[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 123 (Wednesday, September 28, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10625-S10626]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   EMERGENCY HEALTHCARE RELIEF FOR THE SURVIVORS OF HURRICANE KATRINA

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, before the chairman leaves the floor--he 
has put in a long day today and has some more things probably to do 
this evening--I wish to thank him for his extraordinary leadership at 
this time and also the Senator from Montana who was here earlier. They 
have been working on this bill now for weeks because they are aware of 
the great need, the extraordinary need of the people from the State I 
represent, Louisiana, but also our neighbors now in Texas and in 
Mississippi and in Alabama.
  As the Senator from Iowa knows, and the Senator from Montana, this is 
the largest natural disaster in the history of the United States. We 
had one hurricane and major levee failings in a region with over 2 
million people. Then on the heels of it, we have had another hurricane, 
not quite as large but equally as damaging to some rural areas, Mr. 
President, that you are very familiar with, not big cities but small 
cities that are gone. They are just gone. There is no more city. There 
is no more community.
  All along the gulf coast--you can ask the Senators from Mississippi--
Waveland and Biloxi and Cameron Parish, 10,000 people lived there 5 
days ago. No one lives there today.
  I flew over the other day. There is one building, the courthouse 
building, that stood in the Audrey hurricane, it stood in the Rita 
hurricane. When we rebuilt the Cameron Parish, I told them: Go find the 
architect who built that courthouse because we are going need to have 
everything built that way if we are going to live here.
  This was not a coast of people sunbathing at resorts or second homes. 
These were people running our pipelines, our gas lines, our fishing 
industry. These were people running the refineries, the infrastructure 
that is on that coast. They didn't just go there in the last decade to 
retire. Their families have been there for generations, all along this 
gulf coast. When they went there, there was more land and more 
protection. But because they are not super rich and because they did 
not have a lot of extra money and because over a lot of decades the 
Federal Government did not do what it should--maybe we all missed a 
little bit here or there--the land is washed away. They find themselves 
more vulnerable.
  But they are not sunbathing down there. They are working on the 
ports, on the oil and gas industry, and they desperately need our help. 
These people need immediate medical attention and care. As a doctor, 
you can understand the anxiety of people who do not know where to go 
for health care. They are in strange places. They need to be qualified.
  This has been well researched by the staffs. We have had input, of 
course, Senator Vitter and myself, but this comes straight from the 
Finance Committee, to extend what is already in the law for people to 
help them get coverage for 5 months, just 5 months until people can 
catch their breath, get up on their feet, try to find their families, 
make decisions. They lost their homes. They lost their business.

