[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 23516]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE 108TH CONGRESS

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will be very brief. I just want to make a 
few more comments since we have a few minutes before 12:30 and I see we 
do have another Senator in the Chamber who is desiring to speak.
  Over the 108th Congress, we have worked hard to move America forward. 
Indeed, we have gotten results. We have an economy now that is 
rebounding with job growth that is robust; 2.4 million jobs have been 
created since August of last year with 14 straight months of job gains. 
We have unemployment down from its 6.3 percent peak last year. 
Unemployment rates have fallen across categories of race and age and 
all levels of education. Inflation remains low. Interest rates remain 
low. Our tax cuts clearly have had a huge effect on the economy. 
Americans today enjoy more of their hard-earned money to spend, to 
save, to invest as they choose. We have home ownership at an all-time 
high including among African Americans, where it is at an all-time 
high. Health care security has made huge advances.
  We have a lot more to do. Many of these issues played out in the 
recent elections. I think, as we all begin to plan for the next 
Congress, clearly health care will remain high on that agenda. We have 
a lot to be proud of in this Congress in addressing health care 
security for seniors, addressing Medicare modernization, strengthening 
of Medicare with the biggest reform package in the last 40 years. All 
this translates down to better health care security for seniors and 
individuals with disabilities.
  For the first time, Medicare will cover the most powerful tool we 
have in medicine today and that is prescription drugs. That is a huge 
service to seniors to give them the health care security they deserve. 
That is a good first step. Again, we have to come back and look and 
make sure we continue to strengthen Medicare over time.
  Over the last week, as I traveled around the country, I have taken 
the opportunity to ask about these drug discount cards we have made 
available through Medicare. Indeed, 4 million seniors today have these 
Medicare discount cards that give them discounts of 10 percent to 25 
percent, which they simply did not have before we passed that 
legislation.
  I do want to remind low-income seniors who have not yet signed up for 
one of those prescription drug cards that if you sign up for one of 
those cards, it has, in addition to those discounts, $1,200 of value on 
it and $600 of that value will go away after January 1 of next year. So 
I encourage you to sign up for those cards. If you have any questions, 
as most seniors know, you can call 1-800-MEDICARE and have those 
questions answered.
  Health savings accounts--a lot is being written about them in the 
newspapers today. In fact, in the Federal Employees Health Benefits 
Plan, medical savings accounts for the first time will be made an 
option for us in the Senate and for the 8 or 9 or 10 million Federal 
employees around the country. Indeed, I look forward to signing up for 
a health savings account myself here as we reenroll in the next several 
weeks.
  The President's agenda for the upcoming Congress is going to be 
vigorous. I had the opportunity to meet with the President yesterday, 
and with the Speaker of the House. Although we focused mainly on 
finishing the work over the course of this week, as I mentioned in my 
opening statement, I am very excited about the agenda, the vision that 
is laid out for next year.
  As I also said in my opening comments, I look forward to working 
aggressively across the aisle, with civility, in a bipartisan way, as 
we address this agenda that the American people really deserve. The 
issues are many. We will have the opportunity to discuss those in the 
future.
  Mr. President, we are back for a short period of time. It is real 
clear, in terms of what we have to accomplish. We are not going to be 
doing a lot of new business because we have much unfinished business to 
do.
  I do welcome my colleagues back. Over the next several days there 
will be opportunity for tributes for Senators who are retiring and 
leaving this body. The Democratic caucus just had their leadership 
elections and I want to congratulate each one of those new leaders and 
will do so formally, not quite now but a little bit later, in phone 
calls to them. We have our leadership elections tomorrow. I look 
forward, leadership to leadership, to working in a vigorous, robust way 
to accomplish the agenda before the American people.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is no unanimous consent required. 
The Senator is authorized to speak for 5 minutes.

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