S13328 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE October 27, 1999 after the junior Senator from Wash- One of the reasons I have come to the wrote me about her mother. Her moth- ington. floor tonight is my hope that we can er had recently spent more than $2,220 Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I amend really show how urgent this need is. on prescription drugs. The daughter my unanimous consent request and ask What I have done, as the poster next said—this was particularly poignant, in unanimous consent that following the to me says, is urge senior citizens to my view—the only way her mother was comments of the Senator from Oregon, send in copies of their prescription able to, in effect, cover her prescrip- Senator MURRAY from the State of drug bills, directly to their Senator, tion needs was that her mother was Washington be allowed to speak, fol- U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. I have getting samples from the doctor. The lowed by the Senator from Florida, decided I am going to, in my discus- fact that she spent more than $2,220 on who would make the final remarks of sions on the floor each evening, read a prescription drugs and the year isn’t the evening. portion of the letters I am receiving even over yet is dramatized by the fact The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without from seniors at home in Oregon. that the cost would be much greater objection, it is so ordered. I read about one group in the news- were it not for the fact that she was The Chair recognizes the Senator paper the other day who said it is not getting samples to supplement what from Oregon. really that urgent a need. More than 20 she was paying for. That is the kind of Mr. WYDEN. I thank the Chair. percent of the Nation’s senior citizens account we are hearing from seniors in f are spending over $1,000 a year out of Oregon, as they, as this poster says, MEDICARE COVERAGE FOR pocket for their prescription medicine. send in copies of their prescription PRESCRIPTION DRUGS I read a couple of nights ago about an drug bills. I hope we will get more of elderly woman from southern Oregon that. Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, and col- whose income is just over $1,000 a We need to deal with this issue on a leagues, this is the seventh time I have month in Social Security. She spends bipartisan basis. Senator SNOWE and I come to the floor of the Senate in re- more than half of it on her prescrip- have chosen to model our program cent days to talk about the issue of after the Federal Employees Health Medicare coverage for prescription tions. Those are the kinds of accounts we Benefit Plan. The SPICE proposal we drugs. The reason I do so is I think it are hearing again and again and again. introduced is sort of a senior citizens is so important that before we wrap up The fact is, our senior citizens are get- version of the Federal Employees our work in this session of Congress, ting shellacked twice. First, Medicare Health Benefit Plan. The elderly popu- we take action on this matter, given doesn’t cover prescriptions. That is the lation, of course, is different from that how many vulnerable senior citizens of the Federal workforce, but the there are in this country who simply way the program began in 1965. I was director of the Gray Panthers at home model of trying to offer choices and op- cannot afford their prescriptions. tions and alternatives to make sure for about 7 years before I was elected There is just one bipartisan bill with there is competition in health care of to Congress. The need was very acute respect to prescription drug coverage the kind Senator GRAHAM has advo- back then for prescription drug cov- now before the Senate. It is a piece of cated in the past is very sensible. If it erage. But today it is even more impor- legislation known as the SPICE Act, is good enough for Members of Con- tant, for two reasons. the Senior Prescription Insurance Cov- gress, it certainly ought to be the kind First, the senior citizen, who not erage Equity Act. of thing we look at to cover older peo- only gets no Medicare coverage for It is a bipartisan bill on which I have ple. It is especially important because their prescriptions, is now subsidizing teamed with Senator OLYMPIA SNOWE it can be a model that prevents cost the big buyers such as the health main- of Maine; and it is one that the two of shifting on to other groups of citizens. us are very hopeful this Congress will tenance organizations that are in a po- There are other proposals, for exam- act on before we conclude our work. sition to negotiate big discounts. These ple, that in effect have Medicare sort of There are some who think this issue big buyers, the health maintenance or- buying up all the prescription drugs is too controversial and too difficult to ganizations, have real bargaining and taking the lead as the purchaser. tackle before the next election. I would power and clout. They go out and nego- What concerns me about that approach note that it is going to be more than a tiate a discount; they get a break. If is, I think you will have massive cost year until the next election. We are you are a senior citizen, for example, in shifting on to other groups of individ- going to have a lot of senior citizens Myrtle Creek, OR, or Philomath—I will uals. Nobody in the Congress inten- who are walking on an economic tight- read from those letters in a moment— tionally would want to see a proposal rope, every week balancing their food you end up subsidizing those big buy- developed that would, in effect, give a costs against their fuel costs, and their ers. I don’t think that is right. discount to folks on Medicare and then fuel costs against their medical bills, In addition, since the days