[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 106 (Thursday, September 9, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8979-S8980]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CONCERNS IN SOUTH DAKOTA

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, each year, I travel through South Dakota, 
talking to people where they live and work, in the cafes where they 
meet, the schools where they send their children, the ranches and sale 
barns where they hope that this year will bring better prices than the 
last, the farms where they raise their crops--anywhere people gather to 
discuss what matters to them.
  Every year, I get to all 66 counties, and every year, I marvel at the 
incredible range of opinions and perspectives I encounter along the 
way.
  But there is another thing that was striking to me this year--and 
that is the fact that wherever I was, I heard from different people 
from different backgrounds a lot of the same hopes, and a lot of the 
same concerns.
  People have a sense of uncertainty. They are uncertain about the 
progress in the war on terror and the war in Iraq, and they are anxious 
about the economy--not just about their own jobs, and their own health 
care, but also about whether their communities and their way of life 
are going to survive.
  In the past few years, whenever I have traveled home, I have sensed 
the strength of those feelings. And for many of the people I have met, 
those feelings are growing stronger.
  South Dakotans are intensely proud of the valor of our troops serving 
in Iraq and Afghanistan--and I share that pride. But ours is a small 
State, and when South Dakotans talk about ``the troops,'' they are not 
talking about some abstract concept. They are talking about friends and 
loved ones. They are talking about a person who is not there behind the 
counter when they go to work, or a side of the bed that lies empty.
  South Dakota is contributing more troops to our war effort than all 
but seven other countries.
  And so, while South Dakotans support our troops, they also know 
better than most that support in words is not enough.
  While I was home last month, I met a young man named Tyler Neuharth, 
who was on leave from Iraq and was just a week away from being sent 
back. He was proud to serve. But he was also looking forward to 
returning to college, and he wanted some sense of how long he would be 
deployed so he could plan for his education and his future.
  I spoke to a woman whose husband has been in Iraq for over a year-
and-a-half, and she and her young son just learned that the earliest 
they can hope to see him home is the end of this year.
  And I met Lloyd Dejung, who talked about how his unit in Iraq was 
building bridges in flak jackets that, in his words, you could poke a 
hole through with a knife.
  Our Guard and Reserve troops deserve the same state-of-the-art 
equipment as active duty personnel. They should get honest answers 
about when they're coming home. And while they are fighting for their 
country, they should not have to worry about whether they will have to 
fight for their jobs, or for health care, or for their education once 
they return home.
  That is why, tomorrow, I will be introducing a National Guard and 
Reserve Bill of Rights--to say to all our soldiers: You have met your 
duty to your country, and your country will meet its duty to you.
  South Dakotans are fiercely proud, and fiercely independent. When you 
talk to them, they will tell you what you can do to help a neighbor or 
a friend, but it takes a little while to get people talking about their 
own concerns. But when they do, there are a couple of things you hear 
over and over. They are worried about their jobs, they are worried 
about their health and their health care, and they are worried that as 
jobs become more scarce and health care becomes ever less affordable 
and less available, they are going to lose something else, too. They 
are worried that the strain these things place on the fabric of their 
communities will become just too much, and that their communities and 
their way of life just won't be able to survive.
  These are concerns I heard everywhere I went, and they are concerns 
that we here in Washington have the power to do something about.
  More than any time in my memory, people were telling me they needed 
two and three jobs--not to get ahead, not to save for a house or their 
child's education, but simply to make their monthly bills. Many good 
manufacturing jobs have left the State, and it is getting more 
difficult to find a full-time job that pays a wage good enough to raise 
a family.
  I visited the town of Elk Point. A lot of the folks in Elk Point work 
about 20 minutes down the road in North Sioux City, where there is a 
Gateway plant. That plant has been cutting jobs, sending them to India. 
That plant is now down to 2,000 employees from a high of 6,000.
  The people I met simply can not understand how this administration's 
top economic adviser and its Secretary of Labor can both say that 
outsourcing of jobs is good for the economy.
  In Yankton, 10 percent of the work force is in manufacturing. I spoke 
to the owner of a company that makes road construction equipment. He 
said that he has had to cut jobs because we have not passed a highway 
bill.
  The Senate version of the highway bill would create 6,500 jobs in 
South Dakota and over 1.7 million new jobs nationwide. Our 
infrastructure, our economy, and our communities need this bill.
  Closely tied to concerns about jobs are concerns about health care.
  In Huron, a woman came up to me at a meeting. She told me that her 
husband had been laid off from his job in February. They went on COBRA 
for a while, but it was expensive, and this month it ran out anyway. 
They both have health concerns, and they don't know what they are going 
to do.
  Just a couple of nights ago, another woman approached me. She told me 
about her brother, who has diabetes.
  He is 60 years old. He works 40 hours a week. He also took a paper 
route to earn some more money. But neither of his two jobs offers 
health insurance, so he doesn't have any. He has begun losing feeling 
in his legs, but he has not seen a doctor because he does not think he 
can afford to. A 60-year old man, working full-time and then some, can 
not afford to go see a doctor. In this country, in this century, that 
is a disgrace.

