Bill Frist

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 289, H. Con. Res. 282.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that during the adjournment period of the Senate, the majority leader be authorized to sign duly enrolled bills or joint resolutions.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the recess, committees be allowed to report legislative and executive matters on Wednesday, October 8, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 12 noon.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that committees have until 4 p.m. today to report legislative or executive matters.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, health care affects each of us in very personal ways. As a physician, but also being majority leader, people will come to me and ask: What are you doing about this particular health care issue? It might be a senior who asks: Why don't I have access to prescription drugs as I did when I was 60 years of age and employed by a company, and all of a sudden it disappears when I go into Medicare? That is the type of question to which this body has responded and, indeed, we have passed a prescription drug benefit appropriately coupled with health care--Medicare specific--modernization, in the sense that it brings the Medicare Program up to today's standards, the type of health care to which other people have access. We are addressing in the conference between the House and the Senate this Medicare prescription drug package. We had two meetings today with the various conferees, in a bipartisan way--the House and Senate together working through the details of marrying the House and the Senate bill. I am absolutely confident that under the leadership of Chairman Bill Thomas in the House and Vice Chairman Chuck Grassley in the Senate that this conference will deliver a bill in October that will accomplish that goal of health care security and access to prescription drugs for all seniors. People also ask me: What about those people who do not have access to health insurance, those people who are not in Medicare at all? Medicare is our program for seniors and individuals with disabilities. What about those who are not in Medicaid, which is our unique Federal-State partnership through which health care is delivered for the underserved and the impoverished or poor of the Nation? What if one is not in an employer-sponsored plan as I mentioned? Most people who are not in Medicare and Medicaid, the overwhelming majority get their health care through employer-sponsored plans. What if somebody is not in one of those plans today? What if one is not in the SCHIP program, the program that originated in our Congress that reaches out to children predominantly run by States, or if one is not in a Government program or not in the private program and thus uninsured? What are you doing, Senator Frist, and what will you do? This week, the Census Bureau confirmed what many of us felt and feared, and that is that the number of people without health insurance increased last year to over 43 million. That is about one out of every seven Americans under the age of 65. That represents a 5.7 percent increase over 2001. So the uninsured number is increasing, and there are a lot of reasons why. We have talked in our various conferences and committees and debated why that number is increasing. One can parse the statistics and numbers and say that is how many do not have insurance over a period of time, and 6 months later many of them will have insurance. Putting all that aside, I argue that the uninsured are among the greatest health care challenge we have in the United States of America today. Thus, I believe we have a real obligation not to say we have so much else going on that we cannot address that but that we do have really a moral obligation to address this issue of the uninsured and to do it in a systematic way. As I mentioned before, very much of our focus has been on Medicare today. I will mention shortly some of what we have been doing with regard to the uninsured, but there is still a lot we need to be doing. If we step back and look at our economy, although the economy itself is improving--and maybe not as quickly as a lot of us would like, but the economy is getting better each day--in spite of that, the budget pressures at the State level and the job losses from last year combined in a very complex way to increase the number of uninsured to 43 million people. To me, this is one of the most daunting health challenges--I would say it is even beyond health policy challenges--that we have affecting our Nation. I say that in part because of personal experience. I have had the opportunity to treat Medicare and Medicaid patients and the uninsured through the transplant program in which I had the opportunity to participate in Nashville. Both in the acute care and in the chronic care, it is obvious that if one has no health insurance, no help with being able to access health care with a lowered financial burden, one's quality of health care suffers. It is not as good as the health care of people who have some type of insurance, private sector or public insurance. The uninsured are four times less likely to receive dental care and necessary medical care. They are five times less likely to obtain prescription drugs. They are four times more likely--and this really makes sense--to access the emergency room for routine care rather than the more efficient, and arguably more effective, channels of being able to see a physician or go to a doctor's office. The lack of affordable health care is also one of the key factors that affects what we call health care disparities among the underserved or minorities themselves; that is, where a person of one race has different health care outcomes than those of another race or one socioeconomic level versus another socioeconomic level. It does not explain it all, but it is clearly one of those variables we can affect, and we have to do it in a coordinated way because our health care system in America, which is the best in the world, no question about it, overall health care in the United States is of higher quality than anywhere