According to the HELP committee's website, the committee began in 1869 as the Committee on Education and in 1884 through the mid-1900s it was known as the Education and Labor Committee. In 1999, then Chairman James Jeffords of Vermont, worked to officially name it the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Today the Committee is led by Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R- WY) and is comprised of 23 Senators; 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans. Under their leadership, the Committee is composed of three subcommittees, which have a broad jurisdiction over our country's health care, education, employment and retirement policies (U.S. Senate Committee on HELP, n.d.).
