mr. harkin: i yield back our time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brownback: an behalf of the republicans, i yield back our time. the presiding officer: without objection. question is on adoption of the resolution. all those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the yeas appear to have it. the ayes have it. the resolution is agreed to. mr. harkin: madam president, i ask that the -- i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. harkin: thank you, madam president. madam president, i have 10 unanimous consent requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. theft apriewl of the majority and minority leaders. i ask unanimous consent that these requests be agreed to and that these requests be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senate agrees to the preamble of the resolution, without objection. mr. cornyn: madam pres

mr. harkin: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. harkin: madam president, the clerk just read for the first time ever in this body what we should have done a long time ago. an apology for slavery and the jim-crow laws which for a century after emancipation deprived millions of americans their basic human rights, equal justice under law and equal opportunities. today the senate will unanimously make that apology. i, first of all, want to thank my friend, senator sam brownback, for all of his hard work and over the last couple of years working together to get this finally to this point. i can't thank him enough. he wouldn't give up and stuck in there all the time working to make sure that this day would come. and i thank him profusely for his help in this effort. i also want to publicly thank congressman steve cohen on the house side, who is the leader of this resolution that they will be passing soon over there. john quincy adams once remarked our country began existence by the universal emancipation of man from the thralldom of man.

harkin? are you ready to offer your amendment number two? why won't do you that? and then we'll go to senator alexander then senator sanders and senator enzi. go ahead, tom. >> mr. chairman, i just offer harkin number two. that's what it is called in the books, prevention and public investment fund. we talked around that with the foregoing enzi amendment. but this is the specifics of the trust fund itself. it establishes an expanded and sustained national investment and prevention and public health programs. again, it dedicated stable funding stream of $10 billion a year from 2010 to 2019. now if you'll notice in there, because of the lack of workforce and so we don't put the money in there right away, we ramp it up so the fiscal year 2010 it will be $2 billion, then for each year we go up by two to four to six to eight to ten and then continue with $10 billion for the -- from then on. so we ramp it up over a period of one, two, three, four, five -- five years up that $10 billion level. and, again, i don't know that i need to say a heck of a lot more about. this we already talked a lot about it. the reason that we have this amendment, it's also in the underlying

any further comments on the opening remarks by senator harkin? >> mr. chairman? >> center mikulski. >> first of all i would like to salute the senator harkin and the work he is done in thank the senator from new hampshire, because i worked very closer-- closely with senator harkin and his ideas here, are just outstanding. and the whole idea of linking of both in saving or improving lives involving cost are intertwined with both prevention and quality, and if we looked at the threat of number one using health information technology and make the highest and best use of that for both patients and research and bringing it all to bear, the number to cup, we really focus on the quality initiatives, particularly those that deal with the management of chronic illness and preventing it from deteriorating quickly and following the ideas of senator harkin, think we can make a significant down payment in both reducing cost to our system and improving the health outcomes of our people. i look forward to moving these forward, and he really held many interest in the hearings. we

harkin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. first i want to respond to senator gregg. i just listened to what you said the president wanted to accomplish. there is one way to accomplish that and that is to a single payer national insurance health program. very simple. >> if you want to bring that forward. why don't you bring that forward? we need to bring forward senator coburn's proposal and my proposal and we'll be working off product that gets where you want to go, where i want to @í@% overcharged subscribers and taxpayers an estimated $4.4 billion, that has to be factor into our thinking process around here and how we are building this system up. we do what we can around here. while i have long been a supporter of a single payer, my record is clear on this going back to the early '90s, that that was the simplest, strayed forward way to do things. i probably recognize there aren't the votes for that. that doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it and let the american people know what it would mean to have a single payer type of a system in this country. i think people

harkin. >> thank you, mr. chairman. first i want to respond to senator gregg. i just listened to what you said the president wanted to accomplish. there is one way to accomplish that and that is to a single payer national insurance health program. very simple. >> if you want to bring that forward. why don't you bring that forward? we need to bring forward senator coburn's proposal and my proposal and we'll be working off product that gets where you want to go, where i want to go. this product we are working off today does not accomplish what a single payer would accomplish. >> i say to my friend i'm sure we'll have a chance to vote on it on the senate floor, one way or the oefrmt other. i want to say to senator sanders, thank you very much what you just brought to this committee. we have to have a dose of realism once in a while as to what we are talking about here. when you pointed out that the inspector yen vorted that 80% of the insurance companies participating in medicare part d overcharged subscribers and taxpayers an estimated $4.4 billion, that has to b

things that need to be done in order to provide the opportunities for that to occur, the harkin amendment includes it. >> mr. chairman, let me just point this out

