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As for my request for additional funding for HIV/AIDS this appropriation measure will place an additional $97 million over the amount initially requested by the Administration bring their appropriation to $767 million for Fiscal year 2001. It is my hope that this additional funding will go those who are in greatest need minority HIV/AIDS programs. Minority AIDS
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Congresses, despite the fact that minorities are the fastest growing population infected with AIDS/HIV.
I thank the Clinton Administration for taking the bold step of formally recognizing that the spread of HIV/AIDS in the world today is an international crisis, through his declaration of HIV/AIDS to be a National Security threat. I am pleased to see that funding for the Ryan White AIDS program has been increased by 13% to $2.5 billion for the next fiscal year. Further, funding for the National Institutes of Medicine has been increased to $2.4 billion, which is 14% over last year's appropriations. 13.7 million children suffer from mental health problems. The National Mental Health Association reports that most people who commit suicide have a mental or emotional disorder. The most common is depression and although one in five children and adolescents had a diagnosable mental, emotional, or behavioral problem that can lead to school failure, substance abuse, violence or suicide, 75 to 80 percent of these children do not receive any services in the form of specialty treatment or some form of mental health intervention.
This bill will also fund education for our nation's children at $6.5 billion, which is 18% more than was appropriated last year, and is in fact the largest annual increase in the history of the Department of Education. This le gislation will allow school districts throughout the United States to work on reducing class sizes in the early grades, create small, successful, safer schools, renovate over 3,500 schools, and increase the number of children who have access to Head Start by an additional 600,000.
This bill also incorporates the Fiscal Year 2001 appropriations for the Department of Labor at $664 million or 64 percent over last year's funding. I am very pleased to see that the funding for the Health and Human Services Department is at $48.8 billion, which is $6.6 billion over last year's appropriations. After the years of cuts to this vital program today we are finally recognizing that the health safety and welfare of America's disadvantaged should be addressed with adequate resources by the agency charged with providing care to them.
Many Houstonians' lives were saved by the additional funding from LIHEAP and this appropriations will provide $1.4 billion for the coming year. I thank my colleagues and urge them to support this appropriation measure.
Mr. BENTSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the omnibus appropriations legislation that includes funding for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education, Treasur y, and Legislative appropriations bill as well as $35 billion for the Medicare and Medicaid programs. This comprehensive legislation is critically important and will ensure that all Federal agencies receive sufficient federal funds for Fiscal Year 2001. I am also pleased that legislation includes tax provisions as well as provisions to modernize the Commodity Futures Trade Commission, and reauthorize the Small Business Administration.
I am especially pleased that this legislation includes provisions similar to legislation which I sponsored (H.R. 1298) which would allow schools, homeless shelters, and housing program agencies to presumptively enroll those children who are eligible for either Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). It is estimated that up to 800,000 of the 1.4 million uninsured children in Texas are eligible for, but not enrolled, in the Medicaid program. This provision will speed up the application process and ensure that these children are immediately enrolled in Medicaid to get the services that they need. I believe that this provision is the right thing for these children and will actually save taxpayer funds by ensuring that these children get the preventive care they need. It is cheaper to provide health care for these children rather than to pay for their care in emergency rooms. I also pleased that these provisions ensure that states will not be penalized if they expand their presumptive eligibility program. Under current law, states are required to deduct any costs related to this presumptive program from their SCHIP allotment. These provisions would correct this inequity by permitting states to simply expand this program without a penalty.
A second priority item in this omnibus appropriations bill is the $20.3 billion NIH budget included in this bill. As a Co-Chair for the Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus, maximizing the NIH budget is one of my highest priorities. This $20.3 billion is 14 percent higher than last year's budget and is our third installment in doubling the NIH's budget over five years. This additional funding will help to ensure that more than one third of the peer-reviewed, meritorious grants will be funded to help find a cure for such diseases as AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes.
Another important provision would provide $235 million for pediatric graduate medical educatio n for inde pendent childrens' hospitals such as Texas Children's Hospital in my district for next year. This provision is similar to legislation I have cosponsored to provide guaranteed Federal funding to train pediatricians. Under current law, independent children's hospitals are not eligible for much graduate medical educatio n funding. This provision would correct this inequity.
This bill also provides $18.4 billion over ten years in Medicare reimbursements for Medicare managed care plans. Just this week, Congressman BENTSEN sponsored a Town Hall in Houston to inform seniors of their health care options in the wake of the massive Medicare HMO withdrawal from Texas on January 1, 2001. This critical funding will establish two minimum floor payments of $475 per person for rural areas and $525 for urban areas to help ensure that Medicare beneficiaries will continue to have health care options. It also provides a ten-year risk adjuster for Medicare managed care plans to ensure higher payments. With higher reimbursements, more managed care plans will remain part of the Medicare program.
