Bernie Sanders

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I think everybody recognizes that our current health care system is in very serious crisis. We have 46 million Americans who lack any health insurance. We have even more than that who are underinsured. The cost of health care is soaring. And we end up spending twice as much per person on health care as do the people of any other nation, despite having so many people uninsured and underinsured. While a lot of the discussion regarding the health care crisis focuses on insurance coverage, there is another crisis equally severe that we do not talk enough about; that is, the crisis in access to doctors and dentists--in fact, the crisis in terms of primary health care. The truth is that in our country today, we have some 56 million Americans, including Americans who have health insurance, who simply cannot find a doctor and, even more, cannot find a nurse. The absurdity of that is that when somebody cannot find a doctor, that person will end up going to the emergency room at great cost to our Nation or, equally likely, that person may not go to the doctor at all, gets sick, and ends up in the hospital, and we are spending tens of thousands of dollars treating that person when we could have spent far less if that man, woman, or child had access to a doctor when the illness first developed. I am very gratified, and I thank President Obama, I thank Senator Inouye and Senator Harkin, Congressman Obey, the Democratic leadership in the House for taking this Nation a giant step forward in terms of addressing the crisis in primary health care in the stimulus package. What happened in the stimulus package is that $2 billion was allocated for community health centers, to help those community health centers expand, to help in the growth of new community health centers. On top of that, another $300 million was appropriated for the National Health Service Corps. The National Health Service Corps is one of the important health programs we have in this country because it provides debt forgiveness and scholarships for young physicians so they can go out and serve in underserved areas. Many medical school graduates are leaving school $100,000, $150,000 in debt, and they have no choice but to end up becoming specialists, making a whole lot of money in order to pay back those debts. What we have done in the stimulus package is almost triple the amount of money going into the National Health Service Corps, which means that we are going to be able to enable thousands of young physicians and dentists to go out and work in underserved areas, which is a huge step forward for primary health care. That was a very important part of the stimulus package. In fact, on top of all of that, this sum of money is going to create 44,000 sustainable jobs as we create a primary health care infrastructure and as we provide health care to an additional 4 million Americans. As significant as what we did in the stimulus package is, it is only a downpayment for what we have to do to address the crisis in terms of primary health care. Therefore, I am very proud to announce that today I introduced, along with 21 of my Senate colleagues--and they are in alphabetical order--Senators Begich, Bingaman, Boxer, Brown, Burris, Cardin, Casey, Durbin, Harkin, Inouye, Kennedy, Kerry, Johnson, Leahy, Menendez, Merkley, Mikulski, Schumer, Stabenow, Tester, and Wyden--all of those Senators join with me in new legislation which, in fact, is going to revolutionize primary health care in America. Also today, the majority whip in the House, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, introduced a similar bill which I believe has 78 cosponsors. That legislation is called the Access for All America Act. Its goal is to significantly expand community health centers all over this country, as well as the National Health Service Corps. The community health center concept was developed by Senator Ted Kennedy over 40 years ago. The truth is that the concept of community health centers has been long supported in a bipartisan manner. President Bush was supportive of the concept. Senator McCain certainly mentioned it in his campaign for President, and Senator Hatch--many Republicans have supported it, as well as many people on our side of the aisle. The reason for that bipartisan support is that everybody here understands that community health centers provide quality health care in a cost-effective manner. What community health centers do is provide comprehensive health care in terms of access to doctors and dentists. I point out that there is a major dental crisis all over this country. Community health centers by law have to provide mental health counseling. On top of that, community health centers provide the lowest cost of prescription drugs in the United States of America. Today, there are approximately 1,100 community health centers all over America. In my State of Vermont, we have gone from 2 to 7 in the last 5 years, and they are now providing health care to over 80,000 Vermonters. We have 1,100 in this country today. What this legislation will do is go from 1,100 community health centers to 4,800 community health centers, quadrupling the number of health centers in America. By doing that, we will provide comprehensive, high-quality primary health care in every underserved area in this country--a giant step forward in terms of making primary health care accessible to every man, woman, and child in this Nation. In my view, we need to move toward a national health care program which guarantees health care for all people, but we can take this important step forward in terms of primary health care quite soon. Here is one of the very wonderful aspects of what this legislation does. Right now, we spend about $2.1 billion a year for community health centers. This legislation, over a 5-year period, will take that number up to $8 billion. It will go from $2 billion to $8 billion as we quadruple the number of community health centers. What study after study suggests is that in fact this investment will end up saving us money. This investment in primary health care will save us money because those people who get sick will now be able to go to a community health center--perhaps the most cost-effective primary health care in America--rather than walking into an emergency room, which is one of the most expensive health care providers in the country. In addition, when people have access to health care and get treatment when they need it, they are not going to get very sick and end up in a hospital, where it will cost tens of thousands of dollars to deal with their illness. So what this legislation does is quadruple the number of community health centers, and it very substantially increases the amount of money that goes to the National Health Service Corps so we can provide debt relief and scholarships to young physicians who will then go out and serve us in underserved areas. In my view, this legislation, if passed--and I think we have a good chance to pass it because there is a whole lot of bipartisan support here in the Senate for this concept, a lot of support in the House as well--will revolutionize primary health care in America. It will bring us to the day when virtually every American will have access to a doctor, a dentist, mental health counseling, and low-cost prescription drugs. It will enable us to produce the doctors, the dentists, the nurses, and the other health care providers we desperately need to get out into rural, urban America, and underserved areas. It will be a major step forward in providing the primary health care infrastructure we need as we in fact move to a national health care program. This is important legislation, and I thank all of the 21 Members of the Senate who have already come on as original cosponsors. We hope that many more will come on in the coming weeks and months. My hope is we can get this bill out of committee and see it passed as a stand- alone piece of legislation. Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow, Friday, February 27; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate proceed to a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, there will be no rollcall votes during Friday's session of the Senate. However, Senators should expect a busy week next week as the Senate considers the Omnibus appropriations bill.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate adjourn under the previous order.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I think everybody recognizes that our current health care system is in very serious crisis. We have 46 million Americans who lack any health insurance. We have even more than that who are underinsured. The cost of health care is soaring. And we end up spending twice as much per person on health care as do the people of any other nation, despite having so many people uninsured and underinsured. While a lot of the discussion regarding the health care crisis focuses on insurance coverage, there is another crisis equally severe that we do not talk enough about; that is, the crisis in access to doctors and dentists--in fact, the crisis in terms of primary health care. The truth is that in our country today, we have some 56 million Americans, including Americans who have health insurance, who simply cannot find a doctor and, even more, cannot find a nurse. The absurdity of that is that when somebody cannot find a doctor, that person will end up going to the emergency room at great cost to our Nation or, equally likely, that person may not go to the doctor at all, gets sick, and ends up in the hospital, and we are spending tens of thousands of dollars treating that person when we could have spent far less if that man, woman, or child had access to a doctor when the illness first developed. I am very gratified, and I thank President Obama, I thank Senator Inouye and Senator Harkin, Congressman Obey, the Democratic leadership in the House for taking this Nation a giant step forward in terms of addressing the crisis in primary health care in the stimulus package. What happened in the stimulus package is that $2 billion was allocated for community health centers, to help those community health centers expand, to help in the growth of new community health centers. On top of that, another $300 million was appropriated for the National Health Service Corps. The National Health Service Corps is one of the important health programs we have in this country because it provides debt forgiveness and scholarships for young physicians so they can go out and serve in underserved areas. Many medical school graduates are leaving school $100,000, $150,000 in debt, and they have no choice but to end up becoming specialists, making a whole lot of money in order to pay back those debts. What we have done in the stimulus package is almost triple the amount of money going into the National Health Service Corps, which means that we are going to be able to enable thousands of young physicians and dentists to go out and work in underserved areas, which is a huge step forward for primary health care. That was a very important part of the stimulus package. In fact, on top of all of that, this sum of money is going to create 44,000 sustainable jobs as we create a primary health care infrastructure and as we provide health care to an additional 4 million Americans. As significant as what we did in the stimulus package is, it is only a downpayment for what we have to do to address the crisis in terms of primary health care. Therefore, I am very proud to announce that today I introduced, along with 21 of my Senate colleagues--and they are in alphabetical order--Senators Begich, Bingaman, Boxer, Brown, Burris, Cardin, Casey, Durbin, Harkin, Inouye, Kennedy, Kerry, Johnson, Leahy, Menendez, Merkley, Mikulski, Schumer, Stabenow, Tester, and Wyden--all of those Senators join with me in new legislation which, in fact, is going to revolutionize primary health care in America. Also today, the majority whip in the House, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, introduced a similar bill which I believe has 78 cosponsors. That legislation is called the Access for All America Act. Its goal is to significantly expand community health centers all over this country, as well as the National Health Service Corps. The community health center concept was developed by Senator Ted Kennedy over 40 years ago. The truth is that the concept of community health centers has been long supported in a bipartisan manner. President Bush was supportive of the concept. Senator McCain certainly mentioned it in his campaign for President, and Senator Hatch--many Republicans have supported it, as well as many people on our side of the aisle. The reason for that bipartisan support is that everybody here understands that community health centers provide quality health care in a cost-effective manner. What community health centers do is provide comprehensive health care in terms of access to doctors and dentists. I point out that there is a major dental crisis all over this country. Community health centers by law have to provide mental health counseling. On top of that, community health centers provide the lowest cost of prescription drugs in the United States of America. Today, there are approximately 1,100 community health centers all over America. In my State of Vermont, we have gone from 2 to 7 in the last 5 years, and they are now providing health care to over 80,000 Vermonters. We have 1,100 in this country today. What this legislation will do is go from 1,100 community health centers to 4,800 community health centers, quadrupling the number of health centers in America. By doing that, we will provide comprehensive, high-quality primary health care in every underserved area in this country--a giant step forward in terms of making primary health care accessible to every man, woman, and child in this Nation. In my view, we need to move toward a national health care program which guarantees health care for all people, but we can take this important step forward in terms of primary health care quite soon. Here is one of the very wonderful aspects of what this