Michael Enzi

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Over a period of years, that has been debated and voted on here, and it has been voted down.

Mr. ENZI. I have been next to conversations but not a part of the conversation where that was absolutely the case. I have heard speeches in the Senate where that absolutely was the case. I know there are three different proposals that will be voted on and debated in regard to that, so it is something which will be covered this session.

Mr. ENZI. And there is only one opportunity to talk about small business. I have been trying to expand that opportunity as much as possible. That is why I propounded this unanimous consent, so that it could be absolutely clear that both methods of taking care of small business would be done. I am sorry the other side is not willing to do that.

Mr. ENZI. It would do me no good to change the unanimous consent, so we have 2 more hours of debate or have germane amendments available to your bill?

Mr. ENZI. I appreciate the request and the emphasis of making a decision by Monday. I hope millions of people across the United States are using all of the different mechanisms--the volunteers, the phone numbers, the Internet--to get to a very simple result, having Medicare do the math so they can make that decision. Deadlines are a marvelous thing. I operate on deadlines. So to do it before Monday would probably preclude a lot of people from making that decision and will give people the impression that we will move the deadline now, move the deadline next time, move the deadline next time. That won't get people signed up. We have time to move the deadline after the deadline if that seems to be a major concern--I am sure there is a major concern--but to move it beforehand and not to put the pressure on it would be a huge mistake. That falls under the Committee on Finance, not under the HELP Committee, not under HELP, and the Finance Committee has to make those determinations to bring that forward. It would not be possible to put that in this amendment. Again, we are trying to keep it a small business health plan so that small business can have a chance for the first time in 12 years to have something done for them.

Mr. ENZI. Yes.

Mr. ENZI. Our purpose is to get a vote on small business health plans of some form. You proposed a small business health plan. I proposed a small business health plan. I would like for both of them to be able to get a vote so that small business can get something out of this session. We have already been promised there will be a debate on stem cells and a vote on stem cells. I heard some of the discussion last night about the three votes that will be taken on that issue. I am pretty sure that will be covered. It would be difficult to amend onto this bill because it is a totally different subject. We need to do something for small business. This allows your small business plan and my small business plan to be considered and to get a vote.

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I am here to propound a unanimous consent request. I want to make sure when we have the cloture vote tonight, that after cloture we are assured we can still have a vote on the Durbin-Lincoln bill as well as S. 1955. I ask unanimous consent that if cloture is invoked on the substitute amendment, notwithstanding rule XXII, it be in order for the Senate to consider the Durbin-Lincoln substitute amendment, which is the text of S. 2510; provided further that the pending amendments be temporarily set aside immediately after cloture is invoked and the Senate proceed to the Durbin-Lincoln amendment. I further ask that following 2 hours of debate, equally divided in the usual form, the Senate proceed to a vote in relation to the amendment, with no other amendments in order prior to that vote.

Mr. ENZI. Yes, it has.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Hawaii for his kindness. I want to thank everybody who has been involved in the debate on small business over the last several days. I thank Senator Nelson for the hours he and his staff put in working with me on this bill, along with Senator Burns and his staff. I have said several times that our staffs worked in the same room with the same people from the different coalitions, including the insurance companies and the insurance commissioners, for so long that I thought some of them must be related. I really wasn't sure which ones were from whose staff anymore, either, because they were all working this important issue together. Obviously, we have some more work to do, but I am pleased with the vote we got. I am disappointed that we didn't get the 60 and couldn't continue the debate right now, that we couldn't have amendments right now and for the next several days, resulting in a vote-arama that would have put the best possible face on it that we could from the Senate. I talked to Senator Kennedy before and promised I would preconference it with the House before we did anything because this is a very critical bill. But this is the first time the Senate has gotten it to a cloture vote. We will only get it to cloture by working with people and getting some agreement. I am hoping we can bring this back up yet this year. I know there are small businesses that are going to be asking, pleading, begging that it be brought up again this year. Perhaps we can work some changes in the meantime that might make a difference and get us over that 60-vote margin. It is a little tougher in the Senate to pass than in the House because they only have to have a mere majority. We have to have that 60 percent which is a little bit tougher. Senator Kennedy and I have worked together on a lot of bills. I appreciate the courtesy he gave in committee. We had 68 amendments. We finished the work in two half days. That is probably a record around here for any committee which does show some cooperation. I am just sorry we didn't get to do the amendments like we did in committee, probably many of the same ones we had in committee. I guess my strategy was that those votes might put it over the top here and bring a few people in. I didn't know there would be such strong resentment built up by this time. Of course, I am extremely disappointed with the cancer society and the diabetes society because I have never seen a letter that said, I don't care what you do, vote against this bill. That means if we had done the Cadillac of diabetes care and put it in the bill, they were still suggesting that people vote against it. That is unconscionable on behalf of the people that have diabetes or the people who have cancer. Both letters said the same thing. It was truly a disappointment to me. I know some opposition was built for this bill. The insurance companies said they would be neutral. I noticed there was a little unneutrality there. But the small businessmen will be coming to town. They will be talking to people and expecting us to do something. I hope we can continue to do so. There are a whole list of people I need to thank, but I will defer for the moment for some others to speak and come back and do that later. I appreciate the fact that we were able to have a cloture vote.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. It was 98 to 2.