in the world. If we do look at the numbers that were released this week, they were a year old, and since they were compiled--because they are historical data, being a year old--the economy has improved over that year, and indeed almost all economists expect that, depending on how one looks at the statistics, we will have annualized growth of nearly 4 percent in the coming months. It may go higher than that and come back down a little bit, but we will have good, significant growth in the coming months. Indeed, the Associated Press this week reported: America's consumers, flush with tax cuts that left them with extra cash in their wallets, ratcheted up their spending by a strong .8 percent in August, helping to power an economic resurgence. So I think we are seeing improvements in our economy. That is only just beginning to be reflected in jobs. We did have encouraging news earlier this morning from the Labor Department that U.S. companies show a net increase of 57,000 jobs. That is good news for the economy, but also that is good news overall for health insurance or medical insurance. Why? Because most Americans in this country get their health care through their employer, through jobs. Thus, as we grow the economy and add jobs to the economy, we do have an expansion in medical coverage. While the recovery takes hold, it is clear that we have an obligation to respond with policies and that as we look at the future agenda in health care, we need to focus on the uninsured. Some of what we are doing now in this body, in response to what we recognize is a major problem and one that is growing, are the following: Last month, the Senate passed the Labor, Health, and Human Services appropriations bill. In that bill, we had $1.6 billion for community health centers. We met the President's request for an additional $122 million in funding over last year, which was an increase over last year. This response by this body enables us to move toward the President's goal of enabling community health centers to serve an additional 6 million patients by the year 2006. We all have community health centers in our States, districts, and regions, and we know the vital role they play in reaching out to the underserved or those without health insurance today. I say we all know, and I say that in part because I have been so involved in health care issues, being a physician, but I think we need to shine a light on them. They serve a tremendous need and respond in an innovative, flexible way that is locally driven, which is something that cannot be praised enough. Second, as I said, many people get their insurance through Federal programs or joint Federal-State programs. There is a program called SCHIP. Basically when you hear SCHIP, think health care for children. In July, the Senate fulfilled the President's request to extend the availability of $2.7 billion in Federal SCHIP funds that either expired at the end of 2002 or will expire in the current fiscal year. These funds will be available to allow States to continue the program without which, if we had not acted, as many as a million children would have lost health coverage. That has now become law. In addition, in terms of looking at what we are doing, focusing on this whole issue of the uninsured, if you look to the jobs and growth package, the 2003 jobs and growth package that we passed--people always talk about the tax cuts, tax relief which is so instrumental in pulling us out of this recession and stimulating our economy, but in there as well was $20 billion in fiscal relief that goes directly to the States, and about $10 billion of that was specifically targeted at enabling the States to maintain gains they had made in health care for the poor through their Medicaid Programs through a tool or through the technique of the enhanced Medicaid Federal match rate. That is the technical way of saying the Federal Government, in an enhanced way, helps the States with funds that go directly to the State. I mentioned those two or three examples because it is important for our colleagues and others on the other side of the Capitol, in the other body, and really our constituents, to understand that we in the Senate are addressing the issues of the uninsured. President Bush has made tax credits, what we call refundable tax credits for low- and middle-income families, a major part of his proposal to address the issues of the uninsured and to expand health coverage. He also has consistently supported medical savings accounts and promoted the expansion of medical savings accounts in other ways that can offer affordable health care options to those who might not have insurance today. The President and we, or many of us--about half of us; not all of us--in this body continue to fight hard for medical liability reform, medical litigation reform, malpractice reform. The reason for that is not to in any way jeopardize the very good system we have, that if there is harm and injury there is just and fair compensation, but the purpose for that is to get rid of the unnecessary lawsuits, the excessive lawsuits that drive up the costs of health care that ultimately are passed on to patients, driving up the cost of health insurance for everybody. Meaning, if you don't have sufficient resources, you simply give up your health insurance or you can't get it in the first place. Again, it is an important part of the President's initiative, as well as our own initiative on this floor. For my colleagues, I will say we will keep coming back to address this whole issue of medical liability. The cause of 43 million people who lack insurance today is difficult to characterize, in terms of a generalization. It does take a targeted approach to identify who the 43 million people are and then target specific approaches to them. Therefore, it has to be comprehensive but it is also very complex by its very nature. I think the tone of a lot of the debate today on the uninsured has been polarizing. Because of that polarizing framework, a lot of people have been hesitant to put it out front and to put an agenda out front. I wish to share with my colleagues my commitment to work to find workable solutions