Benjamin Cardin

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. The public insurance option is another choice. There is more competition. It brings down costs. That is why we support a public option. It is a reliable product you know is going to be there. If you are living in western Maryland--and there are not a lot of insurance companies there--you know there is a public option, that plan will be there for you. You know it is going to be affordable. You know it is not going to leave town, as some of the private insurance companies did that used to insure Medicare. These plans will be there. It is also going to act as strong competition for the private insurance companies so they know they have to be competitive. Today, again, it is not competitive. There are not enough companies there. The private insurance option will offer people, such as Robert whom I mentioned, another option, another choice, an affordable plan. That is what he is looking for. He cannot afford $20,000 a year. He is looking for a premium much more affordable than $20,000 a year, and the public insurance option gives him that choice. One other thing about the public option that needs to be clarified. There are those who say: This is a government takeover. Is Medicare a government takeover? The answer is no. There has not been one Senator come to this floor to say we should repeal Medicare. Medicare has been a very successful program. By the way, health insurance reform will strengthen Medicare. Why? Because the way to bring down Medicare costs is to bring down health care costs. What we have been doing year after year is picking on Medicare, saying we are going to control health care costs by reducing Medicare. We cannot do it. You have to bring down health care costs to bring down Medicare costs. And what we do is strengthen the Medicare benefits by giving additional benefits, starting to fill that doughnut hole under the prescription drug plan, offering preventive care to our seniors. So we are strengthening the Medicare Program. The doctors and the hospitals are all private, as they would be under a public option. This is a way of providing more competition, quite frankly, keeping the private insurance companies a little bit more competitive and honest as they do their marketing, to make sure we get value for the dollars we are paying for our health insurance premiums.

Mr. CARDIN. Small businesses are clearly the driving force behind job creation in America. The Senator from Delaware is absolutely right. Innovation comes from small business. They are so discriminated against under our current health care system. Middle-income families, in large measure, work for small businesses, and they are absolutely disadvantaged today because of the system. The status quo is unacceptable. We need to enact insurance reforms under what we have here. Small companies can benefit the same as large companies, with much larger pools, much more affordable plans, more choices. There are really no options for small businesses today. They do not have a lot of companies willing to write the policies. It is interesting, in my State of Maryland, two insurance companies write 71 percent of the private insurance business. If you are a small business owner, you are either going to be with one of those companies or you are not going to be able to find insurance. They can pretty much dictate. One more example. Robert, who lives in Baltimore, is a married architect who has health insurance with one of our large insurance companies. His insurance for himself and his wife is $20,000 a year-- $20,000 a year. As a small businessperson--listen to this--not only does he have to pay these high premiums, but if he needs to find a gastroenterologist in order to do a test, there are plenty of gastroenterologists in his neighborhood, but the insurance company will not cover a doctor in that area. He has to travel all the way across town. He says he spends more time finding out who will treat him because he doesn't have a choice of plan. He has to be in this plan. So there is a lot of wasted money in the system he has to go through. By the way, if you are in a small business, running a small business, you have to spend time on your business. If you don't spend time on your business, you are not going to make it. If you have to spend time to figure out what doctor you can see under the small print in your insurance plan, you are not going to succeed as a businessperson. There are a lot of good reasons why we need health insurance reform in America. There are a lot of good reasons we need to act, a lot of good reasons middle-income families are depending on us to fix this broken system--it is too expensive, not enough choice. The health insurance reforms coming out of our committees all provide much more choice and option and protection to the people in our communities.

Mr. CARDIN. Yes, I am glad to yield.

