Benjamin L. Cardin:presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer

Rear Adm. Barry Black:the chaplain: let us pray. o lord most holy, we confess to you our unworthiness. grant that we may every day crave those dispositions which shall make

Speech By: Rear Adm. Barry Black

Rear Adm. Barry Black:barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. o lord most holy, we confess to you our unworthiness. grant that we may every day crave those dispositions which shall make

Rear Adm. Barry Black:us worthy to be called your children. bless our senators. guide them so that in all getting they will receive understanding. whatever they lose, may they retain your favor, growing in grace and in a

Rear Adm. Barry Black:deeper knowledge of you. give them a hunger to know your sacred word and a willingness to follow your precepts. grant that those who seek the right way will be led by your hand. may those who experience

Rear Adm. Barry Black:barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. o lord most holy, we confess to you our unworthiness. grant that we may every day crave those dispositions which shall make

Rear Adm. Barry Black:setbacks be lifted by your mercy and know the the restoration of your joy. consecrate, with your presence, the road our lawmakers travel and lead them to your desired destination. we pray in youloving

Rear Adm. Barry Black:name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under

Kay Hutchison:god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, august 1, 2007. to the senate: under the provisions

Benjamin L. Cardin:of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable benjamin l. cardin, a senator from the state of maryland, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: robert

Harry Reid:c. byrd, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: majority leader is recognized. mr. reid: today there will be a period of 30 minutes of morning business. it will all be under

Harry Reid:control of the republicans. following that, the senate will resume consideration of the children's health bill and then conduct 30 minutes of debate with respect to the ensign amendment. that time

Speech By: Harry Reid

Harry Reid:will be equally divided and controlled between senators ensign and baucus. upon the use or yielding back of that time the senate will vote in relation to the ensign amendment. following the disposition

Harry Reid:of the ensign amendment, the majority manage er hopes that he can come to a short agreement with respect to the gregg amendment and have a votehortly thereafter. senator byrd is to be recognized to

Harry Reid:speak for up to 30 minutes beginning at 12:00 noon today. other votes with respect to this bill are expected. mr. president, what i would say, i would hope -- there are two major amendments that

Harry Reid:we've been told exist with this children's health legislation. one is going to be offered by senator kerry, which is going to increase the amount of money that we feel is needed in this legislation.

Harry Reid:the other is by senators lott and kyl, which is a substitute amendment. i would hope they would come -- both -- those that are going to offer that amendment and do them ry quickly. we need these two amendments

Harry Reid:because this is what this legislation is really all about are these two amendments. there are other things, of course, that are important and individuals have the right to offer those amendments. and i

Harry Reid:hope that -- but i do hope those two amendments will be offered very quickly. we need to finish this bill. we're going to finish the bill before we leave. we have, of course, everyone knows that

Harry Reid:we have in the morning the cloture vote on ethics and lobbying. we'll do that an hour after we come in in the morning, unless some other time is arrange ed. and i do say this, mr. president mr. president,

Harry Reid:i very much appreciate the willingness of the minority to work with us, that we didn't have to go and -- because it was a privileged piece of legislation that came from the house, that we didn't have

Harry Reid:to waste time from last night until tomorrow morning. i appreciate very, very much the republicans allowing us to work on this legislation today. it would have been a waste ed day otherwise. and i hope that

Harry Reid:we can get a lot of work done on schip today. i will speak with senator mcconnell as to when, if at all -- i hope it's not necessary -- that we file cloture on schip to finish it. as i've said, i hope

Harry Reid:we don't have to do that. we had good luck last week on the first appropriation bill not having to do that. we have one other must-do item before we leave here and that deals with the surveillance program

Harry Reid:that everybody's read about and knows about. that has to be done. i met with -- had a breet brief meeting this morning with admiral mcconnell and he says that he has sent some propose ed changes to

Harry Reid:the legislation up here. it's already here. and we hope that that will be enough to have that legislation pass quickly. i hope we can have that done. it's certainly not a certain thing that we can

Harry Reid:get it done, but it's something that we all acknowledge we should give it the -- we'll call it try and do everything we can to complete that. those are things we must do. there are other things we would

Harry Reid:like to do, kind of a luxury. one of them is the competitive competitiveness bill, which is very important. such an interesting piece of legislation. conversations of most liberal members of my caucus love this piece

Harry Reid:of legislation, moderates, conservatives in my caucus, and that's the same with the republicans. they think this legislation is very, very good. i see on the floor my friend from Tennessee who worked

Harry Reid:like to do, kind of a luxury. one of them is the competitive competitiveness bill, which is very important. such an interesting piece of legislation. conversations of most liberal members of my caucus love this piece

Harry Reid:on this early on, and i hope we can do this before we leave. it's my understanding the conference, if not having been complete ed, is virtually complete completed, and that would be good if we have

Harry Reid:that done before we leave. it would show some real bipartisanship. i hope that can be done. mr. dorgan: mr. president, would the senator yield for a question question? mr. reid: i'd be happy to yield.

