Sherrod Brown

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Social Security Act Improvements for the Terminally Ill Act. This is a critical and long overdue piece of legislation and I urge my colleagues to give it due consideration and, ultimately, support. In the Senate, we are accustomed to making tough decisions on pressing issues that have a direct impact on the lives of Americans. But few issues are both as urgent and as uncomplicated as the one now present to the Chamber. This bill would waive the 5-month waiting period in the Social Security disability program for terminally ill patients--thus allowing those with just months to live to receive the Federal benefits they deserve. None of our fellow citizens should have to spend their last days haggling with the Federal Government for benefits that can help ease the financial burden associated with palliative care, death, and burial. Specifically, this bill would authorize disability benefits for any eligible individual whose disability is expected to or does result in the patient's death before the end of the current 5-month waiting period. This commonsense reform would grant justice to those, like Ohioan Mr. Arthur Woolweaver, Jr., who are being effectively ``waited out'' by the Government. Even though Mr. Woolweaver had worked and contributed to Social Security all his life and even though his disability due to cancer was easily verified by the Social Security Administration, he was still forced to wait . . . and wait . . . and wait. Unfortunately, it is now too late for Mr. Woolweaver, who passed away on June 12 of this year. Ultimately, Mr. Woolweaver was still waiting for his benefits, which would have totaled $1,800 per month, when he died this summer. This money could have helped Mr. Woolweaver's wife keep their house in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. Like it or not, the Federal Government is often viewed as a faceless and heartless bureaucracy. This bill offers a chance to take a small step to change that image and restore faith in the system. I think I speak for most Americans when I say that I want my Government to be responsive, logical, and compassionate. This bill seeks to achieve that ideal.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Social Security Act Improvements for the Terminally Ill Act. This is a critical and long overdue piece of legislation and I urge my colleagues to give it due consideration and, ultimately, support. In the Senate, we are accustomed to making tough decisions on pressing issues that have a direct impact on the lives of Americans. But few issues are both as urgent and as uncomplicated as the one now present to the Chamber. This bill would waive the 5-month waiting period in the Social Security disability program for terminally ill patients--thus allowing those with just months to live to receive the Federal benefits they deserve. None of our fellow citizens should have to spend their last days haggling with the Federal Government for benefits that can help ease the financial burden associated with palliative care, death, and burial. Specifically, this bill would authorize disability benefits for any eligible individual whose disability is expected to or does result in the patient's death before the end of the current 5-month waiting period. This commonsense reform would grant justice to those, like Ohioan Mr. Arthur Woolweaver, Jr., who are being effectively ``waited out'' by the Government. Even though Mr. Woolweaver had worked and contributed to Social Security all his life and even though his disability due to cancer was easily verified by the Social Security Administration, he was still forced to wait . . . and wait . . . and wait. Unfortunately, it is now too late for Mr. Woolweaver, who passed away on June 12 of this year. Ultimately, Mr. Woolweaver was still waiting for his benefits, which would have totaled $1,800 per month, when he died this summer. This money could have helped Mr. Woolweaver's wife keep their house in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. Like it or not, the Federal Government is often viewed as a faceless and heartless bureaucracy. This bill offers a chance to take a small step to change that image and restore faith in the system. I think I speak for most Americans when I say that I want my Government to be responsive, logical, and compassionate. This bill seeks to achieve that ideal.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. I thank my friend from North Dakota. Senator Dorgan has reviewed the numerous reasons why this pilot program doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense to compromise safety laws, whether it is road safety, food safety, toy safety, or truck safety. Unsafe trucks on our roads, unsafe food on our tables, or dangerous toys in the hands of our children, all of this is part of a larger issue. It is about trade. It would be easier if it weren't. It would be easier if we didn't need strong trade rules to ensure truck safety and food safety and product safety, but it simply doesn't work that way. If we don't require China to export products as safe as those manufactured in the United States, our children will be exposed to lead paint and loose parts. If we don't write trade deals, as Senator Dorgan says, that prohibit unsafe trucks from our roads, more Americans--count on it-- will be killed on our highways. Yet we write trade deals that compromise and compromise and compromise away the safety standards that protect our children, our pets, our roads, and ourselves. Why should we agree to a trade deal that turns product safety into a reactive recall-driven enterprise? Not because it serves our families but because it serves multinational corporations. Why should we agree to trade deals that compromise road safety? Not because it serves our families but because it serves multinational corporations. Too often in both Chambers in this Congress we write trade deals that ignore consumers, coddle corporations, produce massive trade deficits, ensure unsafe imports, and export U.S. jobs. Instead, we could write trade rules that respect U.S. law and promote U.S. exports. We could write trade rules that keep our roads safe, our food and toys safe, that are fair to U.S. trading partners, and best for America's families. But it means letting go of expedient, shortsighted, lopsided free trade deals and embracing a new model. Instead of trade deals designed to benefit top management and multinational corporations, we should write trade deals designed to benefit everyone else. I am sure the benefit of those trade deals will ultimately trickle down to the Nation's CEOs. U.S. road safety laws make sense. Voting for the Dorgan amendment and voting against the Cornyn amendment demonstrates respect for those rules. I urge my colleagues to vote accordingly. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed as in morning business.