Mr. CARDIN. The Senator from Delaware is absolutely right. There have been studies done comparing two individuals with the same health care condition, one with insurance and one without insurance. The person who doesn't have insurance uses more health care services than the one who has health insurance, and it is for the reason the Senator said. The person with health insurance will have a much earlier intervention or gets preventive health care, will take blood pressure medicine or cholesterol medicine or will have tests that discover illness at an early stage or prevents an illness; for example, with colon cancer, a polyp can be discovered before it becomes cancerous. A person without insurance doesn't get those services. They enter the system in a much more costly way, which may lead to hospitalization that wouldn't have been necessary if they entered the system at an earlier stage, but they cannot because they have no health insurance. So the Senator is right. One of the things we do is try to help the families who have health insurance. We can end insurance company abuses. That is a very important point. The health insurance reform package we are looking at will end health insurance company abuses. All the bills reported out of the committees do that. You cannot be denied coverage due to preexisting conditions. There will be no more annual or lifetime caps on benefits. They cannot charge more or drop your coverage if you get sick. It requires them to fully cover preventive care and checkups. I have received--and my colleagues have, I am sure--letters from people in my State. I wish to tell you how important these health insurance reforms will be in helping middle-income families. I have one example, and I am sure my colleagues can cite others. Here is a letter I received last month from Kevin, who lives in Kensington, Montgomery County. Kevin is a healthy, nonsmoking, 54-year-old father who was laid off and has recently started his own company. He has two high school-aged children. He recently completed the Marine Corps marathon and has been an avid runner and swimmer all his life. I daresay most of us could not do that. After Kevin was laid off, all four family members applied for coverage in the individual market. However, Kevin and his two children were denied access to comprehensive coverage because of preexisting conditions. Listen to this. Kevin was denied coverage because the insurance company said he had a history of upper respiratory symptoms. Actually, he has only had two chest colds in the last 6 years. Five years ago, tests showed a very small amount of scar tissue in his lungs, but doctors have concluded this is not a health issue or risk. Yet he was denied coverage because of a preexisting condition. It is important to get health insurance reform passed because insurance companies will not be able to discriminate based on preexisting conditions--that don't even exist, in Kevin's case. Kevin's daughter's coverage excludes benefits related to any injury to any part of her back. This is because she once had a minor slipped disc, which has not caused her pain in more than 2\1/2\ years. This is a common condition among teenage girls, but the insurance company is refusing to cover back injury. Her doctor has written to the insurance company stating that she ``has no more likelihood of needing medical services than any other patient her age.'' Yet today, Kevin is denied full coverage for his daughter. It gets even worse. Kevin's son was also refused coverage for his knee because he was diagnosed with growing pains that required no treatment. This means Kevin's son will not be covered for any injury to his knees at any time in the future. Kevin writes: We have a healthy, physically active family. No doubt healthier and in better shape than 98 percent of the families in this country. And we're told that 3 of the 4 of us are too great a risk to be fully covered. . . . We are victims of a health care system that is horribly broken, and our experience in trying to get health insurance for our family--a family that has no chronic health conditions requiring medical treatment--has turned us into strong supporters of health care reform.

Mr. CARDIN. I thank my colleague from Minnesota. She has been a real fighter for middle-income families and working families in America and in Minnesota and has brought out these issues of how we can improve the standard of living. I think the point the Senator raises is one that needs to be underscored. Today, working families, middle-income families are seeing an erosion of their income. They are seeing more and more of their compensation going to pay for health benefits. If their employers are paying for it, it means less take-home money for them in their paychecks. If they have to pay the cost, they are seeing more and more of an increase. Again, health care costs are going up three times what wages are going up in America. So middle-income families are falling behind every year, and they are depending on us to speak up for them. They are also paying a hidden tax--a hidden tax. Middle-income families today are spending $1,100 a year paying for those who don't have health insurance. We talked about that earlier. That is a hidden tax. We have to get rid of that tax. One of the things we do in our health insurance reform is to get rid of that tax by saying that everyone has to be responsible for their own health care costs. Why should I pay for someone who today could have health insurance but chooses not to have health insurance?

Mr. CARDIN. It is interesting that one of the ways we can save money from the Medicare system is to get everybody to pay their health care bills. Our seniors are paying higher costs under the Medicare system because people use the system who are not Medicare beneficiaries and don't pay for it. So Medicare, every year, pays a premium to our hospitals called DIS--the disproportionate share--for the uncompensated care in the hospitals. The Medicare system is paying for that. Our seniors could be getting better benefits if everyone paid their own way rather than having our seniors subsidize those who have no health insurance. So these are ways in which we do help middle-income families in America.

Mr. CARDIN. Yes.

Mr. CARDIN. Health care costs are growing about three times what wages are growing in America today. That means a government that pays for Medicaid and Medicare will continue to pay a larger amount of the budget for health care unless we can get health care costs under control. It also means American families are going to be paying more of their income for health care unless we get health costs under control. So how do we get health care costs under control? We do it by prevention and we do it by wellness and by streamlining the bureaucratic system, by using health information technology more effectively and by managing diseases. We do it in a way that brings down health care costs and improves access and quality, and that is what we are doing. The Senator from Delaware is absolutely right. Our goal is quite simple: bring down the escalating cost of health care, provide access to affordable quality health care for every American family, and do it in a fiscally responsible way. The Senator from Minnesota, Ms. Klobuchar.

