Michael Enzi

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, as we wait on a couple of people to speak, I would like to make a few comments on the comments that have been made. I do appreciate the spirit in which they have been made. I know there are amendments waiting to modify several of the things that have been suggested, but my biggest concern is that there were some comments about the Attorneys General of the United States and the insurance commissioners who are against it, and even the Connecticut business associations who are apparently saying they are against the bill. But what I need to correct is the comments they are making are not on this bill. What they are talking about is the bill that the House has passed eight separate times: the associated health plans bill. Associated health plans are different than this bill. It would be nice if some of the people who are going national and public on this would actually check with us on some of their comments to see if they are remotely right. We have put forward a solution which they said that 85 million people would lose their benefits from. That would be just as ridiculous as me saying that all 27 million people who are uninsured who work for small business would be covered by this bill. Neither of those things is going to happen. There is a medium in there where there will be more people who are insured. The difficult parts that were talked about concerning things being taken away from people I am confident are not going to happen. There are a couple of reasons they are not going to happen. First of all, there are experiments across the country which in a small way have done what we are talking about in the small business health plans, and in those experiments, they have worked: Taking away the mandates that States have and actually making a point of mandating that we take away the mandates. Around here, ``mandates'' is a bad word. Mandates means you are forcing somebody to do something and you are not paying for it. You are saying you have to have this, and whether you can afford it or not, we are going to make you do it. So your choice is to take the mandate or drop your insurance. When we are talking about these mandates, a lot of them we are talking about are regular maintenance of your body, and we ought to be having everybody do those. It shouldn't matter whether they are covered by insurance or otherwise. In fact, in Wyoming, we have gone to great lengths to have more things done by public health for free. That means your insurance doesn't have to pay for it and you don't have to pay your insurance company for it and you don't have to pay your insurance company for the administration of that service. But you can get that service. Then we have some other screenings that are covered in a very reasonable way. We have a program in Wyoming trying to get everybody to have mammograms, and it is focused on Mother's Day, which is coming up this next weekend: Get a mammography for your mom. Show that you care. And thousands of people in Wyoming do exactly that. I will cover some of the other issues, but I see that Senator Hatch, the Senator from Utah, has arrived and has some comments in this regard, and he has been a very diligent worker on all of the small business problems. So I yield time to the Senator from Utah.

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Massachusetts for listing those 200 organizations. I have never done a count on them, and I am not familiar with quite that many; I am only familiar with about 40 that have expressed some concern that I suspect will be taken care of in amendment if we can get to the amendment process. I would like to mention that there are over 200 business organizations that are looking forward to being able to unite these people across State lines to get lower rates for their people. There are actually 80 million employees in those businesses, in those organizations. The realtors are going to be here with 9,000 people next week, expecting that we will have already taken action. The National Federation of Independent Businesses is another big one that is supporting this. I could mention a lot more. Even some of the associations that have concerns about it want to be sure that this bill passes so their employees can be covered. I yield the floor. Cloture Motion

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Massachusetts for his encouragement on his side of the aisle to vote for the motion to proceed. I think that will get us into a debate that will make a difference for the working people of America, the people up the street and across the street, the working families that are a part of small business. Today, there are 45 million people in the United States who are without health insurance in this country. Twenty-two million people own or work for small businesses or live in families that depend on small business wages, and another 5 million are unemployed. Those are the 27 million people we are talking about whom this health care bill will be making decisions for in the next few days. It is long past time for Congress to take some action. The American people aren't going to accept excuses any longer. It has been a long time getting to this debate. I am pleased that it sounds like we will be able to have it. I welcome any amendments that are alternate approaches or improvements to this bill. I know what the complaints are out there, I know what the counters to those are, and I know what the concerns are. It is very important that when we walk away from this week, we walk away with a plan which will help the small business people of the United States, the ones working for small businesses, the ones owning them, and their families who need the help. Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. That is assuming it comes within the 30-minute parameters?

Mr. ENZI. And Senator Thune does not have the time for his speech.

