[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 23, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S711-S713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        DEFENSE HEALTH CARE BILL

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I rise in support this morning of S. 2087, 
the Military Health Care Improvement Act of 2000. This is bipartisan 
legislation. It will begin to fulfill a promise of lifetime health care 
for our military men and women who sacrifice so much for our freedom.
  This bill begins a multiyear process to identify and correct the 
broken promise of lifetime health care to our

[[Page S712]]

military retirees and veterans. I want to emphasize that this is a 
reasonable and a prudent first step. It is not the end by any means. It 
is only the beginning of an effort to rejuvenate our defense health 
care system.
  I met an hour or so ago with the Commandant of the Marine Corps. He 
confirmed that this is an important part of the triad of things that we 
must do to reinstate the morale and recruitment and retention that we 
need for our military.
  Last year, with S. 4, we addressed two components of that triad: Pay 
and pension benefits. But this year defense health care is critical. 
The chiefs have stepped up to this issue and included in the budget 
what was submitted by the President significant improvements, 
particularly for health care for our active-duty personnel. But more 
needs to be done, both for the active-duty personnel, but especially 
for our retired military personnel.
  I am pleased that the Commandant and the chiefs are trying to help us 
in this effort, and it is going to be one of the most important things 
we can do this year for the military.
  It helps the men and women currently serving in the Armed Forces 
while also keeping promises to the heroes of America's storied 
yesterdays without which our prosperous and promising future would have 
never been possible.
  Last year, I was proud to see our colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle and both sides of the Capitol join in significantly improving 
two-thirds of the triad that I referred to. I was honored to join my 
distinguished colleagues on the defense authorization committee in 
passing the largest pay hike for our uniformed military personnel since 
1981.
  I remember very well in 1981 when President Reagan came in and said 
it is unconscionable that we are not paying our military personnel 
enough to live on. We had that period where they were having to go on 
food stamps and become qualified for welfare. The significant pay 
increase they received affected morale and helped us get our military 
into the position of great strength throughout the rest of the 1980s. 
But we have lost ground since then.
  With the 4.8-percent raise for our men and women in uniform last 
year, we narrowed the pay differential between military and the private 
sector, making our All Voluntary Force more attractive to America's 
best young people and a more viable option for quality men and women 
who wish to remain in uniform.
  Occasionally, I run across people who say, well, how is our All 
Volunteer Force working? Are they really able to do the jobs? We are 
getting the best? Sometimes I wonder. And then I have an occasion to go 
to a military installation to see men and women on Air Force bases--the 
Little Rock Air Force Base or Keesler Air Force Base, or Meridian Naval 
Air Station, or other military installations from South Carolina, North 
Carolina, Georgia, and all across this country--to California.
  I am invariably impressed with the caliber of young men and women I 
see, the knowledge they have, the sophistication of what they have to 
deal with in aircraft, ships, and in weapons systems. We are doing 
well, but morale has suffered because of the pay and retention problem, 
and now health care needs that they depend on for their families. They 
have this additional problem now of long assignments in areas such as 
Haiti, Kosovo, Bosnia, South Korea, and around the world. They are away 
from their families.
  We run the risk of seeing our military begin to erode internally by 
losing these young men and women because of family needs and because of 
health care needs. We run the risk of not being able to retain our 
pilots and keep our chiefs, master sergeants, and the sergeant majors. 
Yes, these generals are fantastic, but who runs the Marine Corps? The 
sergeant major is the guy who does the work, or the woman who does the 
work that allows the Marines to do what they need to do.
  This legislation is so important. It would substantially improve the 
health care benefits of our service personnel.
  The military medical and dental care systems still do not provide 
benefits to all that have earned them. And it is possibly the single 
most important remaining item that addresses and affects the quality of 
life of our service members, their families, and our retirees.
  Today there are the same number of potential beneficiaries, 
