Senate Opening

The Senate Convened.

Opening Remarks

 
Senator Reid: (10:03 AM)

·         Today --

·         The Senate will resume consideration of the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2), debate the McConnell Amendment (substitute) until 11:00 AM, then proceed to vote on the related amendment.

·         Votes expected throughout the day.

·         The SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2) is likely to be completed tomorrow.

 
Senator McConnell: (10:06 AM)

·         Spoke on the McConnell Amendment to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "Republicans understand that taxpayer resources are too scarce to be squandered away by waste, fraud or abuse, and Republicans are prepared to offer amendments to fix those problems and make the bill better. For example, one provision of the bill allows a select few states to expand coverage to more than three times the federal poverty level. Let me say that again, one of the provisions in the underlying bill allows a few states to expand coverage to more than three times the federal poverty level. We don't think it's fair to provide special treatment to certain states. And we expect our amendments to address that."

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

 
Senator Baucus: (10:13 AM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2) and the McConnell Amendment.

o    SUMMARY "Now, some on the other side are opposing this bill because they do not want to include perfectly legal kids, but I think that is a big mistake because these kids are here legally, their parents pay taxes, if you are 18, you could be drafted if we had a draft, and these children will be full citizens after several years. They have green cards and they will be full citizens. Perfectly legal folks in America receive food stamps, they are available for public school; it seems to me they should be entitled to get health insurance like every other kid."

o    SUMMARY "I think most people on this side of the aisle believe that the bill before us should pass and the substitute offered by the Senator from Kentucky which does not include these children, should not pass. The only difference is the bill before us today will add about four million more children that are currently uninsured and it will add them to the Children's Health Insurance, but the amendment before us does not add that many, it only adds about two million."

 
Senator Grassley: (10:26 AM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "The bill we have before us today departs so much from that bipartisan compromise that so many of us worked so hard on. And so maybe people listening are saying, well, Chuck Grassley, a Republican, we got a Democratic President, he's my President, but I'm going to just be partisan. So, I want the public to know that I'm approaching this issue in a way where I disagree with the policy of the Bush Administration, at that time, and the policy of the partisan bill we have before us now."

o    SUMMARY "For reasons I still don't fully understand, the Majority is bound and determined to set aside that hard work that led to that bipartisan agreement two years ago. They have decided that going back on a critical compromise is more important than achieving the same bipartisan votes as we did in 2007."

o    SUMMARY "In the 1996 Welfare Reform bill, we required the sponsors of legal immigrants to sign an affidavit that they would provide for the legal immigrants for the first five years. With this bill, we are allowing the sponsors to go back on that commitment. If you have a contractual relationship, it seems morally right the federal government would want to have that contract and not encourage ditching it. But this bill would allow that to happen. We're allowing sponsors to go back on that commitment they made to the taxpayers of this country."

 
Senator Baucus: (10:42 AM)

·         Propounded a UC that at 10:55 AM the Senate proceed to consideration of the Grassley Amendment #41 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2), upon disposition of the Grassley Amendment, the Senate resume consideration of the McConnell Amendment #40 under the previous order (without objection).

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

 
Senator Kyl: (10:44 AM)

·         Spoke in favor of the McConnell Amendment #40 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "The McConnell Amendment adds 3.1 million new kids to SCHIP. It minimizes the reduction in private coverage, as I said before, by targeting SCHIP coverage to low-income children and not higher-income families, and importantly it is offset without new tax increases where or a budget gimmick, which is in the underlying bill."

 
Senator Baucus: (10:47 AM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "It is imperative that this year the Congress move aggressively toward national health insurance reform because that will then tend to eliminate this question of crowd-out. But, more importantly, as we worry about crowd-out, I don't think it's that much of a worry, frankly, keep our eye on the ball of how do we get more kids insured, more low-income kids insured? And that's what this underlying bill does."

 
Senator McConnell: (10:55 AM)

·         Spoke in favor of the McConnell Amendment #40 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "What we're trying to do here in this amendment is to refocus SCHIP toward low-income children. This amendment would close loopholes and allow states to use SCHIP funds to cover both adults and children in higher-income families. What's happened here is some states have drifted off in the direction that was not the original intent of the measure, which was supported on an overwhelming bipartisan basis and written by both Republicans and Democrats in the 1990's. So the goal of the Kids First Amendment, upon which we're about to vote, is to refocus the program on low-income children and to take the funds that are being diverted to high-income families and put them back in to cover low-income children and it probably could cover up to 2 million additional low-income children."

