Judd Gregg

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, the list on our side includes the following amendments. If there is somebody else who has an amendment and I have not spoken to them, raise your hand. The amendments are: Senator Craig, long-term care; Senator Craig, nuclear medicine; Senator Kyl, alternative insurance; Senator Santorum, uninsured; Senator Bond, punitive damages; Senator Frist, liability. There are pending in the order we talked about, Senator Warner; Senator Ensign on genetics, and I understand his pro bono amendment is being agreed to; and Senator Thompson, which I understand also has been agreed to.

Mr. GREGG. I join the Senator from Colorado on this amendment. This bill is incredibly complex--to be kind. It has thousands of moving parts. The bureaucracy, which is going to be created and empowered as a result of it, is going to be massive. The lawsuits are going to be massive. The number of litigable events is going to be massive. It is going to be incomprehensible to large amounts of the American working public and their employers. It is only elementary fairness that we say, to at least the smallest employers that are the ones creating the jobs in America today, you are not going to have to pay what will undoubtedly be your entire profit margin in order to try to comply with this new piece of legislation. For employers that have 15 or fewer employees, it is simply fairness that we take them out from this cloud and give them the opportunity to give their people jobs and not be overwhelmed by the cost of this bill. We have talked a lot about the costs of this bill, but let me cite a couple of figures. The cost to defend the average malpractice suit is $77,000. There are very few employers in this country that have less than 15 employees that are making more than $77,000. They are running a small business, a grocery store or restaurant, gas station, small retailer. These are the smallest businesses that create the most energy in our economy. That is where our jobs are created; they are created in these small businesses. Let's not have those folks who are willing to be entrepreneurs for the first time in their lives, the first-time entrepreneurs who are willing to step into the risk pool of the capitalist system and, as a result, create jobs, let's not burden them with the bureaucracy and cost of this bill which we know is going to be extraordinary. Let's pass the Allard exemption for employers with 15 or fewer employees.

Mr. GREGG. We have 2 minutes equally divided prior to the Allard amendment and Nickles amendment to explain.

Mr. GREGG. I point out to the Senator, as I know and he knows, by not stacking the votes we add a considerable amount of time to this exercise. We are trying to move these amendments in a prompt and reasonable fashion. I think that has been shown in the process throughout the weeks here. We end up delaying if we don't stack votes.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I inquire of the Senator from Nevada whether or not it would be possible to stack these votes or whether the jury is still out on that?

Mr. GREGG. Yes.

Mr. GREGG. Do you mean a motion to table?

Mr. GREGG. That is acceptable----

Mr. GREGG. I now propound a unanimous consent request relative to the order of the following amendments to which we will be proceeding. The first would be Senator Smith for 30 minutes equally divided. The second would be Senator Allard, 30 minutes equally divided. The third amendment would be Senator Nickles, 30 minutes equally divided. The fourth would be Senator Santorum, 40 minutes equally divided. And the fifth would be Senator Craig, 30 minutes equally divided. The substance of the amendments or the purposes of the amendments have been presented to the other side. I can run through those if Members wish to hear them.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I join with the comments of the Senator from Arizona. In the trades, that was ``a biggie.'' It was a very positive action to make sure that the exhaustion of the appeals process is a true exhaustion of the appeals process and we don't go straight to the court system. I congratulate the Senators from North Carolina and Tennessee for achieving that resolution. amendment no. 847

Mr. GREGG. Madam President, if the Senator will yield, I would like to also note after the Thompson amendment it is expected the order of amendments will be Senator Smith of Oregon for 30 minutes, Senator Nickles for 30 minutes, Senator Santorum for 40 minutes, and Senator Allard for 30 minutes. We will enter into a unanimous consent agreement after the vote, hopefully, to get that order worked out.

Mr. GREGG

Mr. GREGG. I would reserve my request on the second degrees relative to the Ensign amendments but ask unanimous consent that the unanimous consent agreement include that there be no second degrees on DeWine, Grassley, Nickles, Santorum, or Brownback.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, at this time I would like to outline the remainder of the evening, if acceptable to the parties, relative to our side, which would be that Senator Santorum would go next with his amendment. He would have 10 minutes; the Senator from California, Mrs. Boxer, would have 10 minutes. Then we would go to Senator Nickles. He would have 10 minutes; and 10 minutes to whoever is in opposition. Senator Brownback would come next. He would have an hour divided, as is traditional. And Senator Ensign would then follow with two amendments, the physician pro bono amendment and the genetic discrimination testing amendment. I believe the Democratic membership has all these amendments. I would hope we could also agree there would be no second degrees.

Mr. GREGG. I ask unanimous consent that this amendment and all amendments that have the yeas and nays ordered tonight be stacked for a vote tomorrow morning, with the appropriate time of 2 minutes to each side, or whatever is agreed to, before each amendment is voted on.

Mr. GREGG. Is the Senator yielding back his time?

Mr. GREGG. Of course, at this time we cannot proceed past the Santorum amendment until we get an agreement on that. At least I renew my request subject to the reservations of the Senator from Massachusetts, to which I have no objection.

Mr. GREGG. Why don't we begin with the DeWine amendment for 15 minutes, followed by the Grassley amendment for 30 minutes, and we will work on the rest.

Mr. GREGG. Born Alive Infant Protection Act. I presume it passed the House.

Mr. GREGG. Born Alive Infant Protection Act.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following Members be recognized this evening: Senator DeWine, 15 minutes, with the time equally divided, on class actions; Senator Grassley for 30 minutes, with the time equally divided, on customs fees and other matters; Senator Santorum for 30 minutes, with the time equally divided, on the Born Alive Infant Protection Act; Senator Brownback, 1 hour equally divided on a germline genetic amendment.

Mr. GREGG. Mr. President, we are ready to enter into an agreement relative to time and reserve the issue of second-degree amendments until the Democratic leader has had the opportunity to review the amendments. If we can get times locked in, that will be very helpful.

Mr. GREGG. I thank the Chair.

Mr. GREGG. Madam President, parliamentary inquiry: As I understand it, the question was divided. Is this a motion to table on the first part?

Mr. GREGG. Madam President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. GREGG. Madam President, unless somebody else is seeking that time, I will speak. I congratulate the Senator from Maine and the Senator from Ohio for adjusting this amendment. The changes they made in this amendment are very positive. The amendment moves in the right direction. However, it must be made clear this amendment targets one narrow aspect of the concerns of this bill, and, in fact, there are still some issues in that aspect. Specifically, employers are going to have a very difficult problem figuring out whether they are a direct participant or whether they fall under the designated decisionmaker safe harbor. There are issues within this narrow issue that are very significant. The greater issues on the question of liability still remain very viable. It is of serious concern to those of us who look at this as extremely expensive legislation in the sense it will drive up health care costs and result in a lot of people losing their health insurance. Employers will drop the health insurance because of the liability aspects being thrown at employers in this bill and the costs employers simply are not going to bear. They will drop health insurance or reduce the quality of health insurance. The estimates of CBO are in the range of 3.1 million, and OMB estimates are in the range of 1 million to 4 million people will lose health care. I think it will be literally tens of millions of people who will see the quality of their health care insurance degraded as their employers start to adjust. As to this specific amendment, which is a narrow amendment, not an expansive amendment, the movement by the Senators from Maine and Ohio is to be congratulated. I thank them for it. I yield back my time, and I yield the floor.