[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 6 (Tuesday, February 1, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H96]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW

  (Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, the Republican leadership likes to 
complain about bureaucracy, but when it comes time to do something 
about it, something their special-interest friends oppose, they are 
remarkably silent, because on this very day, as we speak, families 
across our country are being forced to wade through a seemingly endless 
bureaucracy, a mountain of paperwork, simply to get the care, the 
health care, they or their children need and deserve.
  It does not need to be that complicated. If your child has fallen and 
hit his head, you should not have to call an insurance bureaucrat to 
see if you can go to an emergency room and you should not have to get 
authorization before taking your child in. You should be free to have 
only one thing on your mind, and that is your child's safety.
  That is what the Patients' Protection Act ensures. It puts health 
care first and bureaucracy last. That is what we Democrats and some 
conscientious Republicans are fighting for. That is the reform the 
supposedly pro-family anti-bureaucracy Republican leadership has been 
stalling for years.
  Mr. Speaker, the time for Republican stalling is over. The time to 
act is now. Let us vote for the motion to instruct conferees later 
today and move the Patients' Bill of Rights to the President's desk.

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