 
Senator Baucus: (10:58 AM)

·         Responded.

o    SUMMARY "The underlying legislation adds about 4 million more children to the Children's Health Insurance Program, for a total of just about 10 million. I think that's a good goal. I'm going to add that the substitute amendment offered by the Senator from Kentucky does not go nearly that far. It is about 2 million fewer children. I think we want to add more kids to the Children's Health Insurance Program."

By voice vote, the Grassley Amendment #41 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2) was not agreed to.  

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

The vote result was 32-65.

The McConnell Amendment #40 to the Children's Health Insurance Program Improvements Act (H.R. 2) is not agreed to.

The vote results will be posted here within one hour.      

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

 
Senator Martinez: (11:27 AM)

·         Spoke on the Martinez Amendment #65 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "Today I'm proposing an amendment to H.R. 2, the SCHIP bill, that would return this, which is to restrict the use of taxpayer money to family planning organizations that are known to perform and promote abortion. This policy, known as the Mexico City Policy, was first signed into law or into Executive Order by President Ronald Reagan in 1984."

 
Senator Brownback: (11:35 AM)

·         Spoke in favor of the Martinez Amendment #65 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "I can tell you for sure, we have a lot of needs on neglected diseases in the third world countries and a little bit of interest and focus on our part yields a whole bunch of saved lives. People dealing with Malaria has been a big one, but we need to deal with, also, things like elephantitus, sleeping sickness, a series of them that would build up a lot of good will overseas and would increase our standing in places around the world. There would be no controversy whatever, but instead would be wholeheartedly embraced here and overseas, so I do not think it is wise to reengage with groups that promote abortion overseas and I ask my colleagues not to do that; to support the Martinez Amendment."

 
Senator Boxer: (11:36 AM)

·         Spoke against the Martinez Amendment #65 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "I say to my friend who is asking for bipartisanship, this vote will be bipartisan. We will have more than 60 people in this United States Senate, I believe, who will vote against this amendment and affirm the action of our new President, President Obama, who very wisely understands that with a stroke of a pen, undoing what the Bush-Cheney Administration did will, indeed, save the lives of women."

 
Senator Durbin: (11:43 AM)

·         Spoke against the Martinez Amendment #65 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "Senator Martinez's amendment would deny them the funds to even offer family planning if they counsel a woman that abortion is an option. Now, as Senator Boxer said, in the United States that's unacceptable; you've got to give to doctors at least the opportunity, even if they don't perform an abortion, to tell a woman what her legal rights are. That is what is at the core of this issue."

o    SUMMARY "The Guttmacher Institute estimated that providing family planning services to the 201 million women in developing countries, would prevent 22 million abortions. When you reduce family planning there are more unintended pregnancies and more abortions."

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

 
Senator Boxer: (11:45 AM)

·         Spoke against the Martinez Amendment #65 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "We're talking about saving women's lives and we are talking about stopping thousands of abortions. That's why this is so inexplicable to me that this amendment is coming from the other side...Senator Brownback asked for us to find common ground. And I want to find common ground, and I said we are going to find common ground on this vote. But, further, wouldn't my friend agree that family planning is the common ground between those of us who support a woman's right to choose and those who say no, isn't family planning the common ground?"

 
Senator Durbin: (11:46)

·         Responded.

o    SUMMARY "I'd say, through the chair, that I am not one who celebrates the incidence of abortion in this country or anywhere. I would like to see far fewer abortions. But let's be honest. How do you reach that goal? By educating women and by giving them opportunities to avoid unintended pregnancies. And I think that that is why this amendment is inconsistent with the sponsor's goal. If you want fewer abortions, give women an option. Let them control their bodies and their lives. Let them make family decisions that are right for them instead of being at the mercy of a situation they cannot control."

 
Senator McCain:(11:52 AM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "I believe the bill differs drastically from the original intention of SCHIP, and I disagree strongly with its funding mechanism of increased tobacco taxes. I support the ideas contained in the alternative bill which would keep the Children's Health Insurance Program focused on low-income children and would have done so without dramatic increases in federal spending or higher taxes."