Mr. CARDIN. I think people in this Nation would be shocked to hear about that situation and for someone who is totally healthy being denied full coverage because the insurance company just wants to deny coverage, just wants to pay less claims in the future, so it finds reasons to restrict coverage, even though that person is as healthy as anybody in the general public but is being denied coverage today.

Mr. CARDIN. I thank my colleague for the question. The Senator is right. People who have no health insurance do what they can do. They use the emergency room as their doctor. They use the emergency room when they should not be using it. It is very expensive; it costs a lot of money. By the way, they don't pay their bills. It becomes part of what is known as uncompensated care in our hospitals. What is more serious is, they don't get the preventive health care they need. They get the more intense services than if they had access to our health care system from the beginning. They use the emergency room, as the Senator from Minnesota is referring to, and they don't pay their bills, and that becomes uncompensated care. All of us who pay the hospital bills and pay for our services also pay for what the uninsured are using in the emergency rooms, which adds to the cost of hospital care and adds to the cost of our insurance premiums that we pay for family policies. In Maryland, that amounts to $1,100 a year. That is what you and I are paying for those who don't have health insurance because they are using the health care system and not paying their bills. Part of health care reform is that everyone should have access to affordable, quality health care and health insurance.

Mr. CARDIN. I yield to the Senator from Delaware.

Mr. CARDIN. Yes.

Mr. CARDIN. I will be glad to yield to my friend from Minnesota.

Mr. CARDIN. If I might mention another family in Maryland, a typical family--Marvin and Lillian, who live in Chevy Chase, who are grandparents. I can relate to that, having two wonderful granddaughters. Marvin is a retired Federal Government employee. Both he and his wife Lillian have Medicare. They are in pretty good shape. However, they are worried about their grandchildren. They have a grandson who is 14 years old. He has Crohn's disease and dwarfism. He currently has coverage through his parents, but his family is petrified that he will be denied coverage when he is no longer able to receive insurance through his parents. Because of his preexisting conditions, it will be extremely hard for him to find individual coverage while job hunting or adequate coverage while at school. Without reform, high health care costs will preclude him from starting his own business or working for a small business owner. Marvin writes: My grandson's future employment prospects will be limited because he will need an employer with a large group plan to ensure good coverage. If he gets sick without coverage, or very limited coverage, it would be a disaster. It is truly unacceptable that in America today, because of the way our health insurance system operates, that a person's future and what type of job that person can seek is limited because of a preexisting condition. That does not make this Nation as competitive as we need to be. We can certainly do a much better job on that now. There are two good points here. One is that we eliminate preexisting conditions. That would be taken care of. We also provide coverage through the age of 26 so that you can keep a child on your family plan coverage through the age of 26. I think this is going to be a very popular issue. This is one area that does not cost a lot of money. Children in their early twenties are not at high risk. It is unlikely this will add greatly to the insurance premium cost--in fact, it will not--but it does give greater assurances for those children who are not yet fully in the workplace--so they do not have the opportunity to get an affordable health insurance product--that they can stay on their parents' policy until age 26. That is another way we are going to help families. Lastly, the other area we want to be sure is done is when people change jobs. We know this is a very mobile workforce; people change jobs much more frequently today than they did 10 years ago. This bill will make sure you always have health insurance, even if you lose or change your job. You are not going to be locked into a company because you don't want to lose your health benefits. I must tell you, I hear that frequently from people in Maryland. I am sure my colleagues hear it in Minnesota and Delaware. People say: I want to change jobs, but I can't because I don't want to lose my health benefits. That should not be a reason someone shouldn't be able to look for other opportunities. When we get health insurance done, people will be able to get insurance regardless of where they work. There will be affordable coverage for all Americans. That will help middle-income families. That is our objective. That is what we are trying to do. Another area I want to mention briefly is small businesses. We hear frequently that small business owners have a hard time finding affordable insurance. I will give a couple examples of people from Maryland. Steven from Annapolis is a self-employed small business owner. Steven's health care premiums have increased by unmanageable amounts. Steven is currently paying 55 percent more for his family health insurance than he was 14 months ago--a 55-percent increase in 14 months. The premiums for Steven and his family, all of whom are healthy, are approaching $10,000 annually. In August, his premiums increased 24 percent, after having increased 25 percent in 2008. He wakes up in cold sweats worried about how he can afford such high costs. Steven sent me his most recent health insurance bill, which showed the 24.1-percent increase. Steven writes: We are worrying about these problems 24 hours a day. That is no exaggeration. Small business people wake up in a cold sweat, as I have done many times through the course of this difficult recession, wondering how we are going to meet our client deadlines, pay our bills, and be a good father and husband all at the same time. For small businesses, if you have one bad experience with health care during the year, you can expect a large premium increase the next year. It is one thing about health insurance being expensive as it is, but if you are a business owner, how can you plan your company budget when you don't know what your health premiums are going to be the next year?

