[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 29, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H3437-H3442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HISPANIC HEALTH IMPROVEMENT ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I take this hour tonight to talk about a 
critical issue back home and that is the issue of access to health care 
and quality care. In a Nation where we have some of the greatest 
research and the greatest strides that we have made in health, we still 
do not have individuals able to have access to health care.
  The Hispanic Health Improvement Act is a comprehensive bill that we 
have filed aimed at improving Hispanic health in the United States. 
Hispanics are now the fastest-growing community and compose 13 percent 
of the United States population; yet they make up 23 percent of the 
total uninsured population, and nearly 37 percent of Hispanics under 
the age of 64 find themselves uninsured. We need to make sure that we 
address the problems of the uninsured. We need to make sure that we 
address the problems of access to health care.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased tonight to also be joined by the vice 
chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the gentlewoman from 
California (Mrs. Napolitano). I am extremely pleased that we have this 
opportunity and the gentlewoman joins me here tonight, and I want to 
recognize the gentlewoman at this point in time.
  Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Rodriguez). It is a pleasure to be here to speak to the issue of health 
services that are lacking, sadly, in not only our own districts but 
throughout the United States. I am sorry to report, Mr. Speaker, that 
the Bush budget sacrifices the health of our Nation to provide tax cuts 
for the wealthiest 1 percent.
  The budget also fails to adequately address the problem of 41 million 
who go without health insurance; nearly 25 percent of those are 
uninsured children. Even 25 percent of the moderate-income families 
cannot afford health insurance. And eight out of 10 uninsured Americans 
are from working families of the United States. Unfortunately, 
Hispanics especially fall into this category. Over 33 percent, Mr. 
Speaker, of all Hispanics, 33 percent are uninsured, compared to 10 
percent of non-Hispanic whites.
  This Bush budget cuts funding for Medicaid coverage for children, for 
low-income seniors, for people in nursing homes, and especially for the 
disabled. This budget fails to provide adequate increases for the 
National Institutes of Health. It cuts funds for rural health care and 
cuts grants to trained doctors at so very critical children's 
hospitals. The budget eliminates funding for the Centers of Excellence 
program, the Health Career Opportunity program which increases the 
number of minority health care providers. We need to ensure 
linguistically and culturally appropriate health care by giving 
minority students the opportunity to enter into a health care 
profession and assist them with this education and training. By 
eliminating training for diversity programs, this administration would 
deny the opportunities for minorities to succeed.
  The budget also sacrifices the health needs of the most vulnerable to 
provide tax cuts for the wealthiest. The budget provides, 
unfortunately, only 38 percent of the benefits to the wealthiest 1 
percent of the Americans; that is to say, they are the ones who benefit 
the most. While middle-income families would get less than one dollar 
per day, with cuts in Federal aid to health care and no increased aid 
to States, the budget would exacerbate the current trend of higher 
State and local taxes.
  Now we move into the Congressional Hispanic Caucus proposing a health 
care for the uninsured and the Hispanic Health Care Improvement Act 
that my colleague was just talking about. It is unfortunate that the 
number of uninsured in this Nation is alarming. Too

[[Page H3438]]

many people continue to go without insurance coverage. The uninsured 
represent 41 million people, 14.6 percent of our U.S. population, which 
means that a quarter of all moderate-income families cannot afford 
health insurance. Eight out of 10 uninsured Americans are from working 
families.
  Just 2 days ago I met, I formed a task force of many factors in my 
area to listen to what their cries are for help from our government. 
Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, one of the main issues was unaffordable 
health insurance for their workers. These are manufacturers who are the 
backbone of our economy in the United States, talking to us and saying, 
help, we need to address this issue which is critical to have healthy 
employees have healthy families so that our employees do not miss work.
  Over 33 percent of all Hispanics are uninsured compared, again, to 
the 10 percent of non-Hispanic whites. The Hispanic community faces 
specific hardships in accessing health care. Due to their prevalence in 
low-wage jobs, many do not have access to on-the-job insurance 
coverage. Combined with a level of fear and confusion that stems from 
the complicated laws, many in the community are forced to fall into 
safety-net programs in times of need. While these programs serve many 
Hispanic families, their enrollment numbers do not equal their need. We 
must find ways to provide better, more affordable coverage to more U.S. 
working-class families. We need to increase coverage in enrolling 
people in all Federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and the 
State Children's Health Insurance Program. We cannot afford cuts to 
these programs. There must be flexibility and incentives for the States 
to increase enrollment in times of economic recession and as our 
population increases. We must also ensure that our health care system 
can provide linguistically and culturally appropriate health care by 
giving minority students the opportunity to enter and be successful in 
health care professions.