to a problem that is increasing, a problem that directly affects the health care of 43 million but indirectly affects the health care, really, of us all. In that regard, I have asked Senator Judd Gregg, our colleague from New Hampshire, to lead a Senate Republican task force on uninsured and access to affordable health care coverage. I have asked Senator Gregg and his task force to propose a series of recommendations to address the uninsured issue so we can both debate, discuss, and through committees but also on the floor attack this problem head on. The task force will be looking at all options, including new ideas. I look at it as a place that ideas can be brought, that we can debate and discuss, and hopefully we will look at many of the ideas that have been proposed in the past but also reach out and obtain new ideas, creative ideas, ideas we may not yet have thought about or that we haven't addressed in the past. I do intend to take these recommendations and use them as a basis in establishing a legislative agenda so we can on this floor systematically address the issue of the uninsured. In closing, I appreciate Senator Gregg's willingness to take on this task. I look forward to working with him and his task force in addressing this pressing issue. I am confident that out of this task force we will get new ideas, innovative thinking, dynamic ideas that will allow us to deliver real solutions to the American people who do not have health insurance today. I yield the floor.

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, just briefly responding through the Chair, I very much appreciate those comments because, just as we have done with Medicare, it is going to take strong bipartisan support to get good, effective legislation through. Second, the point about why now versus 10 years ago, 20 years ago, or 30 years ago--I agree wholeheartedly. We have this huge demographic shift that didn't occur 10 years ago or 20 years ago or 30 years ago or 40 years ago, that we are realizing right now. It gives us a perfect reason for all of us to come together to address these problems--the uninsured is a major one for both of us--in a way that may be unprecedented, at least in the last 10, 20, or 30 years. I very much appreciate those comments and look forward to working with my colleague.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 2152, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., Tuesday, October 14; 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 for their use later in the day, and the Senate then begin a period of morning business for up to 60 minutes, with the first 30 minutes under the control of Senator Hutchison or her designee, and the second 30 minutes under the control of the minority leader or his designee; provided that following morning business the Senate resume consideration of S. 1689, the Iraq-Afghanistan supplemental appropriations bill. I further ask unanimous consent that the Senate recess from 12:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. 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 provisions of S. Con. Res. 71.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, on Tuesday, October 14, following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the Iraq-Afghanistan supplement appropriations bill. I encourage all Senators who have amendments to come to the floor Tuesday morning to offer those amendments. We will complete action on this bill by the close of the week we return from recess, and Senators should not wait until the last minute to come forward with their amendments. The bill managers have done a tremendous job in moving this bill forward. They will be here Tuesday morning to continue to work through the remaining amendments. We will complete that bill that week. Under a previous agreement, at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 14, the Senate will vote on passage of S. 1053, the Genetic Nondiscrimination Act. I inform all Members that vote on the passage of S. 1053 will be the first vote of that day. Senators, however, should expect rollcall votes throughout the afternoon as the Senate continues debate on amendments to the Iraq-Afghanistan supplemental appropriations bill.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, at this juncture I wish to take a second to thank everyone for their assistance throughout this week. It has been a busy week. We have accomplished a great deal. Earlier this week we began consideration of the Iraq supplemental request. We made good progress on the supplemental request and, as we had discussed, we will complete action on this request during the first week we return. We also considered this week the DC appropriations bill. Although I am disappointed we were unable to finish that bill, we had very important debate and discussion, much of which centered around the opportunity scholarships for impoverished children in the District, support for public charter schools, as well as additional support for public schools in the District. We were not successful in passing that bill. I do want to assure my colleagues that we will be coming back and addressing that important issue of opportunity scholarships for impoverished schoolchildren in the District. We have addressed it and we will continue to address it with the leadership of Mayor Anthony Williams as well as other local leaders. Last night, we reached an agreement for final passage on a genetic nondiscrimination bill, which I spoke to in detail last night. The vote on final passage of that bill will occur at 2:30 on October 14. Last night, I commended the tremendous work on both sides of the aisle in addressing this legislation, under the leadership in large part of Senator Olympia Snowe, someone who has been working on this issue for at least 6 years because I know I have been working for at least the last 6 years on that important legislation. We completed debate on it last night. We will vote on it Tuesday, October 14. At that juncture, we will have addressed the issues of civil rights protections and the importance of preventing the use of genetic information in a discriminatory way. I look forward to that vote