 
Senator Martinez: (11:52 AM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "Today this Congress is facing a fundamental test of our values, whether to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program and expand it to cover millions of children who would otherwise be left uninsured. We must ask ourselves, is this good for our nation's children? And the answer is clearly yes."

o    SUMMARY "The decisions we make today have very clear implications for hard-working families around this country. The difference here between 'no' and 'yes' can mean for millions of children the difference between helplessness, suffering, and pain versus opportunity, health, and a better quality of life. That's how high the stakes are."

·         Spoke in favor of the Martinez Amendment #65 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "This amendment is to reinstate the Mexico City policy which President Obama just a couple of days ago eliminated with the stroke of a pen. Much has been said in opposition to this amendment, which I think is erroneous. I think at the core of what this amendment is about, it's about whether we want United States taxpayer dollars, my taxes, as someone who finds abortion to not be something that I can live with, which is not consistent with my faith and personal beliefs, whether my tax dollars and that of other people similarly situated, should be utilized to fund family planning that utilizes abortion as a means of family planning with organizations abroad."

 
Senator Boxer: (12:10 PM)

·         Spoke against the Martinez Amendment #65 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "I'm not going to make a motion to table. I think this is a very bad amendment, an amendment that would confine women all over the world to desperate situations, because it means that what Senator Martinez wants to do is restore the gag rule, which means that non-governmental organizations overseas who help women get reproductive health care and tell them what their legal options are and make birth control available to them so that they can plan their families, those groups will lose every dollar of American support if they even try to do that. "

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

The vote result was 37-60.

The Martinez Amendment #65 to the Children's Health Insurance Program Improvements Act (H.R. 2) is not agreed to.

The vote results will be posted here within one hour.  

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

 
Senator Murray: (12:40 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "At the end of 2007, all of us came together on a bipartisan bill that would have taken big steps towards helping millions more kids get health care. It would have renewed the Children's Health Insurance Program and made sure that almost ten million low-income children would be covered. It is a tragedy and a shame that children's health care became the victim of a partisan fight. But this week, we have the opportunity to make children's health a priority by renewing and expanding the Children's Health Insurance Program and getting it signed into law."

o    SUMMARY "What it comes down to is this, when a child gets a cut that needs stitches, has a fever or earache or develops a serious illness like cystic fibrosis, they should be able to get health care. Period. I want to make sure that Brenna's mom never has to worry about her going into debt to keep her own child alive or whether health care will be there for her daughter. So let me say it again, this bill is about making sure our kids can see a doctor. Passing it is the smartest thing we can do for our economy, but it is also the moral thing to do for our children."

 
Senator Cornyn: (12:54 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2) and the Cornyn Amendment #67.

o    SUMMARY "To improve the bill and to focus on low-income children, I've offered this amendment that prohibits redistributing funds to states that have expanded their SCHIP program to higher income families or adults. At least until we take care of the low-income kids first. The current bill rewards states for exceeding their budget, even if they spent outside of the original intent of the program."

 
Senator Roberts: (12:56 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2) and the Roberts Amendment #75.

o    SUMMARY "I rise today to offer an amendment to refocus this bill and to more accurately reflect our priorities in regards to low-income children. After all, that's what this bill is supposed to be all about. The SCHIP program as established in Title 21 of the Social Security Act, and we had one goal, and that goal was to cover targeted low-income children. The targeted low-income child is defined as one who is under the age of 19, with no health insurance, whose family makes too much money to qualify them for Medicaid but not enough to be able to afford them to buy health insurance. The statute is very clear about who the SCHIP program is intended to cover, low-income children should our priority. That's the intent of the program."

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

 
Senator Grassley: (1:35 PM)

·         Spoke in favor of the Roberts Amendment #75 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "The higher federal matching dollars are there to encourage states to expand their program and get these kids covered. This program has been in place now since 1997. Obviously 12 years, and still there are about 6 million low-income uninsured children in America today. So, the Children's Health Insurance Program reauthorization should be focused on getting these low-income kids covered, and that should be the top priority in this bill. But this bill goes in a different direction. It allows coverage of kids in families with incomes of $83,000. The medium-family income in America is roughly $50,000, and I imagine in my state it's probably lower than that."

o    SUMMARY "The Roberts Amendment is better than the unlimited coverage that this Children's Health Insurance Program bill would allow. But the other side doesn't want to have any amendments. This is a fundamental difference that we have here in how we think about things. They believe that the government has to be the solution. They will oppose putting any income limits on eligibility. They want to allow states to expand their programs so taxpayers in the bottom half of incomes in America are helping to buy health coverage for people in the top half of the income."

