[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15455-15457]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. REED (for himself and Mr. Blunt):
  S. 2107. A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to help build 
a stronger health care workforce; to the Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I am pleased to be joined by Senator Blunt 
in the reintroduction of the Building a Health Care Workforce for the 
Future Act.
  According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, by 2025, 
there will be a shortage of up to 90,000 physicians. Approximately 1/3 
of the shortage, up to 31,100 will be in primary care. Individuals and 
families living in underserved areas, urban and rural, will continue to 
be those most disadvantaged by this shortage.
  Last year, we expanded our health care system to provide health 
insurance to millions more Americans. In fact, recent studies have 
shown that the uninsured rate has decreased to the lowest level since 
1997 over the last 2 years. In Rhode Island, the uninsured rate 
decreased by half, down to 5 percent. As a result, millions of 
Americans are going to the doctor for preventive health care for the 
first time. In order for these efforts to be successful, we must expand 
our health care workforce to ensure that we have enough health care 
professionals to treat the newly insured.
  The Building a Health Care Workforce for the Future Act would 
authorize programs that would grow the overall number of health care 
providers, as well as encourage providers to pursue careers in 
geographic and practice areas of highest need.
  Building on the success of the National Health Service Corp, NHSC, 
Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs, and the State Loan Repayment 
Program, this legislation would establish a state scholarship program. 
Like the NHSC State Loan Repayment Program, States would be able to 
receive a dollar-for-dollar match to support individuals that commit to 
practicing in the State in which the scholarship was issued after 
completing their education and training. At least 50 percent of the 
funding would be required to support individuals committed to pursuing 
careers in primary care. The States would have the flexibility to use 
the remaining 50 percent to support scholarships to educate students in 
other documented health care professional shortages in the state that 
are approved by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
  The Building a Health Care Workforce for the Future Act would also 
authorize grants to medical schools to develop primary care mentors on 
faculty and in the community. According to the Association of American 
Medical

