Committee InfoDescriptionHello Senators and welcome to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP Committee). The HELP Committee has “a broad jurisdiction over the operation of our country’s health care, schools, employment and retirement programs.”1 It covers incredibly large topics such as aging, biomedical research and development, child labor, convict labor and the entry of goods made by convicts into interstate commerce, equal employment opportunity, individuals with disabilities, labor standards and labor statistics, public health, student loans, and wages and hours of labor as well as many more. Specifically, the HELP Committee is broken up into three subcommittees. These are Children and Families, Employment and Workplace Safety, and Retirement and Aging. Currently, there are a number of bills under consideration in the HELP Committee. Some have already been passed by the House of Representatives and were referred, upon entering the Senate to the HELP Committee. These include “To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965, and for other purposes” (H.R. 3221) which was introduced by Representative George Miller from California and “To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to improve the safety of food in the global market, and for other purposes” (H.R. 2749) which was introduced by Representative John Dingell from Michigan. Other bills being considered by the HELP Committee are ones that originated in the Senate and have not yet been passed by either the Senate or the House of Representatives. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York introduced “A bill to amend part D of title V of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to provide grants to schools for the development of asthma management plans and the purchase of asthma inhalers and spacers for emergency use, as necessary” (S.2817) as well as “A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants for treatment and support services for Alzheimer’s patients and their families” (S.2809) in late November 2009. Also introduced in late November were Senator Franken’s “A bill to provide children in foster care with school stability and equal access to educational opportunities” (S.2801) and Senator Murray’s “A bill to amend subtitle B of title VII of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to provide education for homeless children and youths, and for other purposes” (S.2800). This is just a small sampling of what the HELP Committee is currently tackling. In the past, the HELP Committee has been very active in passing legislation and overseeing all its individual components of Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The HELP Committee has jurisdiction over most of the agencies, institutes and programs of the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Administration on Aging, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The committee has also previously dealt with the Head Start program, the No Child Left Behind Act, Higher Education, the Arts and Humanities, Student Financial Assistance, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and Job and Vocational Training and the Workforce Investment Act. Regulating the minimum employment, hours of working, workplace health and safety, discrimination and unions are all aspects that the HELP Committee has passed legislation on in the past. Finally, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 gave the committee primary jurisdiction over private retirement plans and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. The current chairman for the HELP Committee is Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa who has served thirty-five years in Congress in both the House of Representatives and now in the Senate. The ranking member is Senator Michael Enzi from Wyoming who has been in the Senate since 1997. For more information on the HELP Committee, please visit their website at http://help.senate.gov/. Another good resource to utilize is the Library of Congress’ website at Thomas.loc.gov. 1 http://help.senate.gov/index.html -------------------- Laura Ferro is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences at Penn and is double majoring in Gender, Culture and Society and English and minoring in Philosophy. She previously has had three years of Model Congress experience at Clarkstown North High School in Rockland County, NY and has chaired at Penn ever since arriving at college. At Penn, Laura is active in the Civic House (Penn's hub for community service and advocacy) where she sits on the Executive Board, the Women's Center where she's a member of the Advisery Committee, and is in the sorority Phi Sigma Sigma. If you have any questions about Model Congress or Penn in general or need help with writing a bill, please do no hesitate to contact her at laua@sas.upenn.edu. She can't wait to meet her committee and is looking forward to what she's sure will be the best Penn Model Congress yet! Hi, my name is Garvin Hunt, and I'm on the Senate HELP Committee. I'm a sophomore in the college, and an architecture major. I'm from the Bahamas. In my free time, I like to draw, snorkel, play ball, and find ways to express myself artistically. Please feel free to contact me with any questions about the committee, your bills, Penn, or anything! My e-mail is hug@sas.upenn.edu Chairs
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