 
Senator Snowe: (1:45 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "Regrettably, the stakes are monumentally higher than when we first tried to pass this authorization bill a year and a half ago. The Health and Human Services announced that 10 million children were enrolled in the SCHIP program which is a 4% increase over the previous year. That is partly attributed to the state outreach efforts. The fact remains that SCHIP is offsetting the continued declines we have been experiencing in employer-sponsored coverage. We cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that a 1% rise in the national unemployment rate boosts Medicaid and SCHIP enrollments by one million, including 600,000 children."

 
Senator Baucus: (2:00 PM)

·         Propounded a UC that the Senate debate concurrently the Cornyn Amendment #67 and Roberts Amendment #75 until 2:15 PM with time equally divided and controlled, proceed to vote on the Cornyn Amendment, when the Cornyn Amendment is dispensed with, the Senate proceed to vote on the Roberts Amendment. 

 
Senator Roberts: (2:06 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "How on earth am I going to explain to a Kansas taxpayer, Arizona taxpayer, any taxpayer that you are giving a program intended for low-income kids to children of people earning $140,000? Higher-income populations under the CHIP program cover a target rate of low-income or these states would not receive any federal payment for such higher income. That was section 116. What happened to that?"

 
Senator Kyl: (2:07 PM)

·         Responded.

o    SUMMARY "The bill that the Senator from Kansas voted for last year had Section 116 language in it. The gentleman is precisely correct about what it did. That was not Republican language. That was drafted by the Chairman of the Committee and the leadership in the House, Democrat leadership, and supported by Democrats on both sides of the aisle when that bill passed. But in writing the bill year, they dropped that language. Now, I don't know why they dropped it. All my amendment does is to add back that language. I haven't added a comma, a period, or a semicolon. I just took the language from last year, the bill that passed, and reinserted it in this bill."

 
Senator Baucus: (2:13 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "The policy of low-income kids in this bill is the same policy that was in the first Children's Health Insurance bill. The Senate passed that bill with 69 votes, including Senator Roberts, I might say, and Senator Hatch. They both voted for the underlying bill and without these amendments that have been up here on the Floor. It's true that bill was vetoed by the President and the House was unable to override the veto, but 69 Senators had voted for these policies that are in this bill without the amendments that have been suggested on the Floor."

 
Senator Burr: (2:14 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "The Chairman just alluded to the fact that some states need more flexibility because the income of their state is higher. One of those states that's grandfathered is the state of New Jersey. It's allowed to include up to 350% of poverty for SCHIP participants. Now, it's important to understand that when you increase flexibility, you decrease the likelihood of people under 200% being enrolled."

 
Senator Cornyn: (2:15 PM)

·         Spoke in favor of the Cornyn Amendment #67 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "My amendment would redirect those funds to make sure they're reserved for covering low-income children, or for outreach and enrollment activities. I think it's important we put some money into that to let people know, to educate them that this is available for their children and sign them up, rather than use those funds to cover children from higher-income families. This amendment sends the message that Congress will meet its responsibility of putting first things first by taking care of low-income children."

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

The vote result was 64-33.

The motion to table the Cornyn Amendment #67 to the Children's Health Insurance Program Improvements Act (H.R. 2) is agreed to.

The vote results will be posted here within one hour.

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

The vote result was 36-60.

The Roberts Amendment #75 to the Children's Health Insurance Program Improvements Act (H.R. 2) is not agreed to.

The vote results will be posted here within one hour.  

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

Colloquy (Senators Kyl and Roberts)

·         Spoke on the Kyl Amendment #46 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

 
Senator Kyl: (3:09 PM)

o    SUMMARY "This amendment which I laid down before the last two votes deals with the problem of crowd-out. C.B.O. identified that for every 100 children who enroll as a result of SCHIP there's a corresponding reduction if private insurance coverage of between 25% and 50%. In fact, their estimate of the result of people leaving private coverage and going into the government program as a result of this bill is nearly 2.5 million individuals. And that's what this amendment seeks to address."

