Senator Tom Harkin released the following statement regarding the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

News of Attorney General Gonzales’s resignation is long overdue; he has at long last done the right thing and resigned. I opposed his nomination because I believed the man who used his position as White House Counsel to authorize the use of torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay was unfit to serve as the nation’s highest law enforcement official.

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Just a few weeks after vetoing health care for American children, the president has again threatened to block investing in important domestic priorities here at home.

The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill that I will manage on the Senate floor this week supports American families, invests in this country’s future and reflects our shared values.

This bill funds life-saving research, Head Start, support for K-12 education, home-heating assistance for the poor, mental health and substance abuse services, student financial assistance, job training, and a whole host of other critical domestic needs.

This bill takes care of our home front.

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Senator Harkin posted a guest blog entry on Gordon Fischer’s new blog IowaTrueBlue.com today to discuss the 2007 Farm Bill and the importance of the Conservation Security Program:

Why Conservation is Critical to the 2007 Farm Bill

Just before the Senate Recess, the House of Representatives passed the Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007and while there are many positives aspects to it, the legislation does serious damage to conservation efforts by suspending additional sign ups for the Conservation Security Program (CSP) until 2012.

In an article published in today’s DesMoinesRegister, Senator Tom Harkin commented on the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill that passed just before the Senate recess and includes a provision that would suspend any new sign-ups to the Conservation Security Program (CSP) until 2012. The CSP is an important program that Senator Harkin helped implement in 2002 that works to provide incentives and resources to farmers and ranchers who develop and execute methods to conserve and protect natural resources on their working fields:

Sen. Tom Harkin has been hard at work this week to build support in Iowa for legislation to expand health care coverage to more children of low-income families living in Iowa and states around the country.

The effort by Sen. Harkin comes on the heels of last weeks vote with Sen. Grassley and 66 other Senators to more than double spending for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by increasing funding from $25 billion to $60 billion. The spending increase would allow federal and state health care programs to insure an additional 3.3 million children and would be funded by raising federal cigarette taxes from 39 cents to $1 per pack.