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

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, last week, Mattel, the maker of Barbie and Elmo and Barney toys, issued its third recall of tainted products from China just in the last month. Toothpaste, tires, toys--when ``made in China'' becomes a warning label, something is very wrong. Our trade policy should prevent these problems, not invite them. Clearly, our trade policy has failed. Yet anyone who disagrees with America's trade experts is labeled a protectionist, as if that is a bad word. It is not only our moral obligation to protect our communities, protect our families, protect our children from contaminated, possibly deadly products, as Members of Congress it is our duty to protect them. Last year, the United States imported from China $288 billion worth of goods, much of it food and toys and vitamins and dog food. Not only is China weak in unenforced health and safety regulations, as the Washington Post revealed again today, it aggressively foists on vulnerable nations contaminated food and products. China sends formaldehyde-laced children's candy, mercury-laced makeup, and fungus-infested dried fruits to unsuspecting consumers in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Hong Kong--a part of China--nations largely reliant upon Communist China for trade and for aid. Our country has worked hard to build safe working places, to build a reliable, healthy food supply, and to ensure that our drinking water is pure and safe. For 100 years, workers, community leaders, elected officials, advocates, labor union activists, people of faith in their synagogues and in their churches, took on some of the world's most powerful corporations to make sure our food and our products were safe. Unrestricted, unregulated free trade with China threatens these gains and jeopardizes our public health. Why would we expect otherwise? China doesn't enforce food safety, doesn't enforce consumer product safety, doesn't enforce worker safety in its own country for its own people. Why would we expect--with this wide-open trade arrangement with the People's Republic of China, why would we expect that Communist government, which cares little about its own citizens--why would we expect them to ship us uncontaminated vitamins? Why would we expect them to ship us products that are safe? Why would we be surprised when toys are coated with lead-based paint or vitamins are contaminated? As of now, there is little interest among the Chinese in changing the way we and they do business. Our trade deficit with China exceeded $250 billion last year. So what is to be done? Since the Chinese Communist party forbids third party inspectors on Chinese soil, we either buy less--much less-- from China, or we hold importers responsible for the safety of the products they bring into our country. First of all, we must increase the number of food and consumer product safety inspectors. Less than 1 percent of all imported vegetables and fruits and seafoods and grains are inspected at the border--less than 1 percent. Mattel is to be commended for taking the proactive step of an internal investigation into the recall of products. But such action should be the rarity, not the norm, which is why we cannot in our Nation's best interests focus solely on consumer threats from China. The real threat is our failed trade policy that allows--and in fact encourages in some ways--recall after recall after recall. The real threat is our failure to change course and craft a new trade policy. The real threat is this administration's insistence not just on continuing these trade relationships, but on building more of the same: More trade pacts that send U.S. jobs overseas, more trade pacts that allow companies and countries to ignore the rules of fair trade, and more trade pacts that will lead to more recalls. The administration and its free trade supporters in Congress are gearing up for another trade fight. They want to force on our Nation--a nation that in November demanded change in every State in the Union-- they want to force on our Nation more trade agreements with Peru and Panama, Colombia and South Korea, all based on the same failed trade model. FDA inspectors have rejected seafood imports from Peru and Panama. Yet the President is suggesting trade agreements with Peru and Panama. Yet the current trade agreements--as written--limit food safety standards and continue to ignore real border inspections. Adding insult to injury, the agreements would force the United States to rely on foreign inspectors who aren't doing their jobs to ensure our safety. We have seen how well that worked in China. More of the same in our trade policy will mean exactly what we have seen now with China: more contaminated imports; more unsafe, dangerous toys; more recalls. It is time for a new direction in our Nation's trade policy. As my friend from North Dakota says, we want plenty of trade. We want trade--plenty of it--but we want it under different rules. It is time for a trade policy that ensures the safety of food on our kitchen tables and toys in our children's bedrooms. Everyone agrees on one thing: We want more trade with countries around the world, but our first responsibility in the Senate is to protect the safety and the health of our families first.

