Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Virginia Stop Modern Slavery (VASMS) and its efforts to educate parents, teachers and child-care providers on the danger sex trafficking poses to our communities.

VASMS was established in August of 2009 by Jessica Johnson of Annandale, Va. Its volunteers work to preserve safe, family friendly communities. They work to eliminate human trafficking in America by educating and supporting victims' service providers, legislators and local law enforcement officials. Members of VASMS build community partnerships and coordinate outreach events because they understand that bringing this issue to the forefront of public discussion starts with a dedicated grassroots effort.

On October 10, 2009, VASMS hosted The Safe Child Fair in Gainesville, Va., through a partnership with the Bridge to Freedom Foundation, Courtney's House and RIJI Green. The fair offered children's activities and games while parents learned how to protect their children from child exploitation. Events like The Safe Child Fair bring communities together to rally around a common call to action. Eradicating sex trafficking in America requires the involvement and due diligence of all communities, and I urge all to join in this battle to protect our children.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in commending the efforts of Virginia Stop Modern Slavery. The prevalence of human trafficking in the United States is deplorable, and I wish VASMS continued success in its campaign to raise awareness for this issue.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize twelve-year-old Piran Talkington of Woodbridge, Va. On June 24, 2007, Piran successfully executed the Heimlich maneuver to save the life of his four-year-old sister Caitlyn. Just 10 years old at the time, Piran showed remarkable composure by calmly employing this life saving technique.

As a Cub Scout in Pack 289 of Woodbridge, Piran learned basic life- saving skills as part of his training to become a Boy Scout. Piran's attentiveness during these lessons proved invaluable when he was able to unblock his

younger sister's airway during a family dinner. After Caitlyn regained her breathing and recovered her color, she tearfully hugged Piran.

Piran has continued his participation in Scouts and is now a Star Scout in Troop 1367. The Boy Scouts of America, upon recommendation of the National Court of Honor, has awarded Piran the Medal of Merit. This is the Boy Scouts' fourth highest national award. The award recognizes Piran for demonstrating the finest Scouting skills and ideals.

For nearly 100 years, the Boy Scouts have developed upstanding youth with the character and maturity to handle tough situations. Piran is an exceptional example of a young Scout. He also is an Honor Roll student and winner of the Fifth Grade Science Fair for Physical Sciences. Piran's life-saving measures were not an isolated instance of distinction. He works hard to reach the highest levels of achievement in everything he attempts.

Madam Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in applauding Piran's accomplishments. The decisiveness and skill with which he acted to save his sister can be attributed to his scouting background. This training will serve him well throughout his life, and I am confident that his future will be full of success and outstanding accomplishments.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the Northern Virginia Urban League and the Northern Virginia Coalition for partnering with the U.S. Census Bureau to educate our community on the importance of a complete and accurate count in the 2010 Census.

These organizations kicked off their education initiative with a forum on October 1, 2009 at Alexandria City Hall. Their efforts will be directed toward participation from Northern Virginia's African American community. They will discuss the logistics and strategy behind a successful Census and call on community leaders to take up this historic cause.

A Census is conducted once every 10 years and is mandated by the U.S. Constitution. It counts everyone living in the U.S. to determine the distribution of Congressional seats and the fair allocation of more than $400 billion in federal funding to state, local and tribal governments. Widespread participation is essential to accurate representation in Congress and the correct apportionment of federal funds. An accurate Census helps to ensure fair representation for all, which is an ideal that lies at the heart of American democracy.

Madam Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in commending Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the Northern Virginia Urban League and the Northern Virginia Coalition as responsible community partners for the 2010 Census. I appreciate their call to action as such partnerships will be vital to the success of the Census.

Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the 20th anniversary of the Good Shepherd Housing Foundation. For the past two decades, the Foundation has provided low-cost housing to the homeless and those on the brink of homelessness in Prince William County.

The Foundation was created in 1989 out of the compassion and collective action of the Good Shepherd faith community. The founders identified a need within Prince William County for housing for the mentally ill. They worked with the Prince William County Community Services Board to establish the bedrock of a stable and lasting program. In its beginning, the Foundation provided housing for five single adults.

It has since grown substantially in both numbers of clientele and breadth of mission. Now in its twentieth year, the Foundation provides housing and supportive services for 25 single adults and 18 families in 11 homes owned by the Foundation. Assistance has been extended to those with chronic low income, mental and physical disabilities, AIDS/HIV, pregnant teens and the elderly. The organization is sustained by the efforts and donations of individuals, businesses and churches, and it receives assistance from local, State and Federal funding.

