Transporation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Juciciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006

TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006

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Mr. DURBIN. If the Senator from Montana will yield for a question, I would like to ask him about New York City. Isn't it a fact that after the 9/11 disaster, within 2 weeks we expanded Medicaid coverage under a disaster relief Medicaid assistance program so that 340,000 New Yorkers were able to start receiving Medicaid for 4 months? We spent $670 million on that assistance. We did that within 2 weeks. And now 7 weeks have passed, and this administration has not come forward with any help for Hurricane Katrina victims when it comes to Medicaid.

Mr. BAUCUS. In answer to the question of my colleague, it is absolutely true. We came to the aid of people who needed aid in New York within a couple of weeks. That was the right thing to do. We are a passionate people, a country willing to help people in need, particularly when it is an emergency need.

Mr. DURBIN. If the Senator will yield for a further question, this is a bipartisan amendment which the Senator just offered, along with Senator Grassley, Republican of Iowa, Senator Baucus, of course, of Montana, and many other colleagues to come forward to try to help the victims of this hurricane. Have we turned the page now? Are we not thinking about what happened down there? I hope we haven't.

Let me ask the Senator from Montana, is it a fact, No. 1, that the relief that he is proposing is temporary and short term? It is 5 months of Medicaid relief for these people who are in the worst circumstances. And, second, it would help States like mine and many others that have brought in evacuees. In our case, we brought 5,000 evacuees into our State to help them out. We have incurred more expenses in Medicaid expenditures to help these families so that these caring people in States around the gulf coast area who are really trying to help will not be ignored by the Federal Government.

Is that the intent of the amendment?

Mr. BAUCUS. The Senator is correct. That is the intent of the amendment. I thank the Senator for raising that point.

This is not a partisan effort at all. This is just a compassionate effort on the part of both Republicans and Democrats. I might say that all Senators--Republicans and Democrats--in the States affected would like to see this bill passed. All the Governors in the States affected--Republicans and Democrats--would like to see this bill passed. The House delegations from the States affected would like to see this bill passed. It is very much bipartisan.

The second point the Senator made is a very good one. A lot of evacuees have gone to a lot of States across the country--many in Illinois. Some have come to my State in Montana from New Orleans. We are very gracious and want to do all we can to help the people who are so dislocated.

If we stop and think for a moment, the Senators lead pretty comfortable lives. For these people, it is incredible hardships they are going through. We forget all they have to go through. They don't have houses, anyplace to live, no way to pay bills, no job, their kids are out of school, or where they can go to school, health care needs--they are incredibly affected.

I do not know how many Members have gone down to the gulf coast. Raise your hand if you have gone down to the gulf coast and have seen it all. There are two. We have seen it. It is Biblical. There is not a word for it. It is a tragedy that is affecting people on the gulf coast. It is Biblical. My Lord, my God, why can't the Senate do something about it?

Why are we here, Senators? To say no? That is not why we are here. We are here to do the right thing. We are not asking for the Moon. We are just asking for a little bit of help.

Mr. DURBIN. If I can ask one more question, so those who are following this debate understand, the Senator asked unanimous consent to go to this temporary measure--a 5-month measure, a bipartisan measure--to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and because one Senator from one State on the other side of the aisle objected, we cannot move to consider this issue at this time. Is that true?

Mr. BAUCUS. The Senator is correct. That is the situation we are in.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, America will not soon forget the images of Hurricane Katrina, some of the poorest people in our country exposed to the worst natural disaster in current memory. We watched that television screen 24/7 and saw our fellow Americans struggling to survive, fighting the floodwaters, trying to keep their children and their families together.

America may not soon forget that image, but, sadly, many politicians in Washington have already forgotten. The poor people of New Orleans who suffered--as those who did in Mississippi and Alabama--those poor people were underwater long before Hurricane Katrina arrived. They were underwater because they were submerged by poverty. They were submerged by a health care system that denies them basic health care protection. And, yes, they were underwater because if they got up and went to work every single day, and worked 8 hours a day, the most they could hope for under Federal law is $5.15 an hour.

It has been 8 years since we have raised the minimum wage. Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts has valiantly raised this issue every year, begging the President to come forward and stand up for those poor, vulnerable people in America. Today he asks for what is a modest increase in the Federal minimum wage: 55 cents an hour within 6 months of enactment, and another 55 cents an hour 1 year later.

Not a single family with this increased minimum wage will really get out from under the burden of poverty. We know it. Take a look at what families face today. Since 2001, the price of gasoline has gone up 74 percent. I think it is even higher. Health insurance, has gone up 59 percent, if you are lucky enough to have it. Housing has gone up 44 percent. College tuition has gone up 35 percent.

Yet when we come to the floor and ask for the most basic minimum wage increase for the hardest working people in this country, we are told by the Republican side of the aisle, no. No. They have forgotten the images of Hurricane Katrina. If they ever experienced them, they have forgotten what it is like to have a limited amount of money to try to feed and clothe and shelter a family. Mr. President, $5.15 an hour in the United States of America? Why in the world are we even debating this? For Senators to come to the floor and say: Well, we want to give employers more flexibility on overtime--do you know what that means? It means denying workers overtime pay.

Do you know what their proposal is? If your employer comes to you and says, ``Listen, the boss says you are going to work 50 hours this week and 30 hours next week,'' you put them together and it is 80 hours. No overtime. ``I hope you enjoy a little more time with your family.'' Really? Fifty hours this week, 10 hours of overtime but not an extra penny in overtime pay. That is the Republican proposal. Great ``flexibility.''

One of the Senators said that gives you more time to go to soccer matches with your kids. Well, assuming you can afford the gasoline for your car to get to that soccer match, you realize in your heart of hearts you are making less money than you would have made trying to make ends meet and keep your family together.

Let me tell you something else that troubles me, too. How many people are standing up on the Senate floor and talking about what is happening to corporate profits while workers' wages are suffering? Corporate profits have gone up 105 percent, while basic workers' wages have gone up 3.2 percent. It just tells you that when it comes to providing some opportunity in this country, there is plenty of opportunity for those with the highest levels of income. We give them the tax breaks and ignore the working families struggling every single day to keep it together.

Senator Enzi of Wyoming is a good colleague. He and I have worked together on many good things, and I am happy to work with him in the future. I have to tell you, his amendment is a very bad idea. The Enzi amendment would deny to more than 10 million workers across America the minimum wage, overtime pay, and equal pay rights. And, sadly, it would be the death of the 40-hour workweek.

In the home I grew up in, we knew that the Good Lord gave us the Sabbath. We knew that organized labor gave us the weekend, understanding that families would work hard Monday through Friday, and they could spend time together on Saturday and Sunday. You will see the end of that weekend with the Enzi amendment. You will see workers plunged into extra hours of work without overtime pay, for a whole week, and fewer hours the following week, and no overtime benefits.

That really cuts the heart out of opportunities for families across America. We have to understand something very basic in this country. We are going to make some important decisions in the closing weeks of this session. Will we remember the vulnerable people who were the victims of Hurricane Katrina? Will we understand how many other families across America are underwater today because they do not have health insurance, they cannot afford gasoline? They are working 40 hours a week and cannot make ends meet. They are deep in credit card debt and cannot get out of it.

For once, wouldn't it be great if the Senate came together on a bipartisan basis to stand up for working families? The way to do that is to vote for the Kennedy amendment and to oppose the Enzi amendment.

Mr. President, I reserve the remainder of my time and yield the floor.

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