[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8036-8038]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    SMALL BUSINESS HEALTH PLANS BILL

  Mr. ENZI. I want to thank everybody who has been involved in the 
debate on small business over the last several days. I thank Senator 
Nelson for the hours he and his staff put in working with me on this 
bill, along with Senator Burns and his staff. I have said several times 
that our staffs worked in the same room with the same people from the 
different coalitions, including the insurance companies and the 
insurance commissioners, for so long that I thought some of them must 
be related. I really wasn't sure which ones were from whose staff 
anymore, either, because they were all working this important issue 
together. Obviously, we have some more work to do, but I am pleased 
with the vote we got.
  I am disappointed that we didn't get the 60 and couldn't continue the 
debate right now, that we couldn't have amendments right now and for 
the next several days, resulting in a vote-arama that would have put 
the best possible face on it that we could from the Senate. I talked to 
Senator Kennedy before and promised I would pre-
conference it with the House before we did anything because this is a 
very critical bill. But this is the first time the Senate has gotten it 
to a cloture vote. We will only get it to cloture by working with 
people and getting some agreement. I am hoping we can bring this back 
up yet this year. I know there are small businesses that are going to 
be asking, pleading, begging that it be brought up again this year. 
Perhaps we can work some changes in the meantime that might make a 
difference and get us over that 60-vote margin. It is a little tougher 
in the Senate to pass than in the House because they only have to have 
a mere majority. We have to have that 60 percent which is a little bit 
tougher.
  Senator Kennedy and I have worked together on a lot of bills. I 
appreciate the courtesy he gave in committee. We had 68 amendments. We 
finished the work in two half days. That is probably a record around 
here for any committee which does show some cooperation. I am just 
sorry we didn't get to do the amendments like we did in committee, 
probably many of the same ones we had in committee. I guess my strategy 
was that those votes might put it over the top here and bring a few 
people in. I didn't know there would be such strong resentment built up 
by this time.
  Of course, I am extremely disappointed with the cancer society and 
the diabetes society because I have never seen a letter that said, I 
don't care what you do, vote against this bill. That means if we had 
done the Cadillac of diabetes care and put it in the bill, they were 
still suggesting that people vote against it. That is unconscionable on 
behalf of the people that have diabetes or the people who have cancer. 
Both letters said the same thing. It was truly a disappointment to me.
  I know some opposition was built for this bill. The insurance 
companies said they would be neutral. I noticed there was a little 
unneutrality there. But the small businessmen will be coming to town. 
They will be talking to people and expecting us to do something. I hope 
we can continue to do so.
  There are a whole list of people I need to thank, but I will defer 
for the moment for some others to speak and come back and do that 
later.
  I appreciate the fact that we were able to have a cloture vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Martinez). The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I see the principal cosponsor on his 
feet. If he might indulge me for a moment, I want to give assurance to 
the small businesses and families of this country, we are not going 
away. We are all very strongly committed to getting decent, quality 
health care for all Americans. Today, we avoided taking a step 
backward. But we have heard the very eloquent statement of the Senator, 
my friend from Wyoming, who said he believes we missed an important 
opportunity to step forward. What I hope Americans will understand is 
that we have worked very closely together. We are committed to working 
closely together. We are going to try to find common ground in this 
area.
  I again thank Senator Enzi for his leadership on health issues. I 
look forward to trying to find common ground on health care and other 
areas. I am grateful to him for all his courtesies.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.
  Mr. NELSON of Nebraska. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished 
cochair of the committee for his courtesies.
  Naturally, I am disappointed with the outcome of the vote. Instead of 
thinking of it as a setback, I want to think of it as a step forward, 
because it is the first time since I came to the Senate that we have 
had a serious debate about the accessability and affordability of 
health care for small businesses.
  I thank Senator Enzi for his great work. It has been a pleasure 
working directly with him. Not only is he tireless, he certainly is 
willing to listen to other people and has shown a great capacity to 
listen and to act on good advice. I thank him for that. He was able to 
bring together groups that had been on opposing sides for years. 
Through his leadership, this bill was brought to the floor.
  I also thank his staff. I appreciate all the assistance they have 
given me as we have developed this legislation. They are true 
professionals: Steve Northrup and Andrew Patzman have

