Nancy Johnson

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Greenwood).

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, it is because we felt the urgency of the need the preceding Member alluded to so eloquently, that not only did we have to pass this bill, but we had included in this bill a discount card that will mean that one-half of all low-income seniors all across America will get 100 percent of their drugs paid for in 6 months. There is urgency for this bill because the need for the subsidies are so great, and because of the average spending, we know that within 6 months, one- half of low-income seniors will be 100 percent protected. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Shaw), a member of the Committee on Ways and Means and chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security.

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Mrs. Wilson).

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Ferguson).

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Isakson).

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor). (Mr. CANTOR asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his eloquent remarks.

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This is a great day for America. Today President Bush signed a prescription drug bill that will deliver on a promise that this Congress has talked about for 4 years and has passed three different bills to try to achieve it. Last year after we passed our second bill, the Senate, controlled by the Democrats, would not even allow a vote, would not even allow a vote. That is why when we had the opportunity to pass a bill that would provide, deliver, prescription drugs as a part of Medicare on the basis of voluntary participation to all seniors all across America, we were determined to take it. Furthermore, it is the first bill that counted all seniors in America as Medicare and seniors first and poor second. That is why we are taking all seniors off Medicaid, bringing them on Medicare's drug benefit so they will get the same benefit all across the country because they are seniors first and poor only second. The Senate bill did not do that. Our bill did that. And we passed this bill and pushed it through and held the vote open because we wanted to make sure that that half of women retired, living on very low incomes, would get what this bill promises them, $1 or $2 copayments on generics and $3 or $5 on prescriptions, that is all. But we had to pass this bill for another reason. It does more to improve payments for rural health care providers and to link rural health care to sophisticated medical centers than any legislative initiative from this body ever has done, and without it the physicians out now in the rural towns, who are my husband's age and who are about to retire, will not be replaceable. We will not be able to attract the next generation of physicians to rural health care without the really rather arbitrary policy changes in this bill that reflect our experience in rural health and its inability to attract providers. So we saved rural seniors from not having access to doctors, home health agencies, and hospitals. And, furthermore, we link through these regional health plans rural medicine more tightly into sophisticated medical centers. And, lastly, we passed disease management in this bill for the plans on a mandatory basis and for Medicare as an integral part of it in the years to come, and, thereby, for the first time, built preventative health care into the Medicare structure. It is currently, now, solely an illness treatment program. With the new reforms the President signed today, and with great leadership from Secretary Tommy Thompson, who deserves tremendous credit, both for understanding the need for rural health to be linked into the modern delivery capability of technology, and who understood also the power that disease management is going to give us to help seniors with chronic illness prevent their chronic illnesses from progressing, and how urgent it is that when a plan like Medicare has one-third of its seniors with five chronic illnesses using 80 percent of program dollars that we do something about it, that we act. For 4 years we have talked and not acted. If acting required holding that vote open, and then we saw at the end, two Republicans changed to ``yes'' and two changed to ``no.'' What happened was that my friends on the other side of the aisle who understood the importance of this bill both to the quality of care seniors could achieve and to the revitalization of rural medicine then were free to lay their votes on table, and it was those additional votes that made the difference, and I thank them because bipartisanship is hard in this environment, and I understand it. But we did it for America's seniors. We did it together. The President signed it today, and it is an enormous victory for senior health care and the greatest step forward in women's health that this body has ever passed. And I am proud to stand here and say this Congress passed the modernization of Medicare and the inclusion of prescription drugs for our seniors with the President's help, and I thank him.

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion.