  It also helps private employers. I have had private employers, little 
ones, medium ones, and big ones pouring into my office. And this is 
what they say: Senator, we are not leaving. We want to stay. We are 
going to exhaust the money in our bank accounts to keep our employees 
whole. But could you please ask the Federal Government to give us a 
little help here? We want to keep their coverage. We want to keep our 
employees. We want them to come back. We don't want our companies to 
leave. But a lot of them had to leave. They had no choice. They are 
going to Oklahoma, they are going to Houston but at a lot of cost.
  I talked to a gas pipeline company. They are having their employees 
come back this weekend right in Cameron Parish. But they need our help.
  One of the things this bill does is it helps them--if they were 
giving insurance to their people--continue to give private insurance. 
If some companies had to leave temporarily, their employees can still 
get private coverage through a program that already exists.
  The chairman and the ranking member put their heads together and 
said, Let us do this for 5 months.
  I know there is an objection, because some have expressed a few 
objections, that said let us not extend it to all States, let us keep 
it targeted to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas.
  We thought about that. But the reason there is one provision that 
allows the other States to keep their Medicaid, 100-percent 
reimbursement, is because they have taken a lot of our people. Arkansas 
didn't have a hurricane, but they took our people. They had 75,000 
people.
  So if we cut the State of Arkansas' health care benefits which may go 
into effect soon, that is what we were anticipating. It puts so much 
strain on Arkansas for the 75,000 people.
  We think it is reasonable to ask for a 5-month waiver for all of the 
States just to help us through this difficult period.
  We are not trying to expand a Government program. We are trying to 
use what is available now in the law and extend it to millions of 
people who need help immediately.
  It is not everything we need in health care. We still have problems 
with losses because companies are out of business. Doctors who want to 
stay have no place to work. Even if they showed up to the hospital to 
work, the city of New Orleans is still virtually empty. It is a large 
city. One-half our population has been impacted. Almost half, 4.5 
million people, live in the southern part of our State.
  Everyone has been impacted by these two disasters. A large population 
in Texas, a large population in Mississippi, and a medium-sized 
population in Alabama have been affected, but not to the level that, of 
course, Louisiana has taken. It has taken a hit to its major 
metropolitan area, as well as then being followed up by another major 
hit to the rural area to the western side of our State.
  I say ``rural''--there are good-sized cities, such as Lake Charles 
and other cities that are in that area.
  We have large cities, medium-sized cities, and small villages and 
communities--such as Cameron--that have been very hard hit.
  It is very important that we try to work through whatever the 
difficulties might be. We don't have that much time.
  If we can move on this package in the next day or two, and work out 
whatever objections there are, I think it would be a great signal to 
send from this Congress.
  I know we have to get it past the House. I know we have to get it 
signed by the President. But the President has been to our State many 
times. I have been with him on almost every trip. He has assured me 
that he understands that people are in desperate need, and he wants to 
see the Federal Government use the resources that we have to meet that 
need. I know we can't do everything. But this is minimal. This is basic 
coverage for people who have nothing right now.
  While churches are helping and while the private employers are doing 
a good job, private employers cannot take on more risk than is their 
fiduciary responsibility. They have a responsibility to their 
stakeholders, to their shareholders, and to their board of directors. 
They cannot run charities.
  That is why we have the role of Government. That is why we have to 
step up and meet them halfway.
  I am proud of our employers, but they need our help. The business 
community needs us to be a partner, and part of this bill would do 
that.
  I see the Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a question 
through the Chair?
  I came on the floor late. I heard Senator Baucus and Senator Grassley 
talk about this bill. I want to try to bring it down to the most basic 
information, so if someone misses the debate, they will understand what 
we are talking about.
  This is generally what we are trying to do. We are taking people who 
are displaced out of their homes, out of their jobs, out of their 
communities because of the hurricanes--people who, frankly, are going 
through a lot of personal and family hardship at this moment--and 
saying that one thing we

[[Page S10626]]