Mr. ENZI. We had some latitude here to allow 20 minutes on this and we were 5 minutes late from that one.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation's Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine be authorized to meet on Tuesday, May 9, 2006, at 10 a.m. on Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Alaska for her kind comments. I want to make a few comments about medical liability, and then I want to talk about a bill for which we will be voting tomorrow morning on the motion to proceed. There is not much debate time on that so I will try to work in about 5 minutes on it and hope that that will convince everybody it needs to be debated. That is all we are going to be voting on, whether we ought to debate it at all. First, I want to read a little bit from a book entitled ``Fixing Our Broken Health Care System.'' It was written by Senator Charles Scott, a State Senator from Wyoming. He has been the chairman of the Labor, Health, and Social Services Committee for many years. He was chairman of that committee when I served. He writes in his book: We in Wyoming are having the problem in one of our communities right now. In 2003 the doctors in Newcastle quit delivering babies. The community is small and the doctors each were delivering between 20 and 25 babies a year. At that rate their malpractice insurance costs had risen to over $1,000 per delivery. He does the math to show what the difference would be between obstetrics and family health, and divided it by the 20 babies. Roughly half of their deliveries are paid for through the state Medicaid program which pays $866.25 per delivery for a normal . . . delivery; the payment increases to $1,401.87 if normal prenatal and post-partum care is provided. The cost for them is $1,317, and the most they can get is $1,401.87. Usually you get $866. You can see where they are losing money before they pay rent, before they pay the nurses, before they pay themselves a dime. They couldn't raise their private rates because in that community most young couples starting a family couldn't afford a higher rate, and too many were not covered by insurance. The economics were clear--the doctors were losing money with each delivery. They dropped the obstetric part of their practice, and now a woman in Newcastle has to be driven 73 miles to Gillette, Wyoming, or 80 miles to Rapid City, South Dakota, to have her baby delivered by a medical doctor. You have to remember that we get a little bit of snow out in Wyoming sometimes, which can make that journey a little bit hazardous because there is a lot of cost to traveling 73 or 80 miles to have your baby, and probably cuts into the prenatal care. I want to devote the remaining couple of minutes I have to talking about the bill we will vote on tomorrow morning with hardly any debate. It shouldn't hardly take any debate because the motion that we will be debating is whether we are going to debate a bill that will provide health care for small businesses across this Nation, that is supported by over 200 small business associations that recognize that there are about 22 million employers and employees out there who are uninsured because they can't afford it. This bill is designed to give them access to insurance. They have none right now. They recognize what they need to be able to do is ban together across State lines with their association to have enough clout to negotiate with their insurance carrier so they can get a lower rate. But what we are talking about now is cloture on a motion to proceed. That allows for about 3 days' worth of debate, normally, before you get the vote. Then when you have the vote, you devote another 30 hours to deciding whether you are going to debate the bill or not. I am hoping the other side will see the need not to have this vote. I know they are hearing from their small businessmen. Everybody knows that small business is the backbone of the U.S. economy. If they have looked at the polls, they have found that 89 percent of the people in the United States, even after hearing the disadvantage of the old AHP form of this legislation, which is not this legislation, even after hearing those disadvantages, 89 percent said this legislation was needed to save small businesses. We shouldn't be taking a needless vote. I am hoping it will be vitiated in the morning, and we will go ahead with the debate so people can see where the bill is going to go. I have never seen so much money spent in opposition to a bill before there was even permission to debate it. And neither have all the people who called me from Wyoming, other places in the United States, and in the District. You may have heard ads that said: Stop Enzi. It isn't stop Enzi. It is keep small business from being able to get reasonable insurance. That shouldn't happen before a debate. That kind of thing sometimes happens when a bill is coming out of conference committee, after it has been amended on the floor of the Senate, after it has been amended on the floor of the House, after the two sides have gotten together and said: Is there a solution on which we can agree? If they agree on something that is radical, then this kind of action is usually done, not when we are talking about whether we ought to debate it, whether we ought to amend it, where it ought to go, where it can go, and what can be done. This bill needs to be voted on after a debate, not stopped from having a debate. The NFIB collected 500,000 petitions asking for us to debate this bill. It isn't the same bill that we have been talking about before, the bill that the House has passed eight times in the past. This is a different bill. I got the