  I would like to call attention to the bill which I believe is part of 
the solution of covering the uninsured. This week the Congressional 
Hispanic Caucus will introduce a Hispanic Health Improvement Act with 
the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) and members of the 
Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Senator Bingaman was gracious enough to 
introduce companion legislation in the Senate. This bill was first 
introduced in the 106th Congress, and it offers a wide variety of 
strategies for expanding health care coverage, improving access, 
affordability and reducing health disparities. The legislation provides 
$33 billion between fiscal years 2003 and 2010 for the expansion of the 
successful State Children's Health Insurance Program, commonly known as 
SCHIP, to cover uninsured, low-income, pregnant women and parents. In 
addition, it provides the States the option to enroll legal immigrant 
pregnant women and children in Medicaid and the SCHIP program.
  The caucus considers the expansion of Medicaid and SCHIP eligibility 
to be a very critical component in legislative priorities for improving 
Hispanic health care. The legislation also authorizes diabetes 
education, prevention, and treatment programs designed to address the 
needs of Hispanics and other minorities.
  Lastly, we seek to reduce health care disparities by addressing the 
lack of providers who can provide, again, culturally competent and 
linguistically appropriate care.
  The bill also provides for increased funding for the Health Resources 
and Services Administration's health professions diversity programs. 
Unfortunately, the President's budget proposal for fiscal year 2003 
eliminates virtually all funding for these so very important programs 
for our Hispanic community.
  In addition to promoting diversity, the programs support the training 
of professionals in fields that are experiencing shortages. Mr. 
Speaker, I have heard from other Members of Congress how important some 
of their districts are now in providing access to diverse cultural 
linguistic services in areas because there are Hispanics throughout the 
United States, not just in the southern States. That was the case a 
decade or so ago.
  They are also important for promoting access to health care services 
in medically underserved communities, especially rural areas and ag 
areas. The caucus considers increased funding a high priority, and we 
thank our Hispanic Congressional Caucus colleagues for taking the lead 
in providing some of these critical health care services. Hopefully, it 
will be a solution if it is accepted.
  I lead on to a third component of health care and that is mental 
health. We talk about it, but we do not really bring it out into the 
open. It is a stigma. And we think we have the ability to do a better 
job, especially when we consider the veterans from prior wars have 
problems with post-traumatic syndrome and our seniors have depression 
problems, and we do very little about it. We need to have it included 
in medical coverage, but we also must realize that we have other 
programs that will deal with addressing the issues at the time the 
students are in school, whether it is a middle school or a high school. 
We have started such a program in our area thanks to SAMHSA. We were 
able to start a pilot project in a high school and three middle schools 
to address the issue of what was found 3 years ago to be a nationwide 
problem and that was Latina adolescents were the highest in the country 
who had attempted suicide.
  We were able to get some money to start these programs with a 
nonprofit mental health clinic which has been very successful and a 
very acceptable program not only to the administrators and the 
teachers, but the parents who are referring students and also to the 
people in the whole district. We have partnered with the community, and 
we have become proactive in looking at the issues that stress brings to 
our children, that drugs, that cultural difference and others have in 
having an impact on our young Hispanic adolescents. We have significant 
success because the community got involved and because there were 
people who cared about bringing the issue to the forefront and not 
worrying about whether it was going to be a stigma on the community 
itself.
  We geared the program towards the adolescents because they have 
demonstrated a high level of need; and no youngster, whether it is 
Latino, Latina, whether it is white, African American, they are all 
being provided services under this program even though it is all coming 
out for a significantly designated Latina adolescent program.
  We recently had an on-site visit by Charles Curie, the administrator 
of SAMHSA, the Federal organization that provides and oversees the 
funding; and they were very pleased and are looking at the possibility 
of expanding the program into other areas because it has been so 
successful.
  We are confident that in bringing these kinds of programs out into 
Congress and sharing them with other Members that we can see that we 
have need in our own backyard and that we will make this a more 
important and focal issue so that we can begin to help our youngsters 
who are facing stress and who, in many instances, turn to violence in 
our schools.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank you for listening. I thank my colleagues for the 
hard work that they have done on the Hispanic Health Improvement Act 
and look forward to seeing some of these programs be successful.
  Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman for being 
here tonight, and I want to thank the gentlewoman for her work in this 
area. I know the gentlewoman has worked extremely hard.
  I was extremely pleased that when the gentlewoman came in she 
recognized a problem in the Latina community in terms of the young 
ladies committing suicide, and she filed the legislation and took it 
over, and I want to personally thank her and hopefully get some 
resources in this area. Again, I want to take this opportunity to thank 
the gentlewoman for being here and sharing her concerns. I know the 
gentlewoman represents her district well.

