H. Con. Res. 84—37
(1) any Medicare reform package should include measures
to address the inequity in Medicare reimbursement to risk
contract plans;
(2) Medicare should use a national update framework
rather than local fee-for-service spending increases to determine
the annual changes in risk plan payment rates;
(3) an adequate minimum payment rate should be provided
for health plans participating in Medicare risk contract
programs;
(4) the geographic variation in Medicare payment rates
must be reduced over time to raise the lower payment areas
closer to the average while taking into account actual
differences in input costs that exist from region to regional;
(5) Medicare managers in consultation with plan providers
and patient advocates should pursue competitive bidding
programs in communities where data indicate risk contract
payments are substantially excessive and when plan choices
would not diminish by such a bidding process; and
(6) Medicare should phase in the use of risk adjusters
which take account of health status so as to address overpay-
ment to some plans.
SEC. 317. SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING ASSISTANCE TO
LITHUANIA AND LATVIA.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Senate finds that—
(1) Lithuania and Latvia reestablished democracy and free
market economies when they regained their freedom from the
Soviet Union;
(2) Lithuania and Latvia, which have made significant
progress since regaining their freedom, are still struggling to
recover from the devastation of 50 years of communist domina-
tion;
(3) the United States, which never recognized the illegal
incorporation of Lithuania and Latvia into the Soviet Union,
has provided assistance to strengthen democratic institutions
and free market reforms in Lithuania and Latvia since 1991;
(4) the people of the United States enjoy close and friendly
relations with the people of Lithuania and Latvia;
(5) the success of democracy and free market reform in
Lithuania and Latvia is important to the security and economic
progress of the United States; and
(6) the United States as well as Lithuania and Latvia
would benefit from the continuation of assistance which helps
Lithuania and Latvia to implement commercial and trade law
reform, sustain private sector development, and establish well-
trained judiciaries.
(b) SENSE OF THE SENATE.—It is the sense of the Senate that
the provisions of this resolution assume that—
(1) adequate assistance should be provided to Lithuania
and Latvia in fiscal year 1998 to continue the progress they
have made; and
(2) assistance to Lithuania and Latvia should be continued
beyond fiscal year 1998 as they continue to build democratic
and free market institutions.
H. Con. Res. 84—38
SEC. 318. SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING A NATIONAL COMMIS-
SION ON HIGHER EDUCATION.
It is the sense of the Senate that the provisions of this resolu-
tion assure that a national commission should be established to
study and make specific recommendations regarding the extent
to which increases in student financial aid, and the extent to
which Federal, State, and local laws and regulations, contribute
to increases in college and university tuition.
SEC. 319. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON LOCKBOX.
It is the Sense of the Senate that the provisions of this resolu-
tion assume that to ensure all savings from Medicare reform are
used to keep the Medicare Program solvent, the Treasury Secretary
should credit the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund (Part
A) with government securities equal to any savings from Medicare
Supplemental Medical Insurance (Part B) reforms enacted pursuant
to the reconciliation instructions contained in this budget resolution.
SEC. 320. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON THE EARNED INCOME CREDIT.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Senate finds that—
(1) an April 1997 study by the Internal Revenue Service
of Earned Income Credit (EIC) filers for tax year 1994 revealed
that over $4,000,000,000 of the $17,000,000,000 spent on the
EIC for that year was erroneously claimed and paid by the
IRS, resulting in a fraud and error rate of 25.8 percent;
(2) the IRS study further concluded that EIC reforms
enacted by the One Hundred Fourth Congress will only lower
the 
fraud 
error 
rate 
to 
20.7 
percent, 
meaning 
over
$23,000,000,000 will be wasted over the next five years; and
(3) the President’s recent proposals to combat EIC fraud
and error contained within this budget resolution are estimated
to save $124,000,000 in scoreable savings over the next five
years and additional savings from deterrent effects.
(b) SENSE OF THE SENATE.—It is the sense of the Senate that
the provisions of this resolution assume that the President should
propose and Congress should enact additional programmatic
changes sufficient to ensure that the primary purpose of the EIC
to encourage work over welfare is achieved without wasting billions
of taxpayer dollars on fraud and error.
SEC. 321. SENSE OF THE SENATE SUPPORTING LONG-TERM ENTITLE-
MENT REFORMS.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Senate finds that this resolution assumes
that—
(1) entitlement spending has risen dramatically over the
last thirty-five years;
(2) in 1963, mandatory spending (i.e., entitlement spending
and interest on the debt) made up 29.6 percent of the budget,
this figure rose to 61.4 percent by 1993 and is expected to
reach 70 percent shortly after the year 2000;
(3) this mandatory spending is crowding out spending for
the traditional ‘‘discretionary’’ functions of Government like
clean air and water, a strong national defense, parks and
recreation, education, our transportation system, law enforce-
ment, research and development and other infrastructure
spending; and
(4) taking significant steps sooner rather than later to
reform entitlement spending will not only boost economic
H. Con. Res. 84—39
growth in this country, it will also prevent the need for drastic
tax and spending decisions in the next century.
