[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 41 (Thursday, April 2, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3160-S3163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          AMENDMENTS SUBMITTED

                                 ______
                                 

           CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET

                                 ______
                                 

                     HUTCHINSON AMENDMENT NO. 2279

  Mr. HUTCHINSON proposed an amendment to amendment No. 2218

[[Page S3161]]

proposed by Mr. Dorgan to the concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 86) 
setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government 
for fiscal years 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003 and revised the 
concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 1998; as follows:

       Strike all after the first word of the matter proposed to 
     be inserted and insert the following:

     ____. SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING PASSAGE OF THE SENATE 
                   FINANCE COMMITTEE'S IRS RESTRUCTURING BILL.

       (a) Findings.--The Senate finds that--
       (1) the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2676 on 
     November 5, 1997;
       (2) the Finance Committee of the Senate has held several 
     days of hearings this year on IRS restructuring proposals;
       (3) the hearings demonstrated many areas in which the 
     House-passed bill could be improved;
       (4) on March 31, 1998, the Senate Finance Committee voted 
     20-0 to report an IRS restructuring package that contains 
     more oversight over the IRS, more accountability for 
     employees, and a new arsenal of taxpayer protections; and
       (5) the Senate Finance package includes the following items 
     which were not included in the House bill:
       (A) removal of the statutory impediments to the Commission 
     of Internal Revenue's efforts to reorganize the agency to 
     create a more streamlined, taxpayer-friendly organization,
       (B) the providing of real oversight authority for the 
     Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board to help prevent 
     taxpayer abuse,
       (C) the creation of a new Treasury Inspector General for 
     Tax Administration to ensure independence and accountability,
       (D) real, meaningful relief for innocent spouses,
       (E) provisions which abate penalties and interest after 1 
     year so that the IRS does not profit from its own delay,
       (F) provisions which ensure due process of law to taxpayers 
     by granting them a right to a hearing before the IRS can 
     pursue a lien, levy, or seizure,
       (G) provisions which forbid the IRS from coercing taxpayers 
     to extend the 10-year statue of limitations of collection,
       (H) provisions which require the IRS to terminate employees 
     who abuse taxpayers or other IRS employees,
       (I) provisions which make the Taxpayer Advocate more 
     independent, and
       (J) provisions enabling the Commissioner of Internal 
     Revenue to manage employees more effectively.
       (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate 
     that the assumptions underlying the functional to totals in 
     this budget resolution assume that the Senate shall, as 
     expeditiously as possible, consider and pass an IRS 
     restructuring bill which provides the most taxpayer 
     protections, the greatest degree of IRS employee 
     accountability, and enhanced oversight.

     SEC. 302. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING THE SUNSET OF THE 
                   INTERNAL REVENUE CODE OF 1986.

       (a) Findings.--Congress finds that a simple and fair 
     Federal tax system in one that--
       (1) applies a low tax rate, through easily understood laws, 
     to all Americans;
       (2) provides tax relief for working Americans;
       (3) protects the rights of taxpayers and reduces tax 
     collection abuses;
       (4) eliminates the bias against savings and investment;
       (5) promotes economic growth and job creation;
       (6) does not penalize marriage or families; and
       (7) provides for a taxpayer-friendly collections process to 
     replace the Internal Revenue Service.
       (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
     the provisions of this resolution assume that all taxes 
     imposed under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 shall sunset 
     for any taxable year beginning after December 31, 2001 (or in 
     the case of any tax not imposed on the basis of a taxable 
     year, on any taxable event or for any period after December 
     31, 2001) and that a new Federal tax system will be enacted 
     that is both simple and fair as described in subsection (a) 
     and that provides only those resources for the Federal 
     Government that are needed to meet its responsibilities to 
     the American people.
                                 ______
                                 

                       DORGAN AMENDMENT NO. 2280

  Mr. DORGAN proposed an amendment to amendment No. 2218 proposed by 
him to the concurrent resolution, S. Con. Res. 86, supra; as follows:

       At the end of the amendment add the following:

     SEC.   . SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE TAX TREATMENT OF HOME 
                   MORTGAGE INTEREST AND CHARITABLE GIVING.