                              {time}  1945

  Mr. RODRIGUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I would like to also take this 
opportunity to talk a little bit about the quality of access to health 
care in this Nation.
  Today, I had the opportunity of joining many of my colleagues at a 
rally to bring awareness to the uninsured in this Nation. There is a 
real need for us

[[Page H3439]]

to come to grips with the fact that we still have not addressed the 
problems of the uninsured. We still have not addressed the problems of 
our seniors and prescription drug coverage. We still have not addressed 
the problems regarding funding in Medicaid and Medicare, as well as the 
SCHIP program.
  Our States are having a great deal of difficulty, not to mention the 
difficulty of our consumers and our people that are falling ill. 
Unfortunately, too many Americans continue to lack health insurance. 
Insuring the health of all Americans must be a priority for our Nation.
  There are many myths about the uninsured and why they lack health 
insurance. Many people to not realize just how many Americans are 
affected by the lack of health insurance. People believe that the 
uninsured are unemployed and simply choose not to purchase health 
insurance. Nothing could be further from the truth. The uninsured 
represent 41 million people. And in any one given year, we have, at 
some time, up to 75 million in this country that are uninsured. We have 
14.6 percent of our population that falls into this category. Even 25 
percent of the moderate income families cannot afford health insurance. 
Nearly 25 percent of all uninsured are children.
  Let me just point out that if someone does not work for government, 
and by that, whether it be Federal Government, State government or 
local government, and if an individual does not work for a major 
corporation, the bottom line is they find themselves without access to 
insurance. Those working for small companies, or who work in rural 
America, do not have access to health care. So there is a real need for 
us to address this problem and come together.
  Eight out of ten uninsured Americans are from working families. Eight 
out of ten. So the majority of our people that are uninsured are those 
that are working yet find themselves not poor enough to qualify for 
Medicaid, yet not having enough resources to be able to address the 
problems when they find themselves ill.
  Hispanics especially fall into this category. Over 33 percent of all 
Hispanics are uninsured compared to 10 percent of the non-Hispanic 
white population. And that percentage rises to 34 percent for 
nonelderly Hispanics. Hispanics rely on many of the Federal programs 
that provide their only access to health care, as do millions of low 
and moderate income individuals and working families without health 
insurance. Over 19 percent of all Hispanics depend on Medicare for 
their health care.
  So the majority that are seniors are in Medicare, but there is a 
large percentage of them where this is the only thing they have. Over 
35 percent of all Hispanic children depend on the State Children's 
Health Insurance Program that we help fund, yet our States are having 
difficulty throughout the country. At one point, in Texas the State 
talked about just wiping out the whole State Children's Health 
Insurance Program, and that would be devastating.
  These programs serve many Hispanic families and many Americans 
throughout this country, but there are still far too many eligible 
families that are not enrolled in these programs. For Hispanics there 
are unique barriers that prevent access to quality health care. There 
are levels of fear and confusion that deters many eligible Hispanic 
families from enrolling in these programs. This fear stems from the 
complicated laws barring legal permanent residents from access to 
safety nets that taxes help support. And I am referring to legal 
permanent residents. These are individuals that are here legally, 
working, yet have not become citizens and they find themselves with 
difficulty in terms of having access to this care.
  We need to increase coverage and enrollees in all Federal programs to 
provide insurance such as Medicare and Medicaid and State Children's 
Health Insurance Programs. There must be flexibility and incentives for 
the States to increase enrollment in times of economic recession as the 
population increases. And we must also ensure that our health care 
systems can provide linguistically and culturally appropriate health 
care by giving minority students the opportunity to enter into the 
health profession.
  I would like to also call attention to the bill that was mentioned 
earlier that allows for coverage of the uninsured. This week we will be 
introducing the Hispanics Health Improvement Act, as has been 
mentioned. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) as well as other 
members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, will be introducing the 
legislation, and we are going to be talking about some of the concerns 
that we have had. As the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Napolitano) 
has indicated, Senator Bingaman has been gracious enough to introduce 
companion legislation in the Senate.

