On Monday, I voted to reopen the government, after Senate Democrats led the federal government to a shutdown.
Shutting down the government of the United States of America should never ever be a bargaining chip for any issue. Period. It should be to governing as chemical warfare is to real warfare. It should be banned. I’m glad we’re back to work on reaching an agreement on a two-year budget deal, on needed military spending, on lowering the cost of health insurance for people buying insurance in the individual market, on the DACA bill, and on disaster relief.
Last week, we honored the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
As a summer intern at the Justice Department in 1963, I stood on the National Mall and listened to Dr. King call to “let freedom ring” from the Rockies to Lookout Mountain. Dr. King’s words inspire and challenge us today to keep working to create an environment where every American can have the opportunity to achieve the American dream. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is a chance to reflect on Dr. King’s life and the sacrifices he made to help ensure equality for all Americans, and on the work we have ahead of us.
Last Wednesday, I enjoyed sitting down with Ivanka Trump and discussing how we can work together to help working families in Tennessee and across the nation.
Making it simpler for Tennessee students to navigate and repay their federal financial loans
Last Thursday’s hearing on Higher Education Act reauthorization focused on getting a result on making a more effective system of grants, loans and repayments plans for college.Currently, there are two grant programs, five loan programs, and nine repayment plans.This is a complicated system for Tennessee students, which leads to confusion about the aid and repayment options they are eligible for and ultimately makes it harder for them to get that aid.
At a roundtable at the University of Tennessee–Martin, a Tennessee college president told me it took him months to figure out how to help his daughter pay off her federal student loans in full, even with the money in hand. The federal financial aid system is so complex that even those in the higher education system can have trouble navigating it.
At last Thursday’s hearing, I discussed a proposal I introduced last Congress— along with Senators Bennet, Burr, Booker, Isakson and King— to streamline federal aid and repayment to one grant and one loan, and I listened to input from the expert witnesses we invited to testify.
We began thinking about reauthorizing the Higher Education Act four and half years ago when we held our first hearing on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act in September 2013. Since then, we have had 18 hearings.
These hearings have produced a large number of proposals, mostly bipartisan, ranging from simplifying student aid to improving the accreditation system. The consensus that I see emerging is student focused: Simpler, more effective regulations to make it easier for students to pay for college and to pay back their loans; reducing red tape so administrators can spend more time and money on students; making sure a degree is worth the time and money students spend to earn it; and helping colleges keep students safe on campus. It is our goal for the committee to mark up a comprehensive set of recommendations and send them to the full Senate by early spring.
Last Wednesday, I spoke on the Senate floor about the Andrew Jackson Magnolia, which the White House announced in December is dying and part of it had to be removed. The Jackson Magnolia has special significance for Tennesseans. Shortly after his arrival at the White House in 1829, President Andrew Jackson from Tennessee, the nation’s seventh president, planted a magnolia seedling in honor of his wife Rachel, who had died only weeks earlier. The seedling that Jackson planted came from a magnolia at the Hermitage, the couple’s home outside Nashville. Over the years it grew into a magnificent, sprawling specimen, reaching the roof of the White House at the South Portico. While we commemorate the long and prominent life of the Jackson Magnolia, we can also look forward to long lives from its children, grand-children and great-grandchildren now planted at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, at a city park in Sevier County and at the Hermitage and other homes in Tennessee.
Last Thursday, the committee I chair voted to approve nine well-qualified nominees for health, education, and labor-related positions in the Trump Administration.
The nominees now ready for a vote from the full Senate are: Dr. William Beach to serve as Commissioner of Labor Statistics; James Blew to serve as Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development at the Department of Education; Dr. Brett Giroir to serve as Assistant Secretary for Health; Kenneth Marcus to serve as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education; Scott Mugno to serve as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health; Patrick Pizzella to serve as Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor; Cheryl Stanton to serve as Wage and Hour Division Administrator at the U.S. Department of Labor; Barbara Stewart to serve as Chief Executive Officer for the Corporation for National Community Service; and Brigadier General Mitchell Zais to serve as Deputy Secretary at the Department of Education.
I am glad to support these nominees and hope they will soon be confirmed by the full Senate.
Last Wednesday, the Senate health committee I chair held the first of two hearings on the reauthorization of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA), legislation to help ensure that the United States is prepared for and able to respond to the full range of public health threats, including infectious diseases like the Zika virus, natural disasters, or a bioterror attack from a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear agent. Tennessee hospitals are filling up with flu patients, and I talked with witnesses from the Department of Health and Human Services about what is being done to encourage the development of a universal flu vaccine.
Practice what you preach, but don’t preach much.
#192 in Lamar Alexander’s Little Plaid Book