[[Page 8037]]

devoted hours to researching and drafting the legislation and have so 
diligently reached out to my side of the aisle for suggestions, I now 
think of them as my satellite staff.
  I also thank Katherine McGuire, who has been instrumental in guiding 
us through this process, and Brittany Moore, who has coordinated all of 
our information.
  Particularly, I thank Senator Kennedy for his gracious and agreeable 
manner in disagreeing on the substance of an issue. It is typical of 
his approach to the Senate. Especially I thank his staff: David Bowen, 
Stacey Sachs, and Brian Hickey from the Democratic Policy Committee. 
They have kept us on our toes.
  The staff of the leadership offices also has been helpful. I thank 
Jay Khosla, a newcomer, and Liz Hall, a veteran, for their help. And 
particularly I thank my staff, both Kim Zimmerman and Amy Tejral, and 
others who have worked so hard to get us to this point.
  Even though not all of my colleagues on this side of the aisle agree 
that this bill is the right answer for small businesses, I know and 
respect the fact that they want to find a solution. We all in the 
Senate want to find a solution, something that will deal with the 
availability and affordability of health care for small businesses and 
their employees. I am tonight encouraged that with this discussion, we 
will be able to move together and work together to find a common 
solution. Sometimes right after disagreement, there is a solution that 
is achieved.
  I thank my colleagues on this side of the aisle for their willingness 
to listen and my friends for their votes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, let me join in thanking all Members who 
have been engaged in the debate. Although it did not result in the 
passage of a bill, I hope we did make progress.
  First, let me congratulate again Senator Enzi for showing the courage 
to bring this matter to the floor. Very few Senators have done that. He 
did not succeed at this moment, but I believe his determination and the 
respect we all have for him will lead to a victory at another day, and 
I hope to be part of it. He showed himself to be genuine, committed to 
this issue. The small businesses who have entrusted him with this 
assignment couldn't have picked a better Senator. I would say the same 
for my colleague from Nebraska, Mr. Nelson. His knowledge extends back 
to his tenure as insurance commissioner as well as Governor. He 
certainly understands this issue better than most. I thank both of them 
for the personal commitment they made to this issue.
  I also thank my colleague Senator Blanche Lincoln. She and I worked 
together on this bill, and I couldn't have had a better partner. 
Blanche is down to earth. She understands these complicated issues and 
explains them the way the average person can understand them.
  This is a matter I have been thinking about for a long time. I didn't 
come up with this notion in just the last few weeks. In fact, it has 
been months now since I invited Senator Enzi and many others to come to 
my office and listen as we explained what our concept was in hopes that 
we might work toward common ground. We weren't able to do that this 
time, but I hope we will the next time. I genuinely hope that those who 
want to engage in this important debate will have a similar starting 
point to our bill.
  The first and obvious question that anyone should ask is: Senator, 
why do you propose health insurance for the rest of America that you 
wouldn't buy yourself? The health insurance we have as Members of 
Congress is the same health insurance Federal employees have, 8 million 
of them nationwide. My dream was to take that kind of group of 8 
million diverse people who work for small businesses and create the 
same mechanism, the same pool so they could enjoy the same protection, 
the same benefits I have and my family has and the Members of the 
Senate have. If this health insurance is good enough for a Member of 
Congress, it is good enough for any American family. It should be our 
starting point.
  Senator Enzi raised an important question. Why did so many health 
groups oppose his legislation? Some of them stridently opposed it. He 
mentioned two, the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes 
Association. The reason they felt so strongly was that the legislation 
proposed on the other side eliminated the protections being offered by 
States for important cancer screening, for mental health care. Some 42 
States cover mental illness, and the Enzi bill would have eliminated 
that coverage. When it comes to diabetes, it is true that at some point 
he could have offered diabetes coverage, but they are concerned that if 
this is a moving target, it could change tomorrow. That is why we have 
to get back to where we are as Senators, Congressmen, and Federal 
employees. We know what we are going to have. We know our protection. 
We can buy it. Shouldn't every American have that confidence and that 
peace of mind?
  That is the starting point. The starting point is not reducing the 
protections and guarantees in coverage to such a low level that it 
leaves families exposed to medical ruin if the bills go too high. We 
should strike a balance which says that these preventive procedures, 
these screening procedures, this basic health insurance is what every 
American should have. It is much like a minimum wage. What we are 
talking about is the minimum guarantees of health insurance across 
America.
  I know there are some things that are too expensive for us ever to 
cover in every health insurance plan, and we wouldn't suggest those. 
But if we have coverage for 8 million Federal employees with basic 
protection, why wouldn't we offer that to every American family? That 
should be our starting point. Then let's figure how we can work 
together with small business and with the health community to strike 
the right balance so the bill we produce will be one of which we will 
be proud.
  Again, I thank Senator Enzi. I didn't believe we would ever have this 
debate on the Senate floor. I had almost given up hope. But because of 
his dogged determination, his skill and dedication, he brought us 
together for this week. It is not the end of the debate. I believe it 
is the beginning. I hope it ends with passage of a bill for small 
businesses across America and will bring us closer to the goal of 
universal health insurance coverage for every single American. I think 
we can achieve that goal if we work together in a bipartisan fashion.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I had intended to present a list of people 
who worked for me, but a question was asked. I assume it was 
rhetorical, but I can't let it pass. The question--to me, I assume--
was, why offer what you wouldn't buy for yourself for others?
  If I were in small business--and I was--and I was faced with rising 
health costs--and I was--I would have been happy to have been able to 
buy this insurance for my employees. There is a whole different level 
of living out there. It is called small business. We usually think if 
you are in small business, you are making lots of money. A lot of times 
the employees are making more than the bosses. The bosses buy insurance 
because that is how they insure their family and they get a group. That 
helps them, too. But when you have a group, that means that the people 
in the group get exactly the same insurance you do. You don't get the 
same package as the Senate.
  I will admit that the Senate has a pretty nice package. I would also 
like to tell you, though, that when I was in small business, when I was 
in the accounting business, I had a better package than I have in the 
Senate. So it is available out there. It costs a lot of money. I was 
trying to find some way to bring that cost down.
  On your bill that you would have liked for everybody in America to 
have--the same thing as the Federal employees--it didn't get there. I 
would have been happy to have had a vote on that and had that debate. I 
offered you that opportunity. I wish you would