approximately 8 million, as when we began the downsizing almost 10 
years ago. However, the resources allocated to military health care 
have decreased dramatically. We can no longer squeeze blood from this 
stone. It is empty. Our service men and women, their families, and our 
retirees deserve better.
  The Military Health Care Improvement Act will complete the pay, 
benefits, and medical triad. The bill is composed of five primary 
components:
  First, it extends existing demonstration programs for the over-65 
retirees until the year 2005, including programs such as the Medicare 
Subvention and Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan.
  It also expands the Defense Department's national mail order pharmacy 
program to Medicare-eligible beneficiaries, with $150 deductible.
  It requires the expansion of the TriCare Remote program in the 
continental United States for active-duty family members in the Prime 
Remote program and eliminates copays for TriCare Prime for active-duty 
family members. It also improves the business practices used in 
administering the TriCare program.
  Fourth, it expands the Department of Defense and Veterans' 
Administration cooperative programs, directing DOD and the VA to 
develop a common set of patient safety indicators for centralized 
tracking, and it will improve pharmaceutical safety.
  Finally, it will initiate two studies to access the feasibility and 
desirability of financing the military health care program for retirees 
on an accrual basis.
  This bill is only a start, but it is a very sure start. As with last 
year's efforts to improve the pay and retirement part of the quality of 
life triad for our military personnel, I am pleased this measure has 
such a broad bipartisan base of support in the Senate, particularly 
from my distinguished colleagues on the Senate's defense committees.
  Unlike several other bills that are being touted on the Hill, this 
bill will be fully funded in the Senate's budget resolution of fiscal 
year 2001. Every year, thousands of bills that would spend millions, 
even billions, of dollars are introduced in the Congress--and for good 
purpose, I am sure, almost all of them. However, at the end of the 
year, few of the new massive programs are passed in view of all the 
other needs for defense, Medicare, Social Security, education, and 
transportation.
  The key to success is ensuring that funding is included in the budget 
for the desired program. That is how the pay and retirement provisions 
of S. 4 were ultimately signed into law. That is how I hope to have the 
provisions of this bill signed into law. When S. 4 came up at the 
beginning of last year, some said: This costs too much; we will never 
get it done. But it was not a massive jump, it was achievable. Moving 
S. 4 aggressively with the authorization early in the year led to it 
ultimately being funded.
  While I support the ultimate goal of the other bills, I don't know 
what their final cost may be. We have had estimate ranges of $8 billion 
to $20 billion per year. I believe our Nation should keep its promise 
of lifetime health care for our military personnel. But I also believe 
we owe it to all America's taxpayers to ensure we know how we can best 
meet this commitment, and if we can. As I said earlier, this process 
will take a year or two or more.
  Many in Congress are committed to finding a way to fulfill our 
Nation's promise to our military members, their families, our military 
retirees, and veterans. What our military community doesn't need is 
more empty promises and unrealistic expectations; we need results. That 
is what this bill, S. 2087, is designed to do. It will give tangible 
and measurable results.
  The broken promise of lifetime health care for our veterans has been 
a haunting specter in the Halls of Congress for a number of years, and 
rightly so. I have been hearing concerns about this throughout my 
career in Congress, both the House and Senate. Of course, the problem 
goes back to the 1950s when changes were made that led to the problem 
we have now. It is time we

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keep that promise. This calls for concrete, bipartisan legislation that 
takes a discernible step forward. Our Nation's veterans deserve nothing 
less. They deserve health care, especially as so many World War II, 
Korea, and Vietnam era veterans depend on the promise of the Government 
of the people that they fought so hard to protect.

  I urge my colleagues to take a look at this legislation. I thank 
Senator Warner for the work he and his staff have done on this bill, as 
well as my staff who have worked on the Military Health Care 
Improvement Act of 2000.
  I am thankful we have a bipartisan group of Senators who have 
cosponsored it. I think this is achievable legislation this year. It is 
the beginning of keeping our promise.
  I commend this legislation to my colleagues.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. 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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