[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 21995-21996]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, today there will be 30 minutes of morning 
business, and it will all be under the control of the Republicans. 
Following that time, the Senate will resume consideration of the 
children's health bill and then conduct 30 minutes of debate with 
respect to the Ensign amendment. That time will be equally divided and 
controlled between Senators Ensign and Baucus. Upon the use or yielding 
back of that time, the Senate will vote in relation to the Ensign 
amendment. Following the disposition of the Ensign amendment, the 
managers hope to come to a short agreement with respect to the Gregg 
amendment and have a vote shortly thereafter. Senator Byrd is to be 
recognized to speak for up to 30 minutes at 12 noon. Other votes with 
respect to the bill are expected today.
  Mr. President, we have two major amendments we have been told exist 
with respect to this children's health legislation. One will be offered 
by Senator Kerry, which is going to increase the amount of money we 
believe is needed in this legislation. The other is by Senators Lott 
and Kyl, which is a substitute amendment. I hope those Senators who are 
going to offer those amendments will come and do them quickly. We need 
these two amendments. That is what this legislation is all about. Other 
individuals also have a right to offer amendments, but I do hope those 
two amendments will be offered very quickly. We need to finish this 
bill. We are going to finish this bill before we leave.
  Of course, everybody knows we have, in the morning, the cloture vote 
on ethics and lobbying. We will do that an hour after we come in in the 
morning. I very much appreciate the willingness of the minority to work 
with us and that we didn't have to go--because it was a privileged 
piece of legislation that came from the House, that we didn't have to 
waste time from last night until tomorrow morning. I appreciate very 
much the Republicans allowing us to work on this legislation today. It 
would have been a wasted day otherwise.
  I hope we can get a lot of work done on SCHIP today. I will speak 
with Senator McConnell as to when, if at all--and I hope it is not 
necessary--we will file cloture on SCHIP to finish it. I hope we don't 
have to do that. We had good luck last week on the first appropriations 
bill and not having to do that.
  We have one other must-do item before we leave here, and that deals 
with the surveillance program that everybody has read about and knows 
about. That has to be done. I had a briefing meeting with Admiral 
McConnell this morning, and he has sent some proposed changes to the 
legislation up here. It is already here. We hope that will be enough to 
have that legislation pass quickly. I hope we can get it done. It is 
something on which we all acknowledge we should give it the old college 
try and do everything we can to complete that.
  Those are the things we must do.
  There are other things we would like to do. One of them is the 
competitiveness bill, which is very important. It is such an 
interesting piece of legislation. In conversations with the most 
liberal members of my caucus, I find that they love this piece of 
legislation, as do moderates and conservatives in my caucus, and it is 
the same with the Republicans. They think this legislation is very 
good.
  I see my friend from Tennessee on the floor who worked with Senator 
Bingaman on this early on. I hope we can do this before we leave. It is 
my understanding that the conference, if not completed, is virtually 
completed. It would be good to do that before we leave. It would show 
real bipartisanship.
  Mr. DORGAN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
  Mr. REID. Yes.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I know others are waiting to begin morning 
business. Let me first add my hope with the majority leader that we 
will be able to move through these bills with some expeditious action 
this week. There has been so much delay in the Chamber. I know the 
majority leader wishes to move through and get these things done. I 
hope we can do that.
  I want to mention to the Senator from Nevada that I have offered to 
the children's health insurance bill the Indian Health Care Improvement 
Act. I did that yesterday as an amendment. There are 3 million children 
benefitted by the children's health insurance bill, but there are 2 
million American Indians who are subject to full-scale health care 
rationing. It is unbelievable what is happening.
  We have had 11 separate bills introduced in the Congress since the 
authorization for the Indian Health Care Improvement Act expired some 
years ago, and none of them have moved. So I offered the amendment 
because I felt I had to do it to the Children's Health Insurance 
Program that is on the floor.
  I indicated yesterday, however, in response to Senator Baucus, who 
said

[[Page 21996]]

that he would mark up on September 12 in the Finance Committee the 
portions of the bill relevant to them, I indicated I would withdraw my 
amendment from the children's health bill if I could get a commitment 
to get the Indian health care bill to the floor of the Senate. I have 
already marked up the Indian health bill in the Indian Affairs 
Committee, my committee.
  This is urgent. We have a problem with respect to rationing of health 
care with American Indians. I ask my colleague--and I know we have 
visited about it, and I know how strongly he supports American Indians 
and health care for them--can we have a commitment to get the Indian 
health bill to the floor of the Senate? If we can do that, I will 
withdraw my amendment here in anticipation of having that debate on 
Indian health in the next couple of months in the Senate.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I say to my friend, the distinguished 
chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, a tireless advocate for 
Native Americans his entire career, I have 22 different tribal 
organizations in the State of Nevada. You say ``rationing'' health 
care. I think that is even being too generous because there is no 
health care rationed, in many instances, in Nevada. We have gone from 
having two wonderful hospitals for Native Americans and now we have one 
that is closed. The other they don't use for acute care. It is a 
situation that, for our country, should be an embarrassment. It is an 
embarrassment. People just don't know how bad it is.
  I say to my friend, through the Chair, that we are going to do this 
bill this year. If it is reported out of the Finance Committee, we will 
find a way to bring it to the floor. It is the right thing to do. We 
talk about people who don't have advocates for them. My tribal 
organizations in Nevada don't have people back here advocating for 
them. We need to advocate for them. I have to do that, especially on 
this issue of health care. They deserve the basic minimum; they deserve 
the ability to have some kind of health care. It is in such a state now 
that I, frankly, don't know what to tell the tribal organizations when 
they come to see me. There has been more than a decade waiting to do 
something about this.
  So I support my friend from North Dakota and will do everything I can 
to move this forward and make a commitment that we will do something 
this session of Congress.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, that commitment of the majority leader is 
welcome. I observe this: There are few places in this country where 
someone having a heart attack would be wheeled into an emergency room 
with a piece of paper attached to their thigh by masking tape that 
says:

       To the hospital: By the way, if you admit this woman, 
     understand you are on your own because contract health care 
     from the Indian Health Service has run out.

  Very few places in this country will you see that. It describes how 
unbelievably urgent it is to pass this bill. The commitment from the 
majority leader is very welcome. It reflects his long-term commitment 
to deal with Indian issues.
  The commitment from Senator Baucus to mark up his portion of the bill 
on September 12 is welcome. Therefore, when we are back on the 
children's health bill, I will withdraw my amendment as a result of the 
commitment to move it separately.
  I yield the floor.

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