Accomplishments of the 108th Congress

[The Straight Story]

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE 108TH CONGRESS -- (Senate - November 16, 2004)

GPO's PDF

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Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will be very brief. I just want to make a few more comments since we have a few minutes before 12:30 and I see we do have another Senator in the Chamber who is desiring to speak.

Over the 108th Congress, we have worked hard to move America forward. Indeed, we have gotten results. We have an economy now that is rebounding with job growth that is robust; 2.4 million jobs have been created since August of last year with 14 straight months of job gains. We have unemployment down from its 6.3 percent peak last year. Unemployment rates have fallen across categories of race and age and all levels of education. Inflation remains low. Interest rates remain low. Our tax cuts clearly have had a huge effect on the economy. Americans today enjoy more of their hard-earned money to spend, to save, to invest as they choose. We have home ownership at an all-time high including among African Americans, where it is at an all-time high. Health care security has made huge advances.

We have a lot more to do. Many of these issues played out in the recent elections. I think, as we all begin to plan for the next Congress, clearly health care will remain high on that agenda. We have a lot to be proud of in this Congress in addressing health care security for seniors, addressing Medicare modernization, strengthening of Medicare with the biggest reform package in the last 40 years. All this translates down to better health care security for seniors and individuals with disabilities.

For the first time, Medicare will cover the most powerful tool we have in medicine today and that is prescription drugs. That is a huge service to seniors to

give them the health care security they deserve. That is a good first step. Again, we have to come back and look and make sure we continue to strengthen Medicare over time.

Over the last week, as I traveled around the country, I have taken the opportunity to ask about these drug discount cards we have made available through Medicare. Indeed, 4 million seniors today have these Medicare discount cards that give them discounts of 10 percent to 25 percent, which they simply did not have before we passed that legislation.

I do want to remind low-income seniors who have