I am also pleased that this bill includes provisions to improve and strengthen the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The Medicare provisions will save hospitals $10.7 billion over ten years. The first provisions will increase Medicare reimbursements for Indirect Medical Educatio n (IME) pa yments to teaching hospitals such as those at the Texas Medical Center w hich I represent. This provision will restore $600 million for teaching hospitals by providing an average 6.5 percent IME payment in Fiscal Year 2001, a 6.375 IME payment for Fiscal Year 2002 and 5.5 IME payment for Fiscal Year 2003. This bill also includes provisions to add $100 million to the Medicare disproportionate share hospitals (DSH) program for those hospitals which serve a disproportionate share of the uninsured and underserved communities. This bill would also provide a full annual inflation update for hospitals prospective payment system (PPS) payments in Fiscal Year 2001. In Fiscal Year 2002 and Fiscal Year 2003, the update will be Market Basket Index minus .55 percent. These two provisions will save hospitals $9.5 billion over ten years and are similar to legislation which I have cosponsored to protect our nations' hospitals.
This legislation also includes Medicaid provisions to save hospitals $7.2 billion over ten years. The first provision will increase Medicaid DSH payments, similar to legislation which I have cosponsored. These provisions will also give the state of Texas two extra years to spend their $446 million SCHIP allotment for Fiscal Year 1998 and 1999. Since Texas has only recently begun to enroll children in their SCHIP program, the state of Texas did not spend all of their FY 1998 and FY 1999 allotments in a timely manner. These provisions are critically important to enrolling all of the children who will benefit from this health insurance program.
I am also pleased that this bill includes a provision similar to legislation which I have cosponsored to help patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease. This provision requires the Institute of Medicine to conduct a study on the 24-month waiver in the Medicare disability program. Since many ALS patients do not live for more than 24 months, the current system prevents many patients from enrolling in Medicare. With more information, it is my hope that we will have the research available to convince our colleagues that this waiver should be granted.
I am also pleased that this bill includes several benefits for beneficiaries. I am especially pleased that this bill eliminates the time limits for immunosuppressive drugs. For Medicare patients who have had transplants, these lifesaving drugs are critically important. Under current law, we provide limited coverage for these immunosuppressive drugs. Yet many of these patients must take these immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of their lives to ensure that their transplanted organs are not rejected. This bill also would modernize the mammography benefits for Medicare beneficiaries by ensuring access to cutting-edge digital mammograms. This bill provides higher reimbursements for these digital mammograms and ensures that Medicare reimbursements will be based upon the physician fee schedule rather the current fixed rate system. It also provides coverage for colon cancer tests for all Medicare beneficiaries, instead of only high-risk individuals. With proper screenings, these preventive benefits can save lives and reduce health care costs. I also support provisions that will provide coverage for medical nutritio nal therapy for beneficiaries with diabetes. For many diabetics, maintaining their diet is part of their treatment and nutritional therapy has been shown to reduce complications from this disease. This provision is based upon legislation which I have cosponsored and will help many diabetics to get proper nutritional training.
I also want to highlight several local projects included in this bill. I am especially pleased that this conference report includes $850,000 for the Center for Excellence in Minority
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I am gratified that the 106th Congress' final piece of legislation includes $1.75 million in very important funding for the revitalization of Houston's urban center. These funds will enable the Mainstreet Coalition, a unique city-county-private sector partnership, to continue effectively addressing Houston's urgent urban public transportation, development planning, and aesthetic design needs.
I am very pleased that the final appropriations agreement provides $2 million for the construction of a police training driving track for the Pasadena Police department. Many are aware of the public dangers posed by high-speed police chases. Since 30 percent of peace officer deaths occur in motor vehicle accidents, it is critical for the Pasadena Police Academy to have access to a quality training facility, and the Houston Police Department facility is mostly unavailable. Thousands of current and future officers and tens of thousands of residents in southeast Harris County will benefit from increased public safety.
I am also pleased that this measure provides $1.3 million for the construction of an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) by local emergency management authorities in Baytown, Texas. Under this provision, the EOC would be a secure location from which public safety officials can direct a safe and orderly evacuation during disaster situations such as industrial accidents and hurricanes.
For all of these reasons, I strongly support this conference report and urge my colleagues to also vote for it.
Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of provisions contained in the Conference Report on H.R. 4577 that will enact legislation to reform the Commodity Exchange Act.
