Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2706

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, in Iraq and Afghanistan, like so many conflicts before, our servicemembers have done absolutely everything that has been asked of them. They have answered the President's call to war with honor and a sense of duty we have come to expect from our Nation's bravest men and women. They have performed under enormous pressure in the middle of a civil war, they have left behind loved ones who count on them, and they have continued to put their lives on the line every day. Unfortunately, at home, their commitment to service has not been met yet by an administration that is committed to care for them. From poor conditions at VA facilities around the country, lack of PTSD counselors, benefits claims backlogs that keep our veterans waiting for months and months and months and sometimes years, it is very clear that so far this administration has failed to account for our Nation's veterans and to count them as a cost of this war. It is unacceptable that servicemembers who fought overseas are returning home and being forced to fight their own Government for the care and services they need. Today, with the bill that is in front of us, the VA bill, we take a major step toward reversing that trend and the Bush administration's failure to care for our heroes. The funding for our veterans included in the VA bill is more than $3.6 billion over the President's request. After years of cutting corners on caring for our heroes, we are finally putting forth an honest assessment of what these men and women need. This bill takes into account the additional strains on the VA system that simultaneous wars and new battlefield realities present. It is an investment that represents nearly all of the independent budget, which is the recommendation of the funds needed to care for our veterans and is compiled by our veterans service organization. This bill invests in improving health care, expanding mental health services, and constructing new facilities that are really needed. It is going to mean, when this bill is passed and signed by the President, more qualified health care workers, better prosthetics that our servicemembers are asking for, and more accessible veterans facilities. It is also going to mean, importantly, thousands of new VA case workers who will help us reduce that unacceptable delay that we have heard about from so many of our veterans when they come home and try to access their benefits. It will improve conditions at our VA facilities. It will add an increased investment in polytrauma and mental health care facilities that will drastically improve treatment for PTSD and traumatic brain injury and catastrophic injuries as well. Most of all, this bill means after years of neglect our Government is again going to honor our veterans' sacrifices. This bill and all it provides could not come at a more crucial time. As a member myself of both the appropriations subcommittee that is responsible for this bill and the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, I have heard numerous times firsthand about the VA's shortcomings in caring for our veterans. In fact, last month on the August break I held a Senate Veterans' Affairs field hearing in Takoma, WA, to specifically examine the challenges that men and women are facing when they come home. At that hearing I spoke with Brandon Jacobs. He is a veteran of the Army and National Guard, and he served in Iraq. He said a lot more has to be done to raise awareness of post-traumatic stress syndrome and combat-related stresses. He talked about how we needed to not only increase access for him and his fellow servicemembers, but also for the families that struggle when a loved one returns home with an invisible wound. I also heard from a young man, Dan Purcell. He is an Iraq veteran who said he didn't ``want to be treated as a tool that could be casually discarded when broken or found to be no longer useful.'' What a tragic statement from someone who served us overseas, that when he comes home he feels like a discarded tool because he has been broken. That is not how we should be treating our veterans, and that is not how this VA/HUD bill treats our veterans. This bill that is before us finally takes the important steps that are necessary to recognize Brandon and Dan and so many others who are part of the costs of this war. We also have to make sure our troops are ready and that they receive the training they need before we send them overseas. I am very pleased that within this bill, the military construction investments that are made will help our country do a better job in training the men and women we asked to serve us in our military. In my home State of Washington, our military facilities play a very important role in our Nation's security. We have Fort Lewis in Tacoma, where we are training the Stryker Brigades at the center of the fighting in Iraq, we have Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane that plays a major role in our air defense, and we have the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island that helps patrol the Pacific shores. It is extremely critical that these bases, which serve such vital roles, receive the funding they need. The bill that is in front of us today does just that and provides more than $635 million in improvements for Washington State military installations. I thank Senators Reed and Hutchison for their special attention and recognition of the needs of our bases in my home State of Washington and across the country. Their leadership on this bill has been outstanding. I know the chair and ranking member will be on the Senate floor throughout today. The leader has told us that he wants this bill finished by this evening. I urge all Members who have any amendments to come this afternoon to get their amendments offered because we do have to wrap up this bill. We are very aware of the timelines that are approaching, the very short amount of time that is left to get our numerous appropriations bills through. We intend to move them through. In order to do that we ask Members to come to the floor today, offer their amendments, let's work through them and get this bill passed so we can get it sent to the President. It is important to pass this bill because this bill recognizes that any time we invest in building our military and improving training for our troops we invest in their care. I remind my colleagues what George Washington famously observed one time: The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any