[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 22183-22184]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SENATOR PAUL WELLSTONE

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in a few moments there will be a number of 
resolutions offered on the floor of the Senate on a variety of 
different issues. Some of them have been spoken to. A resolution which 
I have offered is related to the fact that we are in the fourth year of 
an anniversary of the death of our colleague Senator Paul Wellstone of 
Minnesota.
  I look back on a career of service in the House and Senate and 
remember a handful of very special people who passed on or left this 
institution. One of those was Paul Wellstone. What an extraordinary 
fellow. The most unlikely Senator you would ever see. He just didn't 
look the part at all. Maybe that is why he did so well in Minnesota and 
was so effective here. He was cut from a different mold. He used to sit 
back here in the last row, and he would stand and speak. He would stand 
in the middle of the aisle as he spoke and would kind of saunter 
around. He had a back injury from wrestling. He loved wrestling; not 
the kind you see on television but real collegiate wrestling. His 
involvement in wrestling cost him some back injuries that haunted him 
his entire life. So he would walk with a kind of a cantered gait as he 
went back and forth on the aisle and all around the Senate.
  But people didn't remember that part. They remembered what he had to 
say and they remembered what was in his heart. Paul Wellstone used to 
say that he thought there were two necessary ingredients for success in 
public service. One was hard work; the other was passion. He had both 
of them. Nobody worked harder for everything he believed in and for his 
State of Minnesota, and nobody came to these issues with more passion.
  I can recall the last time I saw him. He was a few feet away from me 
here. It was the night we cast our vote on the Iraqi war. It was a vote 
that was a hard one. Nobody cared for Saddam Hussein. Nobody wanted to 
see him continue in power. We certainly wanted to protect our country. 
But there were genuine concerns felt by many of us as to whether we 
really understood what lie ahead in that war, the threat to the United 
States, and whether we were being told everything we needed to know.
  Twenty-three of us voted against the war that night. I was one, Paul 
Wellstone was another. It was even later than now that night, and I 
came to the well on the floor to say goodbye to Paul because we were 
both off for the reelection campaigns of 4 years ago. I came over to 
wish him well, and I said, ``Paul, I hope that vote doesn't cost you 
the election.'' He said, ``You know, it is OK if it does because that 
is what I believe and that is who I am. The people of Minnesota would 
expect nothing less from me.'' It was the last time I ever saw him. He 
went home, and within 2 weeks he was killed in a plane crash with his 
wife and staff members.
  I went up to the memorial service for Paul. There was an amazing 
turnout at the University of Minnesota in tribute to this small-in-
stature but great-in-service Senator from Minnesota. The one thing that 
he returned to over and over again was the issue of fairness and equal 
treatment for those suffering from mental illness. Paul's family had 
been stricken with mental illness, and hardly any family in America has 
been spared. He knew firsthand what it meant to suffer from mental 
illness and not be able to afford a doctor's care or the medicine 
needed by people who are suffering from it. He worked with Senator 
Domenici from New Mexico, a Republican, on passage of legislation for 
equal treatment under health insurance for those suffering from mental 
illness.
  The Surgeon General determined in a 1999 report that mental illness 
is largely biologically based and effective treatments exist. It is a 
disease that can be treated. In 1996, Senators Domenici and Wellstone 
championed a bill requiring insurers to offer mental health care and to 
offer comparable benefit caps for mental health and physical health. 
But there was a big loophole in the bill, and they knew it. The bill 
didn't require group health plans to include mental health coverage as 
a benefit. Even with the 1996 law in place and 22 States mandating full 
parity, mental health services continued to be subject to higher 
limitations than other health treatments.
  The parity law in place that I referred to expires at the end of this 
year. I hoped 4 years ago, when we were caught up in the emotions of 
Paul's death, that we would come back and pass legislation that he 
called for and worked for with Senator Domenici. Four years have passed 
and it hasn't happened. Many people continue to suffer, continue to go 
without the basic care they need.
  Resolutions come and go, and very few people pay much attention to 
them. I don't think this will be a lead line in any newspaper in 
America, but the purpose of this resolution is to put the Senate on 
notice that it has been the fourth anniversary of the death of a man we 
loved in the Senate, Paul Wellstone, and also to urge us to remember 
his mission in the Senate when it came to mental health. The purpose 
clause of this resolution reads:

       Congress should act to end discrimination against citizens 
     of the United States who live with a mental illness by 
     enacting legislation to provide for the coverage of mental 
     health benefits with respect to health insurance coverage.

  I would like the language to be stronger, but I understand this was 
the best we could do this evening. We can

[[Page 22184]]

prove that Paul Wellstone was right and that we care about his legacy 
by enacting this legislation when we return. I will be working with 
Senator Kennedy, Senator Enzi, and all of my colleagues to do our best 
to make sure that does occur.

                          ____________________