legislation does. Right now, we spend about $2.1 billion a year for community health centers. This legislation, over a 5-year period, will take that number up to $8 billion. It will go from $2 billion to $8 billion as we quadruple the number of community health centers. What study after study suggests is that in fact this investment will end up saving us money. This investment in primary health care will save us money because those people who get sick will now be able to go to a community health center--perhaps the most cost-effective primary health care in America--rather than walking into an emergency room, which is one of the most expensive health care providers in the country. In addition, when people have access to health care and get treatment when they need it, they are not going to get very sick and end up in a hospital, where it will cost tens of thousands of dollars to deal with their illness. So what this legislation does is quadruple the number of community health centers, and it very substantially increases the amount of money that goes to the National Health Service Corps so we can provide debt relief and scholarships to young physicians who will then go out and serve us in underserved areas. In my view, this legislation, if passed--and I think we have a good chance to pass it because there is a whole lot of bipartisan support here in the Senate for this concept, a lot of support in the House as well--will revolutionize primary health care in America. It will bring us to the day when virtually every American will have access to a doctor, a dentist, mental health counseling, and low-cost prescription drugs. It will enable us to produce the doctors, the dentists, the nurses, and the other health care providers we desperately need to get out into rural, urban America, and underserved areas. It will be a major step forward in providing the primary health care infrastructure we need as we in fact move to a national health care program. This is important legislation, and I thank all of the 21 Members of the Senate who have already come on as original cosponsors. We hope that many more will come on in the coming weeks and months. My hope is we can get this bill out of committee and see it passed as a stand- alone piece of legislation. Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Environment and Public Works Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 387 and that the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, let me begin by saying that I have not supported all of President Obama's nominations, but I am on the floor today to very proudly and enthusiastically support the nomination of Hilda Solis to be our next Secretary of Labor. As a former Member of the House, I have had the honor and privilege of working with Congresswoman Solis on a number of very important issues over the years. I consider Congresswoman Solis not only an outstanding Member of that body but also a very good friend. In my view, there are very few Members of Congress who have spent as many years as she has in the fight to expand the middle class, in the fight to address the problems of poverty, in the fight to make sure all of our fellow Americans have health care as a right. I believe very strongly that Hilda Solis will make an excellent--excellent--Secretary of the Department of Labor. When I left the House and moved to the Senate, I was delighted to work with Congresswoman Solis to create the Green Jobs Workforce Training Program. This important initiative will not only lead to the creation of decent-paying jobs all over this country but will also help us combat the scourge of global warming and our dependence on foreign oil and help us move aggressively away from fossil fuels. Mr. President, as you well know, millions of Americans from California to the State of Vermont are caught up in the worst economic crisis this country has faced since the Great Depression. Our people by the millions are losing their jobs. Our people are losing their homes. They are losing their health insurance. They are losing their pensions. They are losing their ability to send their kids to college. And perhaps most significantly, they are losing their hope, their belief that the American dream is still alive, that their kids will have at least a good, if not better, standard of living than our generation has. Millions of American workers in recent years have seen their wages go down, and they are working longer hours for lower wages. During the last 8 years, some 7 million American workers have lost their health care; millions are unable to find quality childcare despite the fact that husband and wife are both working, and they just do not know what to do with their kids; and millions of Americans are wondering right now whether the dream of a college education will, in fact, be available to their kids. What has happened over the last 8 years is, as the middle class has shrunk, poverty has increased, while the gap between the very wealthy and everybody else has grown wider. The United States of America can do better than that. Instead of seeing the middle class shrink and poverty increase, we have to see poverty go down and the middle class expand. The American people and the workers of this country are entitled to have a Secretary of Labor who will stand with them, who will be aggressive in fighting for the rights of workers from California to Vermont. The truth is that no Secretary of Labor, no matter how great he or she may be, is going to solve all of the important problems facing our country. But what working people have a right to know is that they will have a Secretary of Labor who, in fact, understands what labor is about and is on the side of working people; a Secretary of Labor who is committed to protecting workers throughout the country from unscrupulous employers who try to steal their pay and threaten their health and safety to pad the bottom line and enrich the CEOs on top. And God only knows we have seen a lot of that over the last 8 years. For far too long, we have had a Labor Department that was more interested in protecting the actions of bad, unscrupulous employers than protecting the needs of hard-working employees. That has to change. When President Obama nominated Hilda Solis for Secretary of Labor, I think he sent a signal all over the country that that is going to change, that the rights of workers are going to be protected. There is perhaps no more challenging time to be Secretary of Labor than at this very moment. The problems workers are experiencing are enormous. But, frankly, I cannot think of any person who is more up to the task at hand than Hilda Solis. Her character and her work ethic are impeccable. Most of all, she will be a tireless advocate for working families throughout this country. For millions of American workers struggling to make ends meet, Congresswoman Solis is, indeed, a breath of fresh air. I will be strongly supporting the Secretary of Labor nominee Hilda Solis, and I hope all of my colleagues will as well. Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Will my colleague yield?

