Retaining Chairmanship of the Labor, HHS, and Education Subcommittee

RETAINING CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE LABOR, HHS, AND EDUCATION SUBCOMMITTEE

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Mr. HARKIN. I thank my leader and chairman for yielding to me. Again, I want to thank him for his decision to stay as chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that funds basically all of our health, education, labor, biomedical research programs, preventive health care programs, such as the CDC, which are all underneath this subcommittee.

Senator Specter and I have worked together, as he mentioned, going on I think almost 15 years. The gavel has moved back and forth. It has been seamless, as he said. I could not ask for a better partner and a better chairman to work with on this subcommittee. There are countless numbers of people in this country today--I think mostly of the kids--who are maybe coming down with Parkinson's or diabetes, who have illnesses facing them that a few years ago were hopeless. But now they have hope. Now they can see certain lights at the end of the tunnel, that they will be cured, that they will be well.

This is due in no small part to the great leadership of Senator ARLEN SPECTER of Pennsylvania, who has doggedly through the years fought to make sure we put the money into medical research, into finding the causes, preventions, and cures of these illnesses. It was through his great leadership that we were able to double the funding for the NIH.

There are also countless kids in America today who are getting good school programs, who are in Head Start Programs, as I mentioned earlier, and others, because of the leadership of Senator ARLEN SPECTER of Pennsylvania. So I thank him for that leadership and for his friendship and, as always, for his willingness to work across party lines to get things done.

Someone once mentioned that there are really two powerful committees on Appropriations: One is the Defense Appropriations Committee and the other is what is now called the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, which the Senator chairs and on which I am the ranking member.

Someone once said that the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee is the committee that defends America. The Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education is the committee that defines America. I believe that really is true.

Thanks to the leadership of Senator ARLEN SPECTER of Pennsylvania, we have defined America well in terms of providing good education, health care programs, job training programs, dislocated worker programs--I am not going to go through the whole list--the Centers for Disease Control programs and the public health service they do across our country. Under the leadership of ARLEN SPECTER, we have defined well for America.

We have some tough choices, as he pointed out, in this budget, and we are going to have to work together to make it work. One thing I can say, having worked with Senator Specter all these years, one thing of which I am confident is that Senator Specter will be fair, compassionate, reasonable, and judicious in helping us work out this budget so that the poorest and the most needy in our society are not left behind.

I thank him for his leadership. I thank him for his willingness to stick with it and to stay as the chairman of this very vital subcommittee. I say to him here on the Senate floor and in public, I look forward to his leadership and his guidance and working with him to help continue to define America.

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