       (a) Findings--Congress finds that--
       (1) current Federal income tax laws embrace a number of 
     fundamental tax policies including longstanding encouragement 
     for home ownership and charitable giving, expanded health and 
     retirement benefits.
       (2) the mortgage interest deduction is among the most 
     important incentives in the income tax code and promotes the 
     American Dream of home ownership--the single largest 
     investment for most families, and preserving it is critical 
     for the more than 20,000,000 families claiming it now and for 
     millions more in the future.
       (3) favorable tax treatment to encourage gifts to charities 
     is a longstanding principle that helps charities raise funds 
     needed to provide services to poor families and others when 
     government is simply unable or unwilling to do so, and 
     maintaining this tax incentive will help charities raise 
     money to meet the challenges of their charitable missions in 
     the decades ahead;
       (4) legislation has been proposed to repeal the entire 
     income tax code at the end of the year 2001 without providing 
     a specific replacement; and
       (5) sunsetting the entire income tax code without 
     describing a replacement threatens our Nation's future 
     economic growth and unwisely eliminates existing tax 
     incentives that are crucial for taxpayers who are often 
     making the most inportant financial decisions of their lives.
       (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that 
     the levels in this resolution assume that Congress supports 
     the continued tax deductibility of home mortgage interest and 
     charitable contributions and that a sunset of the tax code 
     that does not provide a replacement system that preserves 
     this deductibility could damage the American dream of home 
     ownership and could threaten the viability of non-profit 
     institutions.
                                 ______
                                 

                       KENNEDY AMENDMENT NO. 2281

  Mr. KENNEDY proposed an amendment to amendment No. 2183 proposed by 
him to the concurrent resolution, S. Con. Res. 86, supra; as follows:

       Strike all after the first word and insert the following:

     SENSE OF THE SENATE CONCERNING A PATIENT'S BILL OF RIGHTS.

       (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
       (1) patients lack reliable information about health plans 
     and the quality of care that health plans provide;
       (2) experts agree that the quality of health care can be 
     substantially improved, resulting in less illness and less 
     premature death;
       (3) some managed care plans have created obstacles for 
     patients who need to see specialists on an ongoing basis and 
     have required that women get permission from their primary 
     care physician before seeing a gynecologist;
       (4) a majority of consumers believe that health plans 
     compromise their quality of care to save money;
       (5) Federal preemption under the Employee Retirement Income 
     Security Act of 1974 prevents States from enforcing 
     protections for the 125,000,000 workers and their families 
     receiving health insurance through employment-based group 
     health plans; and
       (6) the Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and 
     Quality in the Health Care Industry has unanimously 
     recommended a patient bill of rights to protect patients 
     against abuses by health plan and health insurance issuers.
       (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense Senate that the 
     assumptions underlying this resolution provide for the 
     enactment of legislation to establish a patient's bill of 
     rights for participants in health plans, and that legislation 
     should include--
       (1) a guarantee of access to covered services, including 
     needed emergency care, specialty care, obstetrical and 
     gynecological care for women, and prescription drugs;
       (2) provisions to ensure that the special needs of women 
     are met, including protecting women against ``drive-through 
     mastectomies'';
       (3) provisions to ensure that the special needs of children 
     are met, including access to pediatric specialists and 
     centers of pediatric excellence;
       (4) provisions to ensure that the special needs of 
     individuals with disabilities and the chronically ill are 
     met, including the possibility of standing referrals to 
     specialists or the ability to have a specialist act as a 
     primary care provider;
       (5) a procedure to hold health plans accountable for their 
     decisions and to provide for the appeal of a decision of a 
     health plan to deny care to an independent, impartial 
     reviewer;
       (6) measures to protect the integrity of the physician-
     patient relationship, including a ban on ``gag clauses'' and 
     a ban on improper incentive arrangements; and
       (7) measures to provide greater information about health 
     plans to patients and to improve the quality of care.
       (8) a requirement that the network of providers included in 
     the plan are adequate to ensure the provision of services 
     covered by the plan.
                                 ______
                                 

                       NICKLES AMENDMENT NO. 2282

  Mr. NICKLES proposed an amendment to the concurrent resolution, S. 
Con. Res. 86, supra; as follows:

       At the appropriate place, insert the following:

     SEC.   . SENSE OF THE SENATE ON HEALTH CARE QUALITY.

       (a) Findings.--The Senate makes the following findings:
       (1) Rapid changes in the health care marketplace have 
     compromised confidence in the our Nation's health system.
       (2) American consumers want more convenience, fewer 
     hassles, more choices, and better service from their health 
     insurance plans.

