Heather Wilson

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Chairman, I wanted to thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) for his leadership on this public health issue and also the chairman of the committee for increasing the investment in TB in this bill over the last 4 years from really nothing to $60 million. Tuberculosis is back with a vengeance, and it is back with drug- resistant strains that are affecting parts of the world where it was thought to be under control. In March of this year, there was an outbreak of resistant tuberculosis in Toronto, Canada; in Germany; in Denmark; in Mexico; in Italy; in Puerto Rico. Drug-resistant TB is on the rise, and we are not immune to it here in the United States. I am one of those who believes it is better to play offense than defense when it comes to public health issues, if one has got a good offense to play. We have a very limited window of opportunity to attack TB with a proven public health strategy abroad where resistant TB is growing. The reason the resistant TB is growing is because of inconsistent and inadequate treatment. But a treatment does exist. It is called DOTSC. That means Directly Observed Treatment Short Course. If we invest in it now, we can treat TB when it first shows up so that those resistant strains do not have an opportunity to grow. We will not be faced with a huge and very expensive epidemic worldwide and in the United States. It costs between $11 and $20 to treat a case of TB that is not resistant. It costs about $250,000 to treat drug-resistant TB. In the early 1990s, there was an outbreak in New York City that cost $1 billion to suppress it, and half of the people affected with it died. Let us do the right thing from a public health point of view. Let us invest in this while the window of opportunity was there and reduce the cost over the long term.

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of the gentleman on the cost of this ranch, and I understand his perspective; and I also appreciate his kind cooperation as we have gone through this process. I also understand the perspective of how much Federal land we do have in the State of New Mexico. There is really only one reason that I think this bill has such broad support and that is because of title II and the direction to sell off some of this surplus land and make sure there is money in the pot to buy things like the Baca. I would like to, though, put one thing into the Record here on the value of this ranch. It was not just a number that came out of the air, and I think we need to be fair, that there was an appraisal of the ranch and that the Forest Service ordered a market study of that appraisal and found that the appraisal met the Federal standards and agreed to the price of that ranch. Now, there are appraisers who will come up with all kinds of different values of things based on different methodologies. This committee deals with those every day, different disagreements among qualified appraisers on the value of a piece of property. I think back to what things cost in 1962. I was only 2 years old then, and I do not think a straight line inflation is probably the way we should judge the value of a piece of property. Appraisers do it in a slightly different way based on what the market conditions really are. I think this is probably a good deal for the country as a whole and a fair price, and we should move forward with it.

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the passage of S. 1872 which will purchase the Baca Ranch for the people of New Mexico and the people of this country. The Baca includes an area known as the Valles Caldera in northern New Mexico. It is bordered by the Santa Fe National Forest and also the Bandelier National Monument. It is almost 95,000 acres of beautiful land that has been in private hands and conserved in private hands since 1860. But its geological significance is something that really makes it a national unique treasure. Mr. Speaker, 1.6 million years ago, there were volcanoes in the area, and one of the most well-preserved ones is the Valles Caldera. It is 15 miles in diameter, and one can still see the rim of the volcano. That volcano was 600 times more powerful than Mount Saint Helens and the ash from that volcano is spread across the United States and can be found in Kansas and Texas and Oklahoma. That collapsed volcano is now perfectly preserved. It was never disturbed, and it is a wonderful geological treasure that should be preserved so that it can be studied. In addition, on the 90,000 acres of the Baca, which has been very well conserved by the Dunnigan family that has owned it for so long, there are 17 threatened or endangered species that also have been protected. The appropriation for the bill has already been passed, $101 million in the fiscal year 2000 Interior Appropriations, but that money was subject to passing this authorization bill, and we need to move forward with it. In 1999, Senator Domenici, Senator Bingaman, and the President of the United States agreed on a unique management plan for Baca that will be unlike most public lands and Federal lands in this country. The State of New Mexico is already owned one-third by the Federal Government. This management plan that is included in the bill and identical to the House bill that I was the sponsor of has a unique approach. It sets up a special trust for the management of the Baca. It will not be just regular Federal land. That special trust is a government corporation and will be run by a board of trustees that includes nine members, five of whom must be New Mexicans. The land must be managed for the benefit and enjoyment of the people of the United States, but also should try to be self-sustaining. The management of that piece of land will not be under some Washington bureaucracy, but under a board of trustees given unique powers, and I think it serves as a real model for the management in the future of our Federal lands. Title II of the bill is also unique. One of the great barriers to buying beautiful pieces of land like the Baca is that there is no money in the pot, because Federal agencies have not sold off surplus lands, lands that the agencies themselves say are surplus to any requirement that the Federal Government may have for them. So the money is not there to buy things like the Baca or Tres Tistoles in my district that I was able to secure funds for in 1998, or even the inholdings in places like the Petroglyph National Monument, also in my district, where there are private landowners completely surrounded by a national monument by Federal lands. So this bill says that these Federal agencies should come up with a plan to sell off surplus lands, to replenish the pot so that we can buy beautiful pieces of property with national significance like the Baca. The money that is used from selling off those surplus lands will be used by the BLM and others to buy pieces of land like the Baca. Eighty percent of the funds that are obtained by land sales have to be used in the State where the land is sold so that there is benefit to the people of the State where the land is sold. The money can only be purchased for inholdings and surrounding lands from willing sellers at a fair market value. Mr. Speaker, I think that this is a unique approach to the management of public lands, and it preserves a piece of property in northern New Mexico which is unique in this country. It is a beautiful place and is worthy of preservation, and I am very pleased that we have been able to work together to get this bill to the floor of the House. I particularly want to thank the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen) for his help and leadership for coming to New Mexico and seeing this beautiful piece of property and for helping to bring this bill to the floor.