The Shepherd Homes Program offers group living and single adult housing options to mentally ill individuals. Shepherd Homes I, II and III are properties owned by the Foundation that function as group homes. Ten apartments leased by the Foundation offer the mentally ill, some who are veterans, relief from chronic homelessness. Beyond housing assistance, the Foundation offers services that put residents on a path to financial and psychological stability.

Since its inception, the Foundation expanded its mission to include low income families. The Affordable Family Housing Program is a holistic program aimed at providing housing and teaching families the importance of education and financial management. Families are given transitional, two-year or long-term, low-cost housing. Tutoring is available for the children and parents receive financial counseling. The Foundation works to end chronic homelessness by providing immediate relief and preventing future generations from falling into this dangerous condition.

Madam Speaker, I ask that my colleagues join me in expressing appreciation for the work the Good Shepherd Housing Foundation does in the Prince William community. The Foundation exists today as a robust and effective community organization dedicated to helping the disabled and less fortunate. I offer my unconditional support for its mission and commend its ability to help our fellow man.

Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the Prince William Clean Community Council and its 2009 Volunteer of the Year, Connie Moser. With the help of dedicated volunteers like Ms. Moser, the Council works to eliminate litter and graffiti in Prince William neighborhoods and commercial centers.

The Council was conceived in 1982 during a spring cleanup effort led by a group of concerned Prince William County residents. These volunteers, who later became the founding members of the Council, immediately recognized the importance of litter prevention education as a way to long-term environmental protection and preservation. In 1986, the Prince William County Litter Control Council was born. The organization later changed its name to the Clean Community Council, and it became an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, a nationwide non- profit that uses education and hands-on stewardship to advocate litter control, waste reduction, and community beautification.

The Council's litter prevention and graffiti abatement efforts have not gone unnoticed. The Council's accolades include a 1994 Governors Award for Volunteering Excellence. The Council was a 2000 Virginia Stewardship Award Winner in the Communication/Education Category, and it received the Prince William County 2001 Partners for the Potomac Environmental Patron Award, 2000 and 2002 Keep America Beautiful National Awards and a 2008 Keep America Beautiful President's Circle Recognition Award.

The Council's volunteers always have been essential to its success and the 1st Volunteer of the Year Award is a way to recognize their invaluable support. The recipient, Connie Moser, is a resident of Dale City, Va., and sits on the Council's board of directors. She teaches the Council's principles and goals to a number of other organizations that benefit from her involvement. She is acting Secretary for the Dale City Civic Association, a volunteer for the Prince William County Habitat for Humanity, maintains two ``Adopt-A-Spots'' for the Prince William Clean Community Council, serves on the Prince William County Neighborhood Leader's Group and is the founder of the Lindendale Community Group. Remarkably, she found time this year to coordinate a clean-up effort for the Dale City Fourth of July parade route, a large scale community beautification effort that inspired others to take up the Council's mission. Ms. Moser is truly devoted to her community's quality of life and does not shy away from a long, hard day of work to make Prince William County a pleasant place to live.

Madam Speaker, we create safer, cleaner neighborhoods when residents take ownership over their communities. The Clean Community Council asks Prince William residents to take pride in their county and work to eliminate not just litter and graffiti but the carelessness that allows these community plagues to proliferate. I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the successes of the Prince William Clean Community Council and congratulating Connie Moser on being named the recipient of its 1st Volunteer of the Year Award.

Madam Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

I rise to congratulate the Prince William Conservation Alliance, the Prince William Wildflower Society, and the Prince William County Park Authority for their discovery of globally rare plant communities at Silver Lake Park. The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation confirmed that the diabase flatwoods and a pin oak-white oak upland depression swamp qualify as globally rare or threatened species.

Diabase flatwoods are a rare type of oak-hickory forest that are only found in northern Virginia and central Maryland. It's very rare to find a site such as this, which has not been substantially disturbed by land development or incursion of invasive species.

The rare pin oak-white oak upland depression swamp habitat is characterized by small wetlands with hardwood forests. These environments have often been disturbed by past development.

I applaud local activists in Prince William County in my district, the 11th District of Virginia, for their work to protect these rare plant communities and offer them my full support and congratulations in permanently preserving these important ecological resources.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to correct a misperception held by many in this Chamber and others throughout our great Nation. Members of my party claim that our colleagues across the aisle do not have a health care plan. Well, I'm here to break with my own caucus and say that's just not true. Our Republican friends do in fact have a plan.