way war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country. The bill in front of us reverses President Bush's failures and carries through on the commitment that our very first President discussed. It keeps our military strong by honoring the sacrifices of our heroes with the funding that meets their needs. I note this bill has been endorsed by the Disabled Americans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Paralyzed Veterans of America, AMVETS, and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, among many other veterans service organizations that take so much time out of their own lives to fight for our veterans and recognize the critical funding for this bill. I note an AP article from this morning that says the Secretary of the VA, Secretary Nickolson, has said in a letter to key lawmakers they do not need additional funding, they just need this bill passed. I note we have heard that song before, and that song was wrong. We have to do the right thing. This bill is critical. The additional funding in this bill, I think every Member knows is needed. Every one of us has been out there and talked to the men and women who have come home from Iraq, to their families, and heard from PTSD counselors on down the line who have visited facilities or Walter Reed or seen facilities in their own States. They know this funding is needed. I encourage my colleagues to come to the Senate floor, offer their amendments, get this bill expeditiously to conference and sent to the President. I encourage the President and Secretary not to challenge us on the need for funding but to do the right thing; recognize the care of our service men and women is part of the cost of war. It is an obligation we have to meet. We are meeting it with this bill, and I hope we can get it done quickly so our veterans, many men and women who have served us, will know this country is doing right by them. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, today, Senate Democrats offered the Bush administration the tools needed to fight international terrorism while upholding the very liberties that our enemies seek to destroy. That is why I support S. 2011, the Rockefeller-Levin Protect America Act. The Rockefeller-Levin bill strengthens our ability to protect Americans, while ensuring this authority doesn't undermine our freedoms. Rockefeller-Levin gives the Director of National Intelligence the authority to obtain all essential intelligence information while preserving a role for the independent FISA Court to oversee his methods and protect our constitutional liberties. To simply legitimize the Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program and provide unchecked authority to invade the personal privacy of all Americans is the wrong message to send to our citizens and the world. Our Constitution provides for a separation of powers to protect our Nation and our way of life, and I, for one, do not believe we can undermine the liberty our troops have fought for generations to ensure.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to lay that motion on the table.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, all children should be able to see a doctor when they are sick, and all children should be able to get the medicine they need to make them better. When a kid gets a cut or requires stitches or comes down with a fever or an earache or with any imaginable problem, they should be able to get help, period. Unfortunately, today in America, the richest and most successful country ever, that is not the case. In fact, millions of American children do not have health insurance today, which means millions of American children cannot see a doctor when they are sick and millions of American children do not get the medicine they need to get better. As wages remain stagnant, as the cost of living--heat, food, clothing, college tuition, doctor's visits--increases, more and more parents today are unable to afford health care, and the ranks of uninsured children are growing. This tragedy can only be described as a shame. It is unquestionably our moral obligation as Americans to correct it. It does not matter if you are Republican or Democrat, progressive or conservative--making sure our children get health care is the moral thing to do. Now, most of us in the Senate know this, and we are working now to do the moral thing--support reauthorizing and improving the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which takes massive steps forward to giving our kids better health insurance in this country. This bill will ensure that the 6.6 million children who are enrolled in CHIP continue receiving care, and it provides 3.2 million uninsured children with coverage. As a result, over the next 5 years, the number of uninsured children in America will drop by more than a third. It also strengthens the program by increasing funding for States that need the most help. You know, in recent years under President Bush's watch, many of our States have faced funding shortfalls, jeopardizing the coverage of countless children. This bill also provides an emergency fund to cover unexpected shortfalls arising from economic downturns or emergencies. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office, which is a nonpartisan group of experts, predicts that 800,000 children now covered by CHIP or children's health insurance will lose coverage over the next 5 years unless there is an increase in funding above the base amount required. This legislation which is before the Senate today provides $100 million as well for outreach and enrollment efforts that increase the participation of children in the Children's Health Insurance Program. It includes a national campaign to help raise awareness of the Children's Health Insurance Program and the targeting of our children in rural areas with high populations of eligible but unenrolled children today. Another outreach effort will provide funds for translation and interpretation service for CHIP, so minority children, especially Native Americans and Hispanics, will become more aware of this program. Finally, this authorization plan provides my home State of Washington with the funding and flexibility we need to provide more children with quality health care. This bill is a big win-win for Washington State and the many families who struggle to provide care for their children today. One of the smartest parts of this plan is that the money for these initiatives-- $35 billion over 5 years--comes solely from a 61-cent excise tax increase on cigarettes