on October 14. In addition, this week we passed H.R. 1925, called the Runaway Homeless and Missing Children's Protection bill. This is the House companion bill to Senator Hatch's bill which we passed earlier. In addition, Chairman Shelby helped in securing passage of S. 1680, the Defense Production Act. We are grateful for his efforts as this legislation expired earlier this week. We were also able to pass TANF this week, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families extension. Senators Grassley and Baucus were instrumental in ensuring this was completed on time. Chairman McCain and the Commerce Committee finished up and the full Senate subsequently passed S. 1261, the Consumer Product Safety Commission reauthorization. In addition, just a few moments ago, I read S. Con. Res. 66, which was a resolution commending the National Endowment for Democracy for its contributions to democratic development around the world. That resolution has been introduced and addressed because it is the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the National Endowment for Democracy. The sponsor of that resolution was Senator Lugar. I just wanted to mention that because I had the opportunity to sit through a board meeting and a review of the important programs the National Endowment for Democracy does, the programs reflecting the tremendous work in promoting democracy in countries all around the world. I am proud this body has passed this very important resolution to commend that organization for the productive and very important work around the world. Finally, a short while ago, we were able to confirm, along with seven judges from earlier this week, a series of executive nominations. One of these nominations was Randall Tobias to be coordinator of U.S. Government activities to combat HIV/AIDS globally with the rank of Ambassador. This particular position, in essence, is the person in charge, the point person for the United States of America, in terms of our global efforts to address one of the greatest moral, humanitarian, and public health challenges of the last 100 years; that is, the global threat of HIV/AIDS, a little virus that we in this country knew nothing about just 25 years ago in 1980. It never had been in the United States. It didn't exist as a virus. But since that point in time it has taken the lives of over 40 million people, and is likely to take the lives of 10, 20, 30, or 40 more million people. The President of the United States in a bold initiative has committed $15 billion over 5 years to address the humanitarian challenge--a bold initiative, an unprecedented initiative on a single disease, a single entity. Randall Tobias, now Ambassador Tobias, will be the coordinator for that overall effort. In closing, I thank my colleagues for cooperation during this work period. I encourage all to rest. Most are going back to their home States to be with constituents. I encourage them also to rest their batteries because we will return for a very busy final few weeks of this first session.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Feingold amendment, which is at the desk, be considered, agreed to, the bill as amended be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in April of this year the Senate passed, with an overwhelming vote of 95 to 5, a bill called the charitable choice bill. It is obviously bipartisan legislation that was shepherded through this body by Senator Santorum, and a lot of work, over a long period of time, has been put into the efforts for passage of this legislation. Two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed its version, H.R. 7, by a vote--again, it was overwhelming--of 408 to 13. The regular process of the House and the Senate is that the bill will proceed to a conference on the differences between these two bills. Unfortunately, it is my understanding that we will be unable to reach an agreement today, this afternoon, before adjourning to go on break, to appointment conferees on the part of the Senate. There is, simply put, an objection on the other side of the aisle, and with so many Members who have left for the day, I will not ask for a formal consent agreement. But clearly, I am disappointed that we were unable to take the next logical regular order step in finishing this bill. I do hope we can clear this agreement with my Democratic colleagues just as soon as we return from this nonlegislative period. Another disappointment for me, as we prepare to adjourn, has to do with the partial-birth abortion ban bill--disappointment that we are not able to progress with the legislative process until we get back. When we do return, I will seek an agreement for the consideration of the conference report to accompany S. 3, the partial-birth abortion ban bill. In fact, it is S. 3 which shows the priority of this body toward this important legislation. Yesterday the House of Representatives passed the conference report, and as soon as we get back, we will be scheduling it for consideration. The bill passed the Senate on a bipartisan vote of 64 to 33. With the conference complete and with the House having passed the agreement, it is imperative that the Senate consider this measure in short order so the President can sign this legislation into law. As I watched yesterday with the House completing their responsibilities on this legislation, I was hopeful that we could do that, pass it today. Why? Because this is a bill that I believe will save lives. It is a ban on a procedure that offends the sensibilities of almost all Americans, a procedure that the will of this Congress said to ban, and a bill the President will sign. Yet we will not be able to, at this juncture, consider it until we get back. I know discussions have begun on both sides of the aisle as to how much debate time will be needed. I encourage members to move quickly on what we expect to be the final action--the final action--on this important priority. I will speak directly to the issue as soon as we return, but I wanted to put my colleagues on notice that we will be moving forward and will be scheduling this conference report for Senate action as soon as we possibly can.

