Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2008--Conference Report
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008--CONFERENCE REPORT -- (Senate - May 17, 2007)
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, would the Senator yield for about 3 minutes?
Mr. CONRAD. I would be happy to yield.
Mr. SANDERS. I would like to ask the Senator a question. Let me begin by thanking him as the chairman of the Budget Committee for his excellent work on the budget resolution. This conference report, despite what some may have heard, is a major achievement for our Nation's veterans, for children without health insurance, for the middle class, and for millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet. None of these achievements would have been possible without the strong work of Senator Conrad, and I commend him as a member of the Budget Committee for all of his efforts.
As my colleagues know, one of the major issues I have been working on has been to expand federally qualified health centers in this country, and on that subject I would just like to ask the chairman the following question: Does the conference report accompanying the budget resolution assume that $2.6 billion in Federal funding would be provided for federally qualified health centers in fiscal year 2008--$536 million more than the 2007 level adjusted for inflation and $575 million more than the President's request?
Mr. CONRAD. Mr. President, I would say in response to the Senator that it does. This conference report includes the amendment that was offered by the Senator to increase funding for community health centers. As the Senator knows, this is one area of spending the President has supported. More than that, this is an area I think almost all of us believe has had remarkable success.
I have visited community health centers in my own State, and I have seen the remarkable work they are doing. In Fargo, ND, we have a community health center that is serving thousands of people and doing it in an extraordinarily cost-effective way. It is getting very good health care results for its clients.
So I was pleased to support the amendment of the Senator from Vermont. I think this is one of the most cost-effective things we can do to expand health care coverage for the people of our country and the people of our individual States, and I salute the Senator for offering that amendment. We vigorously defended that approach in the conference committee, and the conference agreed to support that level of funding.
Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I just want to thank the chairman very much, and I concur with everything he has said. For 40 years, federally qualified health centers have provided high quality primary health care for millions of Americans, regardless of their income, and as the chairman just indicated, they do that in a very cost-effective way. If the Appropriations Committee provides this funding, at least 4 million more Americans would gain access to the high-quality, affordable primary care available in our Nation's health centers in a very short period of time, with millions more getting access as the new centers get up and running. I thank the chairman again, and I look forward to working with him and my colleagues to make this a reality.
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