Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 106 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 106 CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION Vol. 146 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2000 No. 14 Senate The Senate was not in session today. Its next meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 22, 2000, at 11 a.m. House of Representatives TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2000 The House met at 9:30 a.m. mer, nearly 1 out of every 3 days was in Metro stations and designated growth f violation of ozone clean air standards. sites. There are things that can, in Mr. Speaker, of course, it is no secret fact, work and make a difference. MORNING HOUR DEBATES that in this metropolitan area we are Last week in Atlanta, Transpor- The SPEAKER. Pursuant to the sprawling far more rapidly than we in- tation Secretary Rodney Slater order of the House of January 19, 1999, crease in population. From 1970 to 1990, launched the Commuter Choice Initia- the Chair will now recognize Members Metropolitan Washington population tive, a program that was created in from lists submitted by the majority grew 25 percent, yet the area that we TEA±21 to provide $65 a month in tax- and minority leaders for morning hour consume increased over 60 percent. free transit or vanpool benefits for em- The suburbs here grew by a popu- debates. The Chair will alternate rec- ployees in both the private and the lation of 18.3 percent while the District ognition between the parties, with each public sector. itself lost 17 percent of its residents. In While this effort is a step in the right party limited to not to exceed 30 min- the first 7 years of the 1990s, the Dis- direction, we in Congress need to make utes, and each Member except the ma- trict was hemorrhaging one person sure that the Federal Government jority leader, the minority leader or every hour. leads by example. Unfortunately, here the minority whip limited to not to ex- There are solutions which we know in our congested metropolitan area, ceed 5 minutes. will not work; one is trying to simply there is no uniform program or policy The Chair recognizes the gentleman pave our way out of congestion. The for our Federal employees, yet 350,000 from Oregon (Mr. BLUMENAUER) for 5 congestion in the United States will Federal employees make up the major- minutes. triple over the next 15 years, even if we ity of people who work here in and near f increase capacity 20 percent. transit. The same people who tell us that we There is no uniform parking or com- LIVABLE COMMUNITIES have the second worst congestion in muter policy across the Federal Gov- Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, for the country found that, despite rough- ernment. The costs and subsidy for people who care about livable commu- ly $30.8 billion spent by urban areas to parking varies, different levels of tran- nities, the D.C. metropolitan area is ei- add more vehicle lanes, congestion lev- sit subsidy. ther a test case or a basket case; some- els remained almost identical to urban Mr. Speaker, the administration is times it is both. areas that did not. looking at an Executive order for Fed- In terms of quality of life for the Mr. Speaker, of course, here we do eral transportation in the National commuter, the experience in recent not have any thoughtful regional land Capital region. This Executive order decades commands a horrid fascina- use. But at an era of smart growth, we that they are looking at would require tion. Between 1982 and 1994, there was a seem to be continuing to engage in each Federal agency in the region to 69 percent increase in the time D.C. dumb growth, like putting a massive support transit and commercial van- area commuters spent stuck in traffic. stadium with huge public subsidy out pool benefits, to increase carpool and The average speed on the Beltway has in the middle of nowhere where it is vanpool benefits, encourage bicycle decreased from 47 miles an hour to 23 virtually inaccessible any way other and walking and provide shuttle serv- miles per hour. than by car and then being surprised ice between transits points and agency In D.C., we are told that the average when on opening day it is jammed and workplaces where appropriate. commuter spends 76 hours a year stuck some people actually are abandoning Last week, the gentleman from Vir- in traffic; that is almost 10 working their cars to get to the game. ginia (Mr. WOLF) introduced legislation days sitting in the car absolutely im- We continue to scatter development that would make this happen much mobile. In Northern Virginia this sum- throughout the region away from faster via the legislative route. His bill b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H375 . VerDate 27-JAN-2000 01:54 Feb 16, 2000 Jkt 079060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4636 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A15FE7.000 pfrm02 PsN: H15PT1 H376 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð HOUSE February 15, 2000 would expand Federal employee com- There is another reason why this re- is scheduled to meet with President muter options and accept the Federal port is so interesting, and that is that Clinton this morning at the White Government's responsibility as the sin- the CBO estimate for the Senate bill House. He will also be holding meetings gle largest employer in the Capital re- shows an increase of about 1.3 percent with Secretary of State Albright and gion to reduce traffic congestion and over 4 years. Energy Secretary Richardson. air pollution. Now some would say that is great. I I would like to take this opportunity, Mr. Speaker, I am excited about the would point out that that is a recogni- Mr. Speaker, to express my hope that gentleman from Virginia's leadership tion that the Senate bill does almost President Clinton and the other offi- and the way that the administration is nothing. It only covers about 43 million cials in his administration will use moving. I hope, however it is done, people. It does not cover the 160 million these meetings to urge President that we do not let an extra minute go people that our bill covers, and it does Aliyev to work in good faith for Azer- by. People who are caught in traffic as not have an effective internal and ex- baijan for an Azerbaijan-negotiated we speak this moment deserve the best ternal appeals process, because if one settlement to the Nagorno Karabagh from the Federal Government to make looks at the fine language in the Sen- conflict. our communities more livable, to make ate bill, it still says at the end of the In particular, it is imperative that our families safe, healthy, and eco- day that an HMO can say whatever Mr. Aliyev be urged to accept the di- nomically secure. they want is medically necessary or is rect participation of representatives Having a uniform comprehensive ap- not. Whereas our bill, the bill that from Nagorno Karabagh in the negotia- proach to the Federal Government's passed this House, addresses that issue. tions. In the minds of many, the transportation issues in the metropoli- Mr. Speaker, I would advise Members Nagorno Karabagh conflict is viewed as tan region is an important step in that to look at this; but to remember this, a bilateral dispute between Armenia direction. that when they look at that 4.1 per- and Azerbaijan. While these two coun- f cent, it is cumulative over 5 years. tries must obviously be part of the ne- That, in effect, is about the cost to the gotiations in the final settlement, the THE CBO REPORTS ON MEDICARE people of Karabagh who have their own HMOs average consumer of one Big Mac per month. That is what we are talking democratically elected government The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. must have a seat at that table. After about in terms of the cost, not an ex- OSE). Under the Speaker's announced all, it is their homeland and their lives cessive amount for people to know that policy of January 19, 1999, the gen- that are at stake in this peace process. all that money they are currently tleman from Iowa (Mr. GANSKE) is rec- No one else should be allowed to make spending on their health care pre- ognized during morning hour debates these life and death decisions for them. for 5 minutes. miums will actually mean something if Mr. Speaker, the United States is one Mr. GANSKE. Mr. Speaker, remem- they get sick. of the cochairs of the Minsk Group, the Mr. Speaker, I just briefly wanted to ber when we debated the Bipartisan body under the Organization for Secu- Consensus Managed Care Reform Act mention a report by the Inspector Gen- rity and Cooperation in Europe, the here on the floor about 3 months ago, eral for Medicare. She looked at Medi- OSCE, charged with facilitating a ne- and the HMO industry said the sky will care HMOs. We are all concerned about gotiated settlement to this dispute. fall, the sky will fall; premiums will go fraud and abuse. This is what the In- More than a year ago, the U.S. and out of site. spector General found that Medicare our Minsk Group partners put forth a We get the accurate answer, the ac- HMOs are charging the Federal Gov- plan for resolving this conflict known curate answer from the Congressional ernment for: $250,000 in meetings for as the common state approach.