S10748
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE
This amendment is an effort to inject a very highly contentious abortion rights issue into this children’s health insurance legislation. I think it is a mistake for us to do that. The underlying bill which came out of the Finance Committee protects the right of any State in the country to provide health care to pregnant women. It protects the rights specifically of the 11 States that are currently providing coverage under this unborn fetus regulation to continue to do that. So there is no need for this amendment. I urge my colleagues to oppose it. Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, how much time do I have remaining? The PRESIDING OFFICER. Twentythree seconds. Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, this is not unprecedented action. We have passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and so this is basically what we are trying to do, to make sure the mothers have the health care they need. I yield the remainder of my time and ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The question is on agreeing to the amendment. The clerk will call the roll. The bill clerk called the roll. Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. JOHNSON) is necessarily absent. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced—yeas 49, nays 50, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 302 Leg.] YEAS—49
Alexander Allard Barrasso Bennett Bond Brownback Bunning Burr Casey Chambliss Coburn Cochran Coleman Corker Cornyn Craig Crapo DeMint Dole Domenici Ensign Enzi Graham Grassley Gregg Hagel Hatch Hutchison Inhofe Isakson Kennedy Kerry Kyl Landrieu Lott Lugar Martinez McCain McConnell Nelson (NE) Roberts Sessions Shelby Smith Sununu Thune Vitter Voinovich Warner Johnson
August 2, 2007
NOT VOTING—1
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk called the roll. Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. JOHNSON) is necessarily absent. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. SANDERS). Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced—yeas 35, nays 64, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 301 Leg.] YEAS—35
Alexander Allard Barrasso Bennett Bond Brownback Burr Chambliss Coburn Cochran Corker Cornyn Craig Crapo DeMint Dole Domenici Ensign Enzi Graham Gregg Hagel Hutchison Inhofe Isakson Kyl Lott Martinez McConnell Sessions Shelby Sununu Thune Vitter Voinovich
The amendment (No. 2535), as modified, was rejected. Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote. Ms. STABENOW. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
AMENDMENT NO. 2620
NAYS—64
Akaka Baucus Bayh Biden Bingaman Boxer Brown Bunning Byrd Cantwell Cardin Carper Casey Clinton Coleman Collins Conrad Dodd Dorgan Durbin Feingold Feinstein Grassley Harkin Hatch Inouye Kennedy Kerry Klobuchar Kohl Landrieu Lautenberg Leahy Levin Lieberman Lincoln Lugar McCain McCaskill Menendez Mikulski Murkowski Murray Nelson (FL) Nelson (NE) Obama Pryor Reed Reid Roberts Rockefeller Salazar Sanders Schumer Smith Snowe Specter Stabenow Stevens Tester Warner Webb Whitehouse Wyden
NOT VOTING—1
Johnson
The amendment (No. 2596), as modified, was rejected.
AMENDMENT NO. 2535
bajohnson on PROD1PC69 with SENATE
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 2 minutes of debate equally divided on amendment No. 2535, as modified, offered by the Senator from Colorado, Mr. ALLARD. Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, this amendment codifies the ‘‘unborn child’’ rule. The purpose of this amendment is to provide health care services to benefit either the mother or unborn child, consistent with the health of both. It has been reported that some States denied health care to the mother for disorders not directly affecting the unborn child. This is just a commonsense amendment. Obstetricians recognize that you are dealing with two separate individuals, that you have to deal with the unborn child as well as the mother. Obviously, you need to have a healthy mother in order to have a healthy unborn child. I ask for an ‘‘aye’’ vote. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico. Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I urge a ‘‘no’’ vote on the amendment.
NAYS—50
Akaka Baucus Bayh Biden Bingaman Boxer Brown Byrd Cantwell Cardin Carper Clinton Collins Conrad Dodd Dorgan Durbin Feingold Feinstein Harkin Inouye Klobuchar Kohl Lautenberg Leahy Levin Lieberman Lincoln McCaskill Menendez Mikulski Murkowski Murray Nelson (FL) Obama Pryor Reed Reid Rockefeller Salazar Sanders Schumer Snowe Specter Stabenow Stevens Tester Webb Whitehouse Wyden
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 2 minutes of debate equally divided on amendment No. 2620 offered by the Senator from Texas, Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, we have been talking about having one State or another State have a different cost of living, and therefore having to have a waiver for the whole State. My amendment says the Secretary will look at the cost of living in an area of the State, a county, or a statistical metropolitan area, so you don’t have to have a waiver for a whole State, if it is only one city or one area in that State that needs the extra help. That is my amendment. I hope my colleagues will support it. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana. Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, just assume that you are a person who is maybe in one city and move to another town or have relatives in one city or town in the same State. You don’t know what the match is going to be. You don’t know whether you qualify or don’t qualify. I don’t understand this amendment at all. I am really quite astounded that we would want to even countenance doing something like this. Essentially it says: OK, MSA, State, you don’t get the 300 percent match rate in Medicaid. You get 200 percent. You get Medicaid which is adjusted by cost of living, and MSA with a county or a State. I don’t get it. I think we have to get some simplicity, some continuity, allow some people to have some idea of what the law is. I urge Senators to not support the amendment. Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, it just makes common sense that you would want to help the areas that have a clear cost-of-living adjustment need, but you don’t have to do it for a whole State if it isn’t needed in the whole State. It would save taxpayer dollars. It is equitable. It is fair, and it is responsible. I hope we can adopt it. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment. The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll. The legislative clerk called the roll. Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. JOHNSON) is necessarily absent. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. PRYOR). Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced—yeas 21, nays 78, as follows:
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