SENATOR HARKIN'S COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
Tom Harkin serves on each of the committees listed below. Each link will take you to that committee's website
- AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY COMMITTEE (Chairman)
- HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE
- Public Health
- Employment, Safety and Training
- SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMMITTEE
- APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
- Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies
- Commerce, Justice, and Science
- Defense
- Foreign Operations
- Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education
- Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, HUD, and Related Agencies
About Tom
Tom Harkin was born in Cumming, Iowa (pop. 150) on November 19, 1939, the son of an Iowa coal miner father and a Slovenian immigrant mother. He still lives in the house in Cumming where he was born.
Growing up in a close-knit family of modest means, Tom and his five siblings learned early in life the importance of hard work and responsibility. During his youth, he worked in a variety of jobs- on farms and construction sites, as a paper boy and at a Des Moines bottling plant.
After graduating from Dowling High School in Des Moines, he attended Iowa State University on a Navy ROTC scholarship, earning a degree in government and economics.
Following graduation, Tom served in the Navy as a jet pilot on active duty from 1962 to 1967. Later, he continued to fly in the Naval Reserves. He is an active member of American Legion Post 562 in Cumming.
In 1968, Tom married Ruth Raduenz, the daughter of a farmer and a school teacher from Minnesota. Tom and Ruth have two daughters: Amy, born in 1976, and Jenny, born in 1981. Ruth currently serves on the Iowa Board of Regents, responsible for leading Iowa's public universities.
Tom went to Washington in 1969 to join the staff of Iowa Congressman Neal Smith. As a staff member accompanying a congressional delegation to South Vietnam, he independently investigated and photographed the infamous "tiger cage" cells at a secret prison on Con Son Island, where prisoners - many of them students - were being tortured and kept in inhumane conditions. Despite pressure to suppress his findings, Tom's photos and eyewitness account were published in Life magazine. As a result, hundreds of abused prisoners were released.
In 1972, Tom and Ruth graduated in the same class at Catholic University of America Law School in Washington, D.C. They returned to Iowa, and settled in Ames. Tom worked with Polk County Legal Aid, assisting low-income Iowans who could not afford legal help. Ruth won election as Story County Attorney, becoming the first female elected to this position.
In 1974, Tom was elected to Congress from Iowa's Fifth Congressional District. His energetic, person-to-person campaigning carried the day against an incumbent in a long-standing Republican district.
In 1984, after serving 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Tom challenged an incumbent Senator and won. Iowans returned him to the Senate in 1990, 1996 and again in 2002, making him the first Iowa Democrat ever to earn a fourth Senate term.
During his first term in Congress, Tom became the first member to create a Mobile Office. It is a specially equipped van that Harkin staff members use to bring congressional services to every one of Iowa's 99 counties. Though the vehicle has changed over the years, its purpose has not.
Tom's signature legislative achievement is the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Known as the "Emancipation Proclamation for people with disabilities," this landmark law protects the civil rights of millions of Americans with physical and mental disabilities. The law has literally changed the landscape of America by requiring accessible buildings and transportation, and workplace accommodations for people with disabilities. Tom learned firsthand about the challenges facing people with disabilities from his late brother, Frank, who was deaf from an early age. Tom has also led efforts to require equal educational opportunities for children with disabilities.
As chairman of the Senate panel that funds medical research, health care and education initiatives, Tom has worked to transform America into a "wellness society" focused on disease prevention, healthier lifestyles, and good nutrition. In tandem with Republican Senator Arlen Specter, he led the effort between 1998 and 2003 to double funding for research into cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, and other diseases. He has led the fight to lift President Bush's restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, which shows great promise of leading to new treatments for conditions like Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries, and juvenile diabetes.
As co-chair of the Senate Rural Health Caucus, Tom has successfully advanced legislation to improve rural health care facilities and bring health professionals to small towns and rural communities. He has placed special emphasis on women's health, doubling funding for breast cancer research and launching a national breast and cervical cancer early detection program.
As the chair of the Senate subcommittee that funds education, Tom has fought to improve education in Iowa and across the country. He has worked to reduce class size, give students better computer and Internet access, expand school counseling and safety programs, and improve teacher training. He has led the effort to modernize America's school infrastructure. Each year he secures funding for "Harkin Grants" to help school districts in Iowa update and repair their facilities.
Tom chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Foresty, and is a leading advocate for America's family farms and rural communities. He has been outspoken in promoting new uses and markets for agricultural products - in particular, ethanol and other forms of farm-based renewable energy - and has fought to improve farm income protection programs. He has been Congress' leading advocate for farm conservation programs. In the 2002 farm bill, he created the Conservation Security Program, now renamed the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) to reward farmers and ranchers who adopt and maintain sound environmental practices on working lands. In the same bill, he authored the first-ever renewable energy title, ramping up production and marketing of biofuels. Harkin strengthened both of these initiatives in the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, the new farm bill, while also expanding access to the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program, which provides free snacks in the nation's poorest elementary schools.