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today really to offer my thanks to the chairman and the ranking member for including in this supplemental claims for the Cerro Grande fire in New Mexico. It was less than 2 months ago now when the National Park Service lit a fire that destroyed the homes of over 400 families in the town of Los Alamos in northern New Mexico. And in less than 2 months, some folks working very hard here have come up with a way to compensate the victims and try to get them on the path to rebuilding their homes and their lives. I particularly wanted to thank Senator Domenici and Senator Bingaman for their leadership. I wanted to thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young); the Speaker, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert); the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis); and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hobson) for their hard work and their willingness to include this claims language and the compensation in this bill. From the people of New Mexico, we thank you very much.

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray) for his kind words. Mr. Speaker, when it became clear that we were going to do a prescription drug bill, there is a part of this bill in title 3 that we did not get a chance to talk about much today, and that has to do with some changes that are needed for Medicare to provide some urgent relief to hospitals in this country, particularly in a program called Medicare+Choice. About half of the citizens in my district in New Mexico choose Medicare+Choice. It is kind of managed care for Medicare. They have the Lovelace Senior Plan or the Presbyterian Senior Plan. The problem is that the reimbursement rates for Medicare+Choice and for most of the other Medicare programs in the State of New Mexico are terribly low. In New Mexico, if one is a part of the Lovelace plan, Lovelace gets about $370 per member per month to cover one's health care in the rural parts of New Mexico. It is about $430 a month if one is in Albuquerque. That compares with a reimbursement rate in Staten Island, New York of $811 and in Dade County, Florida of almost $800 per member per month. The reason is that New Mexico had managed care so much earlier than other parts of the country. We had one of the earliest HMOs in the country, Lovelace Hospital. We had controlled many of the costs that everyone else was struggling to control. But we were penalized for that, penalized for that continuing efficiency. Now as CIGNA pulls out of Medicare+Choice and a lot of other different States, we are facing that potential in New Mexico as well. But it is not unique to New Mexico. There are seven States who are suing the Federal Government because of the inequities in reimbursement under Medicare, and they are right. Mr. Speaker, what I wanted to try to do is to get some immediate relief so that seniors do not lose their preferred medical care coverage. The 1st of July is when a lot of companies have to decide whether they are going to stay in Medicare+Choice. The bill that we passed earlier today will extend that deadline to the 1st of October. But there are some things I think we can do without hurting those States that have high reimbursement rates to get some changes and some fixes for those of us who are on the low end of the scale and losing money because the Federal Government is inadequately subsidizing Medicare. Many of those fixes were included in this bill, but I wanted to see them accelerated because the need is not 2004, the need is now. Companies are having to decide whether the 1st of July or at the latest the 1st of October whether they are going to continue to be able to insure people under Medicare. For a variety of procedural reasons, that is not possible today and was not possible in the bill, mostly because we do not have the new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office of projected surplus next year. But everyone in this House on both sides of the aisle knows that we have a problem. It seems to me the right thing to do is to stand up and acknowledge to the people of this country that we know we have a problem with Medicare reimbursement rates, whether it is for physicians or Medicare+Choice. We know that, within a month, we are probably going to have some new projections on the amount of money we will have available, and we also know and agree that a significant amount of that money has to be put into health care in this country. I support a prescription drug benefit, and I supported the Patients' Bill of Rights. But if one does not have a doctor, a Patients' Bill of Rights or prescription drug benefit does not do one much good. While we were not able to solve everything in this bill, I would like to see this House come together in a common commitment to fix some of the problems in Medicare and the immediate crisis facing our health care system. Because if we do not, we are going to have a lot of seniors who are told that they are going to have to change their doctors or that they can no longer have Medicare+Choice. While some may think that that really affects those who are at the upper end of the income scale, that is not the case in my district. Those who are most likely to choose Medicare+Choice have an income of below $20,000 a year. That is the option for those who cannot afford some pretty expensive Medigap plans. In fact, as this chart shows, this is insurance coverage by household income in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Those who rely most on Medicare HMOs are here. Almost 60 percent of those who have an income of $20,000 and less are on Medicare+Choice, and it goes down from there. Those who have Medicare Plus, a supplement, are generally upper income folks. But still almost half of the folks in Albuquerque, New Mexico have Medicare+Choice. I would like to see us commit here tonight that we will use some of the surplus that we expect to be available when the budget estimates come out to fix some of the immediate problems with Medicare, to accelerate some of these appeals mechanisms, and to provide some immediate relief for the people who are providing health care to our seniors.