Mr. ENZI. The Senator certainly is not the only one. I would love to have a lot of time. We have had a lot of bills that came out of committee already that could be brought up. We have some more that are going to come out next Tuesday. A lot of those I think would pass here by unanimous consent. I would love to have some agreement. The Senator knows how hard it is to get 1 week around here. We spent 3 days getting cloture to proceed. That is to proceed; that wasn't to actually do any votes on the bill. So we were offered the moment, but between the two sides we didn't get the moment.

Mr. ENZI. No, I wasn't suggesting that S. 2510 would pass. I was saying that a lot of Democrats would vote for it and it would fail. Then there will be no further votes on it. You folks could all say we voted for small business and the Republicans didn't vote for small business. It would be because the Republicans wanted S. 1955 with a few amendments which can be offered by both sides. That would happen postcloture. The only thing that happens postcloture is amendments have to be germane. That means they actually would have to apply to the bill. The Durbin-Lincoln bill is germane. Many of the things people talked about would be germane. What wouldn't be germane are some of the long-term debates and things people would like to do, namely the stem cell debate which we are going to have a debate on. They promised a vote on it. We don't know how much debate there would be with that; prescription drugs, Part D, and those would not be germane to the bill. Each of those would take about 3 weeks to debate.

Mr. ENZI. Even during the course of today and any other debate we have on this bill, we have said if there is a relevant amendment, we would consider taking that up and voting on it. One exception we have on that is the difficulty with Durbin-Lincoln. If we vote on that, that might be the only vote we ever get because the other side can block any further votes from happening because you would have to have unanimous consent to have a vote. So we would be blocked from ever having a vote on our bill.

Mr. ENZI. Not quite.

Mr. ENZI. I thank the Senator. Mr. President, as an accountant I have to remind people that this bill is not a case of subtraction. This insurance plan is an addition. It will bring additional insurance to people. There are 27 million people out there who are uninsured. This will bring a number of them into the market. It will also allow people who are already insured to increase the amount of insurance which they have because they will be able to save some dollars. I am sure they will put that back into insurance and into more benefits for people. So it is an addition, not a subtraction, and it will bring in newly insured people. One of the things I ask people is, when you go to the dry cleaners tonight to pick up your laundry, can you look that person in the eye and say, I don't think you deserve health insurance because you might not demand enough for yourself? So I am going to save you from yourself. Can you say to the mom and pop who are running the business down the street from your home, You don't deserve health insurance? As you go home today, as you leave the Hill, think about the people around you, the regular people, the cab driver, the worker at the dry cleaner, the person at the neighborhood restaurant, all of those people who often you may not notice, the real people who make the world operate. Many of them do not have any insurance. Some may even own the little business around the corner and still are not able to have insurance. We always assume that if people own a business, they make a lot of money. There are times that the employees make a lot more than the owner of the business. They always have to pay themselves last. As Senator Burns said, when he was in business he provided health care to his employees, but he couldn't afford it for himself and his wife. But you do that to keep employees. I am not talking about deluxe insurance, I am talking about any insurance. When people get the kinds of screenings that they would like to have, or even get the screenings they would like to have, and then find out there is a problem, if they don't have any insurance, they can't get anything done unless they pay for it. We are not talking about the employees at the big chain hotels or the big chain restaurants. We are not even talking about the employees at Wal-Mart. We already said to them you can form whatever kind of benefit package you want. You do not have to answer to any State. You don't have to have review or oversight by the insurance commissioners. Those are all things we provide for in our bill. You don't have to meet any State requirement. So instead of 35-percent administrative costs, you only pay 8-percent administrative costs. I am not talking about deluxe insurance, I am talking about any insurance. Right now in several States, there is only deluxe insurance. Did you know that in some States there may be only one insurance provider because others have been driven out of the market? I hope people will take a close look at this bill. I hope the other side will offer some amendments which are relevant to this bill and let us work through the bill. I hope, if the only way we can maintain germaneness is through cloture, that they will join in cloture because there are thousands of businesses out there that need insurance. They need hope. They want to ensure their employees. Think about that--27 million uninsured. I yield the floor.

