doi:10.7916/vyje-rg49Oral history interview with Tom Harkin, 2020Harkin, Tomoral historiesmixed materialPresidents--United StatesFor-profit universities and colleges--Law and legislation--United StatesAppropriations and expenditures--Earmarks--United StatesPresidential campaigns--United StatesHarkin, TomObama, BarackUnited StatesNhà tù Côn ĐảoAmericans with Disabilities Act of 1990American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009Patient Protection and Affordable Care ActTom Harkin reflects on his career in the U.S. Congress, from 1974 to 2015, with particular focus on his activities in the U.S. Senate during the Obama presidency. Harkin remembers encounters with Obama prior to the 2008 presidential election, including Obama's participation in the 2006 Harkin Steak Fry, and praises the Obama 2008 campaign's local organizing and operations in the run-up to the 2008 Iowa caucuses. Harkin describes the negotiations and Congressional backdrop to several important legislative initiatives that took place during the Obama presidency, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Affordable Care Act, and the the Employee Free Choice Act. Harkin also criticizes aspects of Obama administration policy and procedure, such as its relationship to Wall Street, organized labor, and congressional Democrats, and its redirection of funds from the Prevention and Public Health Trust Fund, with which Harkin was heavily involved. Also discussed are major issues, efforts, and accomplishments from Harkin's career outside the period of the Obama presidency, including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, his opposition to the Senate filibuster and support of earmarks in appropriations bills, investigations of for-profit colleges and universities, and the events surrounding the 1970 publication in Life magazine of Harkin's photographs of "tiger cages" at Côn Đảo Prison in South Vietnam, which Harkin visited as a legislative aide