  This landmark legislation is based on a previous Hispanic Health Act, 
which I personally introduced in the 106th Congress and on existing 
legislation that Senator Bingaman has championed in the Senate. The 
legislation offers a variety of different strategies for expanding 
health care and coverage, as well as improving access and affordability 
and reducing health disparities. While I consider each provision in our 
bill to be important, I am just going to highlight some of the more 
urgent ones.
  In order to address the lack of health care coverage, the legislation 
provides additional resources between 2003 and 2010 for the expansion 
of the successful State Children's Health Insurance Program, the SCHIP, 
to cover the uninsured low-income pregnant women and parents. So we are 
talking about going and making sure we cover women that are expecting 
kids and their parents.
  In addition, it provides States the option to enroll legal immigrant 
pregnant women and children in Medicaid as well as the SCHIP. The 
Congressional Hispanic Caucus considers the expansion of both Medicaid 
and the SCHIP eligibility to be a critical legislative priority for 
improving Hispanics' health.
  The legislation provides also additional resources for targeting 
diabetes prevention. We target $100 million for diabetes. Diabetes is 
an illness that hits Hispanics disproportionately as well as African 
Americans. The importance of education school-based programs are 
critical in the screening activities in the area of diabetes. This is 
especially important in our Hispanic communities.
  The targeted grant funds of $100 million from our legislation would 
also provide support for those who would work in the community to help 
educate the community and individuals who suffer from diabetes to be 
able to deal with the issue.
  Lastly, we would seek to reduce health care disparities by addressing 
the lack of providers who can provide culturally competent and 
linguistic appropriate care.
  The bill provides for increased funding also for HRS health 
professional diversities. Let me just say that right now one of our 
problems, one of our difficulties is in the area of health professions, 
there is a real need for us to begin to prepare individuals in this 
area. We are still not producing the number of doctors that we need in 
this country. We are not producing the number of nurses that we need in 
this country. We are not producing the number of health professionals 
in this country. There is a disproportionate number of Latinos and 
Hispanics in the health professions. So we need to concentrate on 
making sure that we provide the resources in order for that to occur.
  And as my colleagues know, the President, in his 2003 budget 
proposal, eliminated virtually all funding for these important programs 
that allow this opportunity. In addition to promoting the diversity 
that is needed in health care, these programs support the training of 
health professionals in the fields experiencing shortages.
  I did not mention the area of pharmacy, dentistry, the allied health, 
all these areas promote access to health care services in medically 
underserved communities and there is a real need for us to do this.
  The Congressional Hispanic Caucus also considers increasing funding 
for these programs as a high priority. As the Hispanic community 
continues to grow, the implementation of these provisions will take on 
an even greater importance. The consequences of inaction will be felt 
for years to come in greater health care needs, lower productivity, as 
well as higher rates of mortality and disability.
  Let me take this opportunity to just indicate how important it is to 
make

