[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 63 (Wednesday, May 14, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H2599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        BLOCK GRANTS DO NOT WORK

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, already there is evidence that 
the Republicans' mindset on block grants do not work. Why I say that, 
in my home State of Texas, unfortunately, the Medicaid block granting 
process has hit home in the 18th Congressional District.
  Yesterday, the Texas Health Department issued its contracts on HMO's 
for our community. Is it not interesting that the largest hospital 
district that serves the poor, the Harris County Hospital District, did 
not get a Medicaid contract from the Texas Department of Health? Is it 
not interesting that Eric Baumgartner and the Texas Department of 
Health decided to exclude the Harris County Health District in this 
Medicaid contract, the one district that serves the largest number of 
individuals who are indigent.
  There exists a serious lack of African-American, Asian, and Hispanic 
representation within the top management and decisionmaking groups 
within the six HMO award recipients for Harris County, which has a 
Medicaid majority population of African-Americans, Asians, and 
Hispanics.
  It seems outrageous that in this time when we say block grants work, 
I am saying they do not work because they had denied opportunity to the 
bulk of my constituents in the 18th Congressional District.

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