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, this week's visit to Washington by the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, is an appropriate occasion to renew calls for the reopening of the Halki Seminary, without further delay. Founded in 1844, the Theological School of Halki, located outside modern-day Istanbul, served as the principal seminary for Ecumenical Patriarchate until its forcible closure by the Turkish authorities in 1971. Counted among alumni of this preeminent educational institution are numerous prominent Orthodox scholars, theologians, priests, and bishops as well as patriarchs, including Bartholomew I. Many of these scholars and theologians have served as faculty at other institutions serving Orthodox communities around the world. Despite occasional indications by the authorities of pending action to reopen the seminary, to date all have failed to materialize. Earlier this year, several of my colleagues from the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which I chair, joined me in a letter to President Obama to underscoring our longstanding concern over the continued closure of this unique institution. The continued denial of requests for the reopening of the seminary stands in clear violation of Turkey's obligations pursuant to the 1989 OSCE Vienna Concluding Document which affirmed the right of religious communities to provide ``training of religious personnel in appropriate institutions.'' While there is no question that the Halki Seminary is the appropriate institution for training Orthodox clergy in Turkey, the Government of Turkey continues to refuse to reopen the school. In his address to the Turkish Gran National Assembly in April, President Obama said, ``Freedom of religion and expression lead to a strong and vibrant civil society that only strengthens the state, which is why steps like reopening Halki Seminary will send such an important signal inside Turkey and beyond.'' In a welcomed development, Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with the Ecumenical Patriarch in August. In an address to a wider gathering of minority religious leaders that day, Erdogan concluded by stating, ``We should not be of those who gather, talk and disperse. A result should come out of this.'' Mr. President, I urge Prime Minister Erdogan to follow through on the sentiment of those remarks by actions that will facilitate the reopening of the Halki Seminary without further delay. I am told that the Theological School of Halki is situated atop the summit of the Hill of Hope. For those of us who have pursued this issue over the years, our hope has been that we would indeed witness the reopening of this historic institution. I remain hopeful and encourage Prime Minister Erdogan to act decisively and without condition on this matter before his upcoming visit to Washington.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, soon we will have an historic opportunity to take up the most significant change in our health care system in many decades, a bill that will help Americans deal with their health care needs, that will reform our health care system so we have affordable, quality health care for all Americans. This bill will help middle-income families who currently have health insurance. Because we are going to build on the current system, protect those who have good health care coverage so they are able to keep that coverage in the future, we base it on building on what is right in our health care system and correcting the problems that currently exist. For a family who has health insurance today, they are paying a large amount of money for those who don't have health insurance. The number of people without health insurance has grown dramatically, to over 46 million Americans. The cost to a family who has health insurance for those who don't have health insurance is $1,100 a year. That is a hidden tax on middle-income families today. Health insurance reform will help correct that inequity to help middle-income families. It will also reform the practices of health insurance companies dealing with preexisting conditions and caps put on the amount of coverage and with making sure that prevention is available without copayments and deductibles. All that will help middle-income families today who have health insurance. But the critical factor, why this is so important for middle-income families today, is because of the escalating cost of health care. Health care is growing three times greater than wages. That means for the typical family, every year they are falling further and further behind on their standard of living, because more and more of their income needs to be devoted toward health care costs. Whether your employee pays it or you pay it or a combination of both, it comes out of your compensation package. For many families, they are actually receiving less income every year because so much more is devoted toward health care costs. In Maryland, 10 years ago the cost for a family was about $6,000 for health insurance. Today that is $12,000. By the year 2017, it is projected to be $23,000. We are spending in America today $7,400 per person for health care, $2.4 trillion. Health reform will help middle- income families because we are going to bring down the cost of health care. First, we invest in wellness. We know that if people take care of their own health care needs, if they deal with their diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, with keeping themselves