[[Page H3440]]

sure that we come up and address these issues. I know the President is 
going throughout the country talking about another tax cut. The first 
year of his administration was spent on a $1.3 trillion tax cut. That 
effort was basically spent on the first year. He then spent a great 
deal of effort on the war, and now he is spending a great deal of 
effort on taxes when, in reality, here we have a problem that we have 
chosen not to respond to; we have chosen not to address. This is a 
problem that our States are having that we could help with, not only 
with the budgets in our States throughout this country, but also help 
to respond and address the problems that confront us.
  The proposal by the administration to take both the SCHIP program, 
the Medicaid, as well as the disproportionate share is a proposal that 
hits at the most vulnerable of this country. The disproportionate share 
is the money that goes to those hospitals, Mr. Speaker, that provide 
that care for those indigents that are out there. That money is 
proposed to be put into a block grant. The SCHIP program, as you well 
know, is the money that goes to the working Americans that are out 
there that takes care of the children in case they find themselves in 
need, and that program is also being proposed to be put into a block 
grant. And not to mention the Medicaid program, the most needy one, the 
one that goes to the most needy of this country, that helps those that 
are in most need and that helps hospitals and clinics for their 
reimbursement rates.
  Those three programs are the ones that target the most needy of this 
country, yet those are the ones he wants to take and lump up into one 
block grant and send it out to the States and destroy the few programs 
that are out there that have been addressing some of the problems that 
exist.
  The proposal to take both the SCHIP, the Medicaid, and the 
disproportionate share, those are the three most important programs 
that hit at the most needy of this country and the programs that 
provide resources for the hospitals to continue to provide that care. 
For us to put that into a lump sum and send it out is going to be 
devastating, especially if additional resources do not come to bear on 
the problem that seems to be getting worse instead of better.
  Since the administration has taken over, the reality is that the 
number of uninsured has increased. And based on the numbers of the 
individuals that have lost their jobs, those numbers can only get worse 
as time goes on.
  Mr. Speaker, I know the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Napolitano) 
talked a little about mental health. I want to share this because a lot 
of time we do not talk about the mentally ill. Mental health is usually 
an afterthought, and it is an area we really need to look at and 
consider seriously. We quickly forget what happened at Columbine. We 
quickly forget the problems that we do have, a lot of homeless 
individuals out there, almost one-third to 40 percent of whom suffer 
from mental health problems. We still have a lot of homeless veterans 
that suffer from mental illness, from post- traumatic stress disorders.
  Mr. Speaker, if we look in terms of what has happened after 9-11, 
what occurred not only at the Pentagon but what occurred in New York 
and what has happened throughout this country, we really need to look 
at this issue, because when people have experienced things such as 
that, especially those individuals at the Pentagon and in New York 
City, those individuals are going to be going through some stress. 
There is no doubt that some of them will go through post-traumatic 
stress disorders. So there is a need for us to concentrate on the area 
of mental health and reach out to some of our young people.
  We do not concentrate in mental health with our young and we really 
need to provide some resources as well as some research in that area. 
We have too many young people committing suicide. We need to see how we 
can address that issue. Sometimes, basically, they use alcohol and 
drugs as a way of self-medicating when the real problem lies in the 
area of mental health problems. So as a Nation we really need to see 
how we can address those issues, and I am hoping that we can prioritize 
mental health as an important issue.
  I know that we have filed some legislation on social work legislation 
that deals somewhat with this, especially right after Columbine, in 
looking at our young people and working with our schools, in reaching 
out to our communities in the area of mental health, to making sure 
that our community can cope and our youngsters can deal with 
situations.
  In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of other issues 
I wanted to touch base on.