Let me offer you some of their highlights. The plan so far offered by our Republican colleagues would allow health care premiums to double over the next decade; add more than two-thirds to the out-of-pocket expenses for individuals and their families who watched helplessly as premiums and deductibles grew three times faster than their wages over the last decade; and push more families to the brink of financial ruin because they can no longer afford basic health care needs.

In my district alone, more than 1,400 people were forced into bankruptcy last year because of expenses not covered by health insurance.

It doesn't stop there, Mr. Speaker. Their plan would also allow insurance companies to continue racking up profits by denying coverage using capricious standards.

Insurance companies in 45 States would be allowed to continue discriminating based on preexisting conditions for those attempting to purchase insurance on the individual market. It's estimated that more than 12.6 million Americans have been denied coverage because of preexisting conditions already.

Insurance companies in eight States and the District of Columbia would be allowed to continue denying coverage to survivors of domestic violence because they classify history of such violence as a preexisting condition, which is a particularly egregious example of cherry-picking by insurance companies, considering October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Even those lucky enough to have health insurance will continue to find their coverage or their costs altered due to preexisting conditions, which affect up to 45 percent of us who already have health care insurance.

The Republican plan, or lack thereof, also will make it harder in the business community to continue meeting the needs of its workers and customers. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study showed that 42 percent of employers are preparing to increase premiums next year; 39 percent of employers are preparing to increase out-of-pocket expenses for doctor visits next year; 37 percent of employers are preparing to increase out-of-pocket prescription drug costs next year; and 8 percent said they already have reached the tipping point and have decided to drop health care coverage altogether next year.

Mr. Speaker, small businesses in the Commonwealth of Virginia alone spent more than $3 billion on health care premiums last year. That figure is expected to more than double to $7.4 billion during the next decade if we do nothing.

Today, less than half of Virginia's small businesses offer health insurance to their employees, with three-fourths saying they're struggling to do so. The plan offered by our Republican colleagues would only exacerbate that situation and likely push more businesses into withdrawing health care coverage altogether.

But that's not what our businesses want. Not only do two-thirds of Virginia's small businesses say health care reform will play an important part in getting the economy back on track, but more than half of them also say they, themselves, have a responsibility to help provide coverage for their employees.

A majority of Americans--57 percent--say it's now more important than ever to reform our broken health care system. Unfortunately, the plan from our Republican colleagues amounts to ``do nothing and hope for the best.'' Well, we can't afford that plan. And, thankfully, Americans are starting to come to the same realization.

That same poll found that 57 percent of the public faults our Republican colleagues for opposing health care reform more for political reasons than substantive argument.

Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford for premiums to climb 50 percent above the national poverty rate for a family of four. We cannot afford for more employers to pull the plug on providing health care coverage for their employees. We cannot afford to put even more families in the position of struggling to pay for basic needs like health care.

We must deliver reform that will make health care affordable and accessible; cap out-of-pocket expenses; stop the practice of cherry- picking based on preexisting conditions; and protect our small businesses from crippling costs.

We must deliver reform that will once again instill confidence in our Nation's health care system--and that is what we will do here in the House of Representatives this fall.

Madam Speaker, I rise to salute my colleagues Congressman John Dingell and Congressman Jim Moran for their support of a rare natural and national treasure in Northern Virginia, the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve.

In 1959 Congress passed legislation to make this wetland ecosystem a National Park unit, which was introduced by Congressmen Dingell, John Saylor and Henry Reuss. Congressman Moran has introduced H. Res. 701, of which I am a proud cosponsor, to recognize their efforts and the 50th anniversary of Dyke Marsh.

The Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, just south of Alexandria on the Virginia shoreline of the Potomac River, is a rare, 485-acre freshwater, tidal wetland in suburban northern Virginia, just north and east of my district. I was proud to represent this Wildlife Preserve during my tenure as Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. The marsh is 5,000 to 7,000 years old and is one of the most significant temperate, tidal, freshwater, riverine marshes in the National Park system. It is a remnant of the tidal wetlands that once lined the Potomac River.

Congress designated Dyke Marsh as a nature preserve ``so that fish and wildlife development and their preservation as wetland wildlife habitat shall be paramount.'' Today it has 360 known species of plants, 6,000 arthropods, 38 fish, 16 reptiles, 14 amphibians and over 300 birds.

``Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve is a wonderfully complex ecosystem,'' says Georgetown Biology Professor Dr. Edd Barrows. ``It may have as many as 18,000 species, from bacteria through bald eagles.'' Depending on the time and season, visitors can see bullfrogs, snapping turtles, great blue herons, black rat snakes, wood ducks, red-winged blackbirds and plants like pickerelweed, spatter-pond lily and wild rice. It is an important outdoor classroom for students of all ages and a laboratory for many area scientists.

Like all wetlands, Dyke Marsh provides ecological services including flood control, water quality enhancement, habitat, fish nursery, and shoreline stabilization.

I commend Congressman Dingell for his vision, and Congressman Moran for his commitment to preserving this ecological gem. I have been and will continue to be a proud supporter of the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 1707, the Enhanced Partnership With Pakistan Act of 2009.

Mr. Speaker, this is a national security bill. It authorizes military assistance to help Pakistan disrupt and defeat al Qaeda and insurgent elements, and requires that the majority of such assistance be focused on critical counterinsurgency and counterterrorism efforts. Additionally, the bill requires that all military assistance flow through the democratically elected Government of Pakistan.

The legislation authorizes $1.5 billion each year for development and economic assistance. In order for complete release of these funds, the President's Special Representative must certify that Pakistan is making progress towards achieving the principal objectives of U.S. assistance. The legislation also authorizes funding for military education and training and $150 million to equip, train, and professionalize the Pakistani police.

The military funding in this bill has a specific purpose, that Pakistan improve its border security and fight the counterinsurgency within its own borders. There's a new provision that specifically bars the use of foreign military financing for any new F-16 purchases or upgrades.

I understand the concerns about Pakistan's commitment to fighting terrorism. I myself have concerns about its nuclear arsenal and its past history of proliferation. That is why the bill states that no security-related assistance may be provided to Pakistan until the Secretary of State certifies that the Government of Pakistan is continuing to cooperate with the United States. Moreover, Pakistan must demonstrate a sustained commitment toward combating terrorist groups.

With these protections, Mr. Speaker, I believe this is a very useful bill. I thank the chairman for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, this summer many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle lined up to criticize the Recovery and Reinvestment Act on the floor of the House claiming it wasn't working. In an August 21 newsletter, the minority leader stated, ``By any objective measure, the trillion-dollar `stimulus' spending bill isn't working.''

Let's examine some of those objective measures:

The number of new unemployment claims dropped in August, for the lowest total of the year. In addition, the number of people claiming continuing unemployment benefits for more than 1 week decreased by 123,000. Unemployment remains a challenge, because, as we all know, unemployment is a lagging indicator. But because of the Recovery Act, we have saved 1 million jobs that otherwise would have been lost in this economy.

This June, home sales increased by 11 percent over May, the largest increase over 8 years. And total home sales this year have increased by 3.4 percent over 2008, indicating that the housing market is stabilizing.

After declining by 0.1 percent in the last economic quarter of the Bush administration, U.S. productivity growth has increased 6.6 percent in the most recent quarter.

The manufacturing sector is improving. Orders for durable goods were up 4.9 percent in July, the largest increase in 2 years, and has risen in 3 of the past 5 months.

The Consumer Confidence Index rose once again in August to 54.1, more than double the February low of 25, demonstrating that consumers are viewing the economy in an increasingly positive light.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has grown more than 11 percent this year, returning value to 401(k)s and college funds of American families. We know there is a lot more to be done, but even Republican economists have stated the stimulus is working.

Mark Zandi, the economic adviser to John McCain's Presidential campaign last year, said that the stimulus has contributed to GDP growth. He stated, ``As the fiscal stimulus provides its maximum benefit in the next few months, real GDP should turn from negative to positive in the current quarter.'' Current projections show that the Recovery Act increased GDP by 2.3 percent this year.

When we voted on the Recovery Act this winter, economists from across the political spectrum emphatically stated that a fiscal stimulus was essential. Dr. Zandi, for example, stated, ``The stimulus plan as laid out will provide a vital boost to a flagging economy.'' President Reagan's chief economic adviser Martin Feldstein testified before a joint House and Senate committee that a large fiscal stimulus would be essential to avoid catastrophic unemployment. Ben Bernanke, the Republican-appointed Chairman of the Federal Reserve stated, ``The incoming administration and Congress are currently discussing a substantial fiscal package that, if enacted, could provide a significant boost to economic activity.'' Since then, that same Chairman has said explicitly that the stimulus bill for the recovery is, in fact, responsible for a large part of that recovery.