(b) SENSE
OF
THE SENATE.—It is the Sense of the Senate
that the levels in this budget resolution assume that Congress
and the President should work to enact structural reforms in entitle-
ment spending in 1997 and beyond which sufficiently restrain the
growth of mandatory spending in order to keep the budget in
balance over the long term, extend the solvency of the Social Secu-
rity and Medicare Trust Funds, avoid crowding out funding for
basic Government functions and that every effort should be made
to hold mandatory spending to no more than 70 percent of the
budget.
SEC. 322. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON DISASTER ASSISTANCE FUNDING.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Senate finds that—
(1) emergency spending adds to the deficit and total
spending;
(2) the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 exempts emergency
spending from the discretionary spending caps and pay-go
requirements;
(3) the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 expires in 1998
and needs to be extended;
(4) since the enactment of the Budget Enforcement Act,
Congress and the President have approved an average of
$5,800,000,000 per year in emergency spending; and
(5) a natural disaster in any particular State is unpredict-
able, by the United States is likely to experience a natural
disaster almost every year.
(b) SENSE OF THE SENATE.—It is the sense of the Senate that
the functional totals underlying this concurrent resolution on the
budget assume that the Congress should consider in the extension
of the Budget Enforcement Act and in appropriations Acts—
(1) provisions that budget for emergencies or that require
emergency spending to be offset;
(2) provisions that provide flexibility to meet emergency
funding requirements associated with natural disasters;
(3) Congress and the President should consider appropriat-
ing at least $5,000,000,000 every year to provide for natural
disaster relief; and
(4) Congress and the President should not designate any
emergency spending for natural disaster relief until such
amounts provided in regular appropriations are exhausted.
SEC. 323. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON ENFORCEMENT OF BIPARTISAN
BUDGET AGREEMENT.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Senate finds that—
(1) the bipartisan budget agreement is contingent upon—
(A) favorable economic conditions for the next 5 years;
(B) accurate estimates of the fiscal impacts of assump-
tions in this resolution; and
(C) enactment of legislation to reduce the deficit; and
(2) if any of the conditions in paragraph (1) are not met,
our ability to achieve a balanced budget by 2002 will be jeopard-
ized.
(b) SENSE OF THE SENATE.—It is the sense of the Senate that
the functional totals and limits in this resolution assume that—
H. Con. Res. 84—40
(1) reconciliation legislation should include legislation to
enforce the targets set forth in the bipartisan budget agreement
and to ensure the balanced budget goal is met; and
(2) such legislation shall—
(A) establish procedures to ensure the agreement is
enforced in every year;
(B) require that the President’s annual budget and
annual Congressional concurrent resolutions on the budget
comply the agreement in every year;
(C) consider provisions which provide that if the deficit
is below or the surplus is above the deficits projected in
the agreement in any year, such savings are locked in
for deficit and debt reduction; and
(D) consider provisions which budget for and control
emergency spending in order to prevent the use of emer-
gencies to evade the budget agreement.
SEC. 324. SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING THE NATIONAL
INSTITUTES OF HEALTH.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—
(1) heart disease was the leading cause of death for both
men and women in every year from 1970 to 1993;
(2) mortality rates for individuals suffering from prostate
cancer, skin cancer, and kidney cancer continue to rise;
(3) the mortality rate for African American women suffering
from diabetes is 134 percent higher than the mortality rate
of Caucasian women suffering from diabetes;
(4) asthma rates for children increased 58 percent from
1982 to 1992;
(5) nearly half of all American women between the ages
of 65 and 75 reported having arthritis;
(6) AIDS is the leading cause of death for Americans
between the ages of 24 and 44;
(7) the Institute of Medicine has described United States
clinical research to be ‘‘in a state of crisis’’ and the National
Academy of Sciences concluded in 1994 that ‘‘the present cohort
of clinical investigators is not adequate’’;
(8) biomedical research has been shown to be effective
in saving lives and reducing health care expenditures;
(9) research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health
has contributed significantly to the first overall reduction in
cancer death rates since record keeping was instituted;
(10) research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health
has resulted in the identification of genetic mutations for
osteoporosis; Lou Gehrig’s Disease, cystic fibrosis, and Hunting-
ton’s Disease; breast, skin and prostate cancer; and a variety
of other illnesses;
(11) research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health
has been key to the development of Magnetic Resonance Imag-
ing (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning
technologies;
(12) research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health
has developed effective treatments for Acute Lymphoblastic
Leukemia (ALL). Today, 80 percent of children diagnosed with
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia are alive and free of the disease
after 5 years; and