[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 27, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16-S18]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I want to just speak briefly. I think 
we are all back. As the Senator from North Dakota said, I think most of 
us really are focused on the legislative work, Democrats and 
Republicans. I think that people want us to be focused on our work. But 
our work is connected to our conversations with people in our States, 
what people have said to us, and trying to connect what we do as 
legislators to the betterment of the lives of people that we serve.
  Mr. President, I was impressed with Secretary Reich's piece because I 
have found in my travels in Minnesota and around the country that while 
all of the macroeconomic statistics look good--for that I am grateful; 
the GDP and other indicators of economic performance, the official 
levels of unemployment, a record low, so on and so forth--that in many 
ways we have a paradox which is that we also, at least since we started 
collecting social science data, we have the most stratification in our 
society that we have ever had.
  We have the most glaring inequalities, and I think we have been 
moving to two Americas. It is not the other America that Michael wrote 
about in a very important book in 1963 about poverty, which I know the 
presiding officer has been concerned about, but it is two different 
Americas.
  You have one America with mounting access to all the things that I 
suppose you could say make life richer in possibilities, and you have 
another America struggling to make ends meet.
  You have one America that is barreling down the information 
superhighway, and you have another America without even the rudimentary 
skills to participate in our economy or to participate in our polity or 
to participate in our society.
  You have one America with the economic resources to purchase the 
security of gated communities, living in gated communities, and you 
have another America that is beset by the decay of some of our very 
important social institutions which we have to rebuild if we are to 
rebuild communities, libraries, hospitals, and schools.
  You have one America that is focused on a booming stock market, and 
you have another America that is faced with the insecurities of a job 
market still with all of the downsizing and the latest news about AT&T, 
I think, laying off 18,000 employees.
  You have one America that every summer sort of plans a trip to Asia 
or Europe, and you have another America where the discussion is, ``How 
can we scrape up enough money to take the family to a ballgame?''
  Mr. President, I find that, in just touring the cafes in Minnesota--I 
want to draw from my data, which is now less social science data and 
just conversations with people. You know, most people in the country--
poor people, middle-income people, professional people, it does not 
really matter--from really almost all walks of life, I think first and 
foremost, are very focused on how they can earn a decent living and how 
they can give their children the care they know their children need and 
deserve.

[[Page S17]]

  To me, that translates into lots of specific conversations. I could 
talk a lot about health care. But there is one conversation I cannot 
forget. It was with a woman. I met her a year ago. It was very sad. Her 
husband is about 40 and found out he had cancer and was given a couple 
months to live. I met them about 2 months ago, and she reintroduced me 
to her husband, who is now in a wheelchair.
  She said, ``You know, Senator, the doctors said that my husband had 
only 2 months to live, but he's a real fighter. And I want you to come 
on over and say hello.'' You know how that happens when we are out and 
about. Of course, I did and was pleased to talk to him. Then she took 
me aside and said, ``Every day it is just a nightmare. I'm constantly 
on the phone trying to find out what my insurance companies will cover, 
what they will not cover. It is a constant battle.''
  Mr. President, I think, therefore, health care is very much on the 
agenda. I do not have time to talk about all the specifics of policy, 
but I am very interested in making sure it is not just bottom-line 
medicine. I am very interested in all of us, Democrats and Republicans, 
making sure there is some consumer protection and also that the 
caregivers are able to give the kind of care they went to medical 
school or nursing school to be able to give.
  I am very interested in our really thinking about a strategy, going 
into the next century, about how do we obtain universal coverage, 
comprehensive care. And I think it can be a decentralist thrust with 
States figuring out ways to do it within a national framework, within a 
package of benefits, affordable, and with consumer protection. That is 
a bill I look forward to introduce.
  I think we can do better. I loved working with Senator Domenici on 
mental health. I tell you, there is an area I am really looking forward 
to do work on as a legislator and that Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell 
is going to be working with me on. That is in the whole area of the 
Substance Abuse Parity Act, trying to make sure that people--it is just 
wrong. People who are struggling with alcoholism, for example, where 
they get detox treatment once or twice, then there is no longer any 
coverage.