Dr. Zandi, Dr. Feldstein, and Chairman Bernanke were all right, as the objective data now shows.

My friends on the other side of the aisle have made a decision to oppose virtually every initiative of President Obama no matter what the substance or content. Now, as President Obama sets to reform our broken health care system, they are at it once again, refusing to play a constructive role in the process.

President Obama has worked toward a bipartisan solution for health care and has made a number of positive

overtures to incorporate several concepts proposed by the Republican side of the aisle. For example, he committed to tort reform. He embraced Senator John McCain's initiative on providing low-cost protection for individuals with preexisting medical conditions. He pledged to work with any serious effort to improve and provide more affordable, accessible health care for all Americans. Despite the fact that the President has incorporated Republican ideas and proposals into his plan, the other side still refuses to work with him. Their plan: Just say, ``no.''

When faced with the largest recession since World War II, the American people didn't want partisan bickering; they wanted solutions. With the Recovery Act and other stabilizing measures, we have enacted those solutions, and we have seen positive results. Our economic recovery efforts are working. But the Republicans just said, ``no.''

The need for health care reform is clear. Health insurance premiums over the past decade have increased three times greater than incomes, and they will increase 5 percent more this year. Millions of Americans with preexisting medical conditions are finding themselves unable to access health care even if they have health insurance. A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that without reform, 8 percent of businesses will drop health insurance for their employees altogether. And still, Republicans are saying, ``no.''

When providing affordable and accessible health care, the American people will not accept ``no'' for an answer any longer. They want to hear us say, ``yes.''

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the one hundred fifth birthday of Rowena Ellison on September 25, 2009.

Rowena Ellison was born in Minnieville, Virginia at the Windsor Farm on September 25, 1904. Rowena was the fourth of eight children born to Luther Windsor and Minnie Alexander. She married Roy Ellison from Texas and moved to Alexandria, Virginia in 1936. Together they raised five children, each of whom graduated from George Washington High School. Rowena Windsor has 13 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. Rowena was widowed in 1969. She continues to live in Alexandria with the help of her children.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

I thank my friend and colleague from New York. I just wanted to amplify the point you just made, Mr. Tonko. Last week the Kaiser Family Foundation issued a report. This isn't coming from any committee in Congress. This is an independent analysis. It said that the average family of four in the United States is currently spending over $13,000 a year for health care coverage. If we do nothing, by 2018, in only 9 years, that $13,000 a year will be $30,000 a year, pushing health care affordability beyond the reach of millions of American families if we do nothing.

There are real costs to inaction when it comes to health care.

I would say to my friend from New York, Madam Speaker, that I think this whole issue of the distortions health care causes on the labor market really impede and constitute a significant barrier to the fostering of innovation and entrepreneurship in the United States because, as our friend from Maine just indicated, millions of Americans have to make decisions about where they will work and at what they will work, not because they think that's necessarily what they're going to be best at or not because they're willing to take a chance with a startup company, understanding it might fail but, on the other hand, it might be the next Microsoft, but because they can't afford to because they have a preexisting condition.

Forty-five percent of us who have health care insurance have a previous existing condition, and you may have a spouse or a child with a previous existing condition on that policy. And if you move to a smaller risk pool or, God forbid, no risk pool at all because that small startup or that small company can no longer afford health care coverage, you risk the catastrophic illness you just talked about, Mr. Tonko, which drives families into bankruptcy.

In my district, which is a relatively affluent district compared to many others, we had 1,430 families last year in the 11th Congressional District of Virginia who filed for bankruptcy because of health care costs. And no American family should have to face that kind of ``Sophie's choice'' over health care in America.

Absolutely.

In my district, I've started something called ``house calls.'' In fact, CNN followed me around one day actually at it, saying, you know, it's not that often a Member of Congress makes house calls, but this one did.

What I did was sit around a kitchen table at a home with some neighbors in this particular neighborhood in my district and listened to stories. And while, obviously, there exists lots of considerable and legitimate fear and angst about what might constitute health care reform, what might be in a bill or not that we heard this summer, we also know there was also an awful lot of orchestrated noise to try to prevent the legitimate debate on health care sometimes and maybe to drown out these stories of average Americans and what they go through at the hands of the health care insurers.

So I'm picking up on what Ms. Pingree said, but I am talking about those who have insurance, and yet time after time what I find when I go back to my district is stories, often horror stories, but certainly stories about capricious, arbitrary decision making.

