Podcast: Opioid Legislation on Deck

Legislation to combat the nation's opioid crisis has moved through the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chaired by Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who is with ranking member Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Legislation aimed at helping communities deal with the opioid addiction crisis is moving through the Senate and House, despite Democrats' disgruntlement about the process.

Lawmakers inspect GSMNP, discuss proposal to address maintenance needs

Senator Lamar Alexander and U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zink to discuss their plan to help address the $215 million in the Park's backlogged maintenance needs after visiting the closed Look Rock campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Look Rock Campground on Foothills Parkway in GSMNP has been closed for five years due to lack of funding for repairs to its water treatment facility, roads, and other facilities.

Dietary Supplement & Cosmetics Legal Bulletin | April 2018

The Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2018 would apply to facilities that manufacture or process cosmetic products but would exempt most retailers, salons and research and testing facilities. The Senate committee, led by Sens. Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray , indicated in a The amendment would require manufacturers and distributors to report "serious adverse events" - including death, hospitalization, persistent disability, or significant disfigurement - to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services within 15 days.

Gov. Haslam joins chorus of concerns over Trump tariffs

Gov. Bill Haslam is joining several other Tennessee officials voicing concerns over President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. The Republican governor told reporters Tuesday he's concerned about additional costs to manufacturers, particularly the state's car industry.

Lawmakers, business brace for rollout of Trump’s tariff plan

The White House says Mexico, Canada and other countries may be spared from President Donald Trump's planned steel and aluminum tariffs under national security "carve-outs," a move that could soften the blow amid threats of retaliation by trading partners and dire economic warnings from lawmakers and business groups. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters the exemptions would be made on a "case by case" and "country by country" basis, a reversal from the policy articulated by the White House just days ago that there would be no exemptions from Trump's plan.

Will Black Workers Get in on the Expansion of Career and Technical Education?

Career and Technical Education is in the news. Years ago when I attended a National Urban League conference in Washington, D.C., a man in attendance gave me quite a bit of literature about CTE and how certain industries were looking for black students.

Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander, Johnny Isakson just endorsed Grassley’s immigration amendment

Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Johnny Isakson of Georgia quietly endorsed Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley's, R-Iowa, White House-aligned immigration amendment late Wednesday. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., one of the co-sponsors of the Grassley amendment, announced on PBS Newshour that his Georgia colleague and another conservative lawmaker would vote in support of a proposal that is in line with President Trump's list of immigration policy agenda items in return for giving a pathway to citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and 1 million other illegal immigrants.

Tennessee senators honor Memphis sanitation workers

Two Republican U.S. Senators from Tennessee have introduced a resolution honoring the 50th anniversary of the sanitation workers strike that brought civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker were joined by Democrats Ben Cardin of Maryland and Doug Jones of Alabama when they introduced the resolution on Tuesday in the Senate.

US Senate panel moves Keystone bill forward, despite White House veto threat

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., left, GOP sponsor of the long-stalled Keystone XL pipeline bill, is joined by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., right, as he makes his case at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during a markup to advance a bill to the floor, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015, on Capitol Hill in Washington. WASHINGTON - A bill to approve the Canada-U.S. Keystone XL oil pipeline cleared a key Senate committee Thursday, setting up a fight next week pitting newly empowered Republicans against President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats.

Congress nears showdown votes on averting federal shutdown

Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that he's confident that the GOP-controlled House will pass a stopgap government-wide funding bill, even as growing opposition from Senate Democrats made prospects in that chamber increasingly dicey. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health says the institution is in a "scramble" to prepare for a potential government shutdown at midnight Friday.

Trump adds confusion to government shutdown concern

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, pauses for a reporter's question at the Capitol in Washington, as Congress moves closer to the funding deadline to avoid a government shutdown, in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. WASHINGTON - Injecting confusion into already perilous shutdown negotiations, President Donald Trump undercut his own administration's stance by tweeting Thursday that a children's health insurance program should not be part of a short-term budget agreement.

ACA’s individual mandate bites the dust

After the failure of Republican led efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act ignominiously failed in mid-2017, most had assumed that efforts to dismantle the ACA would subside as Congress' focus quickly turned to tax reform; however, the Republican-led Senate snuck a repeal of the ACA's individual mandate into their version of tax legislation in ... (more)

5 tough lessons Congress learned in Trump’s first year

Congress started 2017 in uncharted territory: A controversial real estate developer-turned-reality star effectively hijacked the Republican Party and became president. And members of Congress ended the year still bewildered by their president, but a little more certain of their place in this new era.

Tax bill’s ripple effects could be enormous for health-care system

The Republican tax overhaul that squeaked through the Senate early Saturday morning would reach deep into the nation's health-care system, with a clear dagger to a core aspect of the Affordable Care Act and broader ripple effects that could threaten other programs over time. The measure would abolish the government's enforcement of the ACA requirement that most Americans carry insurance coverage.

Committee sends Republican tax bill to Senate floor; vote could come this week

The Republican push to rewrite the tax code gained momentum Tuesday after a Senate panel advanced the measure and several wavering lawmakers signaled that they are leaning toward backing the bill. Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee unanimously voted to send the party's tax package to the Senate floor, setting up a final vote as soon as this week.