[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15747]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     ADVANCING AMERICA'S PRIORITIES

  Mr. REID. Let me briefly say on the package of bills we have put 
together because of the obstruction of mainly one Senator, I was 
disappointed to read in this morning's press that a Republican Senator 
held most of these up, saying: I am going to do everything I can to 
stall this legislation, to prevent it from passing. He may be 
successful. If we don't get enough support from our Republican 
colleagues, that, in fact, will be the case. But I hope everyone 
understands that this has some extremely important measures in it.
  This package we have put together has the Christopher and Dana Reeve 
paralysis legislation. It is so important. From the time we started 
moving forward on this legislation until today, they are both dead. One 
experienced the paralysis; the other experienced taking care of 
Superman, the man who was Superman and was injured in that very 
terrible accident where he was thrown from a horse.
  We are trying to establish with this legislation a registry for 
people who have Lou Gehrig's disease. This is a terribly difficult 
disease. From the time one is diagnosed with it until you die is an 
average of 18 months. We will never, ever get ahold of this disease 
unless we pass what we are trying to do in this bundled legislation. We 
are simply trying to establish a registry so that for someone in 
Baltimore, MD, who has this disease--there are about 6,000 people who 
get this disease, and then they die--someone in Las Vegas, someone in 
Louisville, someone in Chicago, there is a registry where physicians 
can put it all together, start computerizing it so that scientists 
trying to get ahold of this disease can look at the histories of these 
patients from around the country. That is the beginning of every 
successful scientific conclusion to these diseases, so that something 
can be done to alleviate the pain and suffering and hopefully arrive at 
a cure.
  Those are just two examples. There are many others. There are 40-odd 
bills. There is the Emmett Till bill which directs the Federal 
Government to do something about these unsolved murders. There is 
legislation in here dealing with child pornography.
  I would hope people don't look at this as taking away Senators' 
rights. This doesn't take away Senators' rights. I saw in this 
morning's press one Senator said: Well, I don't like to start taking 
away Senators' rights. In fact, it is just the opposite. When 98 
Senators think something should happen, why should 1 or 2 Senators 
prevent for months and months our moving forward? We had to do it once 
before, bundling a bunch of bills from the Energy Committee that had 
already passed the House. These bills have all passed the House of 
Representatives. They have all been reported out of the committees 
overwhelmingly. I would hope that when we get to this, it can end very 
quickly.

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