are going to help you with immediately is to make sure that you have 
health care. If you qualify, you would have Medicaid--that is for 
people in the lower income categories--or if you had private health 
insurance where you used to work in a business that has gone away, we 
are going to step in here for 5 months and say, We are going to give 
you this peace of mind. You will know that you have health insurance.
  Is that what this bill does?
  Ms. LANDRIEU. That is what this bill does.
  Mr. DURBIN. I understand that this is a bipartisan bill that Senator 
Grassley, Republican of Iowa, Senator Baucus, a Democrat of Montana, 
have written to make sure that the millions of people who have been 
displaced will have basic health care.
  Is that is what this bill does?
  Ms. LANDRIEU. The Senator is correct. That is what this bill does. 
Senator Vitter from Louisiana and Senator Landrieu--and I am almost 
certain that every Senator of the affected States--have signed off on 
this, asked for it and said ``yes.'' We desperately need it.
  Mr. DURBIN. I would like to ask the Senator how many times she has 
brought this bill to the floor. How many times have we tried to provide 
this basic health care, basic protection to these victims of Hurricane 
Katrina and Hurricane Rita so far?
  Ms. LANDRIEU. I believe the Senator from Iowa and the Senator from 
Montana have been working on this for 2 weeks. We are into our fourth 
week of Katrina and the first week of Rita.
  But again, it is the largest natural disaster that has hit the 
Continental United States. We are getting ready to rebuild, after we 
work out our differences, a major American city for the first time 
since the Civil War and the region that surrounds it. We are learning 
as we go. There is not a textbook to follow. So we have to use our 
common sense. We have to trust each other on some of these things.
  The Senator from Iowa and the Senator from Montana have run this 
committee, and their members have put a great bill together that is 
modest but so needed.
  I am hoping the Senator from Illinois can help us figure out how to 
move this legislation quickly.
  Mr. DURBIN. If the Senator would further yield for a question through 
the Chair, I thought our biggest complaint about the Federal 
Government's response to Katrina was that, even when we were warned, we 
weren't ready. Many of us are calling for a nonpartisan, independent 
commission to answer some basic questions. Why weren't we ready? But 
when it comes to this issue about health care for the victims of 
Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, we know what the need is. And 
apparently, because of objections heard on the floor of the Senate, we 
are delaying, postponing, this basic health care for these victims of 
this hurricane.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. That is what it seems to be. It is unfortunate.
  I am hoping, through the Chair to the Senator from Illinois--and I 
see that our minority leader from Nevada is here with us--that we could 
do our best in the next 24 hours, either through action on this floor 
or meetings, to answer questions that a few Senators may have. I have 
heard objections, such as too much corruption. We have problems with 
Mississippi spending money and corruption, but we shouldn't blame these 
people. All they want is health care benefits. We can fix that issue. 
We can work on that issue.
  But let us not hold up health care to people until we get the system 
perfect. If that is the case, we should stop working tonight. The 
system is never going to be perfect. It can be better.
  Let us not take it out on these people. They have already been 
victimized outside of any of their control.
  The Senator should know that one of the objections was that we 
shouldn't expand a Government program.
  But again, I just want to reiterate to the Senator that this is not 
an expansion. It is in the law. It is 5 months of special help to 
people who need it and to people who have private insurance that have 
lost it and can't have it, if we don't meet their employers halfway.
  The only expansion for the country is to say in the next 5 months the 
Federal Government will not cut any State's Medicaid Program because so 
many of our States are helping our people. Again, in Arkansas, 75,000. 
It would not be fair to Arkansas, even though they didn't get hit by 
the hurricane, to cut their State program when they are absorbing some 
many extra people from Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi.
  I think that makes common sense.
  I see the Senator from Nevada. Maybe he can shed some light on this.
  I will yield the floor. I have spent the time and more than I was 
asked for.
  I thank the Senators who are here who are trying to get this 
important bill passed by the end of the week.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Vitter). The Senator from Nevada.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I want the Record to be spread with my 
appreciation for the statements made today by Senator Baucus, Senator 
Landrieu, and Senator Durbin regarding this most important issue. We 
saw with Katrina that we have in America a safety net that has some 
holes in it. We saw in graphic description some of the people fell 
through that safety net.
  That is what this is all about--helping medically. The poorest of the 
poor in our country are helped by Medicaid. That is what this is all 
about.
  For those people who are watching this, who are listening, this is an 
instance where there is a bipartisan measure that is now before the 
Senate that should pass. The Finance Committee, under the direction of 
Senators Grassley and Baucus--Republican and Democrat--came up with 
this most important piece of legislation. They did it. They worked it 
out. No one can challenge the conservative credentials of either of 
these Senators. They are both fiscally sound. They do good work for 
their Finance Committee.
  There are a few people on the Republican side of the aisle who are 
holding this up. It is not right. No one wants to waste money for 
Katrina. No one wants to waste money with the billions of dollars that 
will be spent with Katrina.
  I would be happy if Congress selected someone to be a czar to make 
sure the money was spent properly.
  But here we have people who are waiting. This is going for 5 months. 
They will be waiting for the most simple medical measures that would 
help them--and help the States that are taking care of them.
  The State of Arkansas alone has 60,000 evacuees, most of whom, in 
some way or another, their family member, would qualify for some part 
of this.
  It is the right thing to do to help States such as Arkansas.

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