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, I know my colleagues wanted to do it today. So did I. And that is why I offered an amendment in the Committee on Rules. The reason I was not ruled in order is probably the same reason my colleagues were not ruled in order is because we cannot spend money in this House that we do not yet have. But we all know in this room that we expect new estimates within a month. It would have, I think, been irresponsible on our part to not move forward on prescription drugs and to keep this process moving forward to get a prescription drug plan. And I support that. But I would not want to have held that back to get a fix on more Medicare fixes this year and in the year starting in October just because we do not have the budget estimates yet. And that is the nature of this. I have kind of taken this up as my personal cause on this side of the aisle. I think some of my colleagues sitting here know that I make it a pretty regular effort to do things in a bipartisan way, whether it is on low-power radio or Superfund or a whole variety of other things we are working on, Baca land in northern New Mexico, and quite a few things in the Committee on Commerce. That is just kind of who I am, and that is my style. I commit to work with those of my colleagues who are concerned about Medicare reimbursement rates and the disparity in different parts of the country to try to make this work as soon as we have the budget estimates to do so. I give my colleagues my personal word on that.

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Chairman, as I understand it, one of the points of confusion may be here that this is the Scott-Wilson second amendment, not the first amendment. The money is taken from page 28, line 5, which I think is the truth-in-sentencing grant.

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my colleague from Virginia for his leadership on this issue and also thank the chairman and the ranking member for their hard work on this appropriations bill. I am a supporter of judicial discretion, and I am also a supporter of tough penalties for those who commit violent crimes. But I am also a supporter of prevention and intervention programs that work, particularly programs for children, and I have seen them work in my own State. In the period from 1993 to 1997 in this country, we did a lot of prison construction. That era is largely over in this country, and in many States, there is an excess of prison beds. The truth-in-sentencing money that is available through the Federal Government is not available to all States, and many States have exhausted their intentions to build more prison space. I believe it is far beyond time to shift our priorities to pragmatic things that work, and I think we have identified two in this budget that deserve more emphasis than they are currently getting in the budget as it is constructed. The first is drug courts. It is a growing trend in justice in this country. There are about 300 drug court programs now in America, and they are growing every year, commingling together grants from private sources and money from administrative offices of the courts. The idea is with judicial supervision for somebody on parole, for somebody who is committed to trying to turn their life around, who is willing to undergo random drug testing, who will accept escalating sanctions and treatment and incentives to try to get them back on the right track and get them clean. The good thing about them is that they are working. It is that combination of treatment, immediate sanctions, and incentives, with a lot of supervision, that is working, and it is working in my hometown of Albuquerque, where we not only have started an adult drug court, and the judge there who is doing very well with it, but we are looking at expanding that to other parts of the State and also starting a juvenile drug court to reach kids earlier. The other program that does work and I think needs to be supported deals with kids. I used to be the head of the Children Youth and Families Department in the State of New Mexico. We had responsibility for child welfare and also for the juvenile justice system. Kids need a safe place to be, and they need a caring, responsible adult in their lives. All of us would hope that that responsible adult is a parent or a grandparent, but it is not always that way. There are a lot of programs that deal with kids that provide mentors for kids: 4-H and the Boy Scouts and children's youth groups at church, and Future Farmers of America; we have seen them all in all of our communities. But the things that the Boys and Girls Clubs seems to do better than most is reach the kids in most need. They are in the housing projects. Sixty-one percent of the kids in Boys and Girls Clubs are minority; half of them come from single-parent families. They are in 50 States and in Puerto Rico and in the Virgin Islands and serve 3.1 million children in America, giving them a safe place to be and positive, caring adult role models and constructive things to do. I met a lot of kids, mostly boys, in the juvenile justice system in the State of New Mexico. Most of them were involved in gangs. Half of them had a parent with a drug or alcohol problem. Almost all of them had little or no contact with their dads. Sometimes they were tough, violent thugs. Then, in a moment, you would see a boy. We need to work with these kids while we still have the chance to help them turn their lives around before they throw them away and send all of us the bill.

