Tuesday, April 19, 2011

About the HELP Committee

The Senate HELP committee was formed in 1869, originally as the Committee on Education.  In 1999, James Jeffords (Chairman) of Vermont had the committee officially named the health, education, labor, and pensions committee (US Senate, HELP Committee, n.d.).
This committee has all proposed legislation, messages, petitions, and other matters related to the following subjects listed below referred for review (US Senate, HELP Committee, n.d.):
          1.  All dealings related to education, labor, health, and public welfare
          2. Aging
          3. Agricultural colleges
          4. Arts and Humanities
          5. Biomedical research and development
          6. Child labor
          7. Convict labor
          8. Domestic actions of the American Red Cross
          9. Equal employment opportunities
          10. Gallaudet University, Howard University, and Saint Elizabeth hospital
          11. Individuals with disabilities
          12. Labor standards and statistics
          13. Mediation and arbitration of labor disputes
          14. Occupational safety and health
          15. Private pension plans
          16. Public health
          17. Railway labor and retirement
          18. Regulation of foreign laborers
          19. Student loans
          20. Wages and hours of labor (US Senate, HELP Committee, n.d)
For further information click here
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How Senate Committees Work


The Senate receives an enormous amount of volume of work each year.  For this reason, the Senate divides the task among 20 committees, 68 subcommittees, and four joint committees.  Each committee forms their own rules which creates a great amount of variation amongst them.
Standing committees, such as the HELP committee, have legislative jurisdiction, while subcommittees handle certain areas of a committees work, and select and joint committees handle housekeeping responsibilities (US Senate, About the Senate Committee, n.d.). 
There are several thousand resolutions and bills referred during each two year Congress to committees.  Only a small percentage of these bills are selected by committees for consideration.  These bills are then referred to the Senate.
There are four actions a committee takes when they are in favor a measure.  These actions are:
1.       Written comments on the agenda are requested from relative executive agencies
2.      Hearings are held to gather further information from individuals who are not committee experts
3.      The measure is perfected through amendments
4.      When agreed upon the measure is then sent back to the senate with written reports stating the purposes and provisions of the measure (US Senate, About the Senate Committee, n.d.)
For more information click here
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Members of the HELP Committee



Democrats by Rank
Tom Harkin (IA) Chairman

Republicans by Rank  
Michael B. Enzi (WY) Vice Chairman



There is one vacancy on the HELP committee at this time.  There are 13 Democratic positions and 10 Republican positions are the committee.  There is one Democratic position available (US Senate, HELP Committee, n.d.)


Click on each Senators name for more information


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Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization of 2010

In August 2010, the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act was introduced to the 111th Congress.  This bipartisan bill amends the Stem Cell Therapeutic Research reauthorization Act of 2005 and reauthorizes it through 2015.  This bill was sponsored by Senator Orrin Hatch (R) of Utah and sponsored by twelve other individuals both Republican and Democrats (Library of Congress, Bill Summary, 2011). 
One of the main points to the bill was to continue Federal funding to cord blood banks for the next five years while they continue their goal to achieve self-sufficiency.  The bill was referred to the HELP committee September 23, 2010, passed by the Senate September 28, 2010, passed by the House on September 30, 2010 and signed by the President on October 8, 2010 to become public law 111-264 (Library of Congress, Bill Summary, 2011). 

To view the full text of the bill click here
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Senator Orrin Hatch’s Vote and Rationale on the Bill

A requirement of this assignment was to research a member of the HELP committee and their vote on this bill.  I chose Senator Orrin Hatch (R) from Utah, the sponsor of the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2010.  As the sponsor of this bill, Senator Hatch obviously supports this bill, and voted yes in the passage of the bill through the Senate.  In presenting the bill to Congress, Senator Hatch stated, “this subject is near and dear to my heart” (Library of Congress, Congressional Record, 2011).  His goal in sponsoring and obtaining passage of this bill is to ensure all patients are given the best possible options for treatment of diseases.  He believes it is his duty to continue to provide all options to patients by “ensuring a strong future for bone marrow and cord blood transplantation in this country” (Library of Congress, Congressional Record, 2011).  Senator Hatch is a firm believer patients who are in need of transplants deserve nothing less than the best and with the passage of the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2010, it is the beginning of the pathway in being successful in this arena. 
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What I Would Vote and Rationale

If I were given the opportunity to vote on the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2010 I would vote to pass the bill.  As a nurse, I believe patients should have all opportunities to be treated and stem cells have a great potential of treating many diseases.  The primary medical benefits to stem cells are in areas of regenerative medicine and therapeutic cloning according to Stem Cell Research and Umbilical Cord Blood Banking (2011).  There is potential with stem cells in finding a treatment and cure to many diseases which include cancer, diabetes, spinal cord injuries, Alzheimers, MS, Parkinsons and more.  Even though actual cures are years away, there are more than 100 million Americans who suffer from diseases that may be treated or even possibly cured with stem cell therapy (White, 2011, p. 2), which is why research must be continued.
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References

Library of Congress. (2011).  Bill summary and status 111th Congress S.3751 all information.  Retrieved April 10, 2011 from http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:SN03751:@@@L&summ2=m&
Library of Congress.  (2011).  Congressional Record 111th Congress:  Statements on introduced bills and join resolutions August 2010.  Retrieved April 10, 2011 from http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r111:1./temp/~r111rRy0i2:e132810
Stem Cell Research and Umbilical Cord Donation.  (2011).  Stem cell research pros and cons.  Retrieved April 13, 2011 from http://stemcellumbilicalcordbloodbanking.com/stem-cell-information/stem-cell-research-pros-and-cons/
US Senate.  (n.d.)  About the HELP Committee.  Retrieved April 10, 2011 from http://help.senate.gov/about/
US Senate.  (2011).  About the Senate Committee System.  Retrieved April 13, 2011 from http://www.senate.gov/general/common/generic/about_committees.htm
White, Deborah.  (2011).  Pros & cons of embryonic stem cell research.  Retrieved April 19, 2011 from http://usliberals.about.com/od/stemcellresearch/i/StemCell1.htm
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