Floor Statements

I ask unanimous consent that Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H. Con. Res. 359 which was received from the House.

I ask unanimous consent the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements related to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 9:30 a.m., Friday, May 5. I further ask that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, and the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved, and there then be a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Tomorrow, the Senate will continue to discuss medical liability and small business health plans. Tomorrow, it will be necessary to file cloture motions on the motions to proceed to these bills. Senators can expect two votes Monday afternoon at approximately 5:15. These votes will be cloture votes to proceed to the two medical liability bills. If cloture is not invoked on these bills, we will have a cloture vote on Tuesday morning on the motion to proceed to the small business health plans bill.

I am pleased we will be addressing these health care issues which, if we enact this legislation, both the medical liability and the small business health plans, will diminish the cost of health care to everyone who is listening, to my colleagues and others listening across America. There is no question about it, the cost of health care will go down.

Secondly, it will improve access to health care. Right now, it is crazy. It is absurd that expectant mothers have to worry about whether they are going to have an obstetrician to deliver their child or there are people who have to worry about, if they are in a trauma accident, whether there is going to be somebody at the hospital who can give them the immediate treatment, therapy that can be curative at the time they arrive. But that is the reality. That is where we are today.

If we come together, put partisanship aside and address these bills on principle, then we can do a lot for the American people in terms of affordable health care, assuring access to health care, and raising the quality of health care.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order.

Mr. President, this morning we will begin a 30-minute period for the transaction of morning business. Following morning business, we will resume consideration of the emergency supplemental appropriations bill. Pending is the final division of Senator Coburn's amendment, and there will be 60 minutes of debate on that division. Therefore, Senators can expect the first vote to occur at approximately 11 a.m. today.

Since cloture was invoked yesterday by a vote of 92 to 4, we are now operating under the provisions of rule XXII. A lot of amendments are still pending to the bill; however, many of those amendments are not germane and, therefore, will fall to a point of order.

With that said, there will be some amendments that will qualify for consideration, and we will have votes on those amendments throughout the day.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 463, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, this resolution we addressed is a resolution recognizing the 58th anniversary of the independence of the State of Israel. I am proud to be the sponsor of this resolution and appreciate my colleagues for joining me on this resolution.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 464, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk that is due for a second reading.

Mr. President, in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to further proceeding.

Mr. President, I understand there are two bills at the desk, and I ask for their first reading en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask for a second reading, and in order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request, all en bloc.

Mr. President, I will continue with our business, but I have to stop a moment and note that both of these bills, S. 22 and S. 23, address an issue that is very close to my heart because they focus on reform of a medical liability system, or a medical malpractice system that is just flat out broken. The sad thing about it is that the patients suffer. Future mothers--women who are pregnant--have to worry about whether an obstetrician will be available if they begin to have problems during their pregnancy. Over half the counties in America don't have an obstetrician. If you are so unfortunate as to have an accident driving home tonight or in to work tomorrow, you want to make sure there is a neurosurgeon on call to be at that hospital to treat you in the event of a traumatic accident.

The truth is neurosurgeons today are fleeing from taking trauma emergency

calls because of the likelihood--no matter how good they are, no matter what their past record is, or no matter what they do--of being sued by predatory personal injury trial lawyers who are after them because they can make a buck. That is the reality we are talking about. People should be able to depend on access to good quality of care, whether it is delivering a baby that future moms have to worry about--and in America it shouldn't happen--or having to worry about whether there is somebody appropriate to treat you in the event there is trauma.

That is where the vote is going to be when we debate these two bills, and hopefully we will be debating these bills sometimes in the next 3 or 4 days.

I do have to add the other component to it because the other issue, aside from the access issue, is the cost issue. Everyone knows that health care costs are skyrocketing, and they are out of reach for many, if not most, Americans today. As a physician, I can tell you that if you know you are going to be sued, no matter who you are, and almost all physicians are sued today--almost all physicians are sued--if you know you are going to be sued, you practice what we call defensive medicine. And since you know you can be sued sometime in the future, for every patient who comes in, to protect yourself when you are sued, no matter if you have done anything wrong, you end up ordering lots of extra tests to have a paper trail documented to show that you made the right decisions throughout.

It is estimated that so-called defensive medicine cost is anywhere from $100 billion to $125 billion a year. In my own State it is estimated to be about $2 billion a year. That is wasted money, inefficient use, money that is thrown away. Who pays for it? The American people do. The premiums go up. The cost issue is a separate issue from the access of care. But the access of care issue and the cost issue, the higher you drive up the costs and the lower the access, quality falls. That is what is going to be debated when we address these two bills on medical liability by Senator Ensign and the second bill by Senator Santorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H. Con. Res. 90 just received from the House and at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the current resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating thereto be printed in the Record as if read without intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand in adjournment until 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 4. I further ask that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved, there then be a period for the transaction of morning business for up to 60 minutes with the Democratic leader or his designee in control of the first 30 minutes, to be followed by 30 minutes under the control of the majority leader or his designee; provided further that the Senate then resume the consideration of H.R. 4939 as under the previous order; provided further that the chairman and ranking member be recognized for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, for the information of our colleagues, all post-cloture time has been consumed on the supplemental appropriations bill. The only action remaining on the bill will be the two amendments pending, and then a vote on passage. I understand that we may not need a vote on both of the amendments, and therefore we will have two or three votes in the morning to conclude action on the supplemental. Other votes could occur on Thursday's session as we try to clear some executive nominations, including two district court judges.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in adjournment under the previous order until 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.

Mr. President, in a couple minutes, we will begin 1 hour of debate prior to the scheduled cloture vote on the emergency supplemental appropriations bill. That vote should occur around 11 a.m. this morning. I expect cloture will be invoked today, and that will allow us a road to finish this bill on Wednesday. If cloture is invoked, Senators should anticipate further votes over the course of the day. The chairman and ranking member will be scheduling the votes on the pending amendments that qualify under the germaneness rules. We will also recess today for our weekly policy meetings.

Order for Recess

I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate recess from 12:15 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. today for those meetings and that the time be counted against cloture under rule XXII if cloture is invoked.

Mr. President, Senators should expect a busy couple of days as we vote on the remaining appropriations amendments today and tomorrow.

Finally, I also remind my colleagues that Senators have until 10:30 this morning to file their second-degree amendments to the pending appropriations bill.

Mr. President, today the Senate will vote on cloture for the emergency spending supplemental appropriations bill. The President has made it clear that he will veto any supplemental bill coming out of the committee that exceeds the administration's request. I applaud the President's determination to stick to true emergency spending, and I will support such a veto, if necessary, to keep that Federal spending under control. Families have to live within their means and so should we in Washington. I think we need to tighten the belt and follow a course of strict fiscal discipline.

The President has taken a strong stance on a must-pass piece of legislation that will bolster our national security, hurricane recovery, and border security efforts. I expect my colleagues to work in good faith to meet the President's request.

The President submitted his emergency spending request in late February. The House acted on the supplemental in March. The legislation needs to be on the President's desk before Memorial Day. It is time for us in the Senate to bring debate on this measure to a close. We need to support our troops who are fighting to protect us. We need to support our fellow citizens who are working hard to rebuild and recover their homes and communities on the gulf coast. We need to focus resources on securing our borders against illegal immigration.

That is what this vote is all about. These are extraordinary responsibilities, and we cannot, we should not play politics at such critical times. Time is limited. We must finish this legislation this week so we can quickly get a conference report with the House and get it to the President for his signature.

Indeed, by pulling together, we can move this legislation forward and address the critical work of the American people.