S5692 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE July 31, 2012 

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am going 

to spend a few minutes talking about 

the Affordable Care Act. I wonder how 

many people on the Republican side 

today are going to talk about 

ObamaCare. If they do, they should be 

in a very positive state. We know that 

as a result of this bill, the Affordable 

Care Act, people are getting or soon 

will get a rebate. One of the things we 

did—led by Senator FRANKEN and others—was make sure that 80 percent of 

the money paid for premiums goes to 

patient care and any amount that 

doesn’t has to be refunded to the patients. That is in the process now. In 

the month of August, all those moneys 

will come back in a significant amount 

to Americans who, in effect, are part of 

programs that spend too much on salaries for bosses. 

Also, we are going to talk a little bit 

today about what this Affordable Care 

Act does for women in America. As I 

said, I am going to speak very briefly, 

but we are going to have people come— 

as soon as I and the Republican leader 

finish—to talk about good things in 

this bill for women. I will touch on 

them very briefly. 

There is no question this bill that 

was signed by President Obama is a 

landmark piece of legislation. It signaled an end to insurance company discrimination among many but especially against those who are ill, those 

with a preexisting condition, and especially against women. 

As a result of this bill we passed, 

being a woman is no longer a preexisting disability in America. For 

many years, insurance companies 

charged American women higher premiums. Why? Because they are women. 

For years, American women have unfairly borne the burden of the high cost 

of contraception as well. Even women 

with private insurance often wind up 

spending hundreds of dollars more each 

year for birth control. Today, women 

of reproductive age spend two-thirds 

more out of their own pockets for 

health care costs than men, largely due 

to the high cost of birth control. But 

starting tomorrow—Wednesday of this 

week—new insurance plans must cover 

contraception and many other preventive health services for women. How 

much? No additional pay at all. Under 

health care reform, about 47 million 

women, including almost 400,000 women 

in Nevada, will have guaranteed access 

to those additional preventive services 

without cost sharing. 

Many on the other side downplayed 

the importance of these benefits or 

fought to repeal them altogether. It is 

hard to comprehend but true. Forcing 

American women to continue struggling with the high price of contraception has very real consequences. Every 

year millions of women in the United 

States put off doctors’ visits because 

they can’t afford the copay and millions more skip pills or shots to save 

money. 

It is no mystery why the United 

States has one of the highest rates of 

unintended pregnancies of all industrialized nations. Half of all pregnancies 

in America are unplanned. Of those unintended pregnancies, about half wind 

up in abortion. Increasing access to 

contraception is the most effective way 

to reduce unintended pregnancies and 

reduce the number of abortions, but 

the high cost is often a barrier. 

That is why, in 1997, OLYMPIA SNOWE

and I began a bipartisan effort to prevent unintended pregnancies by expanding access to contraception. It has 

not been an easy path, but we did make 

a start. As part of this effort, we helped 

pass a law ensuring Federal employees 

access to contraception. It was a big 

issue. That was 15 years ago or more. It 

is an issue that is still important, but 

we started it, and I am very happy 

about that. OLYMPIA SNOWE was terrific to work with. 

When this benefit took place in 1999, 

premiums did not go up one single 

dime because neither did health care 

costs—not one penny. It was rewarding 

to note that a pro-life Democrat and 

pro-choice Republican were able to 

confront the issue with a practical eye 

rather than a political eye. It is unfortunate that over the last 15 years an 

idea that started as a common-ground 

proposal has become so polarizing in 

Congress. The controversy is quite 

strange when we consider that almost 

99 percent of women have relied on contraception at some point in their lives, 

and many have struggled to afford it. 

The Affordable Care Act will ensure 

that insurance companies treat women 

fairly and treat birth control as any 

other preventive service. 

Prior to Senator SNOWE and me doing 

this, anything a man wanted they got. 

Viagra, fine; we will take care of that. 

Anything a man wanted they got—but 

not a woman. The law doesn’t just 

guarantee women’s access to contraception, it assures their access to many 

other lifesaving procedures as well. 

Thanks to the health care bill—the 

Affordable Care Act—insurance companies are already required to cover preventive care such as mammograms. 

For a person who is able to have a 

mammogram, it is lifesaving. Most 

people in the Senate know my wife is 

battling breast cancer. She had a mammogram in December and in August 

discovered a lump in her breast. Think 

of what would have happened if she had 

waited 1 year because she couldn’t afford that mammogram. Frankly, the 

thought of it is very hard for me to 

comprehend because even though she 

had that mammogram in December, 

she had found it and was in stage 3 of 

breast cancer. It has been very difficult. What if she waited an extra 

year? Many people wait a lot longer 

than an extra year. 

