[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 112 (Monday, August 31, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9677-S9678]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      THE REMAINING SENATE AGENDA

  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, we have 6 weeks remaining in the 
Congress. Those 6 weeks will define our efforts as a Congress. And this 
is the last matter that I wish to raise before our colleagues this 
afternoon--the agenda for those remaining 6 weeks.
  Time is short. Distractions are many. Needless to say, we must focus 
on our priorities. Our success for the entire Congress will really 
depend on what we achieve in the next 6 weeks. It will depend on 
whether we are committed to accomplishing the people's business.
  What is the people's business? I think everyone understands what it 
is. The people's business is the business that we have before us. 
Appropriations bills must be completed.
  The Congress' first responsibility is to ensure stable Government 
operations. There must not be talk of a Government shutdown. I have 
heard some of our Republican leaders, especially on the other side, 
suggest that the President may shut the Government down.
  Today is the last day in August. The budget resolution was due in 
April. So far, neither body has delivered a budget resolution. So I 
call upon the Republican leadership in the House and in the Senate to 
do what the law requires, to do what is so essential to restore 
confidence, to do what really is required to set the framework for the 
priorities and the commitments that we must make in these next 6 weeks. 
I call on the Republican leadership to pass a budget resolution.
  Not one single appropriations bill has gone to the President. 
Republican poison pills appear throughout the appropriations bills. So 
if there is a danger of a shutdown, we all know where it originates. 
But it is incumbent upon

[[Page S9678]]

all of us to keep the Government operating. It starts with the budget 
resolution. And it will be completed once we pass every one of those 
appropriations bills, which we must do.
  After we complete that task, we must turn our attention to managed 
care reform. The American people have said loudly and unequivocally 
that they want a comprehensible, enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights. 
They want to know that they can go to the nearest emergency room when 
they suffer a true health emergency. They want to know that they can 
see a specialist when they need one. They want to know that doctors--
not HMO bureaucrats--will decide which treatments are medically 
necessary. They want to know that managed care organizations, like 
everyone else in the health care environment, can be held accountable 
for decisions that result in serious harm or death to patients.
  What they do not want--what they do not want--is legislation that 
falls short on those or other key patient protections. They do not want 
legislation that claims to give them rights without providing them the 
mechanism necessary to enforce those rights.
  There are those who suggest there is not enough time to debate a 
Patients' Bill of Rights. I disagree. There are those who would, for 
whatever reason, try to gag the Senate as we debate this important 
issue.
  Let us eliminate the gag orders and the gag rules. Let us open up 
this important piece of legislation to a good, healthy debate. 
Democrats will be prepared to work 24 hours a day to assure that we can 
have that opportunity. But it is important we set it high on our agenda 
and our priority list as we complete our work in the 105th 
Congress. Other than the appropriations bills, there is nothing more 
important on our national agenda right now than that. The Republican 
bill, as everybody knows, is inadequate in many respects. We need to 
pass a bill that merits our support, that merits our signatures, that 
merits a broad-based, bipartisan commitment to real reform in managed 
care. We will have an opportunity to do that. And I must say that we 
will be offering this legislation with whatever determination may be 
required, and to whatever piece of legislation may be presented, in an 
effort to assure consideration of this legislation prior to the end of 
this Congress.

  The third issue, beyond the budget and appropriations first, and 
managed care second, is campaign finance reform. In spite of the 
Republican leadership's opposition, the House has now passed an 
important campaign finance reform bill that many thought was impossible 
to pass just a few months ago. And so the Senate now has the 
opportunity--a rare opportunity--to enact meaningful reform this fall.
  Madam President, we must seize the opportunity to stem the 
unrestricted flow of special interest money in Federal elections. There 
is no question that, given what the House has already done, attention 
will be focused on the U.S. Senate to see if we can live up to the 
expectations of the American people in this regard. I, frankly, cannot 
think of anything more important than to take up this legislation--the 
Shays-Meehan bill--and give it the kind of priority it deserves, to 
work in a bipartisan way to pass meaningful legislation within the next 
6 weeks.
  Again, I will put my colleagues on notice that this issue is of such 
import to us that we will offer it in amendment form, if necessary. I 
hope that isn't necessary. I hope we can get a good opportunity and 
agreement to bring it up, to debate it, because it is now here. It has 
already been debated and passed in the House. Let's do it in the U.S. 
Senate.
  As I have often said, we can pass legislation the easy way or the 
hard way. I hope we will not be required to pass it the hard way. But 
Democrats will make every single effort that we have available to us to 
pass it--hard or easy. There are many other issues that we hope we can 
address in the short time that we have left.
  We must not ignore education. We must recognize that school 
modernization is essential. As I traveled through South Dakota, it was 
remarkable the number of times modernization needs came to my 
attention, the number of times school board members, school board 
presidents, teachers, superintendents and principals said, ``We hope 
you can pass legislation that will allow us to deal with our crumbling 
infrastructure.'' As we speak, young children are going back into 
unsafe school buildings, into environments that are not conducive to 
learning. School modernization must be addressed. I hope we can address 
it this year, this Congress. I hope we can address in this Congress 
this year the need for 100,000 additional teachers. So as children go 
back to school, as we consider all of the needs of our Nation, let us 
not forget the importance of the needs in education.
  We must look at Social Security. We must begin to consider very 
carefully what options are available to us. We must stop any action, 
whether it is on a tax bill--which I understand will be brought to the 
Senate floor--or elsewhere, which might jeopardize Social Security. 
There are those who, for short-term gain--either political or 
economic--would argue that we have to tap the so-called surplus. We 
have made the case--and I think everybody understands it--that there is 
no surplus unless you use Social Security trust funds. I hope that both 
sides of the aisle will come to the same conclusion about the 
inadvisability of doing that this year--or any year.
  We must look at juvenile crime. We certainly will have an opportunity 
to debate the minimum wage. The minimum wage is, without a doubt, one 
of the single most important actions we can take to improve the 
economic stability and viability of working families in many homes 
across our country. Madam President, those issues, too, must be 
examined and action taken before the end of this session.
  As we come back after being away 1 month, we also recognize our 
international obligations. Just this afternoon, the President left for 
a very important summit with the President of Russia. We wish him well 
as he departs. We know how precarious circumstances now are in economic 
and political terms in Russia. We know how difficult this trip will be. 
I hope I speak for everybody in this Chamber in expressing our hope for 
great success, with the realization that all we can have are limited 
expectations, given those circumstances. We must not overlook the need 
for IMF funding, especially in light of the Russian crisis. We should 
redouble our efforts to fulfill our obligations to the International 
Monetary Fund. Terrorism, again, became a very important aspect of 
foreign policy in the last several weeks while we were gone. We must 
support efforts to stem it and support military efforts to respond to 
it.
  Arms control issues in Iraq and North Korea must be addressed, and so 
the array of foreign policy challenges, not the least of which is an 
important question relating to funding in the United Nations, also must 
be high on our international priority list.
  Madam President, obviously, to accomplish all of these important 
objectives, we will need to use these 6 weeks wisely, to stay focused 
on our Nation's needs and priorities. I hope that we can do that. 
Earlier today, the majority leader suggested that Democrats want to 
stall legislative business. Nothing could be farther from the truth. To 
the contrary, we are anxious, as we have been for months, to get on 
with the Nation's agenda, the agenda that I have outlined.
  So speaking on behalf of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate, I 
welcome back both Republican and Democratic colleagues, and I urge them 
to work together to accomplish all of this and more. Time is short, the 
need is great, and our desire to achieve is high. I hope we can meet 
all of those expectations in the coming weeks.
  Madam President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HAGEL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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