insurance companies and the insurance commissioners to sit down with the associations and talk about a fair way of maintaining State control and maintaining consumer oversight at the State level. I have to say there are a lot of rumors out there. That is partly what PBS did. They reported a bunch of assertions without verification. We are trying to get that corrected now. But I have never seen a bill that generated so much opposition before it was even debated. I hope we will cut that out and go ahead and vitiate the cloture motion so that we don't have to take the 30 minutes it is going to take to do that vote, and get right to the debate and start offering amendments and debate what can be done. That is the process we ought to use. That is the process that we normally use. But I suspect there is a lot of money that can be lost if those small businessmen can actually negotiate against the insurance companies. I will get into that more when it is the appropriate time, not when we are talking about whether we ought to proceed on the bill at all. I see that I have used my time. I yield the floor.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I rise today to support action on health care this week. There is a bill that will be voted on tomorrow morning that I think is extremely critical to the health of the Nation. As chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, I can attest that access to affordable health care is the No. 1 issue for working families who contact my committee. I do need to explain where we are in this process. We have a bill that made it out of committee to provide for small business health plans. There has been unanimous consent requested to proceed to the debate. That was denied. That is just the right to debate the bill, but it was denied. So a cloture motion was put in, and we will vote on that cloture motion tomorrow. That will be the 3 days after the cloture motion was filed. So that is a 3-day delay that we already have in solving small business health plan problems. Tomorrow morning we will vote at 10. I can't imagine anybody voting against better health for people who work in small businesses. I am anticipating that we will get 60 votes. When we get 60 votes, we still will not get to debate the bill. We will have 30 hours of debate on that cloture vote before we will get to offer any amendments. Thirty hours. That could easily be 3 days. It could easily be Thursday before we get to offer the first amendment. I hope the other side will help to get cloture so that we can proceed to the debate. Then I hope that they would agree to shorten that time significantly so we could actually get to amendments and debate the bill. We need to have a debate over the rising cost of health care. More importantly, we need to take action. Americans are tired of the status quo. They are tired of more of the same from the Senate. They are tired of excuses. They do want to see change for the better. The majority leader announced his intention to bring a bill before the Senate that would allow small businesses to band together across the country and negotiate for better health care benefits at better prices. This bill sets up a system where we get a little bit of uniformity out there for the small businesses to band together across State lines and form a big enough pool that they have some power to negotiate against the insurance companies. It is probably important to do that vote. I have some actuarial studies that show how many more people will be brought into the system, and CBO has done some evaluations of how many more people will be able to be insured and what kind of savings there will be. But I don't think they have the numbers right. The numbers are far greater than what they list. Here is the reason I believe that. I had a lot of people call me Friday and Saturday and Sunday and let me know about the ads being run across the country. They are not referring to it as the small business health plans or even the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act. They are not even referring to it as S. 1955. They are referring to it as the Enzi bill. It is not the Enzi bill. It is the small business health plan bill. There are even Web sites set up. Thousands, if not millions, of dollars are being spent on advertising against it, which tells me that perhaps the ability for small companies to get together and negotiate against the insurance companies might be worth a lot more than anybody anticipated. That is where the ads are coming from. Tomorrow morning we will be voting on the motion to proceed to the consideration of S. 1955. The bill will reduce the cost of health care, especially for America's small business owners and working families. Today, of the 45 million people without health insurance, 22 million own or work for small business, according to the Small Business Committee definition of a small business, or they live in families that depend on that small business for wages. Besides the 22 million out of the 45 million, there is another 5 million who are self-employed who could take advantage of this bill. That makes 27 million people who can't afford decent health insurance right now. It is long past time for Congress to take action. The American people aren't going to accept excuses any longer. It is time for the Senate to take the first major step in nearly 15 years toward more affordable health insurance options for small businesses and working families. There has been a bill on the House side that has passed 8 times in the last 12 years for association health plans. The Senate has never gotten any kind of a bill like that out of committee until