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I don't have any idea. I spent a lot of hours and my staff people spent a lot more hours. Senator Nelson's staff and Senator Burns' staff worked on this for so long that I actually thought maybe their staff people worked for me, too. I was pleased spending days on end and sitting down, understanding all of the parts of this and getting it to work. Another important part of this, Senator Durbin asked me to talk to him about his plan. I made an appointment that same day and met with Senator Durbin and Senator Lincoln. We tried to work some of the principles which they had into this format. Eventually, we were kind of invited to leave by staff. We need to resolve more of that.

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I thank Senator McConnell. I appreciate all of his effort and help. I appreciate the Senator bringing up Senator Talent. I need to mention Senator Snowe as well. They were the original sponsors of associated health plans on this side. They asked for a hearing. We held a hearing. After the hearing, people on my committee were saying, Golly, this is a problem for small business. What can we do to solve it? It was also obvious from the discussion that there were some difficulties with the true AHP approach which we modified in the meantime. That is how we got to the position we are now in.

Mr. ENZI. If we get cloture, we could have a lot of debate on the small business stuff, not all of other ones. If we could get in a situation where we started doing these things a little quicker, with more time agreements, some of the more difficult ones could probably get some floor time. I am for that.

Mr. ENZI. The experts on S. 2510, the Durbin bill, from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, write: S. 2510 creates an unlevel playing field . . . could create an unworkable market in some states. . . . Few carriers would want to participate in this program. . . . Again, people can read the entire letter, and I am sure they will find that very enlightening. There is a lot more detail there. Last, I ask unanimous consent to have a letter from the National Association of Health Underwriters printed in the Record.

Mr. ENZI. I would like to have you see the small business organizations that are supporting the Enzi-Nelson bill. There are a couple of hundred of them here--12 million employers, 80 million workers. I would like for you to see the small business organizations that are supporting the Durbin-Lincoln bill. Oh, there are two. OK. I want to share a letter from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners as well. They are writing in response to our May 2 request for a review of S. 2510 Small Employers Health Benefits Program sponsored by Senators Durbin and Lincoln. I ask unanimous consent the letter be printed in the Record.

Mr. ENZI. I am with the Senator. Yes, it would be nice if we could wrap up something for small business. I think there is a plan there. I think there is a way to get there. I don't think it is going to happen without the cooperation of both sides in either coming to some time agreements or passing cloture. We will have to wait and see what happens. I would wait until the end of next week to have a vote on either of them as long as we can do amendments. And I am excited about doing amendments. There are always perfecting things. No bill is perfect when we finish it. Even after conference it is never perfect. But it is usually much better than when we started. We need to have that process. I thank everyone for their participation today.

Mr. ENZI. Again, it is a much more extensive letter. I hope people will take the time to read the Record, but it is from the National Association of Health Underwriters. These are the experts on health insurance. They look at this stuff all the time. It says: ``2510 creates the worst kind of unlevel playing field;'' ``the cost of coverage would be predictably high;'' ``an increased number of people being priced out of coverage;'' and, ``Bottom line: More rather than fewer people would be uninsured.'' That is the National Association of Health Underwriters. I wish to have some time to go over the good comments, too. But I have been joined on the floor by the majority whip. I will relinquish a few minutes for him to say a few words.

Mr. ENZI. There were a lot negotiations to try to stick to small business and have some kind of a mechanism where the votes from both sides could be done. But there was not any agreement on that, so we are stuck in this kind of a situation where small business may be penalized once again.

Mr. ENZI. I am talking about time limits and that sort of thing. Those requests were made between leaders to come up with some tight time agreements. It is beyond my pay grade.