[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 23327]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    LEADERSHIP LACKING ON HMO REFORM

  (Mr. GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks).
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted a one minute at an 
unusual time of the day because this House has passed one of the 
strongest HMO reform bills that I have seen. We passed it over a year 
ago, and yet this bill still languishes in its House-Senate conference 
committee. Obviously we need more effort to make sure that we pass a 
national HMO reform bill.
  This issue is important to the voters, and it has been, and that is 
why when I listened to the presidential debates last night, I heard it 
come up a number of times, how we needed a strong managed care reform 
or HMO reform bill.
  Let me set the record straight: the Texas legislature passed a bill 
in 1995 that was a strong HMO reform bill. In 1995, the Texas 
legislature passed a strong HMO reform bill. It was vetoed by Governor 
Bush. In 1997, they passed another bill that became law without his 
signature. Last night, listening to the debates, you would have thought 
there had been a lot of exercise in leadership on HMO reform in the 
Governor's office in Texas.
  What we need is strong leadership in the White House for an HMO 
reform bill, because it does not look like it is going to happen this 
year. So next year we will need it. Our bill, the Dingell-Norwood bill, 
was actually patterned after the Texas law of 1997.
  So, just like you want to hear the rest of the story, the whole point 
is that we need strong HMO reform legislation, it needs to pass the 
House and the Senate, and it needs to have the aggressive activity from 
a chief executive in the President of the United States. I would hope 
that the people would realize for the record who is embellishing their 
record now.

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