[[Page S3162]]

       (3) All Americans deserve quality-driven health care 
     supported by sound science and evidence-based medicine.
       (4) The Federal Government, through the National Institutes 
     of Health, supports research that improves the quality of 
     medical care that Americans receive.
       (5) This resolution assumes increased funding for the 
     National Institutes of Health for 1999 of $15,100,000,000, an 
     11-percent increase over current funding levels, which are 7 
     percent higher than in 1997.
       (6) As the largest purchaser of health care services, the 
     Federal Government has a responsibility to utilize its 
     purchasing power to demand high quality health plans and 
     providers for its health programs and to protect its 
     beneficiaries from inferior medical care.
       (7) The Federal Government must adopt the posture of 
     private sector purchasers and insist on high quality care for 
     the 67,000,000 medicare and medicaid beneficiaries and the 
     9,000,000 Federal employees, retirees, and their dependents.
       (8) The private sector has proven to be more capable of 
     keeping pace with the rapid changes in health care delivery 
     and medical practice that affect quality of care 
     considerations than the Federal Government.
       (9) As Congress considers health care legislation, it must 
     first commit to ``do no harm'' to health care quality, 
     consumers, and the evolving market place. Rushing to 
     legislate or regulate based on anecdotal information and 
     micro-managing health plans on politically popular issues 
     will not solve the problems of consumer confidence and the 
     quality of our health care system.
       (10) When health insurance premiums rise, Americans lose 
     health coverage. Studies indicate that a 1 percent increase 
     in private health insurance premiums will be associated with 
     an increase in the number of persons without insurance of 
     about 400,000 persons.
       (11) Health care costs have begun to rise significantly in 
     the past year. The Congressional Budget Office (referred to 
     as ``CBO'') projects that the growth in health premiums will 
     be 5.5 percent in 1998 up from 3.8 percent in 1997. CBO 
     continues to project that premiums will grow about 1 
     percentage point faster than the Gross Domestic Product in 
     the longer run. CBO also warns that new Federal mandates on 
     health insurance could exacerbate this increase in premiums.
       (12) The President's Advisory Commission on Consumer 
     Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry developed 
     the Consumer Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. This 
     includes information disclosure, confidentiality of health 
     information, and choice of providers.
       (13) The President's Commission further determined that 
     private sector organizations have the capacity to act in a 
     timely manner needed to keep pace with the swiftly evolving 
     health system.
       (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate 
     that the assumptions underlying this resolution assume that 
     the Senate will not pass any health care legislation that 
     will--
       (1) make health insurance unaffordable for working families 
     and increase the number of uninsured Americans;
       (2) divert limited health care resources away from serving 
     patients to paying lawyers and hiring new bureaucrats; or
       (3) impose political considerations on clinical decisions, 
     instead of allowing such decisions to be made on the basis of 
     sound science and the best interests of patients.
                                 ______
                                 

                DOMENICI (AND OTHERS) AMENDMENT NO. 2283

  Mr. DOMENICI (for himself, Mr. Craig, and Mr. Lott) proposed an 
amendment to amendment No. 2226 proposed by Mr. Rockefeller to the 
concurrent resolution, S. Con. Res. 86, supra; as follows:

       On page 14, line 7, strike ``$51,500,000,000.'' and all 
     that follows through line 24, and substitute in lieu thereof 
     the following:
     $51,500,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, $42,800,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2000:
       (A) New budget authority, $51,800,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, $44,700,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2001:
       (A) New budget authority, $52,100,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, $45,700,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2002:
       (A) New budget authority, $51,400,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, $45,800,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2003:
       (A) New budget authority, $52,000,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, $46,900,000,000.
       On page 25, line 8, strike ``-$300,000,000.'' and all that 
     follows through line 25, and substitute in lieu thereof the 
     following:
     -$300,000,000,
       (B) Outlays, -$1,900,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2000:
       (A) New budget authority, -$1,200,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, -$4,600,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2001:
       (A) New budget authority, -$2,700,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, -$3,000,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2002:
       (A) New budget authority, -$3,800,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, -$7,000,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2003:
       (A) New budget authority, -$5,400,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, -$5,000,000,000.
       In lieu of the language proposed to be stricken, insert:
       (6) For reductions in programs in function 700, Veterans 
     Benefits and Services: For fiscal year 1999, $500,000,000 in 
     budget authority and $500,000,000 in outlays; for fiscal 
     years 1999-2003, $10,500,000,000 in budget authority and 
     $10,500,000,000 in outlays.
       (7) Sense of the Senate on VA compensation and post-service 
     smoking-related illnesses.
       (A) Findings.--The Senate finds that--
       (i) the President has twice included in his budgets a 
     prohibition on the entitlement expansion that the Department 
     of Veterans Affairs (referred to as the ``VA'') is proposing 
     to allow post-service smoking-related illness to be eligible 
     for VA compensation;
       (ii) Congress has never acted on this entitlement 
     expansion;
       (iii) the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of 
     Management and Budget have concluded that this change in VA 
     policy would result in at least $10,000,000,000 over 5 years 
     and $45,000,000,000 over 10 years in additional mandatory 
     costs to the VA;
       (iv) these increased number of claims and the resulting 
     costs may present undue delay and hardship on veterans 
     seeking claim review;
       (v) the entitlement expansion apparently runs counter to 
     all existing VA policy, including a statement by former 
     Secretary Brown that ``It is inappropriate to compensate for 
     death or disability resulting from veterans' personal choice 
     to engage in conduct damaging to their health.''; and
       (vi) Secretary Brown's comment was recently reaffirmed by 
     Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo West, who stated 
     ``It has been the position of the Department and of my 
     predecessor that the decision to use tobacco by service 
     members is a personal decision and is not a requirement for 
     military service. And that therefore to compensate veterans 
     for diseases whose sole connection to service is a veteran's 
     own tobacco use should not rest with the Government.''.
       (B) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate 
     that the function totals and assumptions underlying this 
     resolution assume the following:
       (i) The support of the President's proposal to not allow 
     post-service smoking related illnesses to be eligible for VA.
       (ii) The study and report required by paragraph (3) will be 
     completed.
       (iii) The Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 
     the Office of Management and Budget, and the General 
     Accounting Office are jointly required to--
       (aa) jointly study (referred to in this section as the 
     ``study'') the VA General Counsel's determination and the 
     resulting actions to change the compensation rules to include 
     disability and death benefits for conditions related to the 
     use of tobacco products during service; and
       (bb) deliver an opinion as to whether illnesses resulting 
     from post-service smoking should be considered as a 
     compensable disability.
       (iv) The study should include--
       (aa) the estimated numbers of those filing such claims, the 
     cost resulting from such benefits, the time necessary to 
     review such claims, and how such a number of claims will 
     affect the VA's ability to review its current claim load;
       (bb) an examination of how the proposed change corresponds 
     to prior VA policy relating to post-service actions taken by 
     an individual; and
       (cc) what Federal benefits, both VA and non-VA, former 
     service members having smoking-related illnesses are eligible 
     to receive.
       (v) The study shall be completed no later than July 1, 
     1999.
       (vi) The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Office of 
     Management and Budget shall report their finding to the 
     Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate and the chairmen 
     and ranking minority members of the Senate Budget and 
     Veterans' Affairs Committees.

                                 ______
                                 

                     ROCKEFELLER AMENDMENT NO. 2284

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER proposed an amendment to amendment No. 2226 proposed 
by him to the concurrent resolution, S. Con. Res. 86, supra; as 
follows:

       On page 14, line 7, strike ``$51,500,000,000.'' and all 
     that follows through line 24, and substitute in lieu thereof 
     the following:
     $51,000,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, $42,300,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2000:
       (A) New budget authority, $50,800,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, $43,700,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2001:
       (A) New budget authority, $50,100,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, $43,700,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2002:
       (A) New budget authority, $48,400,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, $42,800,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2003:
       (A) New budget authority, $48,000,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, $42,900,000,000.
       On page 25, line 8, strike ``-$300,000,000.'' and all that 
     follows through line 25, and substitute in lieu thereof the 
     following:
     $200,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, -$1,400,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2000:
       (A) New budget authority, -$200,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, -$3,600,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2001:

[[Page S3163]]

       (A) New budget authority, -$700,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, -$1,000,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2002:
       (A) New budget authority, -$800,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, -$4,000,000,000.
     Fiscal year 2003:
       (A) New budget authority, -$1,400,000,000.
       (B) Outlays, -$1,000,000,000.
       On page 31, line 24, strike subsection (6) in its entirety.

                                 ______
                                 

                     KEMPTHORNE AMENDMENT NO. 2285

  Mr. KEMPTHORNE proposed an amendment to amendment No. 2206 proposed 
by Mr. Reid to the concurrent resolution, S. Con. Res. 86, supra; as 
follows:

       At the end of subsection (b)(2), strike ``Act,'' and insert 
     the following:
       ``Act through their proceeds alone, if subsequent 
     legislation provides an alternative or mixed, dedicated 
     source of mandatory funding.''

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