Harry Reid:mr. dorgan: mr. president, i know others are waiting to begin morning business. let me add my hope with the majority leader is that we'll be able to move through these bills with some expeditious actions

Harry Reid:this week. there's been so much delay in this chamber. i know the senator from -- the majority leader really wishes to move through and get these things done, and i hope we can do that. i did want

Byron Dorgan:to mention to the senator from nevada that i have offered to the children's health insurance bill the indian health care improvement act. i did that yesterday, i offered that as an amendment. there

Speech By: Byron Dorgan
Bill S. 1200: Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments of 2007

Byron Dorgan:are three million children who would be benefited by the children's health insurance bill bill, but there are two million American Indians that are subject to full-scale health care rationing. it's unbelievable

Byron Dorgan:what's happening, two million of them. . and it is -- we've had 11 separate bills introduced in the congress since the authorization for the indian health care improvement act expired some years ago,

Byron Dorgan:11 of them, and none of them have moved. and so i offer the amendment just because i felt i had to to the indian health care -- to the children's health insurance program that is on the floor. so i indicate

Byron Dorgan:yesterday, however, in response to senator Baucus, who said that he would mark up on September 12 in the finance committee his version of the bill, i've marked it up in my committee, the Indian affairs committee.

Byron Dorgan:committee. i indicate ed to him i would withdraw that amendment from the children's health insurance bill if i could get a commitment to get that bill to the floor of the senate. this is urgent. we

Byron Dorgan:have an urgent problem with respect to rationing of health care with american indians. so would i ask my colleague, i know we have visited about it, i know how strongly he supports american indians

Byron Dorgan:and health care for American Indians. would i ask the majority leader if we could have that commitment to get that bill to the floor of the senate, and if we can do that, i certainly will withdrawal withdraw the

Byron Dorgan:amendment here in anticipation of having that debate in the next couple of months here in the senate.

Harry Reid:I say to my friend, the distinguished chairman of the indian affairs committee, someone who has been a tireless advocate for native Americans his entire career, i have 22 different tribal organizations in the state of Nevada. you say rationing health care. i think that's even being

Harry Reid:too generous because there is no health care to ration in many instances in nevada. we've gone from having two wonderful hospitals for native americans; now we have one that's closed, the other one they don't

Harry Reid:use it for acute care care. it's a situation that for our country should be an embarrass embarrassment. it is an embarrassment. we just don't -- people just don't know how bad it is. and so i say

Harry Reid:to my friend through the chair that we're going to do this bill this year. if it's reported out of that finance committee, we're going to find a way to bring it to the floor. it is -- it is the

Harry Reid:right thing to do. we talk about people who don't have advocates for them. my tribal organizations in Nevada don't have people back here advocate ing for them. and we need to advocate for them them.

Harry Reid:i have to do that. and i'm especially on this issue issue, health care, the basic minimum that they deserve is having the ability to have some kind of health care. it is so -- it's in such a state

Harry Reid:and will do everything i can to move this forward and make a commitment that we will do something this congress -- not this congress, this session of congress. mr. dorgan: mr. president, that commitment

Harry Reid:of neglect now that i, frankly, don't know what to tell these tribal organizations when they come to see me. more than a decade waiting to do something about this. so i support my friend from north dakota

Harry Reid:and will do everything i can to move this forward and make a commitment that we will do something this congress -- not this congress, this session of congress. mr. dorgan: mr. president, that commitment

Harry Reid:of neglect now that i, frankly, don't know what to tell these tribal organizations when they come to see me. more than a decade waiting to do something about this. so i support my friend from north dakota

Harry Reid:from the majority leader is certainly welcome. and i would just observe this: there are very few places in this country where someone having a heart attack would be wheeled into an emergency room with

Harry Reid:a piece of paper attached to their thigh by masking tape that says to the receiving hospital, by the way, if you admit this woman, understand you're on your own because contract health care funding

Speech By: Byron Dorgan

Byron Dorgan:from the indian health care service has run out. very few circumstances in this country would you see that and it describes once again how unbelievably urgent it is for us to pass this bill. the commitment

Byron Dorgan:from the majority leader is very welcome. it reflects his long-term commitment to deal with these indian issues. the commitment from senator baucus to mark up his portion of the bill september 12 is

Byron Dorgan:welcome welcome. and i will, therefore, when we're back on the children's health insurance bill, withdraw the amendment as a result of the commitments to move it separate separately. mr. president, i yield