                              {time}  2000

  Mr. Speaker, one is the area of AIDS. In the area of AIDS, we have 
found that we have made some significant strides, yet the numbers in 
the minority community have continued to expand. They have continued to 
grow. In that area, we need to go out and reach out. We have, 
especially in the Hispanic community, in the Latino community, we do 
not have the community-based organizations that other community groups 
have, and there is a real need for us to make sure that we try to 
address those needs. So we need resources in the area of AIDS to 
address those problems.
  When it comes to communicable diseases, and we are hearing about the 
problems in China and those diseases, tuberculosis and other diseases, 
when we hear about those types of problems, we need to treat those, and 
we need to treat those worldwide. If we do not do that, those viruses 
will keep growing. Unless we deal with those and attack those as 
quickly as possible, tuberculosis knows no borders. Whenever we travel 
in the global economy, we need to make sure that we treat those as if 
they were here because of the fact that they are communicable diseases. 
They are serious diseases that impact us, and there is no doubt that 
AIDS does kill.
  It reminds me of a young man who said, I thought we dealt with the 
issue of AIDS and it is gone. It is still here, and it still kills. We 
need to educate our young people on the issue of AIDS.
  On tuberculosis, in the late 1980s in the State of Texas, we were 
going to close the hospital for tuberculosis because there were no 
patients. We had basically defeated this disease, and yet now we have 
other strands that we are unable to deal with. The reason we have other 
strands is, number one, people did not take the medication 
appropriately and other viruses were able to survive and mutate; and 
the fact that we have a lot of homeless that were able to contract the 
disease and nothing happened, they were not treated the way they should 
have been. Now we have problems with tuberculosis once again, a very 
serious disease that has an impact on all of us.
  On diabetes, it is an area that concerns me, and it should concern 
all of us. The majority of people that go blind is because of diabetes, 
and most of the time it is preventable. A large number of people who 
lose their limbs is because of diabetes, and a lot of times it could 
have been prevented. The quality of life of individuals, not to mention 
the cost, both to the individual and to the community as a whole when 
somebody loses their eyesight or their limbs, and so it becomes really 
important that we provide resources for prevention, that we provide 
resources in the area of diabetes.
  I wanted to take this opportunity tonight to talk about some of those 
issues that we are extremely concerned about. In addition to that, 
tomorrow for the first time the Congressional Hispanic Caucus will also 
be having a day that we call El Dia de Los Ninos, the Day of the 
Children. Children's Day. It is usually celebrated in the Mexican 
community. I know Mexico celebrates it, and we celebrate it in Texas. 
It is a day that we celebrate as April 30, Children's Day. It is a day 
that we take time to honor our children.
  Tomorrow we are going to be having some hearings on honoring our 
children, and I wanted to take this opportunity to honor our children 
tonight by also talking about the needs of our children. Members have 
heard the statistics in terms of the uninsured kids out there; but also 
our kids need access to some of the services in the area of mental 
health, as well as some of the preventive kinds of services. I wanted 
to take this opportunity to let the community know that tomorrow the 
Congressional Hispanic Caucus will be

[[Page H3441]]