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 280 the National Aviation Heritage Area Act which includes in Title VI the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area Act. The Upper Housatonic Valley, encompassing 29 towns in the hilly terrain of western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut, is a singular geographical and cultural region that has made significant national contributions through its literacy, artistic, musical, and architectural achievements, its iron, paper, and electrical equipment industries and its scenic beautification and environmental conservation efforts. The Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area would extend from Lanesboro, Massachusetts 60 miles north to Kent, Connecticut. This region of New England is home to many of the Nation's first industrial iron sites. The iron produced at these sites was used to make weapons for the Revolutionary War. Furthermore, the area includes homes of historical significance belonging to Edith Wharton and author Herman Melville as well as the Monument Mountain Reservation, where Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne picnicked. The area also has great outdoor recreational resources and is the base for much of Connecticut's agri- tourism business. From the 1730s to the 1920s, it was home to many of the Nation's earliest iron industries. The first blast furance was built in 1762 by Ethan Allen and supplied the iron for the cannons that helped George Washington's army to win the American Revolutionary War. While most of the furnaces, mine sites and charcoal pits have been lost to development and time, the few that remain are in need of refurbishment. The Beckley Furnace in Canaan, Connecticut was designated an official project by the Millennium Committee to Save America's Treasures. The Valley's history as a cultural retreat from the Boston and New York areas provides both past and current riches for the country. Since the 1930s visitors from all over have come to hear the music at Tanglewood, Music Mountain and Norfolk, see the paintings at the Norman Rockwell Museum, watch serious theater at Stockbridge and musical treats at Sharon. Today's local authors draw on a long tradition going back to the 19th century, when Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edith Wharton lived and wrote here. The Upper Housatonic Area, with its remoteness from but ties to large cities, occupy a special niche in our national culture. The Housatonic Valley is also rich with environmental and recreational treasures. The Housatonic River, just below Falls Village, Connecticut, is one of the prized fly-fishing centers in the Northeast and is enjoyed by fisherman from not only Connecticut and Massachusetts but the entire eastern seaboard. Olympic rowers have trained in this river as children have learned to swim, boat and fish and value its ecosystem. Through this broad, flexible and locally led initiative, the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts will be able to make real progress in protecting the river and its heritage. Rather than depending on the Federal bureaucracy, States will be able to facilitate locally led, and truly voluntary programs that will help protect the river for future generations. This legislation encompassing all heritage areas has broad bipartisan support, I would like to thank the Resources Committee for bringing this legislation forward and I encourage my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Dunn).

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. English).

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute and 15 seconds. I would remind the gentleman from Michigan that 28 percent of his seniors will have no more costs than either $1 per generic or $2 per generic or $3 for prescription and $5, and 35 percent of Michigan seniors have incomes under 150 percent of poverty and will be totally protected under this bill. Mr. Speaker, I think as we proceed in this discussion, we ought to remember that 38 States, 38 States provide Medicaid coverage for people whose income is 74 percent of the national poverty income. So 38 States are not even at 100 percent of poverty income. We cover people completely, everything, except $1 per generic or $2, depending on income, and $3 or $5 per prescription drug. Do my colleagues understand that of the Medicare population, 57 percent are women? Mr. Speaker, 57 percent are women, and half of them, half of those women will pay no more than $2 per generic or $5 per prescription. They will have no other obligation, all the way up through catastrophic. Half the women on Medicare. This is a giant stride forward in women's health. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will note and other Members will note, and the listening public will note, on pages 49 to 53 of the bill, which is all on the Internet, they will see that there is what we call a hard fall-back. That is, if private plans do not offer prescription drugs to our seniors, the government will. The seniors will be guaranteed a drug plan; that is in the statute. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth).

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds. I do not consider the AARP a special interest group, or the Coalition to Ensure Patient Access a special interest group, or the Alzheimer's Association a special interest group, or the Kidney Cancer Association a special interest group.

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, it is my time.

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. The Mental Health Association of Central Florida, the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, the Latino Coalition. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to my colleague, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Peterson).

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to my colleague, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite), who has experience legislating in the area of health care reform.

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 10 seconds. I remind the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) that of his 713,000 seniors, 31 percent will get total drug coverage under this bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller), a member of the Committee on Ways and Means. (Mr. WELLER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I yield for the purpose of making a unanimous consent request to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young). (Mr. YOUNG of Florida asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mrs. JOHNSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains on each side?