now. This bill is not quite like that bill. This bill was derived by talking to the insurance companies, talking to the insurance commissioners, having them sit down with the associations and try to find a workable way that would not unlevel the playing field so that some people would be paying more for their health insurance while others were paying less. They worked for almost a year with me. All of them were convinced that something needed to be done. All of them were willing to work in a positive manner to come up with a bill that would work. That is what we have before us now. That is not to say that the bill won't be changed through the debate, if we can get to the debate. There probably will be changes. There can be amendments to the bill. One of the things I have learned being in the State legislature as well as in Congress is that quite often amendments do help make a bill better. I do know that the American people support giving small businesses the same power that big businesses have had to negotiate for better benefits and better prices. The fact that it has taken us so long to get to this point has to be frustrating for our constituents and the small businessmen. That is most of the people in the United States. They are either small business or they work in small businesses. When they work in a small business, they understand the plight of the business much better than in a big business. We already gave big business a lot more opportunity to negotiate than what we have in this bill for small business. This is a great start for small businesses to bring those costs down. Small business owners and working families do want an up-or-down vote on small business health plans. They think they deserve it, and I believe they deserve it. I believe almost everybody here thinks they deserve a vote on whether they ought to be able to have a fraction of what the big companies have as an advantage in working with the insurance companies. For years the small business owners have been asking the Senate to grant them the power that the big businesses have so they can secure affordable health care for their employees and their families. For the first time in over a decade, the Senate committee has reported a bill that gives small business owners the power they are seeking. Americans have sent hundreds of thousands of letters, petitions, phone calls, e- mails, faxes to the Senate over the past few weeks in support of small business health plans. The National Federation of Independent Businesses, one of the associations interested in this, delivered 500,000 petitions from across the United States asking us to do something. The people have taken time out of their busy days to demand action, and they deserve that up-or-down vote. I remember getting permission, shortly after I got to the Senate, to hold a small business hearing in Casper, WY. That is the big city in the center of Wyoming. I held that hearing. I was pleased. I had about 100 small businessmen show up to lend their support and express their needs. Afterward, one of the reporters asked: Aren't you disappointed you only had 100 people show up? I said: Actually, this is small business. I am kind of surprised that 100 showed up because in small business, if you have an extra person who can spend a day at a hearing, you would probably fire them because you would have one more person than you needed. In small business, they don't have nearly the diversity or the specialization, but they have a lot of personal ability and flexibility to take their product to market and to make a difference against the big companies that way. But they need some extra help. I know the minority leader will want an up-or-down vote on a bill sponsored by Senators Durbin and Lincoln. I believe the minority leader should get that up-or-down vote, even though I don't believe the bill he supports would provide the kind of change small business owners want and need. I know what the support is for that bill. I would love to do the comparisons between what we are trying to do in small business health plans and that. Let's see what the will of the Senate is, and let's not resort to blocking consideration through procedural motions. I am sure some of my Democratic colleagues will want to use their share of the 30 hours of debate after this vote to discuss a variety of health care issues. Some Members of the minority will want to discuss the Medicare drug benefit. I have heard that on the floor in this preliminary time. Some will want to talk about drug importation. Some will want to talk about stem cell research. I know that from the debate we have had on the floor today. It is their right under the Senate rules. I am not sure how I would go about explaining that to the small business owners and the working families who work in those small businesses. I suppose that the vast majority of those small business owners are going to be too busy during the day and night to watch the Senate debate on C-SPAN2. But those who do will understand that the issues we are talking about are not the solution they are expecting, and that they are external to the bill we are debating at this time. Those are important issues. But if they are just being done to block a bill--and that will be the way it will be termed by small business--I suspect there will be a price to pay for that kind of action. I hope, for all our sakes, that the TVs in hospital emergency rooms are not tuned to C-SPAN. Some of those Americans who depend on small business and are in the emergency room may have no health insurance. Maybe their company dropped the coverage last year or maybe the company could not afford