[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 139 (Sunday, October 29, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11340-S11342]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE TEXAS RECORD

  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I want to address the concerns of my 
friend, the Senator from Texas, in her comments earlier. I want to make 
very clear I have no complaint against the State of Texas. It has an 
outstanding history and has produced some great leaders, including Sam 
Houston, Sam Rayburn, President Johnson. My complaint is not against 
Texas at all, it is against the clear misstatements of Governor Bush 
about his Texas record. The facts are there. I am not attacking the 
State of Texas. I am sure many citizens of Texas share my concerns 
about the United States.
  It is proper and necessary to talk about these issues. They are 
important. They are important in the national Presidential debate 
because they aren't being addressed by this Congress. The Republican 
leadership has blocked responsible action on education. For the first 
time in 35 years, Congress has failed to reauthorize ESEA. We are now 4 
weeks late in passing an education funding bill. Since the majority has 
stifled any debate on education in this Congress, it is appropriate and 
necessary to speak on the Senate floor about how education will be 
treated in the next Congress under the next administration. The 
American people deserve a Congress that will act on education, not 
ignore it.
  When we think about what will happen to education next year, we must 
look at the Presidential candidates and how they will address 
education. It is essential to look at the record of Governor Bush, the 
Republican candidate for President. That is what I have done.
  On the children's health issue, when the Congress passed the CHIP 
program in 1997, we put affordable health insurance for children within 
reach of every moderate- and low-income working family in America. Yet 
George W. Bush's Texas was one of the last States in the country to 
fully implement the

[[Page S11341]]

law. Despite the serious health problems faced by children in Texas, 
Governor Bush fought to keep eligibility as narrow as possible.
  In fact, the Bush campaign's defense of this unacceptable record is 
almost as telling as the record itself. According to the New York 
Times, the Bush campaign acknowledged that Governor Bush fought to keep 
eligibility narrow, but that he did so because he was concerned about 
costs and the spillover effect on Medicaid. This so-called spillover 
effect is the increase in enrollment of children in Medicaid that 
occurs when the Children's Health Insurance Program is put into effect. 
Vigorous outreach efforts are made by state governments to identify 
children who qualify for the new program--but the same outreach 
identifies many other children who should have already been enrolled in 
Medicaid.
  In other words, Governor Bush not only opposed expanding eligibility 
for the new CHIP program--he was also worried that the very poorest 
children--those already eligible for Medicaid--might actually receive 
the coverage to which the were clearly entitled. That is not just what 
I am saying. That is also the conclusion of the New York Times when it 
reviewed the facts. It's no wonder that Governor Bush's Texas 
Administration was cited by a federal judge for its failure to live up 
to a consent order to let families of poor children know about their 
eligibility for Medicaid and about the health services to which they 
were entitled.
  An article in Time magazine says it all. It is titled, ``Tax Cuts 
Before Tots. Candidate Bush is pushing his compassion, but poor kids in 
Texas have not seen much of it.'' And under a box entitled ``Lost 
Opportunity? Bush and Poor Kids,'' the article makes four key points:

       [Bush] helped to secure tax cuts by underfunding Medicaid, 
     causing a $400 million shortfall in the program. He delayed 
     the state law to expand Medicaid coverage for 303,000 new 
     kids. They went five years without health insurance. He 
     fought efforts to require automatic coverage for families 
     forced off welfare rolls.

