A Job Well Done

Floor Speech

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, second--and I am going to speak on a local matter in a minute--I wish to compliment Senators REID and BAUCUS and HARKIN and DODD for the great job they have done. What a momentous day it is. Today is a moment to ignore the politics--how it will affect this party or this election or this President. For the next decade and henceforth, there are going to be 1 million people each week whose lives are made better by what we have done today. There is going to be a young person, God forbid, who is in an automobile accident and because she has good health insurance, she will get cured and live a better life; whereas, until now, she wouldn't. There is going to be somebody who has cancer, and in the past their insurance company would have said: Forget it. Now they are going to get that treatment. There is going to be a poor person who walks into a community health center and gets diagnosed early and cured and able to live a productive life. There are going to be countless young people who are worried. My daughter called me right after the House passed health insurance at 1 in the morning and she said: Dad--she is getting out of law school. She is going to have no health insurance until she starts her job 4 or 5 months from now, and she was worried about whether she could afford to buy it. She said: Dad, I got health insurance. I can be on yours.

So it is little instances and big instances. Every day, every week, every month people's lives are going to be made so much better by what we have done. That is what we ought to think about today, regardless of our differences. I am proud to win a small part of that, but again, I salute some of the giants who led us here: the President, whose faith in getting this done never waivered; Speaker Pelosi and her crew over in the House; and, of course, our leader, HARRY REID, who, in his low-key but relentless way, makes sure we do what we have to do and unites our cause.

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