#senator harkin

[deafinitelypawsitively]

Senator Harkin Delivers Floor Speech in American Sign Language Upon Pass...

A great reminder video to see, when Senator Tom Harkin learned some sign language to help support the ADA. (Americans with Disabilities Act.)

35 years ago, there was no ADA, no captions built into televisions. (Before 1993, we had to use a small decoder box and attach it to our television and not every show on TV was captioned.) There were no cell phones to send text messages, no emails. Fax machines and later, teletype machines (TTY) were used with our push button landline phones to make our phone calls.

A lot has changed over the years for equal rights and accessibility for those of us who are born uniquely different or endure life changing accidents or illnesses.

We have those, like Senator Harkin, to thank for being pioneers for us. For helping us to live the best life we possibly can. To be contributing members of society.

Please help keep supporting the ADA.

🤟😊💜✌️📜👍🙂🦻👍

[importanceofbeingvisible]

This is Senator Harkin’s last hearing as HELP Committee Chair and as a Senator

HELP Committee Hearing

Date:  Thursday, September 18, 2014

Time: 9:30 a.m.

Place:  430 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Go to this link: http://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/hearing/?id=ff4d0969-5056-a032-521b-a692be939084

Hearing Description:  The ADA changed the landscape of America for people with disabilities, improving access to businesses, government, services, telecommunications, and almost all aspects of life as a U.S. citizen.  One area of life, however, that has been resistant to change has been the disproportionality of people with disabilities living in poverty.  People with disabilities are twice as likely to live in poverty as those without disabilities.  People with disabilities also participate in the U.S. workforce at half the rate of their non-disabled peers.  This hearing will focus on the challenges people with disabilities face in attaining economic self-sufficiency and moving into and remaining in the middle class.  Witnesses will include individuals with disabilities describing barriers to economic self-sufficiency, their experiences with existing support systems, and their strategies for gaining economic independence.

Goals:

1)     To identify barriers to economic independence for people with disabilities, including programmatic and bureaucratic barriers.

2)     To provide a voice to people with disabilities regarding their experiences with long-term support programs.

3)     To collect policy suggestions from people with disabilities about the supports and services that will better provide them with the ability to be full participants in society and to be economically self-sufficient.

[importanceofbeingvisible]

Here's Rhonda with Sen. Harkin and our allies in front of the Capitol. CRPD now!

As seen on the Hill today at that CRPD rally! 

[themoneyweowe]

Harkin: ‘Serious People’ seriously out of touch

CEDAR RAPIDS: Heading into the final year of his Senate career before retirement, Sen. Tom Harkin is calling for reforms to Social Security to extend the life of the

[importanceofbeingvisible]

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee prepares to mark up the Strengthening America’s Schools Act (SASA), Chairman Tom Harkin’s bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), advocates and experts have expressed support for the bill’s provisions:

[grahamconsultinggroup-blog]

A Bit of Balance

This article shows Richard Vedder's response to Senator Tom Harkin's final report on for-profit higher education.  It is a truly interesting piece that points out some of the vast issues with Senator Harkin's report.  Not only does it focus on mostly the negative aspects  for-profit institutes, but it does not place them on a fair plane of comparison. 

"Less time should be focused on dumping on 10 percent of higher education, and more on the truly big problems Congress is ignoring"