 
Senator Roberts: (3:11 PM)

o    SUMMARY "I'm trying to figure out the practical effect of this and you have already described the fact this is exactly the same language in the legislation passed by this body in the House last year, CHIP one and CHIP two, and then it was deleted and now there is crowd-out where public subsidies encourage people to give up their private insurance. So I'm sitting here trying to figure this out. C.B.O analysis says that 400,000 children will be covered in higher income families but another 400,000 children will drop their existing private coverage as a result."

 
Senator Kyl: (3:12 PM)

o    SUMMARY "The reason for the disparity is C.B.O. says 2.4 million people will lose coverage from their private health insurance as a result of this legislation; for the higher income, it's almost a one for one and that's the 400,000 number the senator from Kansas is talking about. Literally for every person added, a person is dropped."

 
Senator Roberts: (3:13 PM)

o    SUMMARY "So the SCHIP legislation insures one new child for the cost of two. Is this correct in the view of the Senator from Arizona? You are an insurance company, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, or John Deere from Iowa and provide this kind of insurance to low-income families. But they get less in terms of reimbursement from SCHIP than they do from private insurance...if you are John Deere of Iowa and someone comes along and takes away this number of youngsters from the coverage, how are you going to exist?"

 
Senator Kyl: (3:14 PM)

o    SUMMARY "The Senator from Kansas make very good points. There are cascading effects of this. First on the private insurers that will not have the people to cover. Secondly, he mentioned providers. Physicians, for example, get paid a lot less under this program than they would otherwise."

o    SUMMARY "I will predict that it is likely that Secretary Levitt's directives are going to be rescinded because it tries to focus on the low-income kids rather than allowing more high-income kids to be covered. If that happens, the entire crowd-out issue falls in our lap. If we don't have language to deal with it, which is proposed in my amendment, not only will the bill become far more expensive, not only will fewer families be covered by private insurance, with unintended consequences there, but we will have the problem of the low-income kids who are not covered and haven't been found."

 
Senator Stabenow: (3:19 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "I rise today in strong support of the Children's Health Insurance Program and the fact that we will be adding four million children for a total of 10 million American children from families predominately who are low income, who have parents that are working, but don't have insurance and have a very difficult time going into private sector and paying very high premiums to be to cover their children. We don't want families choosing between keeping the light on, keeping the heat on, food on the table and whether or not their children can get health care. For too many families, that is what is happening."

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

Senator Hagen: (3:34 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2) and the Webb Amendment.

o    SUMMARY "It's important to note too that the original CHIP legislation passed almost 12 years ago by a Republican Congress with the support of a Democratic President, and it was an extremely bipartisan measure. So too was an almost identical bill last year which was passed by two-thirds of the Senate and vetoed by the President. This program has widespread bipartisan support, and we should not allow differences over particular provisions of this bill to obscure that fact."

o    SUMMARY "Under this bill as written, in my home state of North Carolina, a package of cigarettes will ultimately cost $4.27, of which more than half, 51 percent, of the price represents government taxes. Furthermore, taxing cigarettes now is really shortsighted and an unreliable source of funding for this program."

o    SUMMARY "I would like to voice my support for my colleague Senator Jim Webb's amendment which would reduce the proposed tax on cigarettes by 24 cents. As I have said before, Mr. President, the way in which this bill taxes only cigarettes is unfair. And I believe the proposed 61-cent increase per package is outrageous. It is my hope that this amendment represents a compromise palatable to all sides in this debate."

 
Senator Grassley: (3:47 PM)

·         Spoke on the use of TARP funds.

o    SUMMARY "The Government Accountability Office's mission is to look at the overall performance of the initiative and its impact on the financial system. The Government Accountability Office is also required to prepare regular reports for Congress. However, the Government Accountability Office cannot do its job without access to information. And I have learned that it does not have all the access that it needs. Although the Government Accountability Office can examine the records of the Treasury itself and of any of its agents or representatives, the Government Accountability Office does not have access to the books and records of private entities that receive TARP funds."

o    SUMMARY "The public ought to have a right to know. Believe it or not, the Government Accountability Office can't have access to information from the banks and investment companies that receive billions of taxpayers' dollars. That is the problem and this legislation I'm introducing is intended to fix that as well."

