Tom Daschle

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until the hour of 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, July 18. I further ask unanimous consent that on Wednesday, immediately following the prayer and the pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, there be a period for morning business until 10:30 a.m., with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the following exceptions: Senator Lott, or his designee, 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, on Wednesday, the Senate will convene at 9:30 a.m. with 1 hour of morning business under the control of Senator Lott, or his designee, for memorials on the 1-year anniversary of the death of Senator Paul Coverdell. At 10:30 a.m., the Senate will resume consideration of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act. Rollcall votes on amendments to the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act are expected throughout the day on Wednesday.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, if there is no other business to come before the Senate, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I send a resolution to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I send a resolution to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I might take a moment to speak on behalf of what I know is the entire Senate body but in particular the Democratic caucus in congratulating Jeri Thomson. She has been a professional's professional for the last 30 years. She has served, as most of our colleagues know, as the Executive Assistant/Democratic Representative in the Office of the U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms. Her responsibilities included managing all institutional issues for the Senate leader and all Democratic Senators. She had the responsibilities for all the plans and the implementation of the issues conferences and other events for the Democratic caucus and managed all aspects of participation by Democratic Senators in the national party conventions. But that is just the latest in a series of responsibilities that she has had that go back now almost three decades. She was the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Senate from 1989 to 1995. She served as the Chief Operating Officer of the Secretary of the Senate, managing 12 departments with approximately 250 staff members. Her responsibilities at that time included budgeting, policy and program development, and implementation of human resources management. The administrative reform and modernization programs were under her responsibility as well. Prior to serving in that capacity, she was a senior staff member to Senator John Tunney; special assistant to the Sergeant at Arms; and the Deputy Director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Jeri received her bachelor of arts from the University of Washington. She was Kodak fellow at Harvard University's program for senior managers in government. She was selected as one of the 100 top data processors in government, industry, and academia for her work in automating the legislative processes and procedures in the Senate in 1993. That is her resume. What you don't know in reading the resume is what kind of person she is. I know of no more dedicated person in the Halls of Congress than Jeri Thomson. I know of no one I have had a greater joy working with than Jeri Thomson. I know of no one who loves this institution more than Jeri Thomson. I know of no one who has greater respect among our colleagues in the Senate than Jeri Thomson. It should come as no surprise that Jeri Thomson is now our Secretary of the Senate. I commend her for all she has done. I thank her for what she has now agreed to do. I wish her well as she begins this very important new responsibility. I might add that her family, David James and two daughters, Kaitlin and Kristin, and mother Louise are all here to help celebrate this momentous occasion. We welcome Jeri's family. We thank them for being a part of this celebration and we wish them and Jeri well as they begin. I yield the floor.

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

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I send a third resolution to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. DASCHLE

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

Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I think we are at a stage in the debate on the bill that I can now say we have completed all of our work. I compliment the chairman and the ranking member for their extraordinary work in the last couple of days in getting us to this point. Let me also thank Senator Gramm of Texas for his work in the last couple of hours in working with Senator Byrd on a concern of great import to Senator Byrd. There has been no request for a rollcall vote on final passage. I am now in a position to announce that there will be no more rollcall votes tonight. There are no rollcall votes scheduled for tomorrow, nor will there be votes on Monday. My hope is that we will be able to move to the energy and water appropriations bill on Monday for debate only, and then we will move into debate on amendments beginning as early as Tuesday. I hope Senators will file their amendments and will be prepared to offer them even though we will not have votes on Monday. I encourage them to do that. I am hopeful we can get at least two appropriations bills done, if not more, next week. We have a lot of work to do. But there are no more votes tonight. As promised, I have also made a commitment that a number of nominations-- if I recall, something on the order of 20 nominations--will be offered shortly. We are about ready to do that. There is at least one that will be the subject of some discussion. But I know of no requests for rollcalls on those nominations. No more rollcall votes tonight. We will begin work on Monday, hopefully, on energy and water. I yield the floor.

Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I would like to bring to the attention of the Senate the critical shortfall in Indian Health Service funding. The Indian Health Service is unable to provide basic health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. We are failing to uphold a promise we made many years ago in federal-tribal treaties as well as federal statute. The Indian Health Service is tasked with providing full health insurance for American Indians and Alaska Natives, but is so underfunded that patients are routinely denied care that most of us take for granted and, in many cases, call essential. The budget for clinical services is so inadequate that Indian patients are subjected to a ``life or limb'' test. Unless their condition is life-threatening or they risk losing a limb, their treatment is deferred for higher priority cases; by the time they become a priority, there are often no funds left to pay for the treatment. I attempted to address this crisis by offering an amendment to the fiscal year 2002 budget resolution. The amendment called for a $4.2 billion increase for the clinical services budget of the Indian Health Service. Seven of my colleagues cosponsored this amendment, which passed the Senate, but was not included in the bill that returned from conference. I again attempted to address this situation in the Interior Appropriations bill, but it appears that we will be unable to do that at this time due to the inadequate budget allocation facing the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. I would like to engage in a colloquy with the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee on how we might address this situation in conference and advance the goal of living up to our commitment to provide essential health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, we have estimates of the funding that would be required to provide basic clinical services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. The President's fiscal year 2002 budget requests $1.8 billion for Indian Health Service clinical services. While this is an increase over the fiscal year 2001 appropriation, it will not allow the Indian Health Service to meet the basic level of health needs for American Indians and Alaskan Natives. For many years now, appropriations for the Indian Health Service have not even kept pace with medical inflation or population growth. The per capita spending on health care for each Indian Health Service beneficiary is only one-third of what is spent per capita for the general U.S. population. The Department of Health and Human Services and the Indian Health Service produce a tribal needs-based budget that calculates the true cost of meeting the health needs of Native Americans. According to these estimates, a $4.2 billion increase in the 2002 budget is required to meet the most basic health care needs. The impact of serious, chronic under-funding of the Indian Health Service is immense. The disparities in health outcomes between American Indians and Alaska Natives as compared to other Americans is appalling. Infant mortality is just one example. An American Indian baby is 50 percent more likely to die before the age of one than a Caucasian baby. In some counties of my state, the infant mortality rate is 33.6 per 1,000, more than 5 times the Caucasian rate. The same disparities exist for diabetes, tuberculosis, alcoholism, liver disease, and fetal alcohol syndrome, all of which plague America's native communities at rates far above the incidence for other Americans. Sadly, the mortality rate for American Indians and Alaska Natives is higher than for all races in the United States; life expectancy is the lowest. I know the distinguished chairman is concerned about these conditions, and I know that his efforts to increase Indian Health Service funding have been undermined by an inadequate budget allocation for this subcommittee. I certainly appreciate the severe constraints on the Appropriations Committee, particularly in light of the tax cut legislation recently enacted and the budget reestimates that indicate the projected budget surpluses are dwindling. Still, I hold out hope that, as he and the other conferees negotiate with our colleagues in the House, they can find some way to provide additional funding for the clinical services budget of the Indian Health Service. I would not make this request unless I were truly convinced that we have fallen far short on our commitment to provide health care services to American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Mr. DASCHLE

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

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I would so ask, that it not exceed 3 hours; that the time be equally divided, and that there be no second- degree amendments.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, we have been consulting with Senators on both sides of the aisle. I appreciate very much the help and cooperation of both our managers. I am now at a point where I can make a unanimous consent request. I ask unanimous consent that the vote in relation to Senator Nelson's amendment No. 893 occur tomorrow morning immediately following the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to the House bankruptcy bill, H.R. 333, and that there be 4 minutes of debate equally divided between the votes.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, in light of this agreement, there will be no further votes today. We will resume consideration of the bill tomorrow after the cloture vote. The managers have indicated to me that they believe we can finish the bill tomorrow. If we finish the bill tomorrow and dispose of the Griles nomination tomorrow, then we will have no other rollcall votes on Friday or on Monday. There will be tomorrow, as I noted in the unanimous consent request, a debate for a period of 3 hours, beginning at 9 o'clock, on the House bankruptcy bill, H.R. 333. Following that, we will then come back to the Nelson amendment on which there will be 4 minutes of debate equally divided.

Mr. DASCHLE. I move to reconsider that vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, we have been working with the distinguished managers of the bill. I would like to propound a unanimous consent request. I think it has the agreement of both sides. I have consulted with the managers of the bill. I ask unanimous consent the Nelson amendment be the next order of business; that it be debated for a period of 3 hours, equally divided, and that the vote occur following the expiration of the 3 hours tonight.

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, first, I compliment the distinguished minority leader on his remarks. I appreciate very much the opportunity to address the resolution this afternoon. Five years ago, Gary Sisco came to Washington and came to the job as Secretary of the Senate with the full confidence of then-majority leader Trent Lott. Today he leaves the Senate, leaves his job as Secretary of the Senate, having earned the full confidence of now- majority leader Tom Daschle. That did not just happen because he had the title. It happened because he worked at it. It happened because, in spite of the long tradition that he had of working for very able Members of the Senate on the Republican side in the Senate and the House and Governor, he came leaving his Republican credentials at home. He came working with us as Democrats and Republicans, equally serving his country and serving this institution as ably as anyone can. As Senator Lott has noted, the mark of a good and able public servant is one who leaves his job in a better position than when he came. I can say without equivocation Gary Sisco has met that test. It has been my pleasure to work with him. I have come to admire him and respect him, and I also respect the position he has taken with regard to this particular resignation. I confirm exactly what Senator Lott has just noted, that because of my respect, not only for Senator Lott but for Gary Sisco and the Sergeant at Arms, it was my view, in keeping the continuity of the officers of the Senate, as well as because they were serving us so well, they had every right and could have every expectation that regardless of what may happen to the majority in the Senate, they would have the full confidence and have the full support of both caucuses for the duration of this Congress. Gary Sisco has made his decision, and I respect it, but I do so with a great deal of appreciation. I do so with the hope that he will come back often. I do so with a realization that in this business we get to work with quality people, people who give back to their country, to their community, and to each of us in ways that I think is admirable. He has done so. Our country owes him a debt of gratitude. This Senate owes him a debt of gratitude. On behalf of our caucus, I thank him for all he has given us. I yield the floor.

Mr. DASCHLE

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

Mr. DASCHLE

Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following Committee assignments be printed in the Record.