when we just have the cost shifted over to some- who are not going to be able to pay for began to push, with the Gray Panthers, body who was 27 years old and had a their prescriptions and their neces- for prescription drug coverage, a lot of couple of kids and was working hard sities if the Senate decides to duck this the new, important prescriptions are and doing their best to get ahead in issue and put it off until after the next preventive in nature. I described sev- life. We have to use marketplace forces election. I think the reason we are sent eral days ago an important anticoagu- to develop and implement this benefit. here is to tackle issues and not just put lant drug that can help with a variety The proposal I have introduced with them off until after the election. of ailments relating to strokes. The Senator SNOWE is one that uses those Over the last few months, Senator cost of that anticoagulant drug is in marketplace forces. It would give sen- SNOWE and I have worked with senior the vicinity of about $1,000 a year. You iors the kind of bargaining power a citizen groups; we have worked with have a full-scale stroke that can come health maintenance organization and a people in the pharmaceutical sector, in about if you don’t get the medicine, big buying group would have, but it the insurance sector, various public- and the cost can be $100,000 a year. wouldn’t involve a lot of price controls. and private-sector organizations; and When people ask me, can this coun- It wouldn’t involve a lot of micro- we believe the SPICE legislation that try afford to cover prescription drugs management. It wouldn’t be sort of we have crafted is the kind of bill that under Medicare, my view is, our coun- one-size-fits-all health care. Members of the Senate can support. try cannot afford not to do it. As part As we go ahead with this bipartisan In fact, as part of the budget, Sen- of this campaign we have launched in campaign, the bill on which Senator ator SNOWE and I teamed up, and we of- the Senate to have seniors send in, as SNOWE and I have teamed up is, in fact, fered a specific funding plan. And 54 this poster says, copies of their pre- the only bipartisan measure now before Members of the Senate are now on scription drug bills, Senator SNOWE and the Senate. I am going to come to this record—they are now specifically on I have teamed up on a bipartisan kind floor as often as I can and urge seniors record—with respect to the Snowe- of plan. I am going to read from these to send in copies of their prescription WYDEN funding plan for paying for pre- letters. I will take just a couple of min- drug bills directly to their Senator and scription drug benefits. So we are now utes for that tonight. just keep bringing to our colleagues’ in a position, it seems to me, col- Just a couple of days ago, I heard attention the need for action on this leagues, to take specific action. from a woman in Philomath, OR, who issue.

VerDate Mar 15 2010 23:02 Nov 01, 2013 Jkt 081600 PO 00000 Frm 00134 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\1999SENATE\S27OC9.REC S27OC9 mmaher on DSKCGSP4G1 with SOCIALSECURITY October 27, 1999 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S13329 The second letter I want to describe had a dream that the U.S. Congress In 1905, Roosevelt won the Nobel tonight comes from an elderly couple would make sure that older people who Peace Prize for mediating an end to the from my hometown in Portland who aren’t taking their medicines because Russo-Japanese War. said they have already spent $1,750-plus they can’t afford it would be able to But perhaps his greatest contribution on their prescription drug costs so far get this coverage. to future generations of Americans was this year. They wrote: We have saved The opportunity to team up with his passionate advocacy of all our life, never knowing what health Senator SNOWE has been a real pleasure conservationism. The history of our problems would befall us. We are glad for me. She has been speaking out on Nation is marked by activism on public to pay our fair share, but the cost of this issue. I will continue to speak out lands issues. The beginning of the 19th prescription drugs is eating up our sav- on it, and we are going to do every- century was marked by President ings. thing we can to make sure the U.S. Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of the Finally, a constituent from Myrtle Senate acts on this question and does Louisiana Territory. That one pur- Creek has written that recently they it in this session of the Congress. chase added almost 530 million acres to spent $700 on prescription medicines. I yield the floor. the United States. The Louisiana Pur- This exceeds the so-called average The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- chase changed America from an east- many of the experts in the beltway are ator from Florida is recognized. ern coastal Nation to a continental em- talking about as not being that big a pire. deal for senior citizens. This is a bill f Roosevelt set the tone for public incurred by an older person from Myr- IN HONOR OF THEODORE lands issues at the beginning of the tle Creek. We hear the same thing from ROOSEVELT AND JOHN CHAFEE 20th century. His words and his actions Portland, OR. We hear the same thing created a new call to America’s envi- from Philomath, OR. This is what we THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM ronmental ethic. Theodore Roosevelt are hearing all across this country. Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I rise said, ‘‘We must ask ourselves if we are It would be a terrible shame, in my today to honor two visionary states- leaving for future generations an envi- view, for the Senate to say we are not men—President Theodore Roosevelt ronment that is as good, or better, going to act, we are going to let this and Senator John Chafee. Today, Octo- than what we found.’’ become a big campaign issue in the 2000 ber 27, 1999, we celebrate what would He lived up to his challenge. Mr. election, and Democrats and Repub- have been President Theodore Roo- President, listen to what Theodore licans can engage in a lot of finger sevelt’s 141st birthday. Last Friday, we Roosevelt contributed to the public pointing and, in effect, sort of put out celebrated John Chafee’s 77th—and lands legacy of the United States. Dur- that the other side doesn’t care, the much to our sadness his last. ing his period in the White House, from other side isn’t interested. We will end Working at opposite ends of the 20th 1901 to 1909, Theodore Roosevelt des- up seeing this issue drag on well into century, these two outstanding leaders ignated 150 national forests; the first 51 the next century. contributed greatly to the cause of pre- Federal bird reservations; 5 national I believe the Snowe-Wyden legisla- serving our precious natural resources parks; the first 18 national monuments; tion, the only bipartisan bill now be- for this and especially for future gen- the first 4 national game preserves; and fore the Senate on prescription drugs, erations. the first 21 reclamation projects. may not be the last word on this issue. President Roosevelt was born on Oc- Theodore Roosevelt also established It is not going to be enacted into law tober 27, 1858, in New York City. He is the National Wildlife Refuge System, with every I dotted and every T remembered as one of our finest Presi- beginning with Pelican Island in Flor- crossed, as it has been proposed thus dents. He is honored as such by being ida, which was designated in 1903. To- far, but I do believe it can serve as a the only 20th century President to join gether, these projects equaled Federal model. Presidents Washington, Jefferson, and protection for almost 230 million It is bipartisan. Fifty-four Members Lincoln at Mount Rushmore. acres—a land area equivalent to that of in the Senate are already on record as In 1901, after the assassination of all the east coast States from Maine to having cast a vote for the specific plan President McKinley, Theodore Roo- Florida and just under one-half of the we have to fund this program. And so sevelt became America’s youngest area of the Louisiana Purchase. the opportunity to make the lives of President. As a child, Roosevelt was Theodore Roosevelt’s contributions older people in this country better, to faced with poor health and asthma. To to the public land trust cannot be help those who are scrimping and not escape the pollution of New York City, equaled. Perhaps even greater was his taking their drugs the way they ought Roosevelt’s father would often take contagious passion for the ethic of con- to, to be able to do it in a way that him to Long Island for extended visits. servation that he managed to instill uses marketplace kinds of forces and It was there that Roosevelt began his for the first time in America’s con- provides choices and options, just the lifelong devotion to the outdoors and sciousness, the idea of conservation way our families get, seems to be an to vigorous exercise. His dedication to and environmental protection as goals opportunity we cannot afford to pass the ‘‘strenuous life’’ was a hallmark of worthy of pursuit. up. his career. Mr. President, Senator John Chafee I know Senator GRAHAM, who has In 1884, his first wife, Alice Lee Roo- was a leader in the Theodore Roosevelt done good work on the health care sevelt, and his mother died on the same model. Senator Chafee was a major issue and the prescription issue as a day. Roosevelt spent much of the next participant in every piece of environ- member of the Finance Committee, is two years on his ranch, the Elkhorn, mental legislation that passed the Con- here to talk. The hour is late. But I in- located in the Badlands of the Dakota gress since the early 1980s. He authored tend to keep coming to the floor of the Territory. the Superfund program, created in 1980 U.S. Senate and pushing for action on Today, a portion of this ranch is in- to direct and fund the cleanup of haz- this issue. There is a bipartisan bill be- cluded in the national park named in ardous waste dump sites and leaking fore the Senate now. This would be the his honor—the Theodore Roosevelt Na- underground storage tanks. kind of issue that could be a legacy for tional Park in North Dakota. History In 1982, he sponsored the Coastal Bar- this session of the Congress. I intend to shows Roosevelt to be a true visionary rier Resources Act, a law that resulted keep coming to the floor of the U.S. as one reviews his many accomplish- in the preservation of thousands of Senate, reading from the letters I am ments. The Panama Canal, one of the acres of coastline throughout the Na- getting from home, urging seniors to world’s engineering marvels, would not tion. do as this poster says: Send in copies of have been complete without President He led major reform of the Clean your prescription drug bills. Roosevelt’s tenacious leadership. He is Water Act in 1986, introducing more I intend to come back to this floor remembered by business and labor as a thorough controls on industrial pollu- again and again and again, until we get ‘‘trust buster’’ who spearheaded the tion and a new emphasis on non-point action on this matter. For years, since dissolution of a large railroad monop- source pollution. the days when I was director of the Or- oly in the Northwest using the Sher- He created the National Estuary Pro- egon Gray Panthers at home, I have man Antitrust Act. gram to protect coastal resources and

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