we are joined by senator tom harkin. two reporters are here to help us. if i could just begin with a first question. you've unveiled a new education bill. it would reform the no child left behind requirement that all students be proficient in math and reading by 2014. what does your bill require instead? >> the most important thing about the bill is it gets rid of no child left behind. it casts read of that ayp that has not worked. it has not worked and it has been a terrible burden on schools. it replaces it with a focus on the lowest performing schools. in the past, the federal government tried to do everything. cover all the schools. we do not have the resources to do that and it did not work very well. we have made the federal footprint smaller, but more powerful. we will focus on the bottom 5%,

the lowest performing schools. and the bottom 5% of the highest achievement gap schools in the country. that is where we are going to focus our federal intervention. then we say to the states, ok, we will partner with you. you know how the other 95%. here are some accountability standards that need to be met for title 1 money. here are some of the things that you have to meet, but you decide how to do it. you decide how do it. it is more of a partnership, i think, with the federal government and the state government. i believe it is going to be a much better approach than we

have had in the past. >> you have been saying quite frequently, this is a bipartisan bill, not everyone is going to be pleased with everything in it. this week, 21 organizations came out against it, arguing that it does not have teeth. how difficult is that going to be moving forward when these education groups have really been at the forefront? >> like any compromise, not everyone likes everything that is in it. if i could be the dictator, i would have written a different bill myself. but i think once the groups look at the bill and considers the alternative, of staying with ayp or relying upon the administration's waiver program -- a lot of what the administration wants to do is in our bill. the problem with the waivers is that will not hit every state. maybe, we figured 8 to 20

states will be able to take advantage of the waivers. annual yearly progress, or no child left behind. our bill covers the nation. we do have good accountability. yes, i realize we did not get the performance targets. i am all for performance targets. that is a compromise we had to make. we did not get performance targets, but we have other ways of ensuring that schools meet certain goals, by allowing them to use money that we put into title 1 and title 2. that gets into teacher advancement and performance. they can use those monies for those purposes.

we have carved out and allow that. all of the groups would like to have something different. each would like to have something different. when they look at it as a whole and consider the alternative, they both recognize this is a good compromise. i have been in this business for a long time. i know that individual groups will continue to push for every little thing that they want. that is the lobbying pressure that you get on any large bill like this. at the end, they will be happy with what we have. >> senator, what kind of time frame are you looking at? we are a year away from the election. you have been here a while. if you were going to legislate, you have to move as quickly as you can. where do you go from here? and you think this bill can pass the senate and the house and can be signed into law this congress? >> first of all, there are a lot of naysayers that said we could not get it out of committee. it took a lot longer than i had

hoped. that is the legislative process. that is the process of reaching a compromise. we do have a good bipartisan bill. we got it on a 15 to 7 vote out of committee. i am hoping we can get it to the senate floor. with maybe some structure that will allow amendments, relevant amendments, to the bill. with some time limits. we're working on that right now. i have been working with senator alexander. we have gone to our respective leaders and talked about this, about having some structure. it is a good bipartisan bill. >> any idea when it will hit the floor? >> i do not know. i do not run that.

as they say, it is above my pay grade. i am talking to harry reid and others about this. i am hoping we can have this on the floor before thanksgiving, but i know that a lot of other things are happening. the super committee is happening, the appropriations bills. i am hopeful sometime before christmas, we will have this on the floor. the sooner the better. there is a dynamic at work here. schools want to get out from underneath ayp. that affects republicans and democrats both. there should be a high comfort level, i think, for republicans, especially. this is a bipartisan bill and it has been hammered out through tough negotiations with the people that really know education. i think that gives a comfort level.

hopefully, my involvement has given some comfort to democrats, too. >> the mark up still got off to a rough start with senator rand paul. he invoked a very rarely used legislative tactic to delay the market up. -- the mark up. given the partisan atmosphere in congress right now, do you expect republicans to try similar strategies? >> there is always one or two that want to do something. but in the and we worked it out. senator paul objected and it cost us one day. we worked it out with him and we made a reasonable compromise. he cut his amendment down from 72we debated them, we voted on them.

he agreed to let us report the bill out, which we did last night. we will have a one-day hearing on the bill before it goes to the floor. he wanted that, not a bad idea. quite frankly, i think it might be a good idea. >> another vote on the president's jobs proposal. a scaled-back version. it did not get any republican votes. what is the next step for this bill? what will happen now? is there any chance to get any republican votes? concluding a centrist scott brown, olympia snowe, or a susan collins? >> we need a jobs bill to get through. that is the single most important thing we could do right now. my bill is important, but the single most important thing is to get a jobs bill through. they would accept the overall jobs bill, so we tried to piece

it out. a little bit here, a little bit there. hopefully, they will agree to vote on one of those. all we can do is bring it up. if the republicans want to filibuster, and we do not have the 60 votes -- we only have 53 democrats. if republicans do not want a jobs bill, we will not have one. that is the fact of it. >> and then? you look to the 2012 elections. >> that is the sad thing. i think that is what is coming to. 25 million people are out of work. you would think people would

