[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 20901-20902]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             SENATE AGENDA

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I understand there are only a few minutes 
remaining in morning business, which is our opportunity to talk about a 
wide range of topics. We have a lot of important business going on in 
the Senate. We have the Homeland Security appropriations bill, which we 
want to pass quickly to keep our Nation safe. Then we are going to turn 
to the 9/11 Commission recommendations. Most Americans recall after 9/
11, we appointed a very good bipartisan group to come up with 
suggestions to make America safer. Unfortunately, those suggestions 
have not been acted on, and each year the commission gives the 
Government a failing grade when it comes to their

[[Page 20902]]

compliance, so we want to change that situation. This year, with the 
new Congress, we passed the implementation of these recommendations and 
hope to bring those to the floor this week and have them enacted.
  We also have pending major ethics reform. Most people are, 
unfortunately, inured to the prospect of stories of corruption in 
Washington. Some of the events that have happened over the last several 
years have been horrendous, leading to the prosecution of Members of 
Congress and many lobbyists in town. It is time to change that 
situation. We have a bill that will move us dramatically in the right 
direction, the most significant ethics reform in the history of 
Congress. It has been caught up in a lot of political debate and 
wrangling. Now is the time to move it forward, enact it into the rules, 
the law of the land, and apply it to the Senate and the House of 
Representatives.
  Then next week comes a critically important bill. There are 47 
million uninsured Americans, many of them children. Right now we have a 
program where we provide Federal funds to States so they can help us in 
insuring those children. We have about 6 million children who are now 
covered by this plan, kids who otherwise would not have health 
insurance.
  Incidentally, most of them are children of parents who are working, 
who go to work every day. They are not poor enough to have the 
Government insure them, and they are not wealthy enough to insure 
themselves. They get caught in the middle. Six million children have 
protection today.
  The program expires September 30. We want to make sure those kids are 
not left without coverage, and we have another 9 million children who 
are eligible who have not been brought in. The Senate Finance Committee 
is going to expand the number covered from 6 million to 9 million 
nationwide.
  I wish we could do more. We should cover them all. Why wouldn't we as 
Americans want our kids to have basic health insurance protection? 
Unfortunately, even though our bill is bipartisan, it is reasonable, it 
is within our budget, the White House said the President will veto it. 
The President's reason for vetoing the children's health insurance 
bill? It is hard to believe, but he says it is unfair to private health 
insurance companies. Unfair to private health insurance companies? Most 
Americans understand that for most of those companies, each year means 
higher premiums and lower coverage, and many of those companies have 
failed to come forward to find ways to bring Americans into health 
insurance coverage. There are not going to be many tears shed for that 
industry. We should have our concern and focus on the children who are 
going to be left behind when it comes to health insurance if the 
President vetoes this bill.
  Next week we will focus on that legislation. We will try to get down 
and pass this, get together with the House of Representatives, and send 
it to the President as quickly as possible.
  In August, we have a 3- or 4-week recess, which I assume we will be 
taking most of, and then come back in September in the first week. 
There are a lot of appropriations bills to consider at that time. We 
will go back to the Defense authorization bill and a very important 
national debate on the war in Iraq. The administration promises us 
September 15 to give us a status report, as required by law.
  Most of the indicators are that the violence continues in Iraq. The 
Government continues to disappoint us and, unfortunately, American 
deaths continue to mount. That debate in September is going to be a 
critical watershed debate. We need to have more Republican Senators 
cross the aisle and join us to call for a new policy in Iraq. So far 4 
of the 49 Republicans have come to our side. We need 11. I urge my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work for a cooperative 
bipartisan approach to a new direction in Iraq.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  The Senator from Texas.

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