November 20, 2008 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S10751 

envisioned. Additionally, the legislation included provisions requiring regular reports from the Treasury to Congress, Tranche reports outlining any 

assets Treasury chooses to purchase, 

and reports from the Comptroller General at the Government Accountability 

Office. The Act also places controls on 

executive compensation and corporate 

governance at participating entities. 

Taken together, these provisions were 

aimed to provide a sturdy foundation 

for ensuring the program is properly 

overseen. 

However, despite these controls, 

many of these oversight provisions 

have been slowly implemented or outright ignored until recently. To date, 

the Senate has only held hearings on 

the nomination for the Special Inspector General and it is unclear when the 

nomination will be approved. Until 

then, the Inspector General at the Department of the Treasury has devoted 

some resources to overseeing the 

TARP, but we need to act expeditiously to approve the Special Inspector General to ensure someone is 

watching over all these taxpayer funds. 

I do believe once we confirm a nominee to be the Special Inspector General 

that this office will face an uphill battle to work quickly to hire staff and to 

get operations moving to find out 

where all the billions of dollars are and 

how they were spent. This isn’t an impossible task, but it is one that will 

take serious effort and great leadership 

to accomplish. 

One concern I have with the Special 

Inspector General is the lack of authority that office will have to oversee the 

TARP and new, evolving programs 

under the TARP such as the Capital 

Purchase Plan, or CPP. The Secretary 

of the Treasury has indicated publicly 

that he intends to continue utilizing 

his authority under the Act to use the 

TARP and the CPP to continue to provide taxpayer funds via equity injections and stock warrant purchases to 

banks, financial institutions, and other 

entities, as opposed to purchasing distressed assets as the TARP was originally envisioned. While the Secretary 

is acting within his authority, this 

change was not necessarily envisioned 

from the oversight perspective when 

the Special Inspector General authorization was drafted. Instead, the current Act could be construed to only 

give the Special Inspector General the 

authority to review purchases of distressed assets and not the purchases 

and equity injections currently ongoing under the CPP. As a result, the 

Special Inspector General could be limited in authority to review the TARP 

before he takes office. 

To rectify this, Senator MCCASKILL

and I are here today to introduce a 

simple legislative fix to this provision 

that would amend the Act to allow the 

Special Inspector General to review all 

actions taken under the TARP, including those of the CPP. This is a straight 

forward solution to ensure that the 

Special Inspector General has all the 

authority necessary to oversee the taxpayer dollars that are being used to 

stabilize the financial industry. 

This legislation makes one other 

change to the Act that will help the 

Special Inspector General hit the 

ground running once the Senate confirms the nomination. Looking back to 

the last Special Inspector General Congress created, the Special Inspector 

General for Iraq Reconstruction, 

SIGIR, we noted that Congress provided SIGIR the authority to utilize 

special hiring authority to fill these 

important jobs quickly and not have 

them tied up in bureaucratic red tape. 

This section of our bill simply states 

that the Special Inspector General may 

utilize special expedited hiring authority authorized under 5 U.S.C. §3161 for 

the first six months after the date of 

enactment to get the office up and running. Further, the section also removes 

statutory limits for how long these 

special appointments may serve because we do not want to limit the 

length of time these employees can 

work for the Special Inspector General 

given we don’t know how long they will 

be needed to oversee this program. 

Taken together, these two simple 

provisions are necessary to ensure that 

the Special Inspector General is the aggressive, independent watchdog we envisioned when we passed the Act and 

not just a paper tiger. As a long time 

supporter of Inspectors General, I believe this legislation is necessary to 

ensure the success of the Special Inspector General. I urge my colleagues 

to support this urgent legislative fix to 

help ensure that American taxpayer 

dollars are not lost to fraud, waste, or 

abuse because of a simple oversight in 

the drafting of the original legislation. 

By Ms. STABENOW (for herself 

and Mr. CORNYN): 

S. 3717. A bill to amend the Internal 

Revenue Code of 1986 to allow reimbursement from flexible spending accounts for certain dental products; to 

the Committee on Finance. 