Colonoscopies save lives. I was talking to one of my friends in the Senate 

who is going to have his done. They do 

it every 5 years. It takes at least 10 

years for polyps to develop into cancer, 

and some polyps develop into cancer if 

they are not taken out. People need to 

have this done. 

Blood pressure checks, childhood immunizations without cost sharing is 

part of what is in this bill. It used to be 

a bill; now it is the law. 

Starting tomorrow—again, Wednesday of this week—women will no longer 

have to reach in their pockets to pay 

for wellness checkups. They can do 

screening for diabetes, HPV testing, 

sexually transmitted infection counseling, HIV screening and counseling, 

breastfeeding support, domestic violence screening and counseling. That is 

all in the law starting tomorrow. All 

women in new insurance plans will 

have access to all forms of FDA-approved contraception without having 

to shell out more money on top of their 

premiums. Ending insurance company 

discrimination will help millions more 

women afford the care they need when 

they need it. It will restore basic fairness to the health care system. Sometimes the practical thing to do is also 

the right thing to do, and that is what 

the legislation we worked so hard to 

pass is all about. It is about doing the 

right thing for everyone. Today we are 

going to focus on women. 

f 

RECOGNITION OF THE MINORITY 

LEADER 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is recognized. 

f 

REPEAL OF OBAMACARE 

Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, I 

might say to my friend the majority 

leader before he leaves the floor that I 

listened carefully to his speech about 

what most Americans refer to as 

ObamaCare. Given the fact that our 

friends on the other side are going to 

focus on that bill this particular week, 

I think it might be a good idea to have 

a vote on it, on the pending bill. 

It would be my intent to offer an 

amendment that I know my friend does 

not support, but nevertheless many 

Americans would like to know. Since 

we have spent a good deal of time positioning over the last few months on 

various and assorted issues, I think it 

would be appropriate to have a vote on 

the repeal of ObamaCare, and I hope to 

be able to offer that amendment during 

the pendency of the bill on cyber security, which we believe will be open to 

amendments. I wonder if my friend 

thinks that might be something both 

sides might agree would be a good idea. 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I wonder if 

the official reporter could show the big 

smile on my face. Can my colleagues 

imagine how ridiculous my friend the 

Republican leader’s statement is. Listen to what he said. We are doing cyber 

security. We have talked about the 

dangers of cyber security if we don’t do 

something about it. He is now telling 

me he wants a vote to repeal all the 

stuff I just talked about on the cyber 

security bill? That is very difficult to 

comprehend. 


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July 31, 2012 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S5693 

I think we should understand that I 

don’t think a woman getting contraception has a thing to do with shutting 

down the power grids in America or the 

financial services in America or our 

water systems or our sewer systems. 

That is what cyber security is all 

about, not whether a woman can have 

contraception or whether she can have 

a wellness check to find out if she has 

cancer from not having had a mammogram. 

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, will the 

majority leader yield for a question? 

Mr. REID. I would be happy to yield. 

Mr. DURBIN. I would like to ask the 

majority leader, do I remember correctly that the very first amendment 

on the Transportation bill was offered 

by Senator BLUNT of Missouri on family planning? So is there a family planning amendment available on every 

bill now that will be offered by the Republican side? 

I know the House Republicans have 

had 30 or 33 votes to repeal ObamaCare. 

Are we going to try to match them 

with similar efforts in the Senate? 

Mr. REID. My response to my friend 

is this: I try to be very calm about 

things in life generally, especially 

things here on the floor, but I can’t remain very calm about this. I have, as 

do a lot of people I know, 16 grandchildren. They are evenly divided between boys and girls. I want my granddaughters to be treated so that if they 

want to go get some contraception, 

have some contraceptive device while 

in school at New York University or 

Berkeley—I am bragging that they got 

into those schools—they should have 

the ability to do that. 

I just can’t imagine what we are 

talking about here on the Senate floor. 

Cyber security is one of the most important—it is the most important 

issue, as I have already said. If my colleagues want to talk to General 

Petraeus, he will tell us about what it 

is, or General Dempsey will tell us 

what the important issue is. The No. 1 

issue today is whether we are going to 

have bad people attack our country 

and shut it down. Now we are here 

being asked if we are going to have a 

vote, on cyber security, as to when my 

grandchildren can have contraception. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader. 

Mr. MCCONNELL. I guess the answer 

is no. 

My friends are going to spend the 

week lauding the advantages as they 

see them of an immensely unpopular 

bill that was passed a couple of years 

ago on a straight party-line vote— 

ObamaCare. Yet, in a week in which, 

apparently, they are going to laud the 

various positions of it, they are not 

willing to have a vote in support of it. 

So I gather that is a vote we will not 

have. I will request the opportunity to 

do that again. After listening to my 

good friend the majority leader, I anticipate such a request would likely be 

blocked. 