and other tobacco products. No other programs are cut; Social Security is not raided; the deficit will not be increased. Not only will this bill provide millions of American children with health care, but it is estimated that it will lead 1.7 million adult smokers to quit smoking, and that will cause a 9.2-percent decline in youth smoking and will prevent over 1.8 million kids from becoming smokers. So when you provide health care to millions of children and lead millions of young people to stop smoking or to never pick up a cigarette, this bill is a win-win for our country and for our children. I think it is very important that I thank my colleague, Senator Max Baucus, for his tireless work on this issue and for all of America's children. Without his determination, we would not be so close to providing more of our kids with health care. It is also important to note that this bill is bipartisan. Senator Grassley has worked very hard, along with Senator Baucus, in creating this legislation. It was passed out of committee on a commendable bipartisan basis. Another big supporter of this bill on the floor has been Senator Hatch, who was a cosponsor, actually, of the original 1997 bill. I listened to him as he recently said: We are trying to do what is right by our children who are currently not being helped by our health care system. If we cover children properly, we will save billions of dollars in the long run. Even if we did not, we should still take care of those children. Senators Grassley and Hatch are not alone on their side of the aisle. Many of our colleagues realize that supporting this legislation is the moral thing to do. Unfortunately, however, President Bush does not agree, and he has, amazingly, threatened to veto this bill. Now, he is going to be out there giving his reasons for the veto. He is going to make complicated arguments and throw some numbers around. But the bottom line is, the moral line is that vetoing this bill will endanger coverage for millions of children who are currently enrolled in our Children's Health Insurance Program, and a veto will deny millions of kids who would become covered under the bill a chance to see a doctor when they are sick. It seems, sadly, the moral light President Bush says guides his decisions has dimmed. I wish to share the following story with President Bush and with any Senators who might be thinking about voting against this bill. This is Sydney. Sydney and her mom Sandi DeBord live in Yakima, WA. Sydney has cystic fibrosis. Sydney's mom recently wrote to me. She talked about her daughter and the importance of the Children's Health Insurance Program, which allowed Sydney to get the care she needed, which extended her life and allowed her to live her short life to the fullest. Mrs. DeBord wrote to me, and I want to read to you what she said. These are her words: My daughter has a life-shortening genetic condition called Cystic Fibrosis. With quality health care I believe her life has been extended and she has been able to enjoy 9 years of quality life. Of course, she spent many weeks in the hospital on life- saving IV antibiotics during those 9 years, and not a day goes by that she does not have to endure taking a bucket full of medicine. But despite the obstacle in her way, she is a happy child living life to the fullest. She is active, she does well in school, has many friends, and loves to sing and dance. However, none of that would be possible if it was not for the quality health care she receives as part of the CHIP health care. I know for a fact that without this bit of assistance, her life would end much sooner due to the inability to afford quality health care for her. As her parent, it frightens me to even think some day she may be without health care coverage if programs like CHIP are no longer available. She said: I write to ask you to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program and ensure the program is adequately funded to provide high quality health care for children with Cystic Fibrosis. I hope President Bush and opponents of this bill will listen to this story. I hope they take a chance to look at Sydney and the life in her eyes and the life she has been able to live. I know Mrs. DeBord hopes they are listening as well. It is our moral duty as Americans to ensure our kids can see a doctor when they are sick. The bill in front of us today fulfills that duty. It ensures that children covered by CHIP remain covered, and it ensures that millions without insurance today are going to get it. I strongly urge my colleagues to do the moral thing and support the reauthorization of this Children's Health Insurance Program. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2404, As Modified, to Amendment No. 2383

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 2404, with a modification, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I believe this amendment has been agreed to.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I understand that the Senator from Louisiana and the Senator from Oklahoma both would like to call up an amendment, but in the intervening time between now and 8:30, we welcome talking with the Senators to set up some time for those who want to call up their amendments to do so.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 2497 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MURRAY. I believe this amendment has been agreed to.

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2497 to Amendment No. 2383

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I would like to inform the Senate that I believe both sides are in agreement that the Lieberman amendment is accepted. I ask unanimous consent to vitiate the yeas and nays on the Lieberman amendment.

Mrs. MURRAY. Would the Senator repeat his request?

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I believe we now have agreement on the Coburn amendment No. 2442 that is pending. I believe we have agreed to accept that amendment.

Mrs. MURRAY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. What is the number of the amendment?

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum and ask unanimous consent that the time be equally divided.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 2484 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mrs. MURRAY. I believe those are all the amendments to come before the Senate. amendment no. 2521

Mrs. MURRAY. I believe this amendment is also agreed to.

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to. Amendment No. 2484 to Amendment No. 2383