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I am 

pleased to join my colleague, Ms. 

STABENOW, in introducing the Dental 

Health Promotion Act of 2008. This bill 

would make expenditures on dental 

products used to prevent or treat diseases of the mouth to be considered 

‘‘qualified’’ medical expenses eligible 

for reimbursement from a flexible 

spending arrangement, FSA. It is identical to H.R. 3109, which was introduced 

in the House of Representatives in July 

2007. 

FSAs are vehicles that allow individuals to use pretax dollars to pay for 

‘‘qualified’’ medical and dental expenses that are not reimbursed by 

other sources, such as a health insurance plan. Qualified medical and dental 

expenses are defined in Section 213(d) 

of the Internal Revenue Code and its 

accompanying regulations and include 

prescription and over-the-counter products. For example, an individual can 

use FSA dollars to pay for items such 

as cold medicine, Band-Aids, or pain relievers. In addition, some dental expenses are currently reimbursable, 

such as a crown or a regular dental 

checkup. But the money spent on dental products such as fluoride toothpaste, a spin toothbrush, or dental floss 

is not currently reimbursable, even 

though they help prevent tooth decay. 

In fact, toothpaste is specifically excluded from the definition of a qualified expense. 

I believe this is an inequity in our 

tax law that needs to be corrected. 

More and more medical research is 

demonstrating the link between good 

oral health and overall health. For example, research shows that pregnant 

women with poor oral health tend to 

deliver lower birth rate babies. Unfortunately, the definition of dental expenses has not kept up with medical research. 

The legislation Senator STABENOW

and I are introducing today would update the rules governing FSAs to ensure that funds spent on dental products used to treat or prevent oral disease are treated the same as other 

over-the-counter medical expenses. For 

those concerned about abuse, this bill 

makes it clear that money spent on 

cosmetic products would not be considered a qualified expense that can be reimbursed by an FSA. 

Mr. President, it makes sense to invest in disease prevention on the front 

end. Allowing individuals to set aside 

money in their FSA to pay for dental 

products that can help prevent cavity 

or periodontal disease will help to reduce future expenditures on more costly treatments. 

f 

SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS 

SENATE RESOLUTION 710—DESIGNATING THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 2 THROUGH FEBRUARY 6, 

2009, AS ‘‘NATIONAL TEEN DATING VIOLENCE AWARENESS AND 

PREVENTION WEEK’’ 

Mr. CRAPO (for himself, Mrs. CLINTON, Mr. LIEBERMAN, Ms. MURKOWSKI, 

Mr. SCHUMER, and Mr. BAYH) submitted 

the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary: 

S. RES. 710 

Whereas 1 in 11 adolescents reports being a 

victim of physical dating violence; 

Whereas dating violence occurs more frequently among black students (13.9 percent) 

than among Hispanic (9.3 percent) or white (7 

percent) students; 

Whereas 1 in 5 teenagers in a serious relationship reports having been hit, slapped, or 

pushed by a partner; 

Whereas more than 1 in 4 teenagers have 

been in a relationship where a partner is verbally abusive; 

Whereas 30 percent of teenagers in a dating 

relationship have been text messaged 10, 20, 

or 30 times per hour by a partner attempting 

to find out where they are, what they are 

doing, or who they are with; 

Whereas 40 percent of the youngest 

‘‘tweens’’, those between the ages of 11 and 


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S10752 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE November 20, 2008 

12, report that their friends are victims of 

verbal abuse in dating relationships; 

Whereas nearly 3 in 4 tweens say that dating relationships usually begin at age 14 or 

younger; 

Whereas 29 percent of girls who have been 

in a relationship said that they have been 

pressured to have sex or to engage in sexual 

activities that they did not want; 

Whereas 69 percent of all teenagers who 

had sex by age 14 said they have experienced 

1 or more types of abuse in a dating relationship; 

Whereas 1 in 5 teenagers (20 percent) between the ages of 13 and 14 say their friends 

are victims of dating violence; 