On another matter—— 

Mr. REID. Mr. President, my friend 

asked me a question. 

Mr. MCCONNELL. I believe I have 

the floor. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader has the 

floor. 

Mr. REID. OK. I won’t answer the 

question then. 

f 

DEFENSE SEQUESTER 

Mr. MCCONNELL. Mr. President, 4 

years after the great recession began, 

millions of Americans are still looking 

for work, millions more have literally 

dropped out of the workforce altogether, and uncertainty about our Nation’s future continues to spread. The 

stories of disappointment and of loss 

haven’t diminished; they have, in fact, 

multiplied. 

What is worse, a President who was 

elected on a pledge that he would turn 

all those things around is still pointing 

the finger at his predecessor. Three and 

a half years after he took office, he is 

acting as though he just showed up. I 

think most Americans are smart 

enough to know he has made things 

worse. He has hammered small businesses with a barrage of new regulations, with dozens more in the pipeline. 

He expects them to plan for the future 

without even knowing what their tax 

and health care liabilities will be. Last 

week he even spearheaded a legislative 

effort to take even more of what nearly 

1 million of these small businesses 

earn, and then he told Republicans 

that if we don’t go along with it, he 

will raise taxes on everybody else. 

That was the message last week: Either give me what I want—raise taxes 

on 1 million of our most successful 

small businesses—or we will let 

everybody’s taxes go up, is what he 

said at the end of the week. In other 

words, he used small businesses as little more than a bargaining chip. The 

week before that he told business owners that they are not really responsible 

for what they have built. Listen to 

that. To business owners, the President 

said: You are not really responsible for 

what you have built. No amount of 

White House spin or manufactured outrage can change what the President 

said in Roanoke, and no amount of finger-pointing can change the fact that 

his policies have actually made things 

worse. 

But what is most upsetting to a lot of 

us is the fact that the administration 

pretends its policies would help the 

economy or create jobs when it knows 

they won’t. It knows these policies are 

not going to create any jobs. What is 

most upsetting is the deception that 

lies at the heart of so many of the sales 

jobs, from health care to the stimulus. 

Americans wanted the President to 

focus on jobs, and he focused on a 

health care bill that we now learn not 

only includes a tax on the middle class 

but will lead to hundreds of thousands 

of fewer jobs. Now the President claims 

he is fighting for the middle class, but 

31⁄2 years into his Presidency their 

wages are still stagnant while their dependency on government assistance actually continues to rise. Wages are 

stagnant, and dependence on government assistance continues to rise. 

In some cases the President doesn’t 

even bother with the sales jobs; he just 

keeps his plans a secret. That is what 

we are now seeing with the defense 

cuts he demanded during last year’s 

budget negotiations. Literally for 

weeks, Republicans asked the President to tell the American people how 

he planned to carry out these cuts. He 

refused. 

Mr. President, the Senate is not in 

order. 

The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senate will be in order. 

The Republican leader. 

Mr. MCCONNELL. As I was saying, 

for weeks Republicans asked the President to tell the American people how 

he plans to carry out these cuts. He 

simply refused to do so. So last week 

Congress passed legislation requiring 

him to do so. In fact, it cleared the 

Senate, I believe, unanimously. 

Then yesterday there was this: An 

Assistant Secretary down at the Department of Labor is now telling people 

they are under no legal obligation to 

let employees know if they will lose 

their jobs as a result of these cuts. Let 

me say that again. We have an Assistant Secretary of Labor who just yesterday said that employers are under no 

legal obligation to tell their employees 

they may lose their jobs as a result of 

these cuts. In other words, the President is trying to keep those folks in 

the dark about whether they can expect to lose their jobs. Why? Well, I 

think it is pretty obvious: to insulate 

himself from the political fallout that 

will result. The President doesn’t want 

people reading about pink slips in the 

weeks before his election, so the White 

House is telling people to keep the effects of these cuts a secret—don’t tell 

anybody, he says, keep it a secret— 

until, of course, after the election. 

Once again, a President who holds himself out as a great defender of the middle class and the goals of organized 

labor is putting his own political goals 

ahead of the hard-working Americans 

who will be affected by these policies. 

Rather than let those who will be affected by the cuts know about them, he 

will make everybody nervous. 

For 31⁄2 years—31⁄2 long years—this 

President has pushed an ideological 

agenda without regard for the consequences it would have on the very 

middle-class Americans he purports to 

defend. 

The President may not want to 

admit it, but the economic mess we are 

in is his legacy—his legacy. After 31⁄2

years of finger-pointing—31⁄2 years of 

finger-pointing—he owes it to the 

American people to be straight about 

it. 

Mr. President, I yield the floor. 


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