Jay Rockefeller

Mr. ROCKEFELLER

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I failed to hear the Chair.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I say to the Presiding Officer, I am not going to use all my time at the present time. I will just make a couple very quick points. The Senator from Oklahoma--it is very important my colleagues and their staffs, who may be listening to this debate, understand this-- used two arguments, and only two arguments. One, he said, we may extend this. In other words, that is a classic argument. If you do not want to do something, you say, we may extend this. That is why, just like when the tax cut was written into law, it will not be extended. We have written into law that will not be extended. The Senator from Oklahoma is saying we do not want it extended because he does not want this to happen. And I understand that. It is a good debating technique. But it isn't going to be extended. It is temporary. It is a year and a half for a very specific reason.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I will when I am finished.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. No, I think there probably will not be, No. 1. And, No. 2, I would probably oppose that because this is an emergency measure. That is what the Senator understood right after September 11. That is why it was in the emergency package. It is an emergency measure, not a permanent measure. It is a way of helping people. It is interesting, the Senator from Texas talked about the budget deficit. He never talked about people. This is about 40 million people who are suffering.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I have no instinct to extend this program because the States----

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. All right.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. The other is the upper payment limit, which in fact is understood by some of us. And I do not know whether the Senator is aware that the Bush administration, which writes a letter against this--which maybe is not surprising, I don't know, but it is disappointing--has already promulgated a new regulation, which took effect in April, which solves most of the problem about which the Senator is talking. The problem he is taking about is real, but it has no place in this debate. First, the administration has moved to solve it. Secondly, it has no part in this debate. I yield the floor and reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I yield to the Senator from Nebraska 2 minutes.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I am going to yield time--3 minutes--to the Senator from Massachusetts, if he can arrive at his distinguished point of oratory.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Of course.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. That is correct.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Four minutes.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished Senator from Maine.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I yield 2 minutes or so to the distinguished Senator from Maine.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Madam President, I ask to retain 5 minutes to close debate on this side.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Madam President, I rise on this day to commemorate the end of the Korean War, an often overlooked, yet very important event in history. ``Forgotten'' is a term used too often about the Korean War; for veterans and their families, the war is very real, and something they can never forget. Officially, the war was the first military effort of the United Nations, but American involvement was dominant throughout the conflict. Thousands of Americans were shipped off to that distant land, joining with other soldiers from other allied nations, to help defend the rights of strangers against a hostile and merciless invasion. Unfortunately, many who fought bravely to aid the Koreans lost their lives while waging the war. Today, I want to pay homage to all who served in this war. The troops from the United States and the 20 other United Nations countries who provided aid to the South Koreans deserve our great acclaim every day, but even more so on this special anniversary. These great countries united to preserve the rights of South Korea, a small democracy threatened by the overwhelming power of the Communist government. South Korea did not have sufficient military resources to protect its interests. Fortunately, the United Nations member countries were unwilling to sit back and watch North Korea, with the aid of China and the Soviet Union, drive democracy from the continent of Asia. On June 25, 1950, troops from Communist-ruled North Korea invaded South Korea, meeting little resistance to their attack. A few days later, on the morning of July 5th--still Independence Day in the United States, Private Kenny Shadrick of Skin Fork, WV, became the war's first American casualty. Kenny was the first, but many more West Virginians were destined to die in the conflict , in fact, more West Virginians were killed in combat during the three years of the Korean War than during the 10 years that we fought in Vietnam. At the end of the Korean War, a U.S. casualty report confirmed 36,940 battle deaths. An additional 103,284 servicemembers were wounded in battle. More than 8,000 Americans are still missing in action and unaccounted. How can we possibly call one of the bloodiest wars in history a ``forgotten war?'' Are those who served in Korea ``forgotten soldiers?'' Make no mistake, those who fought in Korea will never be forgotten. They serve as examples of true Americans, and the debt we owe to our Korean War veterans, like the veterans of all other wars, is immeasurable. Unfortunately, these soldiers, like the Vietnam veterans who followed, received no parade when they returned home. They quietly went back to the lives they left and blended into their communities, unsung heroes of a faraway war. Six years ago, we dedicated the Korean War Memorial. This stirring tribute to the veterans of this war poignantly bears out the hardships of the conflict. The Memorial depicts, with stainless steel statues, a squad of 19 soldiers on patrol. The ground on which they advance is reminiscent of the rugged Korean terrain that they encountered, and their wind-blown ponchos depict the treacherous weather that ensued throughout the war. Our soldiers landed in South Korea poorly equipped to face the icy temperatures of 30 degrees below zero, their weaponry outdated and inadequate. As a result of the extreme cold, many veterans still suffer today from cold-related injuries, including frostbite, cold sensitization, numbness, tingling and burning, circulatory problems, skin cancer, fungal infections, and arthritis. Furthermore, the psychological tolls of war have caused great hardship for many veterans. As a background to the soldiers' statues at the Memorial, the images of 2,400 unnamed men and women stand etched into a granite wall, symbolizing the determination of the United States workforce and the millions of family members and friends who supported the efforts of those at war. Looking at the steadfast, resolute faces of these individuals invokes in the viewer a deep admiration and appreciation for their importance to the war effort. Author James Brady, a veteran of the Korean War, spoke for all those who served in the war when he wrote, ``We were all proudly putting our lives on the line for our country. But I would later come to realize that the Korean War was like the middle child in a family, falling between World War II and Vietnam. It became an overlooked war.'' Mr. BRADY conveys the sentiments of many of the veterans who served in this war and underscores our need to give these veterans the recognition they are long overdue. Today, I salute the courage of those who answered the call to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met. Through their selfless determination and valor in the battle, these men and women sent an important message to future generations. I thank our Korean War veterans; their bravery reminds us of the value we put on freedom, while their sacrifices remind us that, as it says at the Korean War Memorial, ``Freedom is not free.'' We shall never forget.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Yes.