having hearings and panels to talk about children.
  Part of the discussion on children will be on the criminal justice 
system, the fact that we have a large, disproportionate number of our 
children that fall into the criminal justice system that we need to 
look at; and it is serious when we have an industrialized country such 
as ours. The numbers are just astronomical in terms of the numbers in 
our criminal justice system. We need to see what we can do to address 
the problem and how we can work with our children.
  I also wanted to take this opportunity as we talk about our children 
to talk about the issue of Head Start. Head Start has been a program 
that has been extremely helpful. It has been a program that has been 
there for our children despite the fact that it only addresses 40 
percent of the kids that qualify. It is a program that, based on most 
of the research that is out there, has been responsive and has really 
given those kids a head start on education.
  So when we look at those programs that have been good for our kids 
and children, Head Start has been one of those programs. Head Start has 
been under the Department of Health because it is a program that works 
with our parents. So it helps parents in reaching out to the kids. That 
is also extremely important for us.
  The administration is choosing to basically destroy Head Start and 
send that money to the Department of Education. The reason why we 
established Head Start was specifically because States have been 
unwilling to provide that early childhood education that was needed, 
and that is why we have Head Start, not to mention the Department of 
Education does not go into the areas of health as the Department of 
Health does. I would hope and we will continue to push forward to make 
sure that the monies for Head Start remain and with the Department of 
Health, and that the program remains with the Department of Health.
  It has had its own boards throughout this country, and it has 
provided an opportunity for these youngsters to get a head start on 
education as well as a head start in the area of health, for parents to 
be educated about the importance of nutrition, about the importance of 
access to good quality care, as well as the importance of what they eat 
and do not eat.
  So those issues are important for our children, and as we celebrate 
tomorrow Children's Day, we are going to celebrate and talk about some 
of the needs of our children. The Hispanic community, the median age 
is about 25.9. We are one of the youngest populations in this country, 
and it is a growing population. So there is a real need for us to 
concentrate on our young. Sixty-five percent of Hispanic children are 
under the age of 18 and live with both parents. So here we have 65 
percent still live with both parents, which is a much higher number 
than the rest of the population. So there is a lot of positives.

  Hispanic kids, there is a great deal of positive when it comes to 
their attitudes towards family, their attitudes towards adults and 
their parents, and also their attitude in terms of the respect to 
elders. I think that we need to continue to honor them and recognize 
our children as an asset, and as we do throughout this country as 
Latinos, we recognize our children on April 30. Tomorrow we are going 
to take that opportunity. We call it El Dia de los Ninos, where we are 
going to have hearings and talk about some of the needs of our kids. As 
we talk about the needs of our kids, there is a study that will also be 
released, and it is called Suicide in Latino Children and Adolescents, 
and it is a very startling problem that talks about some of the 
difficulties that we are encountering, some of the areas of suicide 
where it was almost unseen in the Latino community, and that has been 
climbing.
  One of the biggest problems in terms of death in this area is, number 
one, heart deaths. Suicide is number eight. In addition to that, there 
are still too many other items there that rank in terms of suicide 
rates. One of the rankings of the top States based on the suicide 
rates, Nevada is rated number one, Alaska number two, Wyoming number 
three, Montana four, Arizona five, New Mexico six, Oregon seven, Idaho 
eight, Utah nine, and Maine is number 10 in terms of USA State suicide 
rates.
  It is important to see some of those States with kind of small 
populations, rural areas. It kind of throws off some of the stereotypes 
that we hear about. Suicide was the eighth leading cause of death in 
the United States, and responsible for 31,000 deaths, which was more 
than 50 percent the number of homicides in the U.S. I want to read that 
again. Suicide was responsible for 31,000 deaths, which was more than 
50 percent the number of homicides in the U.S. In the same year, there 
were approximately 20,000 deaths by homicide. Each year in the U.S. 
approximately 500,000 people require emergency room treatment as a 
result of attempts to commit suicide.
  There is a need for us to concentrate resources in the area of mental 
health. It is also important to know that the rate of suicide for 
various ages, gender, and ethnic groups has changed substantially. 
Between 1952 to 1996, a 44-year period, the reported rated of suicide 
among adolescents and young adults tripled; but yet from 1980 to 1996, 
the rate of suicide from age 15 to 19 increased by 14 percent, and 
among persons between the age of 10 to 14 years, it went up by 100 
percent.
  This area is an area that we really need to look at. I am hoping we 
do not have another Columbine before we concentrate attention. We lose 
attention right away after the incident occurs. We need to look at 
reaching out.
  In that same light, and as we talk about the importance of access to 
health care, I want to briefly touch base on our veterans. Especially 
after Iraq and after our soldiers come back, there is a real need for 
us to reach out to our veterans. Anyone who has that kind of experience 
has to go through some degree of stress, and a lot of our veterans 
suffer from post-traumatic stress disorders and so there is a need for 
us to concentrate resources.
  I was extremely pleased when the House took the opportunity to 
recognize our troops in Iraq and we did a resolution. But that same day 
around 3 in the morning the following day, we also passed a budget that 
cut $15 billion from our veterans affairs and from services to our 
veterans for the next 10 years. That kind of recognition of our troops 
and that kind of action does not reflect what we ought to be doing. We 
need to make sure and hold ourselves accountable to have the resources 
there for our veterans.
  I am also disappointed with a lot of the games that are being played. 
It has been talked about that we are dishing out $121 million to 
prepare our VA hospitals for them to prepare in case of a terrorist 
attack; yet that $121 million comes from direct services. We really 
need to make sure that we provide additional resources. In addition to 
that, I am extremely disappointed also that at the same time we hold 
veterans and the administration accountable for terrorist attacks, and 
we expect the VA, which has one of the best health systems in this 
country with clinics and hospitals throughout this country, and it 
would be the best one equipped to respond, yet we have not provided the 
resources that they need in order to make that happen.

