so tom harkin has really been our conscience and our leader when it comes to issues involving safety, human rights, and expanding the reach of freedom in our nation to those who otherwise might have been denied. i'll tell you why i am passionate about the food safety issue. it goes back to a note i received as a congressman. it was almost 16 years ago. it was a note from a woman who didn't live in my congressional district. she was from chicago and i was 200 miles away. her name was nancy donnelly. she told the story of her 5- or 6-year-old son alex. she brought some hamburger home to fix it for her son. she fixed dinner, he ate it and then he got circumstance terribly sick. in mast a few hours he was in the hospital. in a mast a few days he has passed away. he was a victim of e. coli. trust me, his mom would never have done anything to harm him and she thought she was doing the right thing, cook his meal and bring it to him at the dinner table. unfortunately, that family decision, which is made millions of times across america every single day, was a fatal decision. nancy donnelly, h

and lisa murkowski i never heard her bring up tom harkin of iowa's name. child nutrition bill with tom harkin opinion i pursued the don't-ask, don't-tell vote because that's something that she's been very reluctant to talk about because she wanted to hear from the troops and she wanted to kick the can down the road and today she said listen there's leaks out saying the troops are fine with it being repealed and, you know, we're a different sort of warfare. there aren't fox holes any more. i is something that i would not vote against a bill that had that repeal in it and that's honestly the first time she's come out swinging on that topic too. so there's a much different tone -- >> different tone. >> with regards to her reaching across. she had some strong words about senator jim demint. she said he should take care of south carolina. we don't need him poking around in alaskan politics. >> we have to talk about joe miller. i was reading the alaska dispatch. he's not a man willing to give up. his spokesman hinted at election fraud in a press release before m

with the help of missouri's chancellor, bill danforth and others, senator tom harkin and i sponsored legislation that created and established the national stphaouft food and ago -- institute of food and agriculture to support competitive research at the federal level to advance ag science. 15 years later, we now have proof that this idea really is changing the world as projected. it's bringing hope to those in developing worlds, providing crops that are more pest and disease resistant and nutritious. from an environmental sper speck alternative -- perspective, the use of transgenetic seeds have been important. especially important, now tha*t with the tough recession we're in, ag biotech can create good high-paying jobs and help revitalize rural economies. ag biotech is spreading. in 2008, the second billionth acre of ag biotech were planted only three years after the first. a handful of professional antitech activists are still unsuccessfully in search of their first stomach ache. their persistent hatred of ag biotech without scientific support has fueled fear of genetically modified

senate and before arlen specter and tom harkin, and i joked that it actually was a partisan hearing becausei started talking to our inspector when he was a republican and testified before him before he can a democrat. although he is going to be leading the senate soon. and at that hearing, we talked about the fact that there needed to be massive funding and training and research for this area. i know alford is a very distinguished engineer and i anderson and this is an excess of what i write about at the last segment of my book. i think there will be some opportunity. on the other hand, if you're in device works by redirecting it, then you're free directing it away from me, it may be right into my 3-year-old grandchild. so we need to think about how we handle these things in a very broad way. and i have no doubt that it can be done. and congress, what i testified is we need a dollar per phone fee on every felon for five years, and that will provide us with the amount of money that we need to train engineers and scientists to do the work that has to be done and though that is a broad public

senate and before arlen specter and tom harkin, and i joked that it actually was a partisan hearing because i started talking to our inspector when he was a republican and testified before him before he can a democrat. although he is going to be leading the senate soon. and at that hearing, we talked about the fact that there needed to be massive funding and training and research for this area. i know alford is a very distinguished engineer and i anderson and this is an excess of what i write about at the last segment of my book. i think there will be some opportunity. on the other hand, if you're in device works by redirecting it, then you're free directing it away from me, it may be right into my 3-year-old grandchild. so we need to think about how we handle these things in a very broad way. and i have no doubt that it can be done. and congress, what i testified is we need a dollar per phone fee on every felon for five years, and that will provide us with the amount of money that we need to train engineers and scientists to do the work that has to be done and though that is a broad public

tom harkin of iowa chairs the health, labor, and pensions committee. from october 7th, this is just under two hours. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> committee on health, education, labor, and attentions will you please come to order. i want to welcome everyone on the hearing to retirement security. what's happening to retirement on america today and in the future. this is an issue that's of critical importance to every american family. a recent survey found that 92% of adults, age 42 to 75 believe there's a retirement crisis in america. are they right? is there a retirement crisis? let's consider the following statistics. that we'll hear more about here in the hearing today. over a quarter of the retired do not have a required savings. none. one out of four. over half of the baby boomers who will turn 65 are at risk of not having sufficient retirement resources to pay for basic retirement expenditures, food, fuel, housing, clothing, and that type of thing, and i'm sure health care costs. we've learned from the testimony that we w

house bill 4646, by peter defazio and tom harkin, 1% sales tax on every deposit that is made in any transaction with your bank, any dividends or anything that comes through. i would like to see americans educate themselves and have c- span asked them out these questions, to ask them what did they know about it and understand about it. host: we have and we certainly welcome the future, not only for the lame-duck but also in preparation for the start of the next congress. cynthia, thank you for calling from texas. franklin from nashville, tennessee, on our line for republicans. caller: i would like to know if you have a panel later, what would be an interesting fact would be how many of the incumbents' that were defeated last night voted for the tarp proposal two years ago. you know, if someone knows the answer to that, i would like to know. host: we would need to take a look at those who did not support the health care bill on the democratic side and still lost in their own reelection bill. we will continue to track that information and resent that. our site c-span.org includes all of the events

senator tom harkin has with the help of senator mike enzi and a number on the other side of the aisle who have stepped up to make this a bipartisan thing. this is a reasonable approach to making our food safer in america. i thank the senator from iowa for awful his leadership on this issue and so many -- for all of his leadership on this issue and so many others. mr. harkin: the senator is being way too generous. i recognize the instigators of awful this the ones that started the ball rolling. senator durbin got us started on this many years. it has taken many years to put this all together. we've worked on this. we reported this out of our committee a year ago, without one dissenting vote, republican or democrat, and since that time we've been woring to get other peernlings not on the committee obviously, on board to get the way paved so we could have a bill that would be broadly supported. and this bill is very broadly supported. both by the industry and by the consumers. it's one of the few bills where, as a matter of fact, we have a wide group of consumer and industry support, eve