realize and recognize that if we can pass a jobs bill and start putting people back to work, this will get the wheels going again. these people would start to have an income, it will put private sector businesses to work. if you are building new schools, the federal government does not build it. some private construction company does. they hire people and they start paying people. that will save us tons of money and a lot of pain and anguish for people in this country. the republicans, they have dug in their heels and will not allow us to even vote on it. >> if you do not get a jobs bill, how do you avoid getting blamed for not passing anything on jobs? when democrats are in charge. >> democrats are not in charge. the house is run by republicans. in the senate, we have 53 democrats. the system that was set up says we need 60 votes to do anything.

>> how do you explain that to the american people? that is process. >> what more can you do to the american people than to tell the truth? it may be process, but it is the truth. the truth is we have 53 democrats. the system is set up so you need 60 and we cannot change the system because of the rules. if republicans will not let us bring it up, there is nothing we can do about it other than keep trying. the american people are smarter than a lot of people think. you know, i think the american people are beginning to understand that you have a total block by the republicans in the senate to even bring up a jobs bill. they can amend it, they can offer amendments, but they will not even let us do that. the american people are catching on to that. >> a tough electoral map for senate democrats. 23 seats the democrats are

defending. only 10 for republicans. >> the american people are sick and tired of this do nothing congress. we're doing nothing because the republicans in the senate block us at every turn. from trying to bring up something. that is why i am so hopeful on my education bill. at least i have a compromise. that is for the future of our country. that is for the future of our kids. what is important now is the jobs bill. that is what we cannot break the logjam on with republican opposition. >> going back to your bill, the house make up is different than the senate make up. have you talked to speaker boehner at all?

about joining a compromise. he was obviously one of the major architects of the original bill. >> i have not spoken personally to speaker boehner. but i have spoken to congressman klein. he is my respective chair on the house side. and congressman miller. he is the ranking member on the house side. we have met with them. we have talked about a path forward and how we move this ahead. quite frankly, i think there is goodwill on all sides to get this bill moved through. hopefully, one good thing about the speaker is that he was on our committee, the education committee, for years. he knows this issue very well. >> will he rally the house for the bill? >> my hope is that to he will look at our bill and if we can bring it up in the senate and succeed in the senate, i think that will instruct a lot of house members.

if it has republican and democratic support, maybe we can get that support in the house, too. >> have you talked to senator alexander about getting his leadership to cooperate? one of the reasons why he stopped being in leadership was because he wanted to work on a bipartisan basis. an education bill was the top of his list. >> senator alexander came up with a very good idea on how we would handle this on the floor. i do not know if i am at liberty to talk about it right now. i thought it was quite ingenious. i know he has spoken to the leadership and i have spoken to the leadership. hopefully, there is a path forward. >> is there a way to get around procedural hurdles? >> yes. >> anymore?

-- any more details? >> i am just hopeful that it works. [laughter] we are working together. the republicans on our committee and democrats are trying to work together and get this done. >> there have been a lot of media reports about the super committee. the super committee cannot even agree on a baseline. basically, how to count the savings. are you confident that the super committee will come out with something substantive? >> i guess i can say it again. no, i do not think so. i am already on record saying it. i think we will look at moving ahead on the sequester route beginning next year. >> automatic cuts. >> yes. we get to shape them in the senate and house. we can maneuver those around.

quite frankly, that might be the better path to take than what the super committee could possibly come up with. i do not have any fear of moving ahead without the super committee involvement. in fact, in some ways, i think we might be better off if we did not have something from the super committee. and moved ahead through the normal legislative process. >> does that mean committee chairmen get more of a say over how to shape those cuts? >> absolutely. when you have more of a say so as the committee chairman, you are buying into it, and you have some ownership. if it is just 12 people making the decision, nobody else has ownership. if you go through the process and committee chairs and committee members get some involvement, you have some ownership. it has a much better chance of succeeding.

>> on the class act, are you disappointed with the decision? the administration just announced it will not be implemented the part of the reform. >> we have talked about it a lot with kathleen sibelius. i am sad about it because i think it was a good attempt to meet a dire national need that is only going to get worse -- more needed in the future. long-term care. people are living longer, long- term is going to become even more needed. with the baby boomers coming up. we need some way of funding yit. the problem was it had to be financially sound for 75 years.

i always thought that was too long. i thought if we had it for even 30, 40 years, we would be fine. and then adjust it as we went along. we still have to solve the problem. we have a problem and we have to solve it. we cannot sweep it under the rug any longer. the only long-term care program we have in america is medicaid. that is our long-term care. how do you get medicaid? you have to sell all of your assets, you cannot have income. it is something that we're going to have to pay attention to and solve in the next few years.

