Max Baucus

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. I amend that to be equally divided.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 7:45 this evening, the Senate proceed to vote in relation to the following amendments; that no amendment be in order to any of the amendments listed here prior to the vote; that there be 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to each vote; that after the first vote, the vote time be limited to 10 minutes; that the amendments be voted in the order listed: Coburn No. 2627, Vitter No. 2596, Allard No. 2535, Hutchison No. 2620, Kyl No. 2562, and Sanders No. 2600.

Mr. BAUCUS. I ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be agreed to: No. 2631 on behalf of Senators Dodd and Clinton, and No. 2588 on behalf of Senator Obama en bloc, and that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendments be temporarily laid aside, and I call up amendment No. 2619 on behalf of Senators Nelson of Florida and Alexander; that the amendment be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid on the table.

Mr. BAUCUS. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BAUCUS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, if the Senator would like to have a vote on his amendment, we will at the appropriate time.

Mr. BAUCUS. At the appropriate time, if the Senator wishes to spend more time--I don't know where we are right now, frankly.

Mr. BAUCUS. That is correct. And that is the problem with the amendment. It would encourage companies to race to the bottom. I don't think we want that encouragement. We want a national program.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, this is plainly, simply, clearly a killer amendment. There is no way in the world that CBO can certify 20 percent crowd-out. They cannot do it. There are many organizations trying to figure out what is the so- called crowd-out rate. They are all over the lot. It is almost impossible to tell what it is. That is the reason for the big range to which the Senator referred. The one to one is not accurate. If you read the CBO table closely and go down to the next line, you will see it is much less, about one-third under the table. There is no way CBO can certify this. It cannot happen. If this amendment is adopted, you are basically saying no State can have a Children's Health Insurance Program. This is clearly a killer amendment. We should not kill the Children's Health Insurance Program. We should help more kids get health insurance, kids who are not now getting it. I urge refusal of this amendment. Mr. President, before we vote, I wish to set up a series of colloquies among several Senators after this vote. I ask unanimous consent that the following Senators be recognized for the following amounts of time on the Lincoln amendment No. 2621: Senator Lincoln, 5 minutes; Senator Nelson of Nebraska, 3 minutes; and Senator Snowe, 3 minutes.

Mr. BAUCUS. I ask for the regular order. Amendment No. 2557

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BAUCUS. No, longer than that.

Mr. BAUCUS. I appreciate that. I am trying to move this along. The Judiciary Committee did break up some time ago.

Mr. BAUCUS. Yes.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the first amendment we vote on in the package would be the Kyl amendment. I see Senator Kyl on the floor. I make that request that we proceed immediately to the Kyl amendment, with 2 minutes equally divided prior to the vote, and subsequent to the Kyl amendment, that we go back in the same order; that 10 minutes be allotted between votes.

Mr. BAUCUS. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, we have five votes now. Senator Specter is detained. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BAUCUS. That is correct. This legislation also provides assistance for States to provide--the fancy term is ``premium assistance''; that is, to help families pay the insurance companies.

Mr. BAUCUS. That is a very good point. I might say, this legislation received endorsements from over 50 different organizations, major organizations--AARP, pharmaceutical companies, the American Medical Association. This bill has wide endorsements. As the Senator has just implied--yes, this program says: OK, States, you figure out how you want to administer it. It is up to you, the States, not Uncle Sam. Most States say we are going to utilize health insurance companies, private health insurance companies to administer this, with copays and deductibles, and so forth.

Mr. BAUCUS. I don't know if I want to answer that question, because I can think of one major bill that many thought was socialized medicine but they now strongly support.

Mr. BAUCUS. The Senator is correct. There are many medical associations that support this bill.

Mr. BAUCUS

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, on behalf of Senator Dodd, I ask unanimous consent that Dr. Carmen Green, a fellow in his office, be granted floor privileges. I ask unanimous consent that Ben Miller of the Finance Committee be granted floor privileges, both for the remainder of debate on this legislation.