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Chairman, this is a very simple amendment that requires Federal land management policy to be followed in the notification of State and local government for when they are going to be conducting prescribed burns. All it does is direct these land management agencies to follow the Federal policy that was signed in 1995, and they have not been doing so, and there are a lot of local governments who find out that prescribed burns have been set outside of their towns when members of the community call 911. We need to fix that. Mr. Chairman, at this point I would like to engage in a colloquy with the chairman of the subcommittee. As the chairman is aware, in 1995 the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture adopted an interagency policy on wildland fire management. This policy included specific direction for their agencies to involve and inform communities concerning fire risk and the use of prescribed fire.

Mrs. WILSON. I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.

Mrs. WILSON. That policy has not been effectively implemented, as exemplified by the Los Alamos fire. In order to protect communities from wildland fires, it is essential that the agencies collaborate with State and local officials in communities to identify where the areas of high risk are and plan appropriate mitigation. These steps must be taken before agencies use prescribed fire in these high risk areas so that the State and local entities are informed of the risk and prepared to take action if needed. Does the chairman agree?

Mrs. WILSON. I am sure the chairman is also aware that the Forest Service has just completed a comprehensive series of risk maps that rate forest lands nationwide for their risk of wildfire.

Mrs. WILSON. These maps will greatly assist in efforts to advise local communities of their proximity to high risk fire areas. I would expect, as a result of this amendment, that the agencies would use these maps to fulfill their responsibilities as laid out in the 1995 interagency policy. Does the chairman agree that this is the purpose of the amendment?

Mrs. WILSON. Communities must know if they are in high risk areas, and the agencies have a direct obligation to let them know. I appreciate the chairman's continued support and understanding on these important issues and I thank the chairman for his time. Amendment Offered by Mr. Udall of New Mexico to the amendment offered by Mrs. Wilson

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Chairman, I have no problem with this perfecting amendment and I accept it.

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to bring your attention to Claudia Schroth, a 12-year-old student at Wilson Middle School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Claudia created a slogan for our local Campus Crime Stoppers: ``See Something Out of Line? Take the Time . . . Call Campus Crime Stoppers!!!'' This slogan, though short and simple, will help direct young children to report a crime if they see one. I have the Campus Crime Stoppers poster with the slogan hanging in my Albuquerque office. Claudia proves that people of all ages can make a difference in their community, changing things for the better. It is because of Claudia and people like her that schools can be made safer. Mr. Speaker, the Congress is working hard on school safety. Claudia Schroth is working hard in my home of Albuquerque in this very issue also. Please join me in honoring the commitment to a safer world displayed by Claudia Schroth.