health insurance in the first place. What would they say if they were watching us this week? After all, the caption on the screen will read that we are supposed to be debating health insurance for working families. But instead of debating two competing visions for providing more affordable health care options for small businesses, we will be talking about Democratic amendments on a number of issues, including the Medicare drug benefit, which has already been done, and people are signing up in numbers that had not been anticipated. There is also already enough competition out there that it has driven the prices down. That is what competition does. It is working for seniors and they are saving money. But instead of talking about things that are working for Americans, we should be debating the challenges that still face us, such as the rising cost of health care for America's working families. Every day, emergency rooms treat more than 30,000 uninsured Americans who work for or depend on small business. That is at least 30,000 reasons why we should move right away to the consideration of S. 1955 to create small business health plans. For the first time in more than a decade, the Senate has been presented with a bill that would create a whole new set of affordable health care choices through small business health plans. Is it the perfect bill? No. I have never seen one in my 9 years in the Senate. We won't get to see anything even near perfect if we don't get to debate it. I believe most of my colleagues like the concept of getting as much perfection through amendments as possible and do want to work with me on it. Procedural votes won't get that done. If we are waiting for the perfect bill, the one true and comprehensive solution to fix our health care system, then someone needs to bring us a tent, flashlights, and field rations, because we are going to be a very long time waiting for that. I am hoping it is not a series of 30-hour waits to debate things that won't have anything to do with getting small business health plans for small businesses. Americans are never waiting for perfection from Congress. They have given up on that long ago. But they do want action. We have a good bill before us. We have a bipartisan bill before us. I am a former small business owner and I know something about the struggle to provide affordable health care to my family and to my work families. Senator Ben Nelson, who coauthored this bill, is a former State insurance commissioner, so he knows something about the importance of protecting consumers. Senator Nelson and I have spoken about this bill with just about every Member of the Senate. We think it is a very good bill, and we have reached out to our colleagues over the last several months to take their concerns into account as we put the bill together. Some of our colleagues will have amendments they believe will make it even better, and they should have the opportunity to offer those amendments. Neither Senator Nelson nor I are afraid of that, nor are we afraid of any alternative bills that Members might want to propose. I urge my colleagues to set aside tomorrow's motion to proceed to the consideration of the bill. Let's get on with it, debate it, and have some amendments. We can have constructive votes on the floor on a number of issues that will improve this bill. But if we have to go through the procedural motions, let's keep in mind those 27 million uninsured Americans who work for or depend on small businesses. Those are 27 million Americans who are counting on the Senate to act now--not next month, not next year, but now. Let's take the step toward more affordable health care for all Americans by giving small business owners the power to create small business health plans for themselves, their families, and their workers. Give them the chance they are seeking, instead of more of the same excuses for not acting. I don't think they will buy that. I am hoping some of the media that is doing coverage will do a little bit better job than I happened to see last weekend. PBS did a special. They forgot to talk to anybody who worked on the bill. They talked about some problems with California's health care and attributed it to this bill. This bill cannot be the cause of that yet because it is not in California. There have been concerns by a number of other groups. One was the attorneys general for a number of States. Again, it would have been nice if they would have talked to us to be sure they had the right bill and had read it before they took their action. So we will be covering that in the next few days. If we have to talk for 30 hours, we will be plenty willing to do that. There are a lot of people in small businesses who see this as a primary concern and need, and they wish to see it done as soon as possible. They will not be very forgiving if people are holding things up to try to defeat the bill instead of making constructive progress. I appreciate all those who have worked with me and all of those who are still working on amendments. Particularly, I would appreciate it if they would talk to me. There are some good ideas out there, things that would work. Many are for clarification. It will make a difference to small business. I hope everybody will get past this motion to proceed and the 30 hours of debate will get finished.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Secretary of the Senate be authorized to correct the engrossment of the Senate amendment to H.R. 4939, to reconcile the text of amendments 3728 and 3789.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there now be a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. ENZI