  We can do much better. There is a tremendous amount of discrimination 
here. We can do much better as a nation. I look forward to working on 
that legislation.
  Mr. President, above and beyond health care, I would like to talk 
just a little bit about jobs, and jobs with decent wages. I have had a 
chance to travel. It has been the best work I have done outside of 
Minnesota.
  I would love to travel with you, I say to the Presiding Officer, 
because I think as a Senator from Indiana you have focused a lot on 
these issues. We may have different approaches, but you have just a 
tremendous commitment to this.
  I have traveled in a lot of low-income communities from Letcher 
County, KY, where my wife's family is from, to Appalachia to Chicago to 
Baltimore to East L.A., to Watts to urban and rural Minnesota to the 
delta in Mississippi.
  There are two questions people ask in these communities. One of those 
questions is, ``Where are the jobs that we can be trained for and that 
we can find to support our families on?''
  I think raising the minimum wage--I was speaking with Senator Kennedy 
about this--is absolutely on the mark. I think we must do it. I think 
it is a matter of economic justice. It is also true, however, as 
William Julius Wilson, in his fine book about a year and a half ago, 
makes the fine point that in some communities and ghettos there is the 
disappearance of work, there is no work.
  So the question is, how do we build the human capital and make sure 
there are jobs that are community-building jobs? And how do we link 
that with the private sector? How do we ultimately make sure people are 
able to get transitional jobs for a year to build those skills, to 
build community? And we can then at the same time have the job training 
and track the private-sector capital in those communities.
  I think it is a real priority, if we are concerned about these issues 
of race and gender and poverty and children. They are all far more 
correlated and interrelated than some of us want to admit.
  Another area I want to talk about is the President's initiative on 
child care. Two points I would like to make.
  Again, I do not do justice to the policy debate which we will have, 
but at least I want to just try to survey this.
  I think the President has really laid forth some good proposals. I 
think we can do more and should do more, and I want to talk about that. 
We have to make sure that the tax credits, if that is the way we go, 
are refundable so families with incomes under $28,000 who did not have 
a tax liability can benefit.
  I think the after-school care is extremely important. But you know 
what? I read in the paper--and maybe, Mr. President, you are a part of 
this that Senator Chafee and others were talking about--how it is we 
also can target resources to families where one parent stays at home. I 
think that is an excellent idea.
  I met with so many couples in Minnesota where one of them will say, 
``You know, Senator, one of us is not working. We understand why both 
parents work, but we made the decision not to. We forgo the income. We 
think one of us should be at home during these early years. And why not 
have some of the funding stream go toward providing us with some 
assistance?''
  I think that is an excellent idea. I hope we can really kind of 
combine efforts and do something about early childhood development. It 
is so important.
  The medical evidence--Mr. President, you have held some hearings--it 
is irrefutable and irreducible. We have to do well for these children. 
They are all God's children. And if we do not do well for these 
children--the private sector, public sector, community based--by age 3, 
many of them will never be ready for school. They will never be ready 
for life. And I cannot think of a more important investment. I want to 
talk some about that as well.
  Mr. President, I will finish up because I only reserved 10 minutes 
for myself. I just say to my colleagues, there is so much work to be 
done, so many problems.
  I was in East Grand Forks the other day. Last year we were on the 
floor talking about the floods. It was heartbreaking. James Lee Witt 
has just done a great job. I so appreciate what he has done for 
Minnesota. And FEMA came through. But you know what? We lost a third of 
our housing stock from the flood in East Grand Forks. There are seniors 
on fixed incomes, low-income people. They cannot find housing. We are 
going to have to build that housing. There is going to be State money. 
Maybe we can leverage Federal money.
  There are many real problems, many important issues that face 
families in Minnesota and all across the country. I have delineated 
some of them.
  I urge my colleagues, get out on the floor, do the work in committee, 
bring the bills and the amendments out here. Just do the work.
  I can't resist this, since the Chair happens to be one of my very 
good friends and is about to tell me I am out of time, I look forward 
to debating Senator Coats out here on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. BRYAN. I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business 
for a period of time not to exceed 10 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BRYAN. Mr. President, I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Bryan pertaining to the introduction of S. 1572 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. BRYAN. I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Massachusetts is recognized.
  (The remarks of Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Wellstone pertaining to the 
submission of S. 1573 are located in today's Record under ``Submission 
of Concurrent and Senate Resolutions.'')

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  Mr. KENNEDY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Chair would just inform the Senator that, under a previous order, 
each Senator is allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes as in morning 
business.
  Ms. MOSELEY-BRAUN. Thank you very much. I am pleased to hear it. I 
will not take the 10 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.

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