Mr. FRIST

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

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. For the information of all Senators, tomorrow morning, as was just pointed out, following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the Iraq/Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations bill. There will be no rollcall votes during tomorrow's session. Senators will have the opportunity throughout tomorrow to come to the floor and offer amendments on the bill. However, no action will occur on any of the amendments tomorrow. Under a previous order, the next rollcall vote will occur Tuesday, October 14, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. Friday, October 3. I further ask that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then begin a period of morning business for up to 30 minutes with the first 15 minutes under the control of the minority leader or his designee and the second 15 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee; provided that following morning business the Senate resume consideration of S. 1689, the Iraq/ Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations bill.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, just for clarification, we will have the vote on the Leahy amendment now, followed by a rollcall vote on one of the judicial nominees, followed by a voice vote on the next three judicial nominees. In the meantime, we will be discussing the schedule for later this evening. Amendments will be in order tonight. They will be laid down. We will talk about the voting schedule here shortly.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I very much appreciate the comments by the assistant Democratic leader. I will just briefly add to that, because so many of our colleagues do have the opportunity to be with the Chaplain in many ways that America doesn't see. Just two nights ago we were at an event for adoption from foster homes. Our colleagues and others see the Chaplain open this body every day. That is something that is apparent. What they don't see is the fellowship, the contributions, the nights, like two nights ago, where the Chaplain represented, yes, the Senate; yes, the Congress; but indeed the United States at events at night, giving the invocation before 900 people, 6 blocks from here in the Reagan Building. He is the 62nd Chaplain, a great heritage to follow. We are delighted to be able to have his fellowship, his leadership, and his counsel as we go forth each day.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this morning the Senate will be in a period of morning business for 60 minutes. Following that time, the Senate will resume consideration of the supplemental appropriations for Iraq security. Pending will be the McConnell amendment, which is a sense of the Senate supporting our troops. There will be 40 minutes remaining for debate on that amendment and therefore that vote will occur shortly after 11 a.m. this morning. Following that vote, we will resume debate on the Biden amendment on tax rates. I understand there are a number of Members on both sides of the aisle who will want to speak to that amendment. Additional votes will occur throughout the day as we work through the pending amendments. I thank the two managers for their efforts thus far. I believe there is an understanding to rotate back and forth on the amendments and that will help to keep an orderly process throughout. I look forward to another day of constructive debate, and I encourage Members to communicate with the chairman and ranking member if they desire to offer an amendment to the bill. We need to work through these amendments in a sequential way, one at a time, so it is helpful if Senators will work in advance to schedule consideration of their amendments. In addition, there are four judges who are ready for consideration. I look forward to talking to the leadership on the other side of the aisle as to an appropriate time that we can schedule votes for them as well.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 238, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, this legislation and the unanimous consent that was just obtained signifies an important accomplishment of this body but an accomplishment that resulted after about 6 years of work. As with so much important legislation, I think we sometimes take for granted how much work it takes to get to a certain point. Then when we present the bill, debate the bill, and then pass the bill, we move very quickly on to other issues. What the unanimous consent just said was that we will be voting on this Tuesday when we get back from recess; that all time for debate and discussion on this particular issue, which I should add over the last 6 years has been debated a lot on this floor, will have been exhausted. For more than 6 years, Members of this body have worked on this issue. I have worked with Senator Olympia Snowe for about 5\3/4\ years, along with Senators Jeffords, Enzi, Gregg, Hagel, Collins, and DeWine on this issue of genetic nondiscrimination. Today, with the invaluable contributions of Senators Daschle and Kennedy, we bring to the Senate floor this solid, important, significant legislation that, if I had to summarize, I would say provides individuals, citizens, patients, with strong protections against the potential of genetic discrimination in health insurance. I especially want to take this opportunity to commend the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Chairman Judd Gregg, for his leadership