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

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 458.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Monday, May 8, at 3 p.m. The purpose of this hearing is to receive testimony regarding issues associated with the implementation of the provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 addressing licensing of hydroelectric facilities.

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet on Monday, May 8, 2006, at 3:30 p.m. to consider the nomination of David L. Norquist to be Chief Financial Officer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday, May 9. I further ask that following the prayer and the pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved, and the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 1955, the small business health plans bill, with a vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 1955 to occur at 10 a.m.; further, that the time before the vote be equally divided between the chairman and ranking member of the HELP Committee or their designees.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, we will have a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S. 1955, the small business health plans bill. I do expect we will be able to proceed to this bill, and I hope we can expedite the 30 hours of debate postcloture and get on with the bill tomorrow.

Mr. ENZI

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

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, this is under the jurisdiction of the Education Committee. We have taken a look at it. FEMA just has a different definition that needs to be changed from what other schools have. It clears up some language. It is not any problem.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I rise to support a resolution supporting the goals and ideals of the Year of the Museum. I am pleased to be joined by Senator Kennedy and other members of the Cultural Caucus in sponsoring this resolution recognizing the vital role museums play in the fabric of our American culture. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the American Association of Museums, we treasure the more than 16,000 museums in the United States that house many of our greatest treasures. Museums inspire curiosity in students of all ages and foster a greater understanding of the world around us. Museums help us connect to the past and envision the future. Today, we celebrate their contribution to the vitality of our communities and our culture over the past 100 years. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Pharmacist Access and Recognition in Medicare Act. I have enjoyed working closely with Chairman Cochran and Senator Talent on this bill that will help protect the valuable role that pharmacists play in our communities. I have spent a lot of time over the past few months traveling around my home State of Wyoming talking to seniors about the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. This new voluntary benefit represents the most significant improvement to Medicare since its inception in 1965. Because of this new benefit, more seniors have prescription drug coverage and are able to purchase the medicines they need. Since the benefit took effect on January 1, 2006, 17,700 beneficiaries in Wyoming have signed up for prescription drug coverage and 27 million beneficiaries nationwide have drug coverage. I encourage all beneficiaries to enroll in a prescription drug plan before May 15, 2006. I strongly support our community pharmacists. The changeover to Medicare Part D hasn't been easy and has produced several obstacles they have had to deal with as they have worked to serve Medicare beneficiaries. In traveling around my State over the past few months, I have talked to a few pharmacists who mentioned a few key problems they are facing with this new Medicare program that I believe we should address. The first is an issue of cash flow management. As the only accountant in the United States Senate, I understand this problem. Most pharmacists have to pay their wholesalers like clockwork two times a month, but they are not receiving their reimbursement from the prescription drug plans in a similar timely fashion. This bill changes that. The bill states that plans have to reimburse all ``clean claims'' every 14 days. The bill also facilitates a quicker reimbursement by specifying that claims submitted electronically shall be paid by electronic transfer of funds. This is a small change in the law that I believe will play a large role in helping ease the transition to the new program for our local and community pharmacists. The second issue I have heard about is called co-branding. Some of the prescription drug plans have partnered with some of the larger pharmacies and the plans are putting pharmacy logos on the benefit cards the beneficiaries use to get their prescriptions filled. Some people have told me that this is very confusing, because beneficiaries think that they must go to the pharmacy listed on the card. My bill says that co-branding is no longer allowed and all newly issued cards will not have pharmacy logos on them. The final thing this bill does is expand upon what was in the Medicare bill that passed in 2003 regarding medication therapy management programs. I am pleased to say that Wyoming is ahead of the curve in this area. A few years ago, the Wyoming Department of Health partnered with the University of Wyoming to provide a service called Wyoming PharmAssist, which directly connects patients with registered pharmacists to review their medications for possible drug interactions and duplications. I was pleased to learn that this service is more advanced than systems in other States, providing patients with ways to reduce their monthly medication costs while improving safety. The Wyoming PharmAssist program can save clients $152 per month and $1,844 a year. Wyoming Pharm-Assist pays registered pharmacists for these unique services and is a model for the Nation. My bill tries to make the Federal program more like the very successful program in Wyoming. I commend all the pharmacists across the country who are working so hard to make this new Medicare program work. They are getting life saving drugs to seniors who may not have been able to afford them before. I am proud to say I voted for this program back in 2003 and I am pleased with all the progress we are making. I believe the Senate operates under what I call the 80/20 rule. 80 percent of the things that get done around here are non-contentious issues with support from both parties. The other 20 percent are the contentious issues that we seem to spend all our time talking about. I think this bill falls into the 80 percent category. This is a small bill that will do a lot of good for our pharmacists. It has wide support and I look forward to working with Chairman Grassley to help move this bill through his Committee. I invite my colleagues to join me and Senators Cochran and Talent as sponsors of this bill to allow pharmacists to continue to provide the best quality care for seniors and the disabled who rely on them for their medications. I ask that the text of the bill following my statement be placed in the Record.