harkin. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. first, i want to salute our committee chair, senator kennedy, for his tireless and relentless and courageous leadership across many, many years, and advocating for a comprehensive health reform for america. we are going to get it done this year. i also want to compliment and thank senator dodd for stepping in to provide his great leadership and commitment to getting a progressive and affordable and quality and c comprehensive health reform bill accomplished this session. we all know what the goals are. affordable and high quality health care, reduced costs for families, government and businesses and protect people's choice of doctors and hospital and insurance plans, but there is one goal, i believe, that is overarching over everything and it's the goal that i really believe enjoyed strong bipartisan support on this committee, strong bipartisan support in the senate and the house and is supported by the great majority of american people and that goal is to re-create america as a genui

what we need in rural western states is oftentimes different than what tom harkin mining and i along reckon i can't wu. >> mr. chairman kim and because there are different views and different problems and difference shortages. in general other shortages you bet. other petitioners in shortages and oklahoma we have done a good job with our p a program but not as good job of the earners practitioner program so it will allow the flexibility of the state's to decide where they want to put the money based on the shortage that they have. rather than washington to signing with what they are going to do so the whole idea is to move it out of here, but a closer to where it is going to be spent with the wisdom of the state's knowing how best to spend the money. so we strike all of the title with the exception of a commission in the state works worst of all the programs and i am willing to change that and to whenever you want but i think it is much more effective if we are going to have an impact on these shortages and were all well, as chairman is pediatrics of it allows them to really directed where as in a large urba

mr. chairman. i think i'm going to nominate you and senator enzi and senator harkin for the perseverance award of thission of congress, at least to date. i would remind you that dr dr. coburn over here indicated that exercise -- with appropriate exercise you gain 20% more in intelligence cog any distance. i think with what you've had to do this afternoon, listening to virtually all of us saying the same thing over and over and over again, it might be time for a seventh inning stretch. but don't do that because i'm the last speaker. and with all due respect to my colleag colleagues, i've never seen such three sad sacks in my life trying very hard not to fall asleep hearing the same thing over and over and over again. that also goes for the staff in the back who are now you starting to come awake. let me give you just a hint. this has nothing to do with the bill. maybe it does. if you find yourself falling asleep -- and i used to do this when i was chairman of several committees -- i would hold my feet about one inch off of the deck like this. and you cannot fall asleep with both of your feet raised abo

mr. chairman, if i can clarify that point. >> the cbo has not seen the new language from senator harkin and senator harkin's new language is that cbo will have to score $80 billion. so when it is scored it will be scored as an $ 0 billion. it will be scored as 80 billion. >> over ten years. >> right. >> mr. chairman? >> so to complete the point. the piece we have is the 5 billion or the right choices program and just to take that and if it is $80 billion over ten years, that's the right choice, that's 5 billion per year over the first three years. this program sounds to me like exactly the sort of common sense that we'd want to have. we know that there are few diseases that create 75% of the costs in the health care system. we also know that a lot of those costs are tied to the uninsured because their diseases progress significantly with little prevention, little disease management. so this section says, hey, since we know the uninsured are a major source of expenses and not to mention significant source of loss of quality of life for american citizens, let's take, while we're getting affordable, accessible healthcare for all a

mr. chairman, i would just add that on our title on workforce that we are working with the other side as well on a number of amendments that we hope when you get through senator harkin, we'll be ready to accept a number of amendments as well. we're working with them. >> the intention is to go after prevention go to workforce and then the areas of fraud and abuse section. those other ones before we get back to the coverage issue which is the issue is the more serious division as to where we are as po opposed to language. >> there's one thing i need to say. congratulations on your 10th anniversary. [ applause ] >> that's not my anniversary in the senate, that's my wedding anniversary. and i asked jackie whether or not she would like to spend the evening talking cbo numbers. i think we'll go to dinner instead. she's here and my two daughters are here as well. came this afternoon. wonderful friends from iowa. >> let's have a shout out for the dodd girls. [ applause ] >> all right. senator coburn, you had an amendment? no. who we looking at? no. >> senator coburn had an amendment. >> tom, do you have an amendment. >> waiting on the resolution. >> waiting on that resoluti

mr. chairman? >> senator harkin. thank you, mr.chairman, for the leadership, especially on this issue that i think really is the heart and soul of what we are going to do on health reform. if we don't, if we don't move aggressively, comprehensively on prevention and wellness, everything else we do is not really going to matter very much. we are just going to be spending a lot of money on sick care. so i think that what we have done today is taken a great step forward in shifting, and it is not going to happen overnight, and we all know that. it is not going to happen over night, and we have had good amendments from the republican side that came into focus, and that is what is good about the open mark-ups that we were able to resolve some of the issues and as you said move ahead. i thank you for your leadership on this and cracking the whip on us and keeping us here at the table all day. i thank all of my colleagues for all of their help on this, and i, too, join in thanking the staff on the great work on this. i think that this pre