[[Page S8980]]

  Everywhere I go, people are worried that their health care costs are 
rising. If they have health care through their jobs, they are afraid 
they might lose it. If they are paying for it themselves, they are 
afraid they can not afford it any longer. I think every American should 
have access to the same affordable health care options that members of 
Congress have.
  At the very least, there are a number of steps we can take 
immediately. We should be providing health coverage to uninsured 
parents who have children eligible for Medicaid and the State 
Children's Health Insurance Program, and I think we should let States 
have the option of covering pregnant women and children until the age 
of 20.
  We should create a tax credit to help small business owners provide 
health care coverage for their employees. Most employers I talked to 
want to provide health insurance; they are just having an increasingly 
difficult time affording it.
  This is a crisis, and we need to confront it. The ideas are there. We 
need the leadership.
  Out in our small towns and farming and ranching communities, those 
concerns add up to one that is even greater--that a way of life is 
being lost. I have been visiting these communities for more than 25 
years. There is nothing more gratifying to me than to see a family 
farmer or rancher raise their children up, teach them how to farm, and 
then pass their land down to them. But it is happening less frequently 
these days.
  More often, children are forced to leave the communities they know 
and the families they love to find work in other places. They do not 
want to leave. But they can not find work good enough to allow them to 
raise a family. And so the way of life their families have enjoyed for 
generations is being lost.
  But there is something else shared by the people I saw, and the 
places I visited: determination.
  They are determined to make tomorrow better than today. You put them 
on a job, and they will work harder, and longer, and better than any 
worker in the world. You give our farmers and ranchers a fair price for 
what they produce and they will feed the world. You respect the service 
and protect the rights of our Guard and Reserve, and they will always 
step up to serve.
  That is why I ask that in the time we have left in this session of 
Congress, we hear these concerns and act on them.
  Yes, I saw anxiety and uncertainty. But I also saw pride and 
determination. I saw people willing to work together to make life 
better for their families, and strengthen their communities. That is 
what South Dakotans have always done.
  If we adopt the same sense of patriotism and common purpose I saw 
across South Dakota, I have no doubt that we can make the short time we 
have left this year a time of accomplishment for the people we serve, 
to help them meet the challenges they face.


                    Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

  There is one other serious public health challenge I want to mention 
this morning. It is a challenge I first learned about years ago during 
visits to Indian reservations in South Dakota. It is called Fetal 
Alcohol Spectrum Disorders--FASD, for short.
  FASD is an umbrella term that describes a range of physical and 
mental birth defects that can occur in a fetus when a pregnant woman 
drinks alcohol. It is a leading cause of mental retardation in America. 
It is also 100 percent preventable when women abstain from alcohol 
during pregnancy.
  Every year in America, an estimated 40,000 babies are born with FASD, 
costing Americans more than $3 billion each year in direct health care 
costs, and many times that amount in lost human potential. You can find 
FASD in every community in America. Native, non-native, rich, poor it 
doesn't discriminate.
  Today is an important day in America's fight against this devastating 
disorder. It is America's first National Fetal Alcohol Spectrum 
Disorders Day.
  I thank Senator Murkowski for sponsoring this resolution establishing 
national FASD day. I was proud to be a cosponsor.
  Fifteen years ago, my wife Linda and I and a group of friends founded 
an organization that we called NOFAS, the National Organization of 
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Back then when we met in the living room of a 
very dear friend, Terry Lierman, there were not many of us to talk 
about these issues. And scientists and doctors understood very little 
about FAS. But we have learned an extraordinary amount since then. 
National FASD day will help us get the knowledge we have learned out to 
the people who need it the most.
  We can save so many children and save families so much heartache 
simply by increasing people's awareness of what FASD is and how we can 
prevent it.
  But we can't stop there. We need to continue to research and do more 
to help people who are living with FASD make the most of their God-
given talents and abilities.
  In 1998, I was proud to be the lead sponsor of legislation that 
created an FASD prevention and services program and a national task 
force on FAS and fetal alcohol effect.
  Two months ago, I introduced a bill called the Advancing FASD 
Research, Prevention, and Services Act. My bill would identify areas 
for additional research by the National Institutes of Health.
  It would improve coordination among Federal agencies involved in FASD 
treatment and research, and establish statewide FASD systems and local 
community partnerships--like a model partnership that is already up and 
running in South Dakota and other Midwestern States.
  It would improve support services for families who are living with 
FASD. And it would strengthen educational outreach efforts to doctors, 
teachers, judges and others whose work puts them in contact with people 
with FASD, or with women who might be at risk of drinking during 
pregnancy.
  Forty-thousand American children a year are born with FASD. We cannot 
leave these children behind, either. Whatever investments we make in 
FASD prevention, research and treatment will pay for themselves many 
times over in reduced health care costs and increased human potential.
  Over the last 15 years, we have unlocked many of the mysteries 
surrounding FASD--and many more answers are just inches beyond our 
reach. As we observe this first National Fetal Alcohol Spectrum 
Disorders Day, I ask my colleagues to take the next necessary steps in 
the fight against this devastating but completely preventable disorder. 
Before this Congress ends, let us pass the Advancing FASD Research, 
Prevention, and Services Act.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before the distinguished leader leaves the 
floor, I knew the minority leader was going to speak on fetal alcohol 
syndrome. But I ask the distinguished Senator from South Dakota--I have 
in my library a book that he recommended written by someone from South 
Dakota on this subject, a book on this terrible problem that affects a 
lot of different people, especially in Indian country. I have never 
forgotten that book. It was something I had never heard of until I read 
that book. Does the Senator remember that book?
  Mr. DASCHLE. I do so well. I have shared it with many people. I thank 
the Senator from Nevada, my dear friend and colleague, for sharing that 
observation. Michael Dorris is the author's name. The name of the book 
is ``The Broken Cord.'' Michael introduced me to this whole issue. He 
tells the story in his book about two children in South Dakota who had 
fetal alcohol syndrome. Both have passed away. Both struggled mightily 
for years. And, of course, the extraordinary problems that the family 
had to confront are all accounted for in that book. Unfortunately, we 
lost Michael a few years ago, a powerful advocate for a national 
advocacy for addressing this issue. But I only hope more people will 
read that book. I appreciate the fact that my friend called it to the 
attention of our colleagues this morning.
  I yield the floor.

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