[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3304]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          PAUL WELLSTONE BILL

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to take an 
opportunity during this 1-minute to again congratulate my good friend 
and colleague, Representative Patrick Kennedy, and to pay tribute to 
the late Senator Paul Wellstone.
  Any of us who represent people know that there are millions who are 
languishing in the darkness of mental health and mental health disease. 
And for once now we are moving a bill that deals with the idea that no 
one can be discriminated against in any health policy, whether it is 
increased financial cost, whether it is that they deny you the equal 
treatment that you would get if you had a broken leg, or whether or not 
it is a discrimination in the diagnosis.
  This bill, H.R. 1424, gives you a new lease on life. It is the civil 
rights of mental health. And so, Mr. Speaker, I am hoping that we will 
eliminate from this bill the dastardly provision that does not allow 
our hospitals that may be owned by physicians in urban and rural areas 
serving the poorest of people to be eliminated through this bill.
  Let us go forth with the Paul Wellstone bill and eliminate the 
distraction that undermines good health in America.

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