Whereas in 2003, in a national survey of 

over 14,000 high school students conducted by 

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just over 8 percent of boys and girls reported physical dating violence victimization and were more likely to engage in risky 

behaviors including sexual intercourse, attempted suicide, episodic heavy drinking, 

and physical fighting; 

Whereas Native American women experience higher rates of interpersonal violence 

than any other population group; 

Whereas violent relationships in adolescence can have serious ramifications for victims, putting them at higher risk for substance abuse, eating disorders, risky sexual 

behavior, suicide, and adult revictimization; 

Whereas the severity of violence among intimate partners has been shown to be greater 

in cases where the pattern of violence has 

been established in adolescence; 

Whereas more than 3 times as many 

tweens (20 percent) as parents of tweens (6 

percent) admit that parents know little or 

nothing about the tweens’ dating relationships; 

Whereas a majority of parents surveyed either believe dating violence is not an issue 

or admit they do not know if it is an issue; 

and 

Whereas the establishment of National 

Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week will benefit schools, communities, 

and families regardless of socio-economic 

status, race, or sex: Now, therefore be it 

Resolved, That the Senate— 

(1) designates the week of February 2 

through February 6, 2009, as ‘‘National Teen 

Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention 

Week’’; and 

(2) calls upon the people of the United 

States, high schools, law enforcement, State 

and local officials, and interested groups to 

observe National Teen Dating Violence 

Awareness and Prevention Week with appropriate programs and activities that promote 

awareness and prevention of the crime of 

teen dating violence in their communities. 

f 

SENATE RESOLUTION 711—CONDEMNING THE TRAGIC AND 

SENSELESS DEATH BY STONING 

OF A 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL FROM 

SOMALIA 

Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Ms. SNOWE, Ms. LANDRIEU, Ms. 

STABENOW, and Mrs. CLINTON) submitted the following resolution; which 

ws considered and agreed to: 

S. RES. 711 

Whereas a child from Somalia, identified 

as Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, was raped by 3 

men, and when her family reported the rape 

to authorities of the al-Shabaab militia that 

control the city of Kismayu, Somalia, she 

was accused of adultery and ordered to be 

stoned; 

Whereas, in October 2008, Aisha Ibrahim 

Duhulow was stoned to death by 50 militant 

men before 1,000 witnesses in a public stadium; 

Whereas al-Shabaab, some of whose members are affiliated with al Qaeda, is a violent 

and brutal extremist group that has used intimidation and committed human rights violations to undermine the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and threaten activists in civil society working to bring 

about peace through political dialogue and 

reconciliation; 

Whereas, on February 29, 2008, Secretary of 

State Condoleezza Rice designated alShabaab as a foreign terrorist organization 

pursuant to section 219 of the Immigration 

and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189) and 

placed the organization on the list of specially designated global terrorists established under the International Emergency 

Economic Powers Act and initiated under 

Executive Order 13224; 

Whereas the 2007 Country Report on 

Human Rights Practices in Somalia, released on March 11, 2007, by the Department 

of State, cited the ‘‘poor human rights situation’’ in Somalia, including ‘‘unlawful and 

politically motivated killings, official impunity, and discrimination and violence 

against women’’; 

Whereas stoning is a grave and serious violation of human rights law, in which the victim is killed in an especially brutal way; 

Whereas stoning is practiced particularly 

on girls and women accused of adultery; 

Whereas the United States Commission on 

International Religious Freedom has condemned the death of Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow 

and called on the United States Government 

to join other states in speaking out decisively in international fora against such 

grave human rights abuses; and 

Whereas the United States Government 

continues to support the efforts of those 

working to transform the troubled region of 

Somalia through commitment to sound 

human rights practices, democratic and representative government, economic recovery, 

and lasting peace and reconciliation: Now, 

therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the Senate— 

(1) condemns the tragic and senseless death 

by stoning of Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow; 

(2) urges the international community to 

join the Senate in speaking out against this 

brutal act; and 

(3) urges the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia— 

(A) to undertake robust efforts to protect 

women and children and to prevent acts of 

institutionalized violence against women in 

Somalia; 

(B) to work to strengthen the rule of law as 

part of the effort by the Transitional Federal 

Government of Somalia to establish its authority; 

(C) to promote equal and fair treatment of 

women; and 

(D) to end the culture of impunity in Somalia. 

f 

SENATE RESOLUTION 712—CONGRATULATING THE PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES ON WINNING THE 

2008 WORLD SERIES 

MR. SPECTER (for himself, Mr. 