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

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I ask unanimous consent reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I rise to offer this amendment on behalf of many Senators. It is a very long list. Most of my colleagues know we should have included State fiscal relief and, in fact, did include it in our original stimulus package, which we debated both before Christmas and afterward but did nothing about. This is a stimulus package that we need now and need to complete because we have very dangerous cuts going on in Medicaid and in the health care programs in our States that affect our most vulnerable Americans. The amendment which I and about 30 other Senators offer is to provide States with the assistance they need right now. State budgets, as the Presiding Officer is more than aware, having been a Governor himself, are in really bad shape financially, and 49 States, of course, cannot spend any deficit money at all. More than 40 States in this fiscal year faced a combined budget shortfall of between $40 and $50 billion, according to the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Offices. It is a crisis. I hear from my Governor from West Virginia as often as the Presiding Officer from the State of Delaware hears from his Governor. These deficits were caused by a combination of lower-than-expected revenues, higher-than-expected expenditures, including increased Medicaid costs, and Medicaid is our key, partly a result of the rise in unemployment. When that happens, what is a State going to do but to offer Medicaid? There are some signs of an economic recovery at the national level. I say that without any particular reason to know that or even to be hopeful, but I will say that rather than just be pessimistic. However, it will certainly take 12 to 18 months, if I am right in my optimism, for the State to recover. We offer this amendment to help address the States' fiscal crises. Yes, we are the Federal Government. Yes, they are States. However, they are deeply responsive to us and reactive to us with respect to Medicaid and virtually all of our health care programs. This amendment will provide about $9 billion to States over the next year and a half by increasing the Federal Medicaid match, also by holding States harmless for reductions in their Medicaid match that would occur under current law and providing about $3 billion in new money that States can use for other social service needs such as child care. I will explain that simply by saying when I conceived of this amendment originally, it was all about the Federal matching percentage. And then I got together with Senator Collins from Maine and Senator Nelson from Nebraska and we worked out a compromise, which I think is a far stronger amendment, which is to say that we want to do the Medicaid match problem but we also want to work on social services block grants. There is a block grant component here of $3 billion, which means less for Medicaid but more for block grants, which means States can use it for child care, for education, for child abuse and negligence, and a variety of other services. It is a creative and good approach. It is important that my colleagues support this amendment. I will say a word or two about some of its provisions. Some Senators might say we should help the States. That is what we do. We often impose requirements and they get into trouble; we wander off, forgetting what we have done. Some might say, look, they got themselves into this mess; why should we get them out of this mess? But the problem with that approach is, No. 1, they didn't get themselves into that mess. It was a result of what was going on nationally, economically, the way the whole formula is figured, and I can get into that if my colleagues want to talk about it. Regardless of that, the problem is the people are affected, the people of our States are the ones affected. Governor Patton of Kentucky has noted: Without fiscal relief the cuts necessary to close the budget gaps will have profound effects on our Nation's children and the programs which serve our most needy populations. Several States have already cut back coverage under their Medicaid programs. If States cut back on Medicaid benefits, their residents will be out in the cold. So we need to stop pointing fingers at