Mr. BROWN. I would love to.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, Senator Dorgan is exactly right. The tragedy of the young boy who swallowed the little toy made of lead is that it is less expensive to use lead. It is easier to paint. The paint dries quicker. All of that when you use lead. So when we have this race to the bottom, when our companies go to China and are looking for the cheapest way to make products, and then to import those products, export them from China, import them back into the United States, you are going to see that race to the bottom. We have seen it with contaminated toothpaste, we have seen it with vitamins, we have seen it with inulin in apple juice, and we see it in toy after toy after toy made by Fisher Price, made by Mattel, some of the most respected companies in our country. Until we change the trade policy when we are dealing with a country that doesn't protect its own consumers, doesn't do much for its own clean water, its clean air and safe drinking water, doesn't do much for its workers, we know this race to the bottom will continue. That is why the Senator's efforts on trade issues and our efforts jointly on trade issues are so important. We want more trade, and we want plenty of it, but we want it under different rules that protect American families.

Mr. BROWN. Exactly. As we weaken those standards, as we have this wide-open trade arrangement with a country that doesn't respect those standards and has a history of undermining any standards like that, it is intensified by the fact that we have seen in our own country a weakening of consumer products, safety laws, and we have seen a scaling back of the number of food inspectors at the U.S.-Mexican border and in other places. So the first job--and I know the Senator thinks in North Dakota, and I think in Ohio that U.S. Senators protect our families. And the best way to do that is stronger consumer product laws, stronger health and safety laws, and not to allow them to be undercut and not to allow them to be unenforced. So I thank my friend from North Dakota for his interest, and I also want to lend support for his amendment that he is about to introduce that deals with the same kinds of issues; in this case truck safety, and how important that is to all of us. I yield the floor, Mr. President.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 243, S. Res. 253.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record, without further intervening action or debate.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 311, submitted earlier today.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, every day an estimated 4,400 lives are lost around the world to tuberculosis--day in, day out, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Fifteen lives will be lost, roughly, in the few minutes of my remarks. Tuberculosis is an urgent global crisis that demands our attention and our response. Two billion people--two billion people--one-third of the world's population, carry around with them the tuberculosis bacterium. As many as 10 million to 15 million in the United States alone are infected with the TB bacterium. Most will not get sick, but many of them are in some jeopardy. Nine million people, practically the population of my State of Ohio, become sick with active tuberculosis every year, and 1.6 million people will die. We struggle with many diseases that are beyond our scientific understanding, but tuberculosis is not one of them. These deaths are preventable. TB is the greatest curable infectious killer worldwide. Much of the good work of the legislation this Senate passed last night will be undermined if we do not do a better job of controlling tuberculosis. Our investments in development will do little to improve economic conditions if entire populations--as are so many in Africa, especially, and India, especially--are reeling from this disease. Combating TB is fundamental to sustaining economic development in poor countries. My colleagues know this. Congress--following the leadership of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee Chairman, Pat Leahy, and ranking member, Judd Gregg--has made great strides in investing greater resources in global health. Diseases such as HIV and malaria have received tremendous increases over the past several years, and I hope this trend will continue. Last night, the Senate did something about this. The amendment I offered last night, with Senators Brownback, Durbin, Boxer, and Smith, added $90 million in funding for our international efforts against tuberculosis, bringing total spending to $200 million. Undoubtedly, that will save lives. Combating TB must go hand in hand with the fight against HIV. Up to 50 percent of people who are HIV positive develop tuberculosis. As many as half the deaths from HIV in Africa actually are deaths from tuberculosis. It is the leading cause of death among people who are HIV positive all over the world. HIV infection weakens a person's immune system, making it 50 times more likely that person will develop active tuberculosis. So if someone is carrying the TB bacterium in their body--as is a third of the world's people--if they get infected with HIV or have some other disease or weakness--from malnutrition or something else--they are much more likely to develop active tuberculosis. To compound that, unchecked, drug-resistant tuberculosis, including deadly XDR-TB, threatens to reverse progress made against AIDS and TB worldwide. In today's world, extensively drug-resistant TB--so-called XDR-TB--poses a grave public health threat never more than a plane ride away. This past June, we got a wakeup call when an American boarded a plane to Europe while infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis. Luckily, his was not the most virulent strain. But his example shows us clearly that this disease does affect America and that more resources for TB are needed to prevent, identify, treat, and control extensively drug- resistant tuberculosis. We need to heed that wakeup call and act before it is too late. It is within our power. There is no mystery here. We know what to do. We know how to treat and cure regular so-called garden-variety tuberculosis. We know how to treat and cure multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in an overwhelming majority of cases. And we know how to treat, generally, extensively drug-resistant--XDR-TB--tuberculosis and cure people of that. It is within our means. Treating regular, garden-variety TB costs only $20 per person. It is a small price to pay to save our lives. I thank my colleagues, including the junior Senator from Pennsylvania for his support of this issue. Last night was a victory for people in the developing world who are so often victims of tuberculosis, who so often suffer from that. It is also a victory for people in our country, a few of whom have TB, but most--but the many more people who are a plane ride away or are potentially exposed to this tuberculosis bacteria. I thank my colleagues.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to en bloc, the preambles be agreed to en bloc, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, the consideration of these items appear separately in the Record, and that any statements relating thereto be printed at the appropriate place in the Record as if read.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed en bloc to the consideration of the following calendar items: Calendar No. 342, S. Res. 134; Calendar No. 343, S. Res. 282; Calendar No. 344, S. Res. 288; Calendar No. 345, S. Res. 292; and Calendar No. 346, S. Res. 301.

Mr. BROWN

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

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. Monday, September 10; that on Monday, following the prayer and the pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then proceed to executive session, as provided under a previous order.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 310 submitted earlier today.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, if there is no further business today, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. BROWN