healthy through exercise, if they don't smoke, all of that will bring down the cost of health care. The health care reform that we will be taking up invests in wellness programs, gives incentives for wellness programs to bring down the cost. What we also do is invest in health information technology. The amount of money we waste every year because of the administrative inefficiencies of the system is staggering. Also we have unnecessary tests that are given in the emergency room because they don't have medical records. We have the technology. Let's use it. We can use technology to keep people healthy by sharing information so that your health care provider knows what medicines you are taking. And managing care, we can save money by managing diseases much more effectively than we do. For all those reasons, health care reform will help control the escalating costs, and that will help middle-income families. It will also help small businesses. Small businesses need more competition among health care insurance companies. Today, if you are a small business owner, there are very few options available as to who you can choose as your health insurance company. As a result, you are subjected to unpredictable annual adjustments in your premiums. We already know that health insurance is too expensive. We already know that it increases every year by too high a percentage rate. But for a small business owner, it is worse than that. They can be subjected to a 20, 30, 40-percent increase in any given year because they are not in the large pools that larger companies are. Health insurance reform helps small businesses by providing larger pools that small businesses can get into, more competition. The State exchanges provide information that is critically important for small businesses to get a competitive product, to get the product they want. It makes it more affordable. Let me give one example. We all have received letters. I have received lots of letters from my constituents. I want to read one I received. It comes from Keith, a Maryland small business owner. He writes: Currently, I have what is considered a ``Cadillac'' health plan. It is an old CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield plan that does not cover vision or dental [and has] a moderate deductible. It only covers general health and drugs. My wife is disabled and is unable to work. She is under age 50 and has Medicare as a primary insurance and is on my family plan as secondary where she gets drug coverage. This person is a small business owner involved in a plan. I have one child with some health issues on the plan as well. Based [on] my situation, my health insurance options are limited. I am a small business owner and have had significant increases in my insurance costs over the last 20 years. Currently, I pay $29,000 for family coverage thru (sic) my company and last year I had $9,900 in out of pocket expenses, which is ``normal'' for my family. My income is above $100,000, but well below the $250,000. At one time I considered myself part of the middle class, but with my ever increasing health care costs, I now have second thoughts. . . . It is unbelievable to me that a family like mine could be in this situation. I know there are others far worse than mine and can empathize with their plight. . . . How can I be spending about $40,000 a year [on health care] with no end in sight? Well, help is on the way. The bills that have been reported out of our committees that the majority leader is now merging to bring to the Senate floor will help my constituent Keith, who finds that he cannot afford health care today even though he has certainly a reasonable income. This legislation will also help our seniors. I mention that because there is a lot of concern about how we can strengthen the Medicare system, which is so important to our seniors. Well, the problem with Medicare today is that health care costs are going up. Medicare is a pretty efficient program. We know its administrative costs are far less than private insurance. But we cannot bring down the government cost of Medicare unless we bring down health care costs in America. That is exactly what the health care reform proposals will do. It will also, by the way, use those savings to help our seniors by improving their prescription drug benefit so we can certainly make improvements to mitigate the doughnut hole on prescription drug coverage. It strengthens dramatically the preventative health care services that are offered our seniors under the Medicare system. Well, the uninsured are also helped under this bill and those who are in danger of losing their health insurance by the State exchanges, where there will be more competition, more availability. The bill deals with affordability, providing subsidies for those who otherwise could not afford the health insurance. One of the prime ways that is done is through the public option, so let me talk a moment about it. There has been a lot of discussion about it. I saw that it is going to be included in the bill in the House of Representatives. The majority leader is looking to include that in the bill that is going to be brought forward on the floor of this Senate. A public option is nothing strange to Americans. It is not that the government takes over health care; it does not. Health care is provided by private doctors, private hospitals. The most successful public option program in America in health care is Medicare, and I do not see anyone coming and