It is a great accomplishment that an agreement has been reached on this matter. It would not have occurred without the dedication and determination of the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. EWING.
Mr. Speaker, the agreement tackles and accomplishes the three main tasks the Agriculture Committee set for itself at the beginning of our CEA reform process:
Modernizing our Commodity Exchange Act regulatory system;
Providing legal certainty for our over-the-counter derivatives market; and
Repealing the outdated prohibition on the trading of single stock futures in the U.S.
Mr. Speaker, the agreement is broadly supported by the Administration, by the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, and by the financial services industry.
Mr. Speaker, the portions of this bill that reform our regulation of trading on futures exchanges will hopefully bring about opportunities for great improvement in the efficiency of our markets. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission deserves the credit for the design of these provisions. As included in this bill, the reform provisions serve as our acknowledgment that as technology and research transform our trading systems, Congress must ensure that regulatory statutes are well-suited to helpful innovations.
Mr. Speaker, the CFTC's role in preventing and detecting fraudulent activity will continue under its new system of regulation. The legislation before us deliberately retains the authority of the Commission to punish those who commit fraud in violation of section 4b of the Commodity Exchange Act. While section 4b makes it a crime for a futures commission merchant or other fiduciary to defraud a customer in connection with a futures trade, it also is intended to make criminal the type of fraud that may occur when a bucket shop or boiler room defrauds a customer and no agent-principal relationship is present.
Mr. Speaker, again I want to clarify that with this bill, section 4b is retained in its entirety. It will continue to be a crime for anyone to commit fraud in connection with a futures contract--whether or not an agency relationship is established. Section 4b provides the Commission with broad authority to police fraudulent conduct within its jurisdiction, whether occurring in boiler rooms and bucket shops, or in the e-commerce markets that will develop under this new statutory framework.
Mr. Speaker, again I support the inclusion of CEA reform in this bill, and I congratulate Chairman EWING for his achievement.
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, while I have some serious reservations about this conference report, I will vote for it.
One of my concerns relates to the way this bill has been brought to the floor of the House.
We all expect that this will be the last real appropriations bill--as opposed to a continuing resolution--of the year, and that when it is enacted funding will be available to keep all federal agencies running.
This is the good news about the parliamentary situation in which we find ourselves.
The bad news is that we must vote yes or no, up or down, on an omnibus bill that few if any of us have had much time to review and that includes many substantive provisions that have little or nothing to do with appropriations and that may well be contrary to good public policy in several areas, including protection of the environment.
This is not the way the Congress should do its business.
It is not the fault of the House--we completed action on all the appropriations bills in a relatively timely way. But regardless of how we got here, this is not where we should be.
From my perspective, there is also both good news and bad news about the bill's specific provisions.
The good news is that the bill includes many provisions that will greatly benefit the nation as a whole and Colorado in particular. The bad news is that it includes some things that should not be included and omits some things that should be part of the conference report.
Let me first mention some of the good news about the conference report.
EDUCATION
I think we should be doing more in several areas, including assisting school districts to repair schools and build new ones, but overall this is part of the good news.
HEALTH CARE PROVISIONS
The conference report will increase the National Institutes of Health budget $2.5 billion. It also restores funding to health care service providers and managed care plans that provide health care services to Medicare beneficiaries that have been hard hit by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.
This is also good news, although more remains to be done.
In 1997, Congress passed and the President signed into law the Balanced Budget Act, which made cuts in Medicare and Medicaid in order to balance the budget and secure the solvency of these two critical health care programs. However, these cuts have left America's hospitals in a state of crisis. Cuts in funding for disproportionate share hospitals (DSH), coupled with the skyrocketing costs for prescription drugs, have left some of the Nation's premier hospitals operating in the red and at the brink of bankruptcy.
In late January 2000, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its revised baselines for fiscal year 2001 spending programs and projections for fiscal year 2001 through 2005. Budget officials project that Federal health program spending will be cut by more than $226 billion--approximately $123 billion more than Congress or the Administration ever intended. In addition, the BBA 97 backloaded the cuts in Medicaid, so the real hemorrhaging hospitals will experience will be in 2001 and 2002.
During 1999 total Medicare spending fell by almost one percent--the first absolute spending reduction in Medicare history. And the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund (which provides payment for inpatient hospital and nursing home services) fell by 4.4 percent. Simultaneously, our Nation's uninsured rate continues to climb, to the tune of 100,000 people every month. Cutting DSH payments while the uninsured rate increases does not make sense. At a time of budget surpluses, Congress should provide relief to our Nation's safety net hospitals that provide critical health care access to the uninsured, and I'm pleased we've addressed this is the bill.
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