Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2005

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005

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Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator from Louisiana yield for a question?

Ms. LANDRIEU. I would be happy to.

Mr. DURBIN. At the outset, I would like to say that I left the floor last night, about 12 hours ago, around 11. Senator Landrieu of Louisiana was on the floor last night. As I left, I said that she has shown such a passion and commitment to the poor people of her State of Louisiana who have been through this hurricane. I know she has tried to work within the system, she has tried to work within the Senate, and she has tried to move things along in a peaceful, bipartisan way. I sensed in her appearance last night and her appearance on the floor now that she is reaching a level of frustration and concern that this Senate is going to go home tonight or tomorrow and be gone for 10 days having done nothing to address the important issues she is raising.

What the Senator has brought to our attention is the fact that we have a bipartisan proposal. Senator Grassley, a Republican of Iowa, and Senator Baucus, a Democrat of Montana, on the Finance Committee, have come up with a proposal to provide basic health care for the evacuees and survivors of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, basic health care. The Senator has come to the Chamber repeatedly--I have seen it--trying to at least bring this to a vote. That is all she is asking for, bring it to a vote.

It is my understanding that at this moment in time, she has no commitment from the Republican leadership in the Senate to even bring this matter for a vote before we go home for 10 days on a break. I ask the Senator from Louisiana if she could in the most general terms tell us what kind of health care she is trying to provide to these people. Some have characterized it as luxurious, over-the-top health care for people who do not really need it. In fact, I heard on the floor last night one of the Senators say: Well, they do not really need this.

Could the Senator from Louisiana spell out for us what she is looking to achieve, what this bipartisan proposal would mean to the poor people who have lost their homes, lost their worldly possessions, seen their families torn apart, and are living in shelters somewhere around that part of our country?

Ms. LANDRIEU. I would be happy to, and I thank the Senator for his leadership because the Grassley-Baucus bill does a couple of important things that are essential for the rebuilding and emergency needs of a population--not just the poor but the middle income and those who had private insurance the day before Katrina hit. The Baucus-Grassley bill allows the States to know that they are going to be reimbursed for the care they are providing to people who have virtually no insurance.

For a State such as Louisiana, whose legislature may be meeting in the next few weeks, with a billion-dollar shortfall looming, I say to Senator Durbin, it is critical that the States of Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama and Texas have some idea now about what the Federal Government is going to do regarding their insurance. We share it 70/30. The State cannot put up a 30-percent match. This bill waives that match so that our States can start making good budget decisions at a very difficult time, in addition to providing health care for those who are 200 percent or below of poverty--which in our State is only $18,000 or $20,000--to make sure that people have health insurance.

But for middle-income families, working families, and even wealthy families that had health insurance, this bill allows them--even if their employers have gone under or taken bankruptcy or closed their doors and laid them off--to keep their health insurance for a few months, for 6 months or 12 months, depending on their category.

A Senator said on the floor, Senator Durbin, that people can get health insurance, they can get health care. Yes, in some way; they can go to an emergency room and wait for 3 days. But if they want to go to their doctor's office to whom they have been going for their whole life, and take their child to their pediatrician and they now don't have health insurance, unless we pass this bill, they can't go knock on the door of their pediatrician, for example, unless they give them a credit card or cash because there is no health insurance without the Baucus-Grassley bill. People who don't have a home, don't have a church or don't have a school now do not even have health care because we have to go home on a 10-day break and leave them wondering where they are going to get their medicine. That is what the bill does, I say to Senator Durbin.

Mr. DURBIN. I would like to ask the Senator from Louisiana, through the Chair, we have been through disasters before in America. We faced 9/11, that terrible day in our history when 3,000 Americans lost their lives. I would like to ask the Senator from Louisiana, if I am not mistaken, didn't we say we were going to come in and help those families who may have been in the same circumstance, where their place of employment just exploded and disappeared? Also, I would ask the Senator from Louisiana, when we had an earthquake in California, in Northridge, didn't we step in and say we are going to provide housing vouchers to people displaced because of earthquakes?

I ask this of the Senator because I don't quite understand this double standard. Why, if the worst natural disaster in modern memory occurred a few weeks ago, are we in the midst of debating the most basic things people need in crisis: health care, housing, cash so they can buy the basic necessities of life? Why are we facing this double standard, when America's heart was broken by the scenes we saw day after day and night after night on the television screen, coming from your hometown, your neighbors and their suffering?

Ms. LANDRIEU. I do not know, I say to Senator Durbin. That is a puzzlement for us. I do not have a good answer for that. All I can say is there are 2 million people displaced, many towns are destroyed, many communities, both urban and suburban, rural as well as highly dense. Neighborhoods of black and white, Hispanic and Asian, poor and middle-income are wondering the same thing.

Why does Congress keep giving money to FEMA? FEMA is not functioning very well. So when our Governors and our mayors and our sheriffs ask for a little bit of help with health insurance and education and the basics to turn running water on--we have had enough bottled water. Please don't send us any more bottled water. We have plenty.

We need to turn the faucets on so water will come out so a small business that wants to operate can actually function with some water. You cannot have a business operating without water. That is what we need.

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