saying we should do Medicare in a different way. Medicare has worked well, with the government providing the way we collect the premiums and collect the dollars necessary to pay the doctors and hospitals that are private, and where the Medicare beneficiaries can choose their own doctor or hospital. That is the way it should be. The reason it is important to include a public insurance option in the bill that is being brought forward is to make sure we have an affordable option for those who cannot find insurance, so we have an affordable product in every part of America. If you live in rural America, it is tough to find an insurance company that is interested in insuring you if you are in the individual market. That is just a fact of life. So the public option provides an affordable option and provides more competition. In my own State of Maryland, two insurance companies represent 71 percent of the private insurance market. We do not have effective competition in our State of Maryland. The public option offers more competition. If we have more competition, it is going to be less costly. That is the reason we want to make sure it is included in the bill that is brought forward and the bill we hope will be reconciled with the House and sent to the President of the United States. Mr. President, as I said when I took the floor, we have a unique opportunity. We have a unique opportunity in taking up health care reform and health insurance reform to help the people of our Nation. We have to make sure we get it right. I agree with my colleagues, we need to take the time to make sure we get this bill right, but we need to act. We need to act in order to protect middle-income families so they have affordable health care coverage in America. We need to act to help small businesses so they have more choices, more competition, so they can afford to provide health insurance for their employees. We need to act for our seniors and those who are disabled in the Medicare system to make sure we strengthen Medicare for future generations and can expand the benefits that are covered under Medicare. We need to act for the sake of our economy. We need to act for the sake of our Nation. I encourage my colleagues to get engaged in this debate so that, at the end of the day, we pass a bill that is going to be in the best interest of the people of this Nation. With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Lauren Bateman, Caren Street, and Maria Urbina, from Senator Reid's office, be granted the privilege of the floor for the month of October.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, let me respond to my friend in regard to the global climate change bill that was introduced by Senators Kerry and Boxer. Today Chairman Boxer started hearings before the Environment and Public Works Committee on the climate change bill. I agree with my colleague, we want to make sure we get this right. This is an important issue, and we want to take the time necessary to make sure this bill does what it needs to do. There is a sense of urgency for many reasons. We can look globally at what is happening with climate change and the impact on the stability of countries. We now have climate migrants, those forced out of their homes because of rising sea levels. I don't have to take my colleagues to Asia or Africa or Europe. I can take them to Maryland on the Eastern Shore, Smith Island is disappearing. The residents are concerned as to what is going to happen to their homes. I can show them in my own State the urgency of dealing with global climate change by talking to watermen who tell me the Chesapeake Bay is warming too quickly. As a result, the sea grasses are not surviving and juvenile crabs cannot survive, affecting the waterman's livelihood. There is a sense of urgency for the sake of our environment, for the sake of America being an international leader on this issue to move forward with global climate change. Let me offer a reason with which I think everyone will agree: We need an energy policy that not only allows us to lead on the environmental issues but also helps us on the economic front. Clean energy will mean new jobs, good jobs in America. We developed the technology for alternative and renewable energy sources. Let's keep the jobs in America. These are good jobs. This bill means more jobs in America by investing in technology that other countries are now investing more in than America. They understand the future is going to be in wind power and solar power and, yes, in nuclear power. This bill allows us to move forward so we can keep jobs in America. Lastly, I think everyone will agree that from a strategic point, we need to use less energy and produce more in America. The bill Senator Kerry has brought forward will help us achieve those goals. I look forward to debating global climate change and energy policy. I hope we can come together for the sake of the Nation, for the sake of the future, and develop an energy policy that not only will keep us safe, will not only help our economy, but will be responsible on international environmental issues and be an international leader.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Subcommittee on Domestic and Foreign Marketing, Inspection and Plant and Animal Health and the Subcommittee on Production, Income Protection, and Price Support, be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 27, 2009, at 2:30 p.m. in room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building.