CASEY, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. LAUTENBERG, and Mr. BUNNING) submitted the 

following resolution; which ws considered and agreed to: 

S. RES. 712 

Whereas, on October 29, 2008, the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 

to win the 2008 World Series; 

Whereas the 4 to 3 Phillies victory in Game 

5 of the Fall Classic secured for Philadelphia 

a World Series title for the first time since 

1980, and for the second time in team history; 

Whereas the Tampa Bay Rays deserve congratulations for a stellar 2008 season, in 

which, after 10 consecutive losing seasons, 

they posted a regular season record of 97–65 

and won the American League Championship 

Series; 

Whereas Tampa Bay Rays Manager and 

Hazelton, Pennsylvania-native Joe Maddon 

established himself as among the premier 

managers in Major League Baseball during 

the 2008 season, and aptly was named American League Manager of the Year; 

Whereas Philadelphia sports fans have consistently demonstrated their love for, and 

devotion to, Philadelphia teams, even after 

25 years without winning a major sports 

championship; 

Whereas, since taking the helm as manager 

in 2005, Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel has 

guided the young Phillies team to become 

the best in Major League Baseball; 

Whereas recently-retired General Manager 

Pat Gillick, who joined the Phillies in 2006, 

played an integral role in assembling the 

World Series-winning team; 

Whereas 24-year old pitcher Cole Hamels 

was named the Most Valuable Player for 

both the National League Championship Series and the World Series, with a 4–0 record 

and 1.80 Earned Run Average in the post-season; 

Whereas starting pitchers Cole Hamels, 

Brett Myers, Joe Blanton, and Souderton, 

Pennsylvania-native Jamie Moyer delivered 

outstanding performances throughout the 

post-season; 

Whereas the Phillies’ bullpen distinguished 

itself as among the greatest in Major League 

Baseball, particularly closer Brad Lidge, who 

finished the 2008 season with 48 out of 48 save 

opportunities, including the final game of 

the World Series; 

Whereas the Phillies were led by a talented 

and tough group of players including: 2006 

MVP Ryan Howard; All-Star Chase Utley; 

2007 MVP and 2007 and 2008 Gold Glove winner Jimmy Rollins; third baseman Pedro 

Feliz; veteran outfielder Pat Burrell; 2008 

Gold Glove winner, the ‘‘Flyin’ Hawaiian’’, 

Shane Victorino; outfielder Jayson Werth; 

and catcher Carlos Ruiz; 

Whereas numerous reserve players made 

significant contributions to the Phillies’ 

World Series title run, including Geoff Jenkins, Chris Coste, Eric Bruntlett, Greg 

Dobbs, and Matt Stairs; and 

Whereas more than 1,000,000 fans packed 

the streets of Philadelphia on October 31, 

2008 for a parade along Market and Broad 

Streets ending at Citizens Bank Park; 

Now, therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the Senate— 

(1) congratulates— 

(A) the Philadelphia Phillies for winning 

the 2008 World Series; 

(B) the Phillies manager, coaches, and support staff, whose commitment to the Phillies 

franchise has sustained this proud organization and allowed the team to reach the pinnacle of success in 2008; 

(C) all Phillies fans, whose tenacity, perseverance, and enthusiasm are matched only 

by that of the team to which the fans are 

dedicated; and 

(D) the Tampa Bay Rays on an outstanding 

2008 season; and 

(2) directs the Secretary of the Senate to 

transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution 

to— 

(A) Phillies manager Charlie Manuel; 

(B) Phillies general manager Ruben 

Amaro, Jr.; 

(E) Phillies advisor Pat Gillick. 


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