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

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I thank Chairman Kennedy, the Presiding Officer now, and Ranking Member Enzi, William Jawando on my staff--the committee's Ohio staff and all of the HELP Committee for their excellent work on this legislation. This bill, of course, as we know, invests in higher education. The returns on that investment will not only accrue to students and to the education system that serves them but will accrue to the stability, prosperity, and security of our Nation as a whole. We know the problem. We know what has happened in the last many years to higher education in this country. Particularly in the last 5 or 6 years in my home State of Ohio, the cost of attendance at 4-year public institutions has increased 53 percent. In 2001, if you graduated from college versus going 4 years in 2007, you are paying almost half again, this year, in this 4-year period, than the 4-year period half a decade earlier. It has gone up almost 30 percent in the last 5 or 6 years at 4-year private institutions. At the same time, the median household income in my State has increased only 3 percent. So as college costs have gone up 30 percent if you go to private schools, 50 percent if you go to a public 4-year university, the average income in Ohio has gone up only 3 percent. You can see the gap. The Federal Government has not been able to fill that gap. Pell grants haven't been raised for years until this legislation. The interest rates have continued to go up. Federal loans have not kept pace, neither FFELP nor the Direct Loan Program, so the chasm has grown in terms of the kind of money working-class kids and poor kids and middle-class kids need to go to college. In the 2004-2005 school year, 66 percent of students graduating from 4-year institutions in my State of Ohio graduated with student loan debt, and that debt was an average of $20,000. So two-thirds of Ohio students graduating are burdened with an average of $20,000 in student loan debt. That makes a big difference in career choice. That means they sometimes cannot take the kind of job they trained for, that they most want, because it doesn't pay the bills as well as another job might. A generation ago, it was very different. As Senator Kennedy and I have talked, I told him my wife a generation ago graduated from Kent State University, a working-class kid, the first one in her family to go to college. Her father carried a union card at Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company for 36 years as a utility worker, but she was able to graduate from Kent State, getting a bachelor's degree in journalism with grants, loans, and very little debt when she graduated so she could pursue the kind of opportunities she had chosen to. Looking from 30 years ago to today and the difficulties that the middle-class and working-class and poor kids face going to college, that is why this bill matters, the dramatic increase in Pell grants, the lowering of interest rates, the loan forgiveness which Senator Kennedy has talked about at length--what that means is assistance for teachers and nurses and all kinds of public servants to serve the community. This seems to be a generation of idealism, and we will see those students be able to pursue a career in public service and be able to take those jobs, sometimes--often--at lower pay, but be able to relieve themselves of the huge burden of debt they face. That is why this bill matters so much. This bill is a major step. We know we have more work to do. Senator Enzi has said several times that we have got to pass the other legislation with the reauthorization. He is right about that. We all agree with that. That will help on some issues such as simplifying the loan form for those prospective students filling out their applications for student loans and for grants. We also know this growth in the cost of college, as I said earlier, the cost in State universities in Ohio has gone up 50 percent, wages have gone up for an average family only 3 percent in this decade. The Federal Government has not kept up. That means an awful lot more students have turned to the private loan system and have had to face interest rates of 10, 12, 15, sometimes as high as 18 percent. They graduate from college, private or public, with a huge, even larger burden because of those high interest rates. We need to address that in the future as the private loan system has grown more and more and more. I close by thanking the entire committee, Senator Kennedy, Senator Enzi, for taking up this extremely important legislation. All students should be able to afford college in this country. This bill is a step, a major step in that direction. I thank all the fellow Senators who have been so involved in this issue.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, Congress again and again has called on Federal agencies to ensure that before work is contracted out we first see if Federal employees can perform their jobs as well as their private-sector counterparts. That is only fair to taxpayers as well as to employees. The VA is trying to contract out the work of its blue- collar employees, some four-fifths of whom are veterans themselves, without bothering to see if they can perform as well as their private competition. This amendment, cosponsored with Senator Webb, simply reiterates the language we have adopted before that there must be a public-private competition before work is contracted out. I hope we can adopt the amendment overwhelmingly to send a message to the VA that this isn't a Democratic-Republican issue, this is simply good government. It is the right thing for American taxpayers and the right thing for veterans-- those being given care and those workers who are veterans who support that mission. I yield back my remaining time.

Mr. BROWN. I ask for the yeas and nays.