Tom Harkin

Three men from Buffalo, one absent and two present, were the targets of grilling from Republicans on a Senate committee Thursday over matters that sometimes seemed personal but in the end are profound for every working person in America. The absent...

WASHINGTON – In an unusual break in the partisan warring over healthcare, the Senate on Wednesday confirmed President Obama's choice to oversee the mammoth Medicare and Medicaid health programs. Marilyn Tavenner, a former hospital executive and...

With no Republicans voting in support, President Obama's nominee to lead the Department of Labor cleared a big hurdle in the Senate Thursday. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 12-10 along party lines to send the nomination...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Marilyn Tavenner, a former nurse and hospital company executive, as the first full-fledged administrator for the Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs since 2006. In a rare show of...

This city has been working for the five years since its $7-billion flood disaster to convince Congress to provide help for the city to build a flood protection system. On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate, on a vote of 83-14, approved the Water Resources...

Can the talent pool for congressional candidates extend to City Hall? City Council member Monica Vernon is all-but-certain she is going to try to find out. Vernon, the city's mayor pro tem and a two-term council member, on Tuesday said she is nearly...

The fight over the federal minimum wage is coming to Baltimore. The head of the U.S. Department of Labor plans to swing into town Tuesday to talk to low-wage workers about how they make — or don't make — ends meet. Seth D. Harris, the agency'...

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, will have his work cut out for him in the coming weeks, as his Senate Judiciary Committee began Thursday to take up an overhaul of the country's immigration system. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity and...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) and Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced legislation that would modify crop insurance premium assistance for insured crops grown on native sod converted to cropland and land that a producer cannot...

U.S. senators considering fundamental changes to how the practice of pharmacy compounding is regulated heard almost unanimous support for reform at a Washington committee hearing Thursday. And a top federal drug official, who has studied a fungal...

Bruce Braley, the Democratic U.S. Congressman from Waterloo, is racking up endorsements and fattening a campaign war chest. Meanwhile, some prospective heavyweight GOP opponents have been declining a showdown for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by...

WASHINGTON -- A vote on President Obama’s nominee to lead the Labor Department was delayed for an additional week, the latest roadblock for the controversial choice. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions was scheduled to...