[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 28188]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   WE NEED A PATIENTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

  (Mrs. JONES of Ohio asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, this morning I rise to join my 
colleagues in lamenting legislation important to my constituents and 
the American people that the Republican leadership has ignored. I am 
speaking about gun safety, prescription drug benefits, the Patients' 
Bill of Rights and campaign finance reform.
  The Republican leadership has disregarded the American people and 
killed these measures for this session of Congress. Democrats still 
believe we can get action on agendas that matter to reduce class size 
and raise student achievement by providing for local schools to hire 
100,000 new teachers, make our neighborhoods safer and build on the 
progress we have made over the last 7 years in reducing violent crime 
by funding 50,000 new police officers. We are committed to safeguarding 
the environment.
  Another year, another Republican Congress that ignores the needs of 
middle class families; more interest in providing a trillion dollar tax 
cut for corporate and special interests, but they do not care about 
finding a dime for Medicare prescription drugs for seniors and now they 
are at the beck and call of the HMO lobbyists but they have failed to 
send a bipartisan Patients' Bill of Rights to Congress. It is time for 
all of these programs to get in place now more than ever.

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