Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 107th Congress, First Session, Volume 147, Part 9 Page: 11,818
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE
June 26, 2001
The senior assistant bill clerk read as
follows:
A bill (S. 1052) to amend the Public Health
Service Act and the Employee Retirement
Income Security Act of 1974 to protect con-
sumers in managed care plans and other
health coverage.
Pending:
Frist (for Grassley) motion to commit to
the Committee on Finance and the Com-
mittee on Health, Education, Labor, and
not later than thastrdat thattis 14 days after
the date on which this motion is adopted.
Gramm amendment No. 810, to exempt em-
ployers from certain causes of action.
Edwards (for McCain/Edwards) amendment
No. 812, to express the sense of the Senate
with regard to the selection of independent
review organizations.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tern-
pore. Under the previous order, there
will now be 2 hours of debate in rela-
tion to the Grassley motion to commit
and the Gramm amendment No. 810,
the time to be equally divided in the
usual form.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem-
pore. The Senator from Nevada is rec-
ognized.
SCHEDULE
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I just want
to make a brief statement on behalf of
Majority Leader DASCHLE. As has been
indicated, the resumption of the Pa-
tients' Bill of Rights will be the order
at hand today. As has been announced,
there will be approximately 2 hours of
closing debate in relation to the Grass-
ley motion to commit-and I under-
stand he wants to modify his motion.
I ask Senator GRASSLEY, it is my un-
derstanding the Senator wants to mod-
ify his motion to commit; is that
right?
Mr. GRASSLEY. Yes.
Mr. REID. We would not object-and
with respect to the Gramm amendment
regarding employers. That debate will
be ended shortly. There will be two
rollcall votes at 11:30 a.m.
I met with Senator DASCHLE early
this morning, and he has indicated that
without any question we are going to
finish the Patients' Bill of Rights be-
fore the Fourth of July break.
Now, I would say to everyone within
the sound of my voice, I believe we
have been on this bill a week. I think
we have fairly well defined what the
issues are, and I think it would be in
everyone's best interests if today we
would decide what those issues are and
have amendments offered. If people
want time agreements, fine. If they do
not, debate them, complete what they
want to say, and move on. Everyone
has many things to do during the
Fourth of July break. But this is im_-
portant. This bill has been around for 5
years, and we are going to complete
consideration of this legislation.
There is also a need to complete the
supplemental appropriations bill. As I
have indicated before, I think Senator
BYRD and Senator STEVENS have donean excellent job in moving that bill
along and I think we can do that very
quickly. But there are going to be late
nights tonight, tomorrow, and Thurs-
day. We are going to do our best to
make sure everyone is heard, but also
in consideration of other people's
schedules, we will do our best to com-
plete action on this legislation as
quickly as possible.
I see Senator GREGG, the ranking
manager of the bill, is here. I did not
see him earlier.
Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I would
like to ask unanimous consent that
Senator ENZI be added as a cosponsor
of the Gramm amendment which is
pending.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem-
pore. Without objection, it is so or-
dered.
Mr. GREGG. I thank the Senator.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem-
pore. The Senator from Iowa.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I
hope you will call on the Senator from
Texas.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem-
pore. The Senator from Texas.
Mr. GRAMM. Mr. President, I ask
unanimous consent that following the
vote on the Grassley amendment, each
side have a total of 3 minutes to sum-
marize the arguments on the amend-
ment excluding employers from liabil-
ity.
Mr. REID. No objection.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem-
pore. Is there objection?
The Chair hears none, and it is so or-
dered.
The Senator from Iowa.
MOTION TO COMMIT, AS MODIFIED
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, be_-
fore I speak on my motion, I ask unani_-
mous consent that the pending motion
to commit be modified to reflect the
referral of the bill jointly to the Com_-
mittee on the Judiciary and the same
14-day timeframe that affects the Fi_-
nance Committee and the HELP Com_-
mittee also apply to the Judiciary
Committee.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem_-
pore. Is there objection?
The Chair hears none, and it is so or_-
dered.
The motion to commit, as modified,
is as follows:
MOTION TO COMMIT
Mr. aGrassle moves to commit tthe billF S
nance, the Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions, and the Committee on
the Judiciary with instructions to report the
same back to the Senate not later than that
date that is 14 (fourteen) days after the date
on which this motion is adopted.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I
thank the majority for permission to
modify my motion.
Mr. President, I rise to speak in favor
of my motion to commit the Kennedy-
McCain bill to the Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions, Judiciary, and Fi-nance Committees with instructions
that these committees report the bill
out in 14 days.
On a preliminary note, I thank the
good counsel of Senators THOMPSON
and HATCH. Yesterday, they reminded
me that the Kennedy-McCain bill also
includes a series of provisions on liabil-
ity that fall under Judiciary's jurisdic-
tion and have never been reviewed by
that committee either. Thus, I have
modified my motion to include the Ju-
diciary Committee along with the
HELP and Finance Committees.
I am deeply troubled that the Ken-
nedy-McCain bill has bypassed the rel-
evant committees and has been
brought directly to the floor-without
one hearing, without one markup, and
without public input into this par-
ticular bill.
As I made very clear on the floor yes-
terday, I strongly believe that patient
protections are critical to every hard-
working American who relies on the
managed care system. We need a strong
and reliable patients' rights bill and
I'm supportive of this effort 100 per-
cent. What we do not need is a bill, like
Kennedy-McCain, that exposes employ-
ers to unlimited liability, drives up the
cost of health insurance, and ulti-
mately increases the number of Ameri-
cans without health coverage.
Instead, I believe we should protect
patients by ensuring access to needed
treatments and specialists, by making
sure each patient gets a review of any
claim that may be denied, and above
all by ensuring that Americans' who
rely on their employers for health care
can still get this coverage. I'm con-
fident these goals can be reached.
However, the very fact that our new
leadership brought the Kennedy-
McCain legislation directly to the floor
without proper committee action, vio-
lates the core of the Senate process.
I know my colleagues on the other
side will waste no time accusing me of
delaying this bill, but the truth is, had
the relevant committees been given
the opportunity to consider the Ken-
nedy-McCain legislation in the first
place, I would not be raising these ob-
jections.
By bringing this bill directly to the
floor, the message seems to me to be
loud and clear: that the new chairmen
under the new Democratic leadership
are merely speedbumps on the road to
the floor.
I guess, as a former chairman who
hopes to be chairman again in the near
future, I do not particularly enjoy
being a speedbump. But there's some-
thing much more important at stake-
process. A flawed process, more often
than not, will lead to a flawed legisla-
tive product. We are seeing that point
in spades on this legislation.
Does anyone really think that if we
had followed regular order and gone
through the committee process that
the bill before us would be in worse11818
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United States. Congress. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 107th Congress, First Session, Volume 147, Part 9, book, 2001; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc31064/m1/3/?q=virtual+music+rare+book: accessed June 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.