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Tom
Harkin
Senator from Iowa, U.S. Congress
US Senate
731 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3254 phone
202-224-9369 fax
tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov
Senator Tom Harkin is the first Iowan to chair the Senate Agriculture
Committee in nearly 100 years. He has worked to craft a new farm
bill that improves farm income protection and increases renewable
energy and rural economic development. The senator has led efforts
to include conservation measures in the new legislation, to promote
farm conservation, and to improve farm income by rewarding farmers
for sound conservation practices.
Senator Harkin attended Iowa State University on a Navy ROTC scholarship
and earned his degree in government and economics. Following graduation
from ISU, he joined the Navy where he served as a jet pilot on active
duty from 1962 to 1967 and afterwards continued to fly in the Naval
Reserves.
Senator Harkin first came to Washington, D.C., in 1969 to join the
staff of Iowa Congressman Neal Smith. In 1972, he graduated from
Catholic University of America Law School in Washington, D.C., and
returned to Iowa, living in Ames and working as an attorney with
the Polk County Legal Aid. He first won election to the U.S. Congress
from Iowa's Fifth Congressional District in 1974, defeating an incumbent
in a long-standing Republican district.
Senator Harkin served in the House of Representatives for ten years
and, in 1984, he challenged an incumbent to win election to the
U.S. Senate. Iowans returned him to the U.S. Senate in 1990, and
again in 1996, making him the first Iowa Democrat ever to earn a
third Senate term.
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Copyright © 2002,
Center for Agricultural and Rural
Development