on this issue. In large part, it is due to his passion and commitment to this issue, to the principle of fairness and of equity, which has driven this process forward. I also commend President Bush for his dedication in ensuring strong protections against genetic discrimination and for bringing attention to this critical matter. When we began work on this issue many years ago, we were looking ahead at what we anticipated, which was the anticipation of the decoding of the human genome. At that time, we looked to the future. We wanted to preempt potential problems. Yes, it has taken 6 years, but finally with passage a week from next Tuesday we can be satisfied that we accomplished that goal set out 6 years ago. This decoding of the human genome, which is about 3 billion bits of information that we did not have 15 years ago that we have now, has been accomplished. In fact, it was this year that scientists, working in collaboration with the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, published a final draft documenting the sequence of the entire human genetic code. The publication of this final draft occurred more than 2 years ahead of schedule and almost 50 years to the day from the historic publication by Dr. James Watson and Dr. Francis Crick of DNAs double helix. This dazzling accomplishment has begun to usher in a whole new era of medical understanding. It has already begun to expand our understanding of human development and health, as well as disease. For example, the discovery of disease genes holds great promise. Based on this discovery, scientists may be able to design drugs to treat specific genes and genetic defects. Organs and tissues may be specifically engineered for use in transplantation. Preventive care will be based in part on genetic testing. This explosion of knowledge, these tremendous advances in science and technology, are also fraught with risk, which this legislation will minimize. When I first joined Senator Snowe in this effort several years ago, at that point in time almost a third, one out of three, of the women offered a test for breast cancer risk at the National Institutes of Health declined the test. The reason they gave at that time for declining the test was that the result might in some way be made available to an insurance company which would then use that data, that information, to discriminate against them in whether health insurance would be issued to them. I think it is a tremendous example of the danger of having a threat of discrimination, preventing one from getting a test that might be useful to them. Thus, that example led me to strongly believe then, and I do now, that we must protect people from the threat of genetic information in any way being used against them. That is a practical responsibility. It is a moral responsibility and it is one with this legislation that this body speaks to directly. Simply stated, if unchecked, the fear of genetic discrimination would have the potential of keeping people from participating in very useful research studies. It had the potential for keeping people from taking advantage of new genetic technologies, and it had the potential of keeping an individual from having the opportunity to obtain information that demonstrated that they are not at risk for a potential genetically determined disease. The fear of genetic discrimination has the potential to prevent citizens from making informed health decisions for themselves or their loved ones. Congress, of course, has a rich history in battling against discrimination, most notably through the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. We think also of the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The legislation before us now extends those very same protections to citizens who have genetic markers, a move that, ultimately, I believe, through this legislation, will allow us to save lives. Genetic research, this unraveling of the genetic code, genetic testing will undoubtedly unleash tremendous advances to the benefit of mankind--thrilling advances, possible cures to illnesses today that seem vexing, that we do not fully understand. The potential medical advances from our knowledge of the human genome will be more dramatic than any of the advances that I had the opportunity to directly participate in over 20 years in the practice of medicine--just from this single unraveling of the genetic code. As we greet the future, as we look at new technology, this is just one example of this body acting proactively, acting preemptively, so that such potential use in a discriminatory fashion of medical advances is kept from hurting the American people. We must take care to protect our body politic, and this legislation does just that. I am pleased by the progress we have made thus far, and I do congratulate each of my colleagues on their dedication to this issue over the last several years. This legislation stands squarely on our time-tested civil rights laws establishing comprehensive, equitable, fair, consistent, and reasonable protections. I strongly support this bill, and I look forward to its swift passage when we vote on Tuesday, following our recess.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Con. Res. 71, the adjournment resolution.

Mr. FRIST

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations on today's Executive Calendar, Calendar Nos. 388 and 389. I further ask unanimous consent the nominations be confirmed, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then return to legislative session.