Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) |
September 10, 2009 – Sen. Tom Harkin is the new chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, also known as the HELP Committee. The Iowa Democrat replaces the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died last month after a long illness.
The HELP Committee has jurisdiction over the 340B drug discount program and in July approved a health care reform bill that would extend the 340B discount to the inpatient setting in disproportionate-share hospitals. The legislation would also make certain rural hospitals and freestanding children’s and cancer hospitals eligible to join the program.
In fact, with Kennedy at the helm, the HELP Committee passed the original legislation in 1992 that created the 340B program to help hospitals, federally qualified health centers and other providers better serve underinsured and uninsured patients.
“Today I am honored to accept the chairmanship of the Senate HELP Committee,” Harkin said in a statement Wednesday. “To serve in this capacity is to carry on the legacy of Senator Ted Kennedy, who dedicated his life to ensuring that our economy works for all Americans, guaranteeing every child the opportunity to pursue a quality education and, of course, the cause of his life: access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans.”
Harkin is no stranger to 340B policy. He has been the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that decides funding levels for the Office of Pharmacy Affairs (OPA) since 2007. OPA is the agency that administers the 340B program.
As such, Harkin included language critical of OPA’s proposed patient definition guidance in the Department of Health and Human Services funding bills approved by his committee in this year and last.
Senate committee chairmanships are traditionally filled by seniority, and Harkin’s ascension is no exception. The lone HELP Committee Democrat with more seniority than Harkin, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, passed on the HELP gavel in order to remain chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
Harkin will keep his chairmanship of the subcommittee that determines appropriations for OPA. This puts him in the unique situation of heading both the committee with jurisdiction over 340B policy, and the subcommittee that decides funding for the agency administering the drug discount program.