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Colleges, graduating medical students consistently state that role 
models are one of the most important factors affecting the career path 
they choose. Building a network of primary care mentors in the 
classroom and in a variety of practice settings will help guide more 
medical students into careers in primary care.
  The legislation would couple these mentorship grants with an 
initiative to improve the education and training offered by medical 
schools in competencies most critical to primary care, including 
patient-centered medical homes, primary and behavioral health 
integration, and team-based care.
  It would also direct the Institute of Medicine, IOM, to study and 
make recommendations about ways to limit the administrative burden on 
providers in documenting cognitive services delivered to patients. 
Primary care providers treat patients in need of these services almost 
exclusively, and as such, spend a significant percentage of their day 
documenting care. That is not the case for providers who perform 
procedures, like surgeries. This IOM study would help uncover ways to 
simplify documentation requirements, particularly for delivering 
cognitive services, in order to eliminate one of the potential factors 
that may discourage medical students from pursuing careers in primary 
care.
  Providers across the spectrum of care recognize that this bipartisan 
legislation is part of the solution to addressing the looming health 
care workforce shortage and have lent their support, including: the 
Alliance for Specialty Medicine, the American Association of Child and 
Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Association of Colleges of 
Osteopathic Medicine, the Association of Academic Health Centers, and 
the Association of American Medical Colleges.
  I look forward to working with these and other stakeholders as well 
as Senator Blunt and our colleagues to pass the Building a Health Care 
Workforce for the Future Act in order to help ensure patients have 
access to the health care they need.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mrs. MURRAY (for herself, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mrs. McCaskill, 
        Mrs. Shaheen, Ms. Mikulski, Ms. Cantwell, Ms. Baldwin, Ms. 
        Stabenow, Ms. Klobuchar, Mrs. Feinstein, Ms. Hirono, and Ms. 
        Warren):
  S. 2110. A bill to amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act 
of 1974 to provide for greater spousal protection under defined 
contribution plans, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Health, 
Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Women's 
Pension Protection Act of 2015.
  Out in Washington State, I recently heard from a woman named Cathy. A 
few years ago, Cathy said she got a taste of what it is like to have 
serious doubts about her future in retirement. Her husband was 
unemployed. On one income, they were trying to pay the bills, pay for 
health insurance, and pay for college tuition for their younger son. 
Every month, Cathy said they had to dip further and further into their 
retirement savings. She said she would stay awake at night, worrying 
how they were going to make it all work.
  When I hear stories like Cathy's, it reaffirms for me what we should 
be working on in Congress. We need to grow our economy from the middle 
out, not the top down. Our country should work for all families, not 
just the wealthiest few. That is especially true for seniors--who, 
after a lifetime of hard work, deserve to live healthy, full, and 
financially secure lives.
  I believe a secure retirement is one of the surest hallmarks of a 
strong middle class. But seniors today are facing some daunting 
challenges, just like Cathy.
  Many Americans simply don't have enough savings. They are relying on 
thin Social Security checks that barely last until the end of the 
month. Sometimes, they are forced to choose between paying for 
groceries or paying for a prescription.
  Too often, it is women who struggle the most with financial hardship 
in retirement, more so than men. Why is this? Well, for one, women live 
longer than men. So, they are more likely to outlive their retirement 
savings.
  But there are also some systemic challenges we need to address to 
make sure women are better able to have a secure retirement. During 
their working years, women earn less than men. Today, women make just 
78 cents for every dollar a man makes. That is just patently unfair. 
Women are more likely than men to work low-wage jobs. In fact, women 
comprise two-thirds of all minimum-wage workers. It is plain and simple 
math: Lower wages make it hard to support a family, let alone save 
enough for retirement. Women are also much more likely to work part-
time, sometimes so they can take on caregiving responsibilities.
  This earnings gap leads to a retirement gap later in life. Don't 
forget, workers in low wage and part-time jobs, often don't have access 
to a retirement savings plan at work. A new GAO report shows that 
workers in low-wage and part-time jobs are among the least likely to 
participate in a workplace retirement plan. It is mainly because these 
plans are not offered or because they are not eligible. Keep in mind 
this is particularly problematic for women, because they make up the 
majority of low-wage and part-time workers.
  It is not that these workers don't want to save for their future. 
This same GAO report found that when given the opportunity, a majority 
of part-time workers and workers in low-wage jobs do participate in 
retirement plans. For a long time, people assumed that these workers 
would not take advantage of a workplace retirement account or that they 
couldn't afford to save. This report busts that myth. Instead, it is 
the lack of access to retirement plans that prevent many workers from 
saving.
  But, as if all that wasn't enough, 401k plans today lack basic 
consumer protections. I have heard from advocates who work with women 
whose husbands cashed out their 401k during a separation or right 
before a divorce. Right now, there is nothing in the law that prevents 
that from happening. That is just not right.
  Without consumer protections, both husbands and wives are at risk of 
having the rug pulled out from under them because their spouse made a 
financial decision without their knowledge.
  These challenges--from inequality in the workplace to gaps in 
consumer protections--won't just go away. In fact, they will only get 
worse until we resolve to do something about it for seniors today, for 
those who want to retire in the next few years, and for future 
generations.
  Thankfully, we can do something about it. We need to address the 
inequalities that women face during their working years. It is time to 
finally ensure women get equal pay for equal work. The Paycheck 
Fairness Act would tackle pay discrimination head-on. I hope we can all 
agree that in the 21st century, workers should be paid fairly for the 
work they do, regardless of their gender.
  We should raise the minimum wage to $12 by 2020. It will put more 
money in workers' pockets so they can spend it in their local 
communities and put more away for retirement. My bill will provide a 
strong floor--a Federal bare minimum--that workers and cities can build 
off of and go even higher where it makes sense--like in Seattle in my 
home State of Washington.
  It is time to make more progress on paid sick leave, so women aren't 
penalized for taking care of their families. I have introduced a bill 
called the Healthy Families Act to allow workers to earn paid sick 
days. Those solutions to empower women in today's workplace will pay 
off for their golden years to come.
  Today, I am proud to introduce a bill with a number of my Democratic 
women colleagues. It is called the Women's Pension Protection Act, and 
it would take three major steps to protect women's retirement security.
  First, my bill would expand spousal protections to cover defined 
contribution plans, like 401(k)s. These protections already exist for 
defined benefit plans, and it is just common sense to

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extend these protections to defined contribution plans as well. It 
would help improve access to retirement savings plans for part-time 
workers. This bill would improve women's financial literacy. With fewer 
traditional pensions, people will need to make some difficult financial 
decisions in retirement. So, increasing financial literacy will be very 
important in the years ahead.
  Ensuring women are able to access a secure retirement is part of my 
ongoing work to help our economy grow in the way we know is strongest: 
from the middle out, not the top down.
  Eighty years ago, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security 
Act into law. At the time, he called it ``a cornerstone in a structure, 
which is being built, but it is, by no means, complete.'' We added on 
to that original cornerstone with Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older 
Americans Act. Those programs laid the foundation for seniors to have 
solid footing in America's middle class.
  Now, it is time to build on that foundation. Because like FDR foresaw 
80 years ago, the structure of retirement security is still incomplete. 
We need to start the next phase to address the pressing challenges that 
seniors face today. I am going to be fighting to make sure more 
workers, more seniors and more families have access to a healthy, 
independent, and financially secure retirement. I am going to keep 
fighting to build an ever-stronger foundation for families in my home 
State of Washington State, and across the Nation, for generations to 
come.

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