We heard a lot of rhetoric this summer about I don't want a lot of government bureaucrats standing between me and my doctor and deciding on my medical care, and I think all three of us would agree with that. We don't want that either. There is a bureaucrat, however, if you're insured in America, standing between you, often, and your medical care, and that's not a government bureaucrat. It's an insurance bureaucrat sitting in a cubicle somewhere, looking for ways to shave costs irrespective of the medical requirements you may have, and sometimes and all too often irrespective of what the recommendation of your doctor may be in terms of best treatment or testing or both. Time and again, we hear sad story after sad story of lack of coverage, capping the amount of coverage, refusal to allow testing or procedures, often for very arbitrary reasons.

One of the things I hope, and I know that a number of the versions of health care reform legislation contain, is that we will actually address that. We will rein that in. We will protect health care consumers in America from that kind of capricious behavior by insurers whose only motivation isn't your health or your best interest; it is profit.

There's nothing wrong with profit, but profit ought not to be the driving motivation in the most important part of our daily lives: our good health and well-being. And it seems to me we ought to be putting America's health before the insurers' profit motive.

You know, Mr. Tonko, a lot of folks who have health care coverage have to look at what is the trajectory moving out in the next few years.

Let me give you an example of a couple I met in one of my house calls. This is a gentleman with a Ph.D. His livelihood is to tutor high school students in our school system who need extra help trying to make their way in the academic career, but he's considered a contract employee and, therefore, has to get his own health insurance. He has no benefits.

Seven years ago health insurance coverage for him and his family of four cost $4,000 a year. Absolutely manageable, easily fit into his budget. Seven

years later, no change in his health profile, it now costs $18,000 a year for that same family of four, and that includes no dental, no vision, and no drug coverage. He now has to look at the next few years of whether he has to drop that health insurance policy because he can no longer afford it because now it involves real tradeoffs economically.

This is not somebody who is abjectly poor; this is the middle class actually looking at terrible choices they never thought they would have to make regarding health care.

Adding to what you just said, Mr. Tonko, if we do nothing over the next 10 years, the cost to small business for health care in America will climb to $2.4 trillion. And that means that 38 percent that currently provide health care coverage will drop to something like 30 percent or below.

It is unacceptable. Of course, an awful lot of fear was engendered by misinformation spread over the summer about what would and would not happen to Medicare. No current Medicare benefits will be in any way negatively affected by any of the legislation that we are looking at. As a matter of fact, those benefits will be enhanced by the closing of the doughnut hole that you just referred to, Mr. Tonko. That is the hole that doesn't cover the price of prescription drugs at a certain expense range for senior citizens, meaning that their out-of-pocket cost for prescription drugs goes through the roof. They often have to make very difficult choices between food and drugs at the end of the month. We want to close that doughnut hole.

You know, in addition, if you actually enumerated the benefit enhancement for our seniors, Medicare stays not only intact; it gets better. We close the doughnut hole, making it easier for seniors to be able to afford and to access the prescription medications that they need.

We eliminate copayments for routine, preventive medical care, including screenings, saving seniors hundreds of dollars a year.

We improve and increase reimbursement payments to doctors who serve Medicare patients, which is a complaint we often hear from our senior citizens, that because of reimbursement rates being inadequate, doctors put a cap on how many Medicare patients they will see. And in some cases they get out of business all together. Obviously, that is not a good thing for our senior population.

This bill addresses all three of those reforms, making Medicare benefits more generous to our senior citizens, protecting the benefit base they have got, and augmenting it. Unfortunately, some of the misinformation spread in the summer would suggest otherwise, creating needless fear and stress in our senior population which relies so heavily on an efficient and effective Medicare system.

Absolutely. I think the numbers you just cited for New York State actually are higher than the national average, and there are regional disparities here in terms of the growth of cost. But what we do know, based on the Kaiser Family Foundation study is that the average increase in insurance premiums over the last decade was 138 percent, far outstripping the rate of inflation and far outstripping, as you point out, the growth in wages and income. As a matter of fact, that was negative.

So there is no lodestone to measure what is happening in health care; but we do know that it is fast outstripping the ability of people's income to support, and it is far and away above the rate of any inflation index, and it is going to be pushing itself beyond the index of affordability in the not-so-distant future if we don't do something in the way of health care reform.

I need to leave the floor, but I want to thank my colleague for his leadership and for providing us a forum for a civil discussion about such an important topic.

It is not sustainable. I thank my colleague.