[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10140-10141]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 THE DISTINGUISHED CAREER OF JAY CUTLER

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I welcome this opportunity to pay tribute 
to the distinguished career of Jay Cutler, who is retiring this year as 
the Director of Government Relations and Special Counsel for the 
American Psychiatric Association, where he has served for 25 years. 
During that quarter century he has been a powerful advocate for 
America's psychiatrists, for the patients they serve, and for the 
broader cause of mental health. He is well known to virtually every 
Senator as an outstanding advocate and a fine human being.
  I first came to know Jay many years ago, when he served on what was 
then known as the Senate Human Resources Committee and is today our 
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Jay was Senator Jacob 
Javits' top staff person on the committee. I worked closely with him on 
a wide range of issues, especially on health care.
  Jay's career has had a remarkable breadth and depth. There is no 
cause in which he has been more deeply involved than better treatment 
for persons suffering from mental illness and substance abuse. Over the 
course of his career, there has been a remarkable shift in the 
perception of mental illness and substance abuse by policy makers and 
the public. The Nation has made a remarkable transition from the long 
held and destructive view that mental illness and substance abuse are 
character flaws, and has achieved a new understanding, that they are 
diseases which can and should receive the best treatment that medical 
science can provide. In many ways, Jay's tireless dedication to the 
cause of mental illness reform and substance abuse treatment has been 
at the core of this profound shift in public awareness and 
understanding of these disorders.
  Among many other accomplishments during Jay's years in the Senate 
tenure, he had played the central staff role in the drafting, 
introduction and passage of the landmark Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse 
and Alcoholism Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Act of 1970, 
P.L. 91-616, that established the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse 
and Alcoholism. He worked side by side with Senator Javits and Senator 
Harold Hughes to change the perception of national policymakers towards 
alcoholism and the effects of alcohol abuse.
  As a Senate aide and later as APA's Director of Government Relations, 
Jay had a direct impact on virtually every major bill on health policy 
and mental illness and substance abuse treatment legislation over more 
than 30 years. Even a selective list of the policies and laws that bear 
Jay's imprint includes: the landmark Employee Retirement Income 
Security Act; expansion of the community mental health centers program; 
public oversight to protect patients in mental health treatment against 
abuse; reauthorization and reorganization of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, 
and Mental Health Administration; the exemption of psychiatric 
hospitals and units from the Medicare prospective payment methodology, 
ensuring their fiscal viability for nearly 20 years; the expansion of 
Medicare's limited coverage of outpatient treatment for mental illness, 
first by lifting the $250 annual dollar limit to $500, then to $1,200, 
and ultimately repealing the discriminatory dollar limit altogether; 
enactment of the landmark 1996 Federal Mental Health Parity Act; 
increased funding for veterans', children's, and Indian mental health 
services; medical records privacy legislation, especially assuring the 
confidentiality of medical records for psychiatric and substance abuse 
treatment.
  The historic decision by President Clinton to issue an Executive 
Order requiring non-discriminatory coverage of treatment for mental 
illness, including alcohol and substance abuse disorders, in the 
Federal Employees' Health Benefits Program; the APA's successful 
efforts to enact ``parity'' laws in some 30 States; the bipartisan 
national campaign to double the NIH research budget, including the 
budgets on mental illness and substance abuse disorders.
  For more than 30 years, Jay has dedicated his professional career to 
the eradication of any stigma against persons with mental illness, 
including those struggling with alcohol and substance abuse disorders. 
He has greatly assisted in educating the public and key national 
policymakers on these vital issues. he has also been at the forefront 
of efforts to eliminate discrimination against persons with mental 
illness. He has a record that few can

[[Page 10141]]

match as an advocate for education, research, and treatment of all 
mental disorders.
  Jay's personal qualities have not only contributed immeasurably to 
his success but have made him countless friends in the Senate, the 
House, administrations of both parties, and the health policy 
community. All his interactions are marked by an extraordinary degree 
of candor and openness and by the incisive intellect and political 
skill that has made him a valuable counselor to so many of us.
  Jay has always fought hard and effectively for the interests of the 
physicians represented by the American Psychiatric Association. Jay's 
wisest counsel to the APA was to place the public policy needs of its 
patients first. To his enduring credit, throughout Jay's service as 
Director of Government Relations, APA could be relied upon to fight 
just as hard for its patients as its members.
  No tribute to Jay can fail to mention Jay's beloved wife and lifelong 
partner, Randy. When the APA hired Jay Cutler, it got Randy as part of 
the deal. Her generosity of spirit, keen intellect, and strong 
commitment have meant the world to Jay, to his colleagues at the APA, 
and to the nation.
  Throughout his remarkable career, Jay Cutler--with Randy Cutler 
beside him--has worked to improve the lives of millions of Americans 
who, for no fault of their own, have struggled to overcome mental 
illness. Much of the distance that we have come in recognizing their 
needs and meeting them over the years of Jay's outstanding services and 
dedication is the result of Jay's ability.
  On the occasion of Jay's retirement, I comment his brilliant service 
to Congress, to the American Psychiatric Association, and to the 
millions of Americans with mental illness. I wish Jay and Randy great 
happiness and success as they begin this new chapter in their lives.

                          ____________________