Mr. SANDERS. Of moving the country in the right direction. It should be supported.

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, my sense of history is a little bit different than my good friend from Utah. I was under the recollection that George W. Bush was President for the last 8 years. My recollection was that the Republicans controlled the House and the Senate for 6 of those 8 years. My recollection is that during the last 8 years, 6 million Americans slipped out of the middle class and went into poverty. My recollection is that median family income for middle-class working families declined by over $2,000. My recollection is that, yes, the wealthiest people in the country did very well under President Bush but that ordinary people struggled to keep their heads above water. The bill we are addressing this evening is not perfect. I would have written it differently. I suspect everyone here would have written it differently. But what it does do is that in the midst of the greatest economic crisis this country has faced since the Great Depression, what we do is begin to address the unmet needs of the American people and we begin marching forward to create the millions of jobs this country desperately needs. Most importantly, we begin the process of moving America in a very different direction so that, in fact, this country does not fall into a great depression from which it would take us years and years and tremendous human suffering to dig our way out. What this legislation does is says that after years of neglect, let us create millions of good-paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. In the State of Vermont, our bridges need work, our roads need work, our water systems need work. That is true all over this country. Let us put people to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. That is what this legislation does. For decades now, people have been saying what a terrible shame it is, how silly it is that we import every single year hundreds of billions of dollars of oil from foreign countries. How silly it is. Well, finally we are beginning to address that absurdity. We are saying now and we are investing in energy efficiency, we are investing in wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, sustainable energy. Let's end the talk of moving us into a new energy direction. Let's invest in those areas so that America, in fact, can become energy independent. My Republican friends over the years have said what we need to do is give tax breaks to the wealthiest people in this country. In fact, right now, today, despite the fact that we have the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any country, the Republican leadership today says, let's repeal the estate tax. Do you know that if we did as the Republicans wanted and repealed the estate tax completely, we would provide $1 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest three-tenths of 1 percent, millionaires and billionaires all? Not one person in the middle class would gain one nickel from that effort. It is one trillion dollars for the three-tenths of 1 percent. Then they come to the floor of the Senate and they say, what a terrible thing, you are investing $800 billion rebuilding America, creating 3.5 million jobs, giving millions of middle-class and working- class Americans tax breaks. What a bad idea that is. You should do not that. We should not invest $800 billion rebuilding America. We should give $1 trillion to the top three-tenths of 1 percent. That is the contrast in terms of how they want to go and how many of us want to go. What this bill does is not only begin the process of rebuilding our infrastructure, not only begin the process of moving us away from fossil fuel and foreign oil, what we also understand is that middle- class families cannot afford to send their kids to college. So we are putting a significant sum of money in and expanding the Pell grant program. This bill understands that in these hard economic times, when millions of our fellow Americans have lost their jobs, hunger in America is a real problem. So we are putting money in for food stamps. We are putting money into energy, homeless shelters so that those among us, those least able among us, are protected. Working-class and middle-class families cannot afford childcare. We are putting billions into helping them get the childcare they need, the Head Start they need, and creating jobs in that area as well. This is an 800-page bill. It is not perfect. Everyone knows that. But this bill begins the process----

Mr. SANDERS. Sure. Does my friend recall that for many years under President Bush, the Republican leadership told us how imperative it was to repeal the estate tax, which would cost this Nation $1 trillion over a 10-year period? Mr. President, $1 trillion--and who were the beneficiaries of that tax break? The top three-tenths of 1 percent. We are spending $800 billion, including tax breaks for the middle class, rebuilding this country. What does my friend think about $1 trillion for the top three-tenths of 1 percent as opposed to putting money into the middle-class and working families?