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have taken me up on it. We would have had cloture. We would have had a 
vote on your bill, and we would have had a vote on my bill. That is all 
it took. It just took a few more votes and we would have had the 60, 
and small business would have had some resolution tonight that they are 
not going to have.
  You have to remember that everybody isn't living at the same level 
out there, and we have to watch out for those small businessmen because 
they are the ones who are taking care of the backbone needs of this 
country every single day.
  I apologize for going on with a little bit more debate. I thank the 
Senator from Hawaii. I do need to express some thanks because there are 
a couple people here that are on this list that I have to keep away 
from ledges and high buildings yet tonight. They have devoted their 
life for about the last year and 5 months to this, every day that they 
possibly could, and through the nights and the weekends, and we came up 
with this bill, working with some unusual groups. I particularly have 
to thank Andrew Patzman for his patience, ingenuity, capability, and 
his constant work. Of course, Steve Northrop probably helped a lot on 
that because he has a fine sense of humor and an extremely quick wit. 
That helped us out in a lot of those situations where we were trying to 
pull everything together after a long time.
  I thank Katherine McGuire, who is the director of the Health, 
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. While we are doing this, we 
are also trying to do the pensions conference and a whole bunch of 
other things. I don't know of anybody who has the capability that she 
has to juggle as many things at one time as she does and still do a 
great job of being a mother. I have some really good people.
  I could go through a whole list and mention Flip McConnaughy, my 
Chief of Staff, who held everything together for all of the Wyoming 
issues and my Wyoming staff. I will just mention some of these other 
people more quickly. The same kind of thanks to them, and I know what 
they have done to help out. Brittany, Tod Spangler, Craig Orfield, Ryan 
Taylor; and then from Senator Gregg's staff, Conwell Smith and David 
Fisher; from Senator Talent's staff, Faith Cristol; from Senator 
Snowe's staff, Alex Hecht and Wes Coulam; from Senator Ben Nelson's 
staff, Kim Zimmerman and Amy Terrell; from Senator Isakson's staff, 
Brittany Espy; from Senator Hatch's staff, Pattie DeLoatche and Roger 
Johns; from legislative counsel, Bill Baird has just done tremendous 
work with us; from Senator Frist's staff, the leader, Elizabeth Hall 
and May Khosla and Charlotte Ivancic; from Senator Ensign's staff, 
Michelle Spence; from Senator McConnell's staff, Scott Raab and Laura 
Pemberton; from Senator Burr's staff, Jenny Hansen; from Senator 
Alexander's staff, Page Kran-
buhl; from Senator Roberts' staff, Jennifer Swenson; from Senator 
DeWine's staff, Melissa Atkinson and Karla Carpenter.
  That is a whole group of people who have spent days, nights, and 
weekends working on this bill and making it possible to put together 
what we have.
  I know they are dedicated to it and they will continue to work and we 
will work across the aisle and look forward to getting something done 
for small business. I know small business will be asking--perhaps even 
demanding--but there is a need out there. I hope everybody will 
recognize that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii is recognized.

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