·         Spoke in favor of the Kyl Amendment #46 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "As a state, if you're not doing a good job of taking care of the low-income kids when we passed the bill in the first place, you shouldn't be covering children over 300% of poverty. This crowd-out policy in both bipartisan bills of 2007 would have worked to minimize crowd-out by making sure that states are staying focused on covering low-income kids. So it's a very important issue. And it is one that we worked together on a bipartisan basis."

o    SUMMARY "There was a lot of debate about crowd-out in 2007 when we had extensive discussions about the Children's Health Insurance Program. We recognized this to be a very big problem. So this is why I'm so entirely baffled as to why my Democratic colleagues would abandon a provision that they helped develop in a bipartisan bill two years ago. I don't know why they would want to strike such an important part of the bill and one that also helps blunt sharp criticisms that the bill has when it allowed states to expand eligibility to 300% of poverty.

 
Senator Baucus: (4:12 PM)

·         Spoke against the Kyl Amendment 46 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "So the bottom line is, I think the amendment should be defeated. 69 Senators already voted for this legislation, which did not include this amendment. 69 Senators in 2007 voted for this very same Children's Health Insurance Program which did not include this amendment. And if they would vote for it and did not include this amendment, I would think they would vote for it again."

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

 
Senator Reed: (4:17 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "Indeed the federal government and businesses and families are burdened by the health care costs in the absence of a discernible health care system. It is clear there can be no economic recovery in the long term unless we confront the critical challenge of comprehensive health reform. The time has come to guarantee affordable quality health care to all Americans. This bill is an important step forward. Let me emphasize how critical this is to our children's health care program."

 
Senator Murkowski: (4:20 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2) and the Murkowski Amendment #77.

o    SUMMARY "The bill we have in front of us is not close to what we passed in 2007. Quite frankly, I'm not sure why a bill that enjoyed such broad bipartisan support was gutted and filled with some provisions that, as we've seen on the Floor today and yesterday, have been pretty controversial provisions. I'm perplexed that the decision has been made to go in a different direction than the direction that we took when we overwhelmingly passed this legislation prior to this."

o    SUMMARY "This amendment provides flexibility to the states in working with the Secretary of Health and Human Services to ensure that we really are protecting our poorest kids by ensuring them before we expand to higher income populations. Madam President, I submit that this is a very reasonable provision. It was components of this, we have seen in CHIP 1 and CHIP 2. But, again, a broad bipartisan group of Senators voted to back it. I think it is reasonable. I think it would be a good improvement to this bill, and I think it would help to alleviate some of the concerns that we're not working first to address the enrollment of at least 80% of our more needy children."

Senator Binagman: (4:36 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "I hope that the optional coverage for legal immigrants is not so objectionable to some of my colleagues that they would walk away from the millions upon millions of American children that receive care through this program. Americans are struggling, and our economy is in a very serious situation. The bill before us is urgently needed by many in this country. I hope my colleagues will support this important bill."

 
Senator Webb: (4:38 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2) and the Webb Amendment #58.

o    SUMMARY "I offered this amendment in an attempt to resolve what I believe are two issues of fundamental fairness, and they go to how this program is going to be paid for. The first was that the offset being used right now, the 61-cent-per-pack increase on cigarettes, I believe, as does the Senator from North Carolina and other Members that I have discussed this issue with on the Floor, that this is unfairly singling out one industry that has already been heavily taxed."

o    SUMMARY "The second issue of fundamental fairness, the pay-for that I have proposed in this amendment is to tax carried interest, which is compensation based on the percentage of the profits that hedge fund managers make...this idea is not my own. President Obama campaigned in favor of changing the carried interest tax rates during his campaign."

 
Senator Baucus: (4:43 PM)

·         Responded.

o    SUMMARY "The alternative method of financing which you recommend, is one which I think many Members of this body, including myself, believe should be addressed. Those editorials that you referred have more than a grain of truth in them, and carried interest is something that must be dealt with, that I think will be dealt with in the context of tax reform later this year or next year...and so add it all together, I commend the Senator, but I say to the Senator that I don't think that this is the proper time and place to bring up a very, very important issue; namely, carried interest.

 
Senator Webb: (4:46 PM)

·         Withdrew amendment #58.