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 27, 2009, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 27, 2009, at 9:30 a.m. in Room 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building to hold a hearing entitled, ``Legislative Hearing on S. 1733, Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.''

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 27, 2009, at 2:15 p.m.

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on October 27, 2009, at 2:30 p.m. in room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to the following member of my staff during the pendency of this nomination: Troy Ware.

Mr. CARDIN

Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, shortly we will be voting on a cloture motion on the motion to proceed to the unemployment compensation issue. Senator Durbin addressed this issue a few minutes ago. I want to underscore how important it is for us to move forward. Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit one of our employment offices in Maryland. We have a one-stop location where people looking for work can come and get the services of not only governmental agencies but nonprofit agencies to help them find employment. I have been to these offices in the past in Maryland. I have had a chance to talk to people who are seeking employment. When I walked into that office yesterday, I was shocked to see how many people were there. It was hard to get through the door. People were coming in desperate to try to find jobs because there are no jobs out there for them to find. They are desperate to be employed, not only for the sake of having income but for the dignity that comes with employment. We have a problem out there. I think we all understand that. I will give you two people with whom I talked yesterday: Bernice from Anne Arundel County, a resident who worked for a mortgage company until it went out of business, she has been unemployed since September 2008. She is about ready to lose her UI benefits. She talked about how difficult it was for her to talk about this, how difficult it was for her to tell her story. All she wants is a job. She wants the dignity and income of a job. Charlene from Baltimore talked about being employed by Business Manager for Watermark Media. She lost her job in September 2008 when the company went out of business. She is a very qualified individual. Yet she cannot find employment. Her UI ran out on October 25. Her husband is expected to lose his job this week, and it is possible she will lose her family home. That is what we are talking about, people in our communities who are unemployed and cannot find employment. We now know there is about 1.9 million Americans who will run out of unemployment benefits by the end of this year unless we act, unless we take action. That includes about 25,000 Marylanders who will find themselves without any benefits. Currently, there are over 15 million Americans who are unemployed and over 200,000 Marylanders who can't find jobs. We need to act. We need to act on behalf of Bernice and Charlene and the literally hundreds of thousands of Americans who shortly will be running out of their unemployment benefits. The bill before us is an extension of an additional 14 weeks of benefits for every State in the country. The original bill that came over from the House had a trigger mechanism of 8.5 percent unemployment. I brought this chart to show my colleagues why it is important to extend benefits in every State in this Nation. I think Maryland is a typical State. Our unemployment numbers may be a little bit lower than the national average. We are in the 7 percent unemployment rate. But look at the orange counties in my State of Maryland: Cecil County, 8.6 percent unemployment; Caroline County, 8.8 percent unemployment; Dorchester County, 10.9 percent unemployment; Somerset County, 9.5 percent; Washington County, one of the growth counties not far from here, 9.4 percent unemployment--some of those people commute to Washington to work--and then Baltimore City, the center of our State, 10.6 percent unemployment. I thank the leadership for bringing forward an unemployment compensation proposal to extend benefits that apply to every State because we need it in Maryland. I could talk about minority unemployment and the fact that the African-American unemployment rate in this country is around 15 percent. The Latino unemployment rate is around 12 percent. There are pockets of unemployment in all of our States that are at extraordinarily high numbers, and that is why we need to extend the unemployment benefits. Let me also point out that these are not benefits that aren't paid for. These are insurance benefits. They are paid for by the current workforce. They pay into a fund so we have money available in a recession to help those who lose their jobs and can't find employment. That is why it is called unemployment insurance benefits. It is there for this circumstance. Is there anyone here who denies that we are not in a tough time if you are looking for a job? We all know that. So now is the time to extend unemployment benefits so people have income in order to be able to literally survive until our economy can rebound. Let me also point out, I know there are a lot of us who are always looking for bills on which to put amendments. I understand the frustration of some of my colleagues. Here is a bill, it is a tax bill, let's put a provision on it. Quite frankly, I have a few provisions I would like to see enacted into law. This is not the right bill to do it on. If we put amendments on this bill and let it go back to the House with issues that are unrelated to unemployment compensation, it could take a long time to reconcile those differences. We already have some differences with the House with regard to the States that qualify. Let's reconcile that quickly so that individuals such as Charlene, who currently are losing their benefits, know soon that they are going to be able to continue to get these unemployment benefits. It is important that we act quickly to get the job done. One last point for my colleagues. This is important. It is the right thing to do. It is what government is here for--to help people who are literally out of luck because of no fault of their own but the economy. It is what we are supposed to do as far as the right type of social programs to protect people during tough economic times. But there is a tradeoff that helps our economy. This money goes directly back into our economy. Every dollar we pay out in unemployment insurance benefits will come back and have a multiplier effect of more money than we give in benefits in helping our economy grow. So this is the right remedy to help our economy. It is the right thing to do for the 1.9 million Americans who otherwise would lose their benefits by the end of the year. We have a chance in just a few minutes to move this bill forward so it can be reconciled with the House quickly, and then we can assure the people of our community that, indeed, we responded and provided the appropriate type of relief for those who cannot find employment today. With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.