am i wrong. >> senator harkin, may i briefly respond? because... with respect to any of my remarks i want to be clear, age discrimination in employment is a terrible problem in the united states, and has been one for a long time. and, i did not in any way mean to suggest by any of my remarks that i thought or i think that age discrimination victims should have some kind of increased or heightened burden to prove their case. when i served as the general counsel of the eeoc, we litigated hundreds of cases. i personally intervened and argued on behalf of victims of age discrimination in several cases, both to authorize the cases on the front including several class action cases against major employers and law firms and argued in the u.s. court of appeals and worked with the solicitor generals on behalf of victims in supreme court cases and we recover more money for discrimination victims through eeoc's litigation program during my tenure than at any other time before or since in the e. oc's history and i'm proud of that service and feel honored to hav

. >> thank you chairman harkin. thank you for calling fed hearing today and the baby-boom generation basis into retirement we look past the traditional age is the number of workers age 65 and over is expected to increase by 47%. luckily america's employers will leave us as well because labor economist have a huge shortage in the coming years i was pleased to address the needs of older workers with the pension act enacted in 2006 with the help of the colleagues i look forward to the reinvestment act to better meet the job training needs of older workers. of the committee looks at the technical complex issue of burden of proof in the so-called mixed motive disparate impact cases arising under the aeg eda in a case entitled gross v. fbl financial services inc. the supreme court said in cases the burden remains on the plaintiffs are up the case and in effect it means even when there is some evidence of age being a factor, it still remains the plaintiff's burden to demonstrate his or her age was but for the reason of the

harkin: well, i thank my friend from connecticut. every time i see my good friend here and all the work that senator dodd did in getting our health care bill through, now this, talk about going out on a high note. we're sorry that -- as he knows, i'm sorry he's not going to be here after this year. but again, i think the fact that he's -- senator dodd did the health care bill and got it through, a great thing for the people of this country. great thing. and now this financial reform bill, to make sure we don't go through what we did a few years ago again, and again to help our consumers have a little bit better balance in their dealing with the big banks and the bi big -- big investment houses. this is a great bill. it's a great bill, and i compliment him for it. i know it's been a long, tough slog, as they say. but future generations are going to look back and thank senator dodd, both for the health care bill but also for i think -- i think also for this financial reform bill. a lot of people may not understand all the intricacies o

i offered an amendment on behalf of myself and senators reed of rhode island, kaufman, durbin, harkin, leahy, levin, menendez, whitehouse, franken, feingold, and merkley to reinstate the law as it had been prior to the decision of the supreme court. the supreme court has held that aiders and abettors are not libel and that there's a requirement that the defendant must have made the representation directly to the person buying or selling the securities which is a sharp reversal from what the law had been. it is unheard of -- to have criminal liability under the criminal code for aiding and abetting, but not to have liability under the civil claims. it is a much higher standard to prove criminal culpability to put somebody in jail than it is to establish a claim for monetary damages. but that is where we find the law and we find people really in urgent need of this kind of standing to recover their damages, but also to have this procedure serve as a deterrent to wall street fraud. the issue was si singtly summard by judge gerald lynch in revka v. -- it is perhaps dismaying that particip

senator harkin was our advocate. we wanted a broadband provider. there is a distance-learning teleprogram that provides loans and grants for rural health care providers and educational institutions, to assure that they're hooked up electronically. we are looking at what we've done and trend is what lessons we can learn. we have a community connect program -- and trying to see what lessons we can learn. we have a community can x program. there are very tiny communities that -- we have a community connect program. there are very tiny communities. we have been doing this problem -- this program for 60 years. the administration and congress invested $2.5 billion into the rural utilities service for us to get broadband out into the rural parts of the country, which we have a great deal of experience with. >> of that money, how much has been allocated? >> we have awarded about $1,000,000,000.60000002 dollars in loans and grants combined throughout the united states -- $1 billion and $60 million in loans and grants combined a throughout the united states.

