Moving Ahead For Progress In The 21st Century Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I want to, since he is on the floor, recognize the Senator from Utah and his extraordinary service in the U.S. Senate. We do not agree on this issue, but he has done a tremendous job for the people of Utah over many years.

I rise to talk a little bit about the amendment we are considering that would allow all employers and insurers to deny coverage, particularly for women, on any health care procedure or service they object to--not the women, but the employers and the insurance companies--on moral or religious grounds.

The first thing I want to do--and I have not been around here a long time, but I want to first observe in what context we are discussing and debating this amendment. We have devoted extensive floor time on this amendment about contraception and the lack of coverage for women's health care in the context of a job-creation bill, in the context of the Transportation bill. This is the bill I hold in my hand. This is the bill that is on the floor of the U.S. Senate right now. The title says:

A bill (S. 1813) to reauthorize Federal-aid highway and highway safety construction programs, and for other purposes.

I would have thought those ``other purposes'' would be related to transportation, transit, to job creation in the United States. I do not think the ``other purposes'' that are talked about in this bill have anything to do with contraception or women's health. But that is what we are spending our time debating this week on the floor of the Senate, instead of passing this Transportation bill and putting people in this country back to work. How is this conversation relevant to job creation or to infrastructure? It is not.

In my home State of Colorado, I have held hundreds of townhall meetings in red parts of the State and blue parts of the State, and I do not remember a single time this issue--the issue that is of concern with this amendment--has been raised by anybody--by anybody--in 3 years.

I can tell you what people are talking about in Colorado. They want to know why we are not spending our time working on how to create more jobs for them, more jobs in the 21st century in this country or how to fix this Nation's debt or deficit or how we pass a bipartisan Transportation bill that creates immediate jobs and fixes a crumbling infrastructure, while maintaining the infrastructure assets our parents and grandparents had the thoughtfulness to build for us--another case where political games are risking our ability to provide more opportunity, not less, for the next generation of Americans, something every single generation, until this one at least--the politicians--has treated as a sacred trust. Instead, over the last several weeks, we have continued to debate about women and whether they should have access to the health care services they need, and whether they should be the ones who are able to make the decisions about the health care services they need. And we sit here and wonder why the U.S. Congress is stuck at an approval rating of 11 percent. Maybe it is because we are talking about contraception in the context of a Transportation bill.

I have a wife and three daughters--12, 11, and 7. There are a lot of women in my life telling me what to do every minute of every day and during the week, and thank goodness for that. One thing I know is they do not need to be told by the government how to make their own health care decisions--nor do the 362,000 Colorado women who would be affected immediately if this amendment passed.

This amendment is written so broadly that it would allow any employer to deny any health service to any American for virtually any reason--not just for religious objections. Women could lose coverage for mammograms, prenatal care, flu shots, to name only a few essential services, and, yes--and yes--the right to make decisions around contraception and their own reproductive health.

My State, the great State of Colorado, is a third Democratic, a third Republican, and a third Independent. I can tell you, the last time there was an initiative on the ballot in my State to let the government intervene in women's health care decisions, it was defeated by 70 percent of the voters. Seventy percent of the voters said: You know what. We would rather leave these decisions to women to make for themselves. That is what my daughters want as well.

People are speaking loudly and clearly on this issue all across the country. These are not the issues we should be debating right now. We need to be having the conversations people are having at home in my townhalls instead of distracting them with politics: How do we create more jobs? How do we reform our entitlements so Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are here for our grandchildren and for our children? How do we create an education system that is training our people for the 21st century? How do we assure poor children in this country that they can have a quality education and make a contribution to this economy?

So I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment and help us get back on the road to passing a bipartisan Transportation bill that will create new jobs and make substantial improvements in our economy and infrastructure. There is a time to debate this, but that time is not now when we are having this infrastructure discussion, we are having this transportation discussion.

I urge my colleagues to support the rights of women all across this country and their families and reject this amendment.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source