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

 
Senator Sanders: (4:58 PM)

·         Spoke on the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "I find it amazing that we have spent so much time debating it. This SCHIP legislation would help more than 4 million children in this country get the health insurance they desperately need, but I should point out that it leaves approximately 3 million kids still uninsured. And, Madam President, as you well know, the United States of America remains today the only major country in the industrialized world where this debate would take place. So we're spending weeks discussing an issue which every other country in the industrialized world has long resolved."

o    SUMMARY "This really is a no brainer. And clearly what we must do as a nation is move to a national health care program guaranteeing health care to all of our people. I think the American people are more than aware that our health care system is substantially broken. They understand that not only do 46 million Americans have no health insurance, they understand that even more are under insured. They understand the absurdity of tying health care to our jobs. Because when we lose our jobs, we lose our health care."

 
Senator Brown: (5:07 PM)

·         Spoke on the Brown Amendment #79 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "This amendment would accomplish two important health care goals, it would correct a mistake in Medicaid payments to five hospitals in my state, mistakes that jeopardize access to critical health care, mistakes that threaten the jobs of nurses and other hospital personnel in areas of hospital that cannot afford more job loss. It will correct mistakes that hamstring how hospitals that should and must provide quality health care but are receiving payments that reflect their costs. My amendment would also enhance the ability of an N.I.H. comprehensive cancer center in Ohio for those patients facing deadly forms of cancer."

 
Senator Baucus: (5:11 PM)

·         Responded.

o    SUMMARY "While I'm sympathetic to the problems that the Senator alludes to with respect to six facilities in the state of Ohio, these are rifle shots. This is going to affect the reclassification of five hospitals and change the assistance for one other. I would like to help out, but I tell my good friend from Ohio there are over 50 other requests from other Senators for reclassifications in their home states."

 
Senator Brown: (5:16 PM)

·         Propounded a UC that amendment #79 be withdrawn (without objection).

 
Senator Baucus: (5:19 PM)

·         Propounded a UC that at 5:30 PM, the Senate resume consideration of the Kyl Amendment #46, proceed to vote on the related amendment, when the Kyl Amendment is dispensed with, the Senate proceed to consideration of the Murkowski Amendment #77, the time until 5:30 PM be equally divided and controlled (without objection).

 
Senator Kyl: (5:19 PM)

·         Spoke in favor of the Kyl Amendment #46 to the SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2).

o    SUMMARY "This amendment is designed to deal with the problem of crowd-out, which the Congressional Budget Office says will affect 25% to 50% of the people on SCHIP, in fact, about 2.4 million people would leave private health insurance coverage and go to the public coverage of SCHIP. There are a lot of problems with that, as we've discussed before. The main argument that I have heard is that the amendment I have offered would affirmatively restrict coverage and get kids off the rolls. There are two answers to that. No, it wouldn't. In fact, it has exactly the opposite effect. It would ensure coverage. And secondly, it's not my language. This is language that was written by House and Senate Democrats."

 
Senator Baucus: (5:23 PM)

·         Responded.

o    SUMMARY "That was in response to what's called the President Bush August 17 Directive. That August 17 Directive, in my judgment, was a draconian effort by states to essentially in effect, not leave private health insurance for the Children's Health Insurance Program. And so, Congress, as a response to that directive, enacted this section we're talking about here, section 116. However, that directive was never put in place."

 
Senator Kyl: (5:28 PM)

·         SUMMARY "The language that was written last year, and it would be in my amendment, is that in the higher-income states, the low-income kids must be covered at a rate equal to the top ten states. And if a higher-income state fails the test, then it wouldn't receive the payment just for those higher-income kids. So there's no difference between all of the other states and even New York and New Jersey with respect to the lower-income kids. But the incentive here is obviously not just to cherry-pick the higher income kids, but to try to make sure that you're covering the lower-income kids too. So just to conclude my comment, either you go with something like Secretary Levitt proposed, and I don't think with the New Administration that's going to remain on the books, or you're going to have to have something like the language that was prepared by my Democratic colleagues last year."

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

The vote result was 42-56.

The Kyl Amendment #46 to the Children's Health Insurance Program Improvements Act (H.R. 2) is not agreed to.

The vote results will be posted here within one hour.  

SCHIP Bill (H.R. 2)

The vote result was 47-51.

The Murkowski Amendment #77 to the Children's Health Insurance Program Improvements Act (H.R. 2) is not agreed to.

The vote results will be posted here within one hour.