Don Nickles

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, how much time remains?

Mr. NICKLES. I ask the Senator: Did he conclude his remarks? I am getting ready to move to table.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I yield 3 minutes to the Senator from Texas.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. NICKLES. I yield to the Senator from Tennessee 3 minutes.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, how much time remains on each side?

Mr. NICKLES. I yield 4 minutes to the Senator from Utah.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I would like to inform my colleague, he is incorrect. He said, if we gave every other employee what the Federal employees have. Federal employees cannot sue their employer. Federal employees don't have a right to appeal. Federal employees, if they appeal, they appeal to the OMB, their employer. Federal employees, including Senators, do not have the right to sue. You cannot sue. To say, if we just give everybody else what we have, is factually incorrect. When my colleague said we have had all these meetings and we only agreed to two things, one of the reasons people say the conference did not go anywhere is that our Democratic colleagues never say yes--even if we give them a yes. We have not quite got around to agreeing. But, frankly, in conference, I might say, we agreed to access to emergency room care, direct access to pediatricians, provider nondiscrimination, direct access to specialists, continued care from a physician. We have agreed almost entirely--maybe not to the last dotting of the ``i'' or crossing of the ``t''--to the appeals process, to an independent physician, which is really the whole crux of the bill, the most important thing. Why did that take so long? Because we negotiated it. We negotiated with the Senator from Massachusetts. We negotiated with Congressman Dingell. We negotiated with their staffs. We went over every single letter, every single word, every single paragraph. And then people say: Oh, we have not agreed to anything. Maybe that is the reason we don't have a conference--because you won't agree to anything. Who is not agreeable? Who is not moving? It is a little bit frustrating, a little bit disingenuous to say: Oh, nothing is happening. Where did those 400 hours go? I will tell you, there were hundreds of hours--and 400 is conservative--time spent by staff and by Senators trying to come up with a positive agreement. Some people do not want one. I think the very fact that we are here today means people do not want one. They would rather have theater. They would rather have an issue. I was planning on having a bipartisan, bicameral conference this afternoon--on Thursday, as we have done for the last several Thursdays--to work on these very issues. The people say, oh, some people want to have an issue on the floor, as if they think that is going to help the progress. It is not going to help the progress. That is unfortunate. I am going to continue to try to see if we cannot pass a positive, bipartisan, bicameral bill. But, frankly, I do not think the efforts that have been made today are helpful to the process. I think it undermines the process. Again, I tell my colleagues, I cannot think of any other instance where you have had an ongoing conference where people said, oh, let's just adopt the House bill, even though we made significant concessions. We worked and we have negotiated. They say, oh, let's just pull out and adopt the House bill. That is a real slap on the Senate, not just the Republicans in the Senate, but that is a real slap on the entire Senate. It is going to be interesting to see how committee chairmen vote. Two people can play this game. Maybe there will be a conference in the future where it is said: Oh, let's just adopt the House bill. We like it better. I think that undermines the whole nature, frankly, of the legislative process. I again urge my colleagues to vote to table the Kennedy amendment.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I yield to the Senator from Vermont 7 minutes.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, what is the time remaining?

Mr. NICKLES. I yield the Senator an additional 2 minutes.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I yield 7 minutes to the Senator and doctor from Tennessee.

Mr. NICKLES. Not on my time.

Mr. NICKLES. For the information of my colleague, Dr. Norwood is not on this conference. Dr. Norwood may or may not know that we worked very hard to come up with the appeals process to which we basically have agreed. Dr. Norwood may or may not know that we agreed basically on a lot of patient protections. He may not know we spent weeks on the appeals process. We negotiated in a bipartisan fashion. I think to refer to somebody outside the conference trashing the conference is a little extraneous. The conferees know that we worked in a bipartisan way to come up with the appeals process. Ask Dr. Frist. Ask other people who participated in the conference. To have an outsider say, ``Oh, we haven't done much, it is time to pass the House bill,'' I think is disingenuous.

Mr. NICKLES. I yield myself 1 minute.

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the minority leader's statement be charged against his leadership time, and I ask that my statement be charged against our leader's time.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici and the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici) and the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici) and the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici and the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Mexico (Mr. Domenici) and the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Gregg), the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Murkowski), amd the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Voinovich) are necessarily absent.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. NICKLES

Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.