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to share with you the story of Marshall Floyd, a man who has taught at Highland High School in Albuquerque New Mexico for 47 years. His dedication has earned him a unique honor: the Marshall Floyd Award is given to outstanding teachers every year. The classroom teachers who receive this honor must have a minimum of ten years experience and excellence in teaching. Mr. Floyd is the kind of teacher who defines teaching and education for his students and colleagues. He does far more than teach; he inspires many that share his classroom, as have the recipients of the Marshall Floyd Award. The teachers from my home of Albuquerque, New Mexico who received the Award this year are: Ms. Carol Hoffman, an English and humanities teacher at Sandia High School, a teacher of 37 years. Ms. Barbara Langner, chair of the English Department at Highland High School, has taught for 28 years. Mr. Chris Montano, a fifth grade teacher at Duranes Elementary School, who has taught for 15 years. Ms. Sharon Swallows, a second grade teacher at Bandelier Elementary School, has been a teacher for 34 years. Mr. Speaker, please join me in honoring the dedication of Mr. Marshall Floyd and the teachers honored with the Marshall Floyd Award for their contributions to their students and our community of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to support the efforts of Erica Vasquez to raise funds for the Leukemia Society of America by running a marathon in Walt Disney World. She represented a 7-year-old boy, Adam Valencia, who has acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Erica was the youngest runner on the Team in Training Desert Mountain States Chapter, training for five months and raising money to compete. She even created her own donation forms and sent them out to businesses, doctors, lawyers, friends, and family members. Though they could not run with her, she gave them an important opportunity to do their part. Sadly, Erica was inspired to help others because of a personal loss: in one year, she lost two cousins and an aunt to cancer. This tragedy inspired her to fight the disease any way she could. Her immediate goal is to increase awareness about Leukemia. Until a cure is found, people like Erica will continue to fight in whatever way they can, including increasing education about cancer and fundraising for treatment. Please join me in celebrating the generous heart of Erica Vasquez, a young woman who fights to bring awareness about a disheartening disease to the world. May her resilient spirit of giving encourage to us all to give of ourselves to save lives.

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to bring to your attention Dr. Andrew Hsi, a pediatrician at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He was honored as the first recipient of the Humanism in Medicine Award because of his many strengths, focusing on community service, ethics in medicine, and treating people with dignity. He understands the importance of respect for colleges and patients as well as showing compassion and consideration to others. Dr. Hsi has found purpose and fulfillment in serving the public. He is nonjudgmental of the pregnant women who come to him for help-- despite the fact that many of them abuse illegal substances. Thomas Weiser, a medical student at UNM, nominated Dr. Hsi because ``[h]is fairness, sensitivity, and nonjudgmental attitude have inspired students and faculty to be more compassionate to their own patients. And, most importantly, it has provided an impetus to many of his patients to change their own lives.'' Mr. Speaker, please join me in honoring the compassion and team skills of Dr. Andrew Hsi. He exemplifies patience, acceptance, and the courage to help his community. The help he offers to those in need does not just come in the form of medicine: he encourages and inspires people to take charge and change their lives. He is a hero in our community.

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to bring to your attention Elwar ``Ruben'' LaCour, Jr., a student in my district. As a middle schooler, he was awarded the U.S. National Award in mathematics. His commitment to learning is an indication of great future success. Ruben's recognition from the U.S. Achievement Academy is a great honor. We all know of the studies and reports that say that students in the United States are falling behind in math performance. Ruben's skills, abilities, and success provides evidence of students excelling in math. Mr. Speaker, please join me in congratulating Elwar ``Ruben'' LaCour on his achievement in and dedication to mathematics. We must celebrate achievements and encourage our children to do their very best.

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to bring to your attention Jamie Renee Hamilton, an eighth grader at Madison Middle School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jamie Renee designed a poster for our local Campus Crime Stoppers. She is helping to stop crime in our schools. I have the Campus Crime Stoppers poster hanging in my Albuquerque office. So often, the power of young people to change our world is overlooked. Jamie Renee stood up to make a change for the better in schools and our community. Mr. Speaker, the Congress is working hard on school safety. Jamie Renee Hamilton is working hard in my home of Albuquerque on this very issue also. Please join me in honoring the contributions by Jamie Renee Hamilton to safety in our schools and in our community.

Mrs. WILSON

Mrs. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to bring to your attention the national recognition received by Governor Bent Elementary School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The team at Governor Bent Elementary is highlighted in a report by the Fordham Foundation for their effective teaching techniques. Governor Bent is known for expecting a lot from all their students. There are no excuses, all students can do quality work. Creativity is fostered for the success of the students, parents, teachers and all staff. The results are high student test scores and student enrollment from outside their attendance area. Mr. Speaker, please join me in honoring the Principal Marilyn Davenport and the team at Governor Bent Elementary School for their contributions to students and to the future of our community.