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Thank you, Mr. President. This amendment, as modified, is being cosponsored by Senator Grassley and has been cleared by both sides. This amendment simply requires recipients of TARP funding to meet strict H-1B worker hiring standards to prevent displacement of U.S. workers. I thank Chairman Baucus for working with me on changes to my original amendment, and I urge its adoption.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the debate has concluded on the McCain amendment I be allowed to set aside the McCain amendment so I can call up the Sanders-Grassley amendment No. 306.

Mr. SANDERS. Yes, that will be fine.

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I thank Chairman Baucus and his staff for working with us on what I believe are significant improvements to the original amendment Senator Grassley and I offered. This amendment has been cleared by both sides with a modification. This amendment, as modified, would simply require recipients of TARP funding to meet strict hiring standards to ensure nondisplacement of U.S. workers. I thank Senator Grassley for working with me on this amendment. I yield to him. If not, Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. SANDERS. Will the Senator from Montana answer a question? We have an amendment with Mr. Grassley that we wish to bring up. Can we get it in order as well?

Mr. SANDERS. Thirty seconds.

Mr. SANDERS. I yield the floor.

Mr. SANDERS. Can we come up after the Ensign amendment?

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for one moment?

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, later today I will be offering an amendment with Senator Grassley, which I think is an extremely important amendment, which, in fact, deals very fundamentally with the unemployment and job crisis facing this country. There is no debate the American people are furious at what happened on Wall Street, where a small number of executives have acted in an incredibly greedy manner, with extreme recklessness, and perhaps illegal behavior, in plunging our country into a major and very deep recession. As every American knows, we are losing huge numbers of jobs. What we are trying to do now on the floor of the Senate is do everything we can to prevent this country from falling into a deep depression. In the middle of all of this, in the middle of the greed and recklessness being shown by the major financial institutions of our country, at a time when the taxpayers of this country are spending $700 billion on a bailout, when the Fed is lending out trillions of dollars, what we see is many of those bankers are providing huge bonuses to themselves. They are furnishing their offices in lavish ways. They are buying jet planes. They are doing all of these things which suggest to me they do not know what world they are living in; they do not know what is going on in America. I want to point out today, with Senator Grassley, another part of this terribly destructive behavior on the part of these financial institutions. During the last 3 months of 2008, the largest banks in this country--because of the economic downturn especially on Wall Street--have announced 100,000 job cuts within the financial industry itself. So 100,000 Americans are out on the street. What has been the response of Wall Street to the loss of 100,000 of their own workers? Do you know what they have done? What these banks have announced is they are requesting 21,000 foreign workers over the next 6 years through the H-1B program to fill those jobs. So let me repeat, Wall Street causes a crisis, causing millions of people to lose their jobs, including 100,000 in financial institutions as well, 100,000 people who on average were making quite good wages with decent-paying jobs. So what they are now trying to do is bring in foreign workers through the H-1B program, and they have requested 21,000 H-1B visas over the next 6 years. Talk about adding insult to injury. The amendment Senator Grassley and I are offering is pretty simple. It is essentially saying there will be a suspension of the H-1B program for any institution that is receiving TARP funds for just 1 year. I would have gone further, but we are just going to make it for 1 year. Let me finish my remarks by quoting from a recent AP article just published on Monday. This is what the AP writes: Even as the economy collapsed last year and many financial workers found themselves unemployed, the dozen U.S. banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages requested visas for tens of thousands of foreign workers to fill high-paying jobs. . . . The major banks, which have received $150 billion in bailout funds, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. Presumably Americans are unable to do these jobs. The article continues: The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households. During the last three months of 2008, the largest banks that received taxpayer loans announced more than 100,000 layoffs. The amendment is pretty simple. I hope we will have bipartisan support. Mr. President, I see Senator Grassley standing, and I would be happy to yield for him.

Mr. SANDERS. We would like some definitive time.

Mr. SANDERS. If I may ask the Senator from Arizona, Senator Grassley and I will be pretty brief. I don't think we need more than 10 minutes.

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I thank Senator Grassley for his cosponsorship of this amendment. I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment so I may call up the Sanders-Grassley amendment No. 306 with the modification that I send to the desk.