>> you have been a friend to organized labor in your career. do you think that president obama has been as labor friendly as he campaigned on? he vowed to renegotiate nafta. he moved trade bills and just recently that organized labor did not like. >> that is a big disappointment for me. we needed some reform in our labor laws. i worked very hard on that issue for the better part of a year. >> did the white house push hard enough? >> the white house's priority was getting a health care bill through. health care reform bill through. it should not have taken a year. but it did. that crowded out everything else.

i had teed up for a labor bill to make it easier and level the playing field for organized labor in terms of organizing. forming a union. i felt i had the support for it. i felt that i have the votes for it. i could not get it up because health care was always there. we voted on health care on christmas eve. remember that? i was told, ok, when you come back, january, february, we will get your labor bill up. then they had the election. that changed the dynamics and that was the end of that. >> talking about the national labor relations committee, how do you see that progressing in the future now that membership has dropped back down to three members?

>> this is another way that republicans are trying to keep us from doing anything. the national labor relations board does a good job. i mean, they work hard. if we do not have the members on the boards, they cannot even act. that is not fair. there will not be able to do anything. that is not a way to run things. we need to have members of the national labor relations board, but they have refused to let us bring them up. >> you were elected to the house in 1974. your term expires in 2014. that is a long time to be in washington. will you run again? >> i am thinking about it.

thank god i am healthy. i like being in the senate. i like legislating. i like the give-and-take of it. getting this education bill through for me was wonderful. even though i did not get everything i wanted. it is moving the ball forward. and i like it. i've always loved legislating. ever since i got the ada through. i love doing things like that. so, i don't know. i will figure that out later on. >> if 2012 comes and goes and you have lost more seats in the senate and republicans take over, how much would that weigh on your decision? >> this is all speculation. i do not think we will lose the senate. i think the democrats will continue to keep the senate.

quite frankly, with some of the dynamics i see out there, i think democrats could retake the house of representatives. i think people who voted the bums out in the last election are now saying, well, we did not want this. there will be much more of an even approach. in that case, i think democrats can do very well in the house of representatives. i did not answer your question. >> yeah, you did not answer. [laughter] >> i thought that was a nice version. >> what do you see on the house side that others might not be aware of? >> the polling data. looking at some of the districts where we have done well in the past. you look at some of the polling data and people are not happy with what is going on. in many cases, they are not happy about their individual

member of congress. especially those that have been adamant in not doing anything and stopping everything. i think there is a lot of opportunity there for democrats to take back those seats. >> tom harkin, thank you. we appreciate your time. >> thank you for having me. >> we are back with our two reporters. lauren, the senator said that the education bill could get to the senate floor. there might be a bipartisan path forward. >> that is the first time we have heard him say that. he mentioned that senator alexander has found an interesting way to move the bill forward. he would not elaborate. he said they think they might be able to do this.

this will have to happen after november 8. they have agreed to have an additional hearing november 8 to get rand paul on board. i guess we will have to see. he did not give many details. >> there needs to be a way to put it on the senate floor, bob. he did say that. both sides can offer amendments, but they have to be relevant amendments. does this sound familiar to you? as a way for the senate to work. >> i think is going to be challenging. clearly, they have some type of deal. it is very fascinating. this is something that is moving on capitol hill. he said that he has not spoken to speaker john boehner. it is fascinating that there is a bipartisan legislation moving.

senator harkin said he is not very hopeful on the super committee, but this could move at least to the senate. >> on the house side, are house republicans looking for something bipartisan that they can do? anything? >> they say they are. but what they're actually going to do -- they could feel the pressure from the senate. if the upper chamber clears this bill. >> the tricky thing here is that the house has now a larger group of tea party conservatives. he had a difficult time rallying some of his freshman members. that is, jon klein. we will have to wait and see. >> how do the two bills differ? senator harkin's bill and what house republicans have done. >> what the senate has done is created a very broad, 868-page

bill, that tries to tackle everything that was broken in no child left behind. the house has tried a piecemeal strategy. so far they have three bills. only one is bipartisan and that has to do with charter schools. they are taking a smaller approach, trying to fix the most burdensome problems. it is a very different process. >> republicans are in a tough spot. if they clear this through the senate, it could be used as political ammunition. i would imagine that john boehner and mitch mcconnell are having a couple of conversations. >> i would say so. and then there is the jobs legislation. democratic leaders decided to break up president obama's jobs bill into smaller portions. it did not pass. >> a smaller portion.

and there were a fair amount of defections on the republican's alternative package. democrats have been very frustrated, not being able to crack that gop unity. where do they go from here? senator harkin indicated that he is not very hopeful and made the bold prediction that the democrats will retain the senate. that is going to be an uphill climb. >> on the super committee, he said it would be better if the super committee does not reach some sort of deal. then he gets a crack at these automatic spending cuts. >> what happens next if the super committee does not have any final recommendations, you get different answers from different people. it could be a bit of a mess if the super committee does not come up with anything. >> thank you for being part of "newsmakers."

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