  Now, my Senate colleagues from Texas offered all sorts of 
explanations for Governor Bush's miserable record on health care for 
children. They said that the court case I referred to was begun before 
Governor Bush took office. That is true. But the consent decree 
settling the case was agreed to by Governor Bush's administration in 
February of 1996. And the latest action by the federal judge was based 
on the Bush's administration failure to live up to the consent decree 
that it had agreed to. The Bush administration did not keep its word. 
Children were not its priority.
  Defenders of the Governor say that Texas could not implement the CHIP 
program promptly because its legislature only meets every two years. 
But other states have legislatures that meet only two years, and they 
were able to get their programs going more promptly. In fact, Texas was 
the next to last state in the entire country to approve a Chip plan--
the next to last state.
  Governor Bush's misstatements on his Texas record do not end with 
uninsured children. In the debates, Vice President Gore pressed 
Governor Bush on the Texas record on the uninsured. Governor Bush said 
that Texas was spending $4.7 billion a year for uninsured people. But 
it turns out that actually only one-quarter of that amount was being 
spent by the State of Texas. The vast majority of the spending was by 
hospitals and doctors for charity care, and by county governments, not 
by the state.
  On the Texas record on the uninsured, Governor Bush claimed that the 
percentage of the uninsured in Texas had gone down, while the 
percentage of the uninsured in America had gone up. In 1998, the 
overall percentage of the uninsured dropped by identical amounts both 
nationally and in Texas--4.9 percent in Texas and 4.9 percent 
nationally. But, because of Governor Bush's inaction on children, the 
percentage of children in Texas who were uninsured dropped only half as 
much as the drop nationally--10 percent nationally and only 5.2 percent 
in Texas. When Governor Bush took office, Texas ranked second from the 
bottom of all 50 States in covering children and citizens of all ages. 
Today, after six years under his watch as Governor, Texas still ranks 
second from the bottom.
  There is still time for the truth to be told. I am hopefully that 
every American will examine the records of the two candidates 
carefully. On health care, there should be no question at all as to 
which candidate stands with the powerful special interests and which 
candidate stands with the American people. The choice is clear. 
Governor Bush stands with the powerful, and Al Gore stands with the 
people.
  I reserve the remember of my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The distinguished Senator from Texas is 
recognized.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, once again I would like to make the 
record clear. Since the distinguished senior Senator from Massachusetts 
focused on health care and children's health care, I would like to talk 
about the Texas record. I would like to talk about Governor Bush's 
leadership on health care for our children.
  Under Governor Bush, the percentage of Texans without health 
insurance has gone down while the number of Americans without health 
insurance has gone up.
  I also think it is worth mentioning that the Governor, along with the 
bipartisan legislature, took all of Texas' tobacco money, $17.4 billion 
in tobacco money, and allocated almost every single penny--in fact, 
every single penny that was not put aside for education programs to try 
to encourage young people not to smoke has gone for health care, health 
care for children, health care for indigents. The money, wisely, was 
put into trust, and every county in Texas reaps the benefit of that 
trust fund because the interest on the trust fund is spent in each 
county for indigent health care.
  So I think Governor Bush and the Texas Legislature are to be 
commended for focusing on health coverage for the people of Texas and 
for the children of Texas. In fact, under the leadership of Governor 
Bush, Texas spent $1.8 billion in new funding for health care for the 
uninsured. He also increased funding for childhood immunizations by 
$330 million, resulting in an increase in the percentage of immunized 
children from 45 percent to 75 percent.
  Mr. President, although I have to say, once again, I do not think it 
gets anyone anywhere to talk about the record in Texas, and 
misrepresent that record, I think it is very clear that Texas is one of 
the leading States in our Nation in taking care of children, in 
improving its public education system, and it has been a focus of 
Governor Bush and our Democratic speaker and our former Democratic 
Lieutenant Governor; We now have a Republican Lieutenant Governor. We 
have improved health care and education.
  Mr. KENNEDY. May we have order, Mr. President? The Senator is 
entitled to be heard.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts is absolutely 
correct. The Senate will be in order so the distinguished Senator from 
Texas can be heard.
  The Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. So I think Governor Bush's record is clear. I think 
the great speaker, Pete Leahy, working with the Governor, Bob Bullock, 
and Rick Perry, working with the Governor, have done very well in 
health care for the children and for the uninsured in Texas. Just as we 
are proud of the improvements in our public education system--and 
certainly we recognize every State has problems. I do not think it does 
much good to talk about the records of different States. But I do think 
if you look at the record of Governor Bush in Texas on these issues, 
you will be impressed that it was a priority and that we have been 
successful in improving public education, in covering our children 
under the SCHIP program, making more people eligible for these 
programs, and immunizing our children so they would be protected from 
the normal childhood diseases.

  I stand by my Governor and by my State. Once again, I do hope we can 
stop the misrepresentation of the record.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question? 
Does the Senator from Texas yield for a question?
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. I will be happy to yield to the distinguished Senator 
from Alabama.

[[Page S11342]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. My question is, is the Governor given an 
important role in education under State laws of Texas? And does he play 
a big role in education?
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. In Texas, actually----
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time allocated to the distinguished 
Senator has expired.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Let me just say, our Governor has made it a role for 
the Governor. He has been a leader. He had a program; he worked with 
the legislature to enact it; and it is successful.
  I thank the Senator for the question.

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