                              {time}  2015

  And there are little games that are being played that, yes, provide 
the resources. The reality is that every single veterans organization 
has asked just for this year alone an additional $3 billion, not to 
mention next year and the following year. Right now we need $3 billion 
additional resources just to take care of our veterans here in this 
country. At the same time, we allow $2 billion to go to the Iraqis 
people for health care. Of that, close to $80 billion supplemental that 
we did.
  It would be interesting for some of the Members here to look at what 
that $80 billion is going for in Iraq, to build some of the schools 
when at the same time we have not taken the time to look at providing 
resources to build our own schools. It also provides resources to build 
up their hospitals when we have not provided our money and we are 
cutting our disproportional share for our own hospitals in country.
  It just does not make sense, Mr. Speaker, and it does not make sense 
for the President to go around this country to talk about the 
irresponsible tax cut when the money is not even there and we have not 
taken care of our debt. We need to take care of our debt. We need to 
pay for this war. We

[[Page H3442]]

have got to make sure that we provide for our veterans. We have got to 
make sure that we provide for our future, which is our kids, and we 
have got to make sure that we provide access to healthcare for all 
Americans who find themselves in that difficulty.
  It is embarrassing to be here and say that we have the best 
healthcare in the system; yet it is unaffordable and unaccessible to 
the majority of Americans when 41 million find themselves without 
access to insurance. That is un-American, and we really need to ensure 
that we can make it accessible to all of them.
  As I conclude here tonight, I want to just indicate how important it 
is for us to refocus our attention in the area of healthcare. We need 
to make sure, and I appeal to all Americans, that we need to put 
people, both Republicans and Democrats, on the line on the House, on 
the Senate, and those in administration, to make sure they do the right 
thing for our seniors when it comes to prescription drug coverage. We 
have not done that. We have had a lot of talk, but there has been 
nothing. And people have asked me back home and they continue to ask me 
``Mr. Rodriguez, what are you doing on healthcare?'' And I tell them 
the problem is the President is interested in a tax cut. If that 
happens, there is nothing else to talk about when the budget 
predetermines everything. So we need to make sure we zero in on the 
issues of healthcare and addressing the problems. And we get elected to 
address problems and we are expected to address those problems.
  So I am hoping that we, at some point, begin to not only dialogue 
about healthcare, but address the problems. I am sure the 
administration, when the election year comes around, he is going to 
talk a great deal about healthcare. But the key is what are we doing 
about it? What kind resources are we putting into it? Because the 
bottom line is we can say everything we want to say, but what have we 
done? So when all is said and done, I would ask that we hold all the 
Congressman and all the Senators accountable, as well as the 
administration, including myself, as to what we have done to basically 
solve the problems that confront our communities with the uninsured 
that we find in this country.

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