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Pharmacist Access and Recognition in Medicare Act. I have enjoyed working closely with Chairman Cochran and Senator Talent on this bill that will help protect the valuable role that pharmacists play in our communities. I have spent a lot of time over the past few months traveling around my home State of Wyoming talking to seniors about the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. This new voluntary benefit represents the most significant improvement to Medicare since its inception in 1965. Because of this new benefit, more seniors have prescription drug coverage and are able to purchase the medicines they need. Since the benefit took effect on January 1, 2006, 17,700 beneficiaries in Wyoming have signed up for prescription drug coverage and 27 million beneficiaries nationwide have drug coverage. I encourage all beneficiaries to enroll in a prescription drug plan before May 15, 2006. I strongly support our community pharmacists. The changeover to Medicare Part D hasn't been easy and has produced several obstacles they have had to deal with as they have worked to serve Medicare beneficiaries. In traveling around my State over the past few months, I have talked to a few pharmacists who mentioned a few key problems they are facing with this new Medicare program that I believe we should address. The first is an issue of cash flow management. As the only accountant in the United States Senate, I understand this problem. Most pharmacists have to pay their wholesalers like clockwork two times a month, but they are not receiving their reimbursement from the prescription drug plans in a similar timely fashion. This bill changes that. The bill states that plans have to reimburse all ``clean claims'' every 14 days. The bill also facilitates a quicker reimbursement by specifying that claims submitted electronically shall be paid by electronic transfer of funds. This is a small change in the law that I believe will play a large role in helping ease the transition to the new program for our local and community pharmacists. The second issue I have heard about is called co-branding. Some of the prescription drug plans have partnered with some of the larger pharmacies and the plans are putting pharmacy logos on the benefit cards the beneficiaries use to get their prescriptions filled. Some people have told me that this is very confusing, because beneficiaries think that they must go to the pharmacy listed on the card. My bill says that co-branding is no longer allowed and all newly issued cards will not have pharmacy logos on them. The final thing this bill does is expand upon what was in the Medicare bill that passed in 2003 regarding medication therapy management programs. I am pleased to say that Wyoming is ahead of the curve in this area. A few years ago, the Wyoming Department of Health partnered with the University of Wyoming to provide a service called Wyoming PharmAssist, which directly connects patients with registered pharmacists to review their medications for possible drug interactions and duplications. I was pleased to learn that this service is more advanced than systems in other States, providing patients with ways to reduce their monthly medication costs while improving safety. The Wyoming PharmAssist program can save clients $152 per month and $1,844 a year. Wyoming Pharm-Assist pays registered pharmacists for these unique services and is a model for the Nation. My bill tries to make the Federal program more like the very successful program in Wyoming. I commend all the pharmacists across the country who are working so hard to make this new Medicare program work. They are getting life saving drugs to seniors who may not have been able to afford them before. I am proud to say I voted for this program back in 2003 and I am pleased with all the progress we are making. I believe the Senate operates under what I call the 80/20 rule. 80 percent of the things that get done around here are non-contentious issues with support from both parties. The other 20 percent are the contentious issues that we seem to spend all our time talking about. I think this bill falls into the 80 percent category. This is a small bill that will do a lot of good for our pharmacists. It has wide support and I look forward to working with Chairman Grassley to help move this bill through his Committee. I invite my colleagues to join me and Senators Cochran and Talent as sponsors of this bill to allow pharmacists to continue to provide the best quality care for seniors and the disabled who rely on them for their medications. I ask that the text of the bill following my statement be placed in the Record.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, this amendment increases funding by $3 billion and will be offset by closing tax loopholes, which means raising taxes, which would require a separate effort, anyway. The resolution we have before us already provides $12.7 billion in 2007 for grants to local education agencies, the largest component of No Child Left Behind. That represents a 45-percent increase from 2001. The Federal investment in education will have grown by $12.2 billion, or 29 percent, since fiscal year 2001. In addition, the resolution provides an additional $1.5 billion for funding for function 500, which includes No Child Left Behind, and those funds can be used for that. Education is and should be one of our highest priorities, but this amendment is paid for by increasing taxes and busts the discretionary spending cap. I ask that you vote no.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, for the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions I report favorably the following nomination lists which were printed in the Record on the dates indicated, and ask unanimous consent, to save the expense of reprinting on the Executive Calendar, that these nominations lie at the Secretary's desk for the information of Senators.

Mr. ENZI

Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Education and Early Childhood Development be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, March 1, 2006, at 10 a.m., for a hearing on ``Protecting America's Competitive Edge Act (S. 2198): Helping K-12 Students Learn Math and Science Better.''