the States and ensure that the safety net is strong for this Nation's people who are our most vulnerable citizens. Despite the downturn in the economy that is affecting most areas of the country, the proportion of Medicaid costs that the Federal Government bears--in my State, it is 77, 78 percent, but the proportion that the Federal Government is now paying is declining in 29 States. It is declining in 29 States including the State of West Virginia. So the States with reduced matched rates will lose well over half a billion dollars. This is as a consequence of what is now going on under current law. Our amendment would hold States harmless for these decreases. Our amendment will also provide a temporary increase in the Federal Medicaid matching rates. I say temporary; it is not permanent. There will be people here who will try to argue we are creating an entitlement. It is a temporary program which we write into law. I would say to the Presiding Officer, when we did the tax decreases, we wrote that into law. We could write this into law. It will last a certain period of time, the Medicaid match will be up until a certain year, the social services block grant up until a certain year. We write it into law. That is what we did with tax cuts. That is what we could do in this amendment. The pressure on States to cut back health insurance for low-income families and individuals is enormous. The Governor of my State, this Senator's State, Gov. Bob Wise, calls me constantly about this. The State is in deficit for many reasons. It is not a wealthy State--it is a wonderful State, but it is not a wealthy State--and he agonizes over this because he knows at the end of the day he will have to make cuts in Medicaid. He already has had to. He doesn't want to do that because it affects so many of the people I represent--that we all represent. Finally, I say to the Presiding Officer, the amendment will provide States with money they can use for other social services. It is very creative. It can be education. It can't be health care, but it can be education; it can be child care, which plays very strongly into the whole welfare reform debate issue. It can be for child abuse and neglect. All of us will offer meaningful assistance to States with ailing budgets, lessening the need for States to cut programs or raise taxes in the middle of something called a very bad recession. I cannot think of a more important time to pass this than now. My State will receive about $58.5 million under this amendment, which it desperately needs in order to ensure coverage for our people. I want to stress that this proposal is temporary. It will be effective for 18 months from April 2002. Our amendment includes an emergency designation. Why do we do that? Because that is the way it originally was. That is the way it always was. It was part of the stimulus package. It was part of getting America going again. Now more than ever we need to get America moving again economically. The total estimated cost of the proposal, for both the block grant part and the FMAP part, the Medicaid match part, is $9 billion over 10 years. I believe it is appropriate that we provide the States with this relief under the traditional emergency designation. I will be glad to speak further, but I yield the floor.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, there are a variety of things that have been said about this amendment, and there are a few more things that could be said, but, basically, the nature of the amendment has been laid out. We are talking about an emergency designation. We did that in the pre-last Christmas stimulus conference, of which I was a member, but it did not get anywhere. We have talked about maintenance of effort. We talked about the fact that this started out as just for Medicaid, and now it is bifurcated in two parts, both of which are good. And it is a stronger amendment. I notice the presence of my distinguished colleague, Senator Smith, on the floor, and hope that he will have some comments he will want to make.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. The Senator is correct.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. The Senator is correct. If the Senator will yield for an additional comment.

Mr. ROCKEFELLER

Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I suggest the absence of a quorum.