. >> thank you, chairman harkin. first of all i would ask an animal skins and the full statement of senator enzi the ranking member of the committee be placed in the record. a little over three years ago just after christmas i got in an airplane with senator ted kennedy and jay rockefeller, senator bayh deinze and traveled to the disaster in west virginia. got to see firsthand the tragedy of the death of miners in an accident, got to meet first hand with the families of those west virginians that have lost their loved and still have the picture given to me by his daughter who later attended the signing at the exit of office building with a minor act that senator rockefeller and myself, senator enzi and kennedy were proud to be a part of. i take this hearing probably more serious than just about any hearing because when you look at the face of someone who's lost a loved one to a tragedy no matter what the tragedy is you understand the full impact of the loss of a human life and not much less on this committee what to

tom harkin has a proposal -- $23 billion -- send it back to the states and cut the number of teachers being laid off in half. as a people could have three votes -- play the role center. keep your nose -- i said to people, you can have three votes. played the role of senator. keep your nose out. pay for it and add to the deficit. increased everybody's income tax by 1% to pay for the hiring -- increase everybody's income tax by 1% to pay for the hiring of public service people. everyone voted for the tax increase. there is a precision that if your candid with people, they get -- you are candid with people, they get it. we have to find ways to make it better. i think a candid and direct approach -- approach will help. i do not think people want to return to that kind of leadership. >> are you concerned about the current economic situation with what we have seen in greece and the oil spill in louisiana? some have said that could bring us into a double-dip recession. are you concerned? >> i am worried about greece. we saw the stock market reaction to greece, perhaps part to go, perhaps spa

host: the american association of school administrators supports senator tom harkin's proposal to add an additional $23 billion to the federal budget for teacher jobs, which are being cut at a rate of two ordered 75,000 -- 275,000 because of the school goes around the country. we thank you very much for being here. guest: one last point -- tomorrow, for individuals who are interested in supporting -- the house is interested in taking this up as an emergency bill. there is a number that you can call and ask for your representative in congress and tell him that you support the passage of this $23 billion to keep our teachers working and educate our kids. host: that you for being here. a final test for the money takes us back to the discussion of the oil spill. we will be back with at maryland senator ben cardin, a member of the environment and public works committee. there is offshore policy and debate in maryland. time to go to see stand ready for the latest on the the news. -- c-span radio for the latest on the news. >> secretary of state clinton is pressing china to back u.n. securit

harkin's people or staff, wherever they got this idea of this amendment, it's horrible. it's going to instantly cost 5,000 jobs and the credit card companies and banks will benefit. either harkin's staff is naive or they know what they are doing or the credit card companies snuck this thing in there. host: and here's the national section of "the new york times." tampa, florida, for the 2012 presidential convention. marion, ohio, rich to be republican line, you're our last phone call. go ahead. caller: thank you. certain things that make it impossible to compromise is when the national debt is being driven up until we are going to go into slavery over it because of how high they are driving it that weaver going to owe so much money that we will be enslaved to china. and the abortions, it's getting to a point where you can't compromise on these issues as much as you try to be a nice guy. host: another headline from this morning, obama reassures karzai but both steer clear of worrisome topics. the president's peting and one of the newspapers reports president karzai and sec

i gather it's -- it's senator tester, senator hutchison, senator scott brown, senator harkin.you have a list of democrats and republicans here that have worked on this amendment to bring it to this point. and i support the amendment. i think this is a strong amendment here that will require the fdic, as i understand it -- and my colleague will correct me -- to change how it charges for deposit insurance, which i think makes a lot of sense, from charging each banks domestic deposits as it does now to charging its total liabilities, which makes far more sense. and, again, this is a great help to community banks across the country, of which senator tester's been a champion since his arrival in the and that a member of our banking committee. the change will help ease the burden of fdic assessments on our community banks by requiring the largest banks in the country to shoulder a little more of the responsibility to rebuild and maintain a sound deposit insurance fund. the amendment is fundamentally about fairness, which i think is one of its most important features. community banks

can believe to -- harkin of all this doctrine. exercise come annual exams and catching ailments before they become chronic and to debilitating and expensive. the money can be saved by research, a tremendous amounts of money can be reduced by research. in your medical communities of gotten a lot of money. university of pittsburgh has gotten $4 billion in the last decade and it is across the country. a lot of prominent people on the boards publicly and influential people. and appropriations run on the politics, on pressure. you've got a great case but it hasn't been expressed very well. and i don't fault he was a great director and staffed by great people. dalia understand you convened a meeting of your 27 institutes to talk about accelerated network which is new and has been put forward to bridge the gap so-called valley of death as i've heard expressed in the scientific community between the bench and the bedside between research and practical application. it has an authorization of $500 million, not a whole lot of money for that

iowa senator tom harkin wants to add about $23 billion in state aid so the funds can be used to help teachers and to avoid layoffs of teachers. there are some republicans who have signaled they want to have a good chunk of this bill offset certainly anything spent beyond the funding on the wars of iraq and afghanistan. so, in this bill you will have a lot of discussion about the nation's fiscal situation and whether or not any of these spending measures and tax measures on the house side should be paid for. >> there is a sense of timeliness to both bills next week. >> right. on the tax side you have a lot of provisions that expired and you need to get moving because congress is about to begin its memorial day recess. likewise on the spending bill front and secretary of defense mr. gates has gone to the congressional leaders and said he needs these moneys very soon. so, the majority leader harry reid has said it is very important for the national to pass the emergency bill next week. >> a look ahead to the week in congress with john shaw with market news international. thanks for the

tom harkin has said he wants to add about $23 billion in state aid. these funds can be used to help teachers and to avoid layoffs of teachers. some republicans say that they want to have a good chunk of this bill offset. certainly anything that extend beyond the funding of the wars of iraq and afghanistan. this bill will have a lot of discussion about the nation's fiscal situation and whether any of these spending measures and tax measures on the house side should be paid for. >> under the sense of timelessness >> u.s. a lot of tax cuts that have expired already, and they need to get moving because they are about to begin the memorial day recess. mr. gates has gone to congressional leaders and said that he needs this money very soon. the majority leader harry reid has said it is very important for the senate to pass this emergency bill next week. >> a look go head to the weekend congress. john shaw, thank you for the injured -- for the information. >> of next, an inside look at though west wing with the deputy chief of staff monica sutphen. after that

chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on health care, i took the lead with the concurrence of tom harkinncreased funding. when the stimulus came along, we added $10 billion more. the medical research has made enormous drive toward a cure for cancer, heart disease, autism, parkinson's -- the whole range. when it comes to the issue of a woman's right to choose, i have been in the forefront of that movement, supporting planned parenthood for their efforts to deal with the issues, informing people, saying that it is the business of the woman, the family, the ministers, the priests, rabbis. i have been an active force on labor issues. the congressman " the percentage that he has hired an eye on labor. but afl-cio endorsed me when i was on the other side of the aisle because of the action i took in strengthening the national labor relations board and getting more money for worker safety, mine safety. i have been able to accomplish that. >> that is your time. congressman, the same question. is there any real difference between you? >> the major difference is that i am a democrat out of core bel

senator brown and i, along with senators casey, merkley, whitehouse and harkin introduced a bill to place strict limits on the size and leverage used by systemically significant banks and nonbanks alike. we are now offering this legislation as an amendment to the financial reform bill because we believe that congress must reduce these mega banks to a manageable size and cap the leverage they may use in order to limit the risk they pose to our economy. we should never again have banks that are too big to fail. as a recent investigation by chairman levin, the financial crisis inquiry commission and others have shown even the best intentioned regulators are no match for gigantic financial institutions which are structurally complex, functional opaque and global in scope. just as importantly, these financial institutions purposely operate to evade regulatory oversight by means of regulatory arbitrage, accounting and reporting practices that frustrate transparency and so-called financial innovation that regulators have no chance of fully grasping in real time. to surrender our nation's economi

amendment on behalf of quite a number of senators, senator reed, senator kaufman, senator durbin, senator harkin, senator leahy, senator levin, senator menendez, senator whitehouse, senator freng frankenfranken,senator feingoldr merkley and myself. this amendment provides that the decisions of the supreme court of the united states limiting claims under the securities act for aiding and abetting will be overturned by this legislation. this amendment is very similar to an amendment which was offered in the 107th congress by senator shelby, the ranking member of the banking committee. for many years, the federal law provided a private right of action against aiders and abettors. as of 1994, every circuit in the federal courts of appeals had concluded civil liability in a private lawsuit under the securities act. in a radical departure in 1994, the supreme court held in central bank of denver that aiders and abettors are not liable in private suits. the court's 5-4 decision in stonebridge in 2008 complicated the matter even further where the supreme court held that if the defendant did not make rep

i have introduced legislation, senator harkin has introduced legislation to try to stem the extent that we can those layoffs. somewhere between 250 to 300,000 teachers, really school personnel, but others who are making so important to the support in the running of local schools of facing layoffs at the beginning of the budget year this june. so i just think that should be a backdrop because our response and our support for teachers isn't just about being in a classroom. it's about also the environment which they're called upon to work and the situations that they are cast into, not only for themselves but for their students and families are suffering the same kind of upsets, because the economic downturn. so i think it's important that i would hope that congress would respond by providing assistance to district to forestall these layoffs this year. and i would also hope for next year, but we shall see. without i would like to recognize congressman castle, the senior republican and today's hearing. and subcommittee chair. ranking member of that year. >> thank you. whatever. [laughter] >

amendment, senator conrad, senator murray, senator burris, senator brown of massachusetts, senator harkin, senator shaheen, senator cornyn, senator johanns, senator nelson of florida, and senator nelson of nebraska. as well as, of course, senator tester and myself. we are trying to level the playing field for our community banks. and the reason is that there has been a -- in the underlying bill it sets a way of assessing the banks by the fdic. and the -- there has been a flexibility in the past, but we're going to set in statute with this amendment that banks will be assessed based on assets minus capital. that should be the way to assess. community banks, with less than $10 billion in assets, rely hef loin customer -- heavily on customer deposits for funding. but that penalizes these safe institutions with customer deposits by forcing them to pay insurance deposit premiums above and beyond the rick they would pose to the banking system. despite making up 20% of the nation's assets, these community banks contribute 30% of the premiums to the fdic. at same time large banks hold 8 important

. >> thank you, chairman harkin.om generation faces into retirement, more of a search choosing to work past several retirement age. luckily, america's employers will need it because labor for across the huge worker shortage is over the years. i look forward to improving the work force investment act to better meet the job training needs of older workers this year. today the committee looks at the issue of burden of proof in cases arising under the age discrimination and employment act. the u.s. supreme court recently held that in some cases the burden remains with the plaintiff. this means even when there is some evidence age may have been a factor, it still remains to the plaintiffs' cost burden to demonstrate the age was a reason for the -- the plaintiff's burden to demonstrate age was the reason. in the gross decision, the court found such differences to be grounded squarely on statutory language of congress, and the fact that in 1991, congress amended its and adopted a shifting procedure but did not extend the sa

thoughtful about how the agriculture process all to work and we have worked very closely with tom harkin while he was chair, and now we're talking with plants lincoln, but have put together a provision before senator lincoln became chair, incorporated into the bill, which we think greatly assists agriculture. second, there are additional offsets in the bill. no. 3, agriculture as a whole is exempt from this bill, very important understand. this bill on the covers about 2% of america's business. only 7500 and cities in america come under this bill. small business is exempt. -- only 7500 and cities in america come under this bill. small business is exempt. that 2 percent equals about 75% of greenhouse gas emissions. some of those 7500 entities are standing right here. dow corning, florida power and light, general electric, others. they know this is good policy for them because it gives them certainty about where it is going to go over the next 20, 30 years, and it gives them the ability to have a business plan which makes sense to them when they know they can create jobs. second, energy ef

fund fund >> democratic conferees are chris dodd, tom harkin, tim johnson, patrick leahy, blanche lincoln, jack reed, and charles schumer. the republican nominees will be saxby chambliss, bob corker, mike crapo, judd gregg, and richard shelby. in a few moments, a house republican initiative for public input into their congressional agenda. in about 40 minutes, the hearing on the gulf of mexico oil spill to consider raising the liability limit for those responsible. after that, senate republicans spoke with reporters about their meeting with president obama. and later, president obama at a fundraiser tonight for california senator barbara boxer. >> this holiday, non-fiction books and authors on "book tv." sebastian younger and his newest book "war," imbedded with the 173rd in afghanistan. and john hofmeister. get the whole schedule at "book tv".org. >> house republicans have began an effort to create a policy agenda of republican input. this will be led by california representative kevin mccarthy. he the other g.o.p. leaders held a 40-minute briefing at the museum in washington. >> good mo

iowa senator tom harkin shares this 90 minute hearing. >> the senate subcommittee on labor, health anduman services appropriations will come to order. i want to start first by welcoming dr. francis collins who of course has appeared before the subcommittee many times over the past 20 years. until now he testified as the director of the national human genome research institute. today, wearing a much different and bigger hat as director of the entire national institute of health. the fiscal year 10 budget for the genome institute is $516 million. the budget budget for nih as a whole is $31 billion. at least that is where it is right now anyway. we are looking at dad and of course the portfolio as nih director is much larger than the one that dr. collins had at the ng hra are institute. have been known to dr. collins for all these years i can't help proud i am of-- i remember when you first took over at the genome, the genome project. i think it was called the project at that time. 92? 93. i knew i was close. and, and to take data from the project to the complete sequence he of the human

senators barrasso, bennett of utah, burr, coburn, cochran, crapo, demint, feingold, graham, grassley, harkin, hatch, hutchison, inhofe, isakson, leahy, lincoln, mccain, murkowski, risch, sanders, thune, vitter, wicker and wyden. those are people who are on the original legislation. 33 cosponsors. and as you can see, they range from some of the most progressive members to some of the most conservative members. the amendment that is now on the floor has, i believe, 22 cosponsors, republicans and democrats alike. and i want to thank all of them for their support. you know, the american people are asking: can people work together? can they come together on important issues? if there is an important issue that people with different ideological background have come together on, this is that one. and i want to thank my republican friends and my democratic friends who every other day are fighting like cats and mice, but on this issue have come together, and i appreciate that. but it's not only the members of the senate. mr. president, in terms of progressive grass roots organizations, this amendment

we have worked closely with tom harkin while he was chair and debbie stabenow and now blanche lincoln. they have put together a provision which we incorporated into the bill, which we think greatly assist agriculture. there are additional offsets in this bill. agriculture, as a whole, is exempt from this bill. it is very important to understand that this bill only covers about 2% of america's businesses. only 7500 entities in america, under this bill. -- come under this bill. small businesses and agriculture are exempt. that 2% that comes under the bill are total -- are equal to about 75% of the greenhouse gas emissions. that is why it is important and that is why we make progress. some of those entities are standing right here. many of them are right here. they fall under -- dow corning, florida power and light, general electric -- they know this is good policy. it is the uncertainty about where it'll go over the next couple of decades. -- it gives them certainty about where it will go over the next couple of decades. energy efficiency is the lowest- hanging fruit available in americ