’s signature legislation on occupational safety and health, the "Protecting America's Workers Act," was reintroduced in Congress shortly before his death. The bill would remake the Occupational Safety and Health Act by substantially raising civil penalties on employers and dramatically expand OSHA protections to cover 8.5 million additional workers. At some point during the current session of Congress -- especially now with a sizable Democratic majority at least through 2010 and a president who would sign it -- Harkin and Murray can be expected to aggressively push the bill after tackling more weighty labor issues such as "card check."
Main's MSHA Nomination Approved
At the Oct. 7 session, Harkin managed to get some Obama candidates through to the full Senate for upcoming votes, though there is key work remaining. The most significant for the safety and health community is that of Joseph Main, former administrator of the United Mine Workers union’s Occupational Health and Safety Department, to head up the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Interestingly, Enzi and other HELP Committee Republicans supported Main, allowing the nomination to go through without a confirmation hearing. On the face of it, that could be viewed as surprising given that Democrats would not budge on the nomination of Richard Stickler in previous administration and Stickler never officially assumed the title of assistant secretary.
But it appears that Enzi and others may be more willing to expend political capital instead on trying to block OSHA nominee David Michaels, a George Washington University professor and former Clinton administration official. Already, Michaels has been targeted as being extreme by pro-industry organizations. How Harkin handles the Michaels nomination in committee might be a harbinger of his approach to workplace safety going forward.
The other nominees cleared by the committee Oct. 7 were M. Patricia Smith, the New York labor commissioner, to be Labor solicitor, Dr. Regina Benjamin to be Surgeon General and William Spriggs to be assistant Labor secretary for policy.
Enzi, however, has said he is blocking Smith’s nomination, who would be Labor Secretary Hilda Solis’ key legal adviser.
Enzi has been unusually public in his denouncement of Smith, calling her "candor" during her confirmation hearing into question over issues involving her tenure in New York. Harkin has called Smith an "outstanding" choice.
How far Enzi is willing to go to keep Smith from the position certainly sets up an interesting dynamic in his relationship on committee matters with Harkin. Enzi also raised concerns about Solis during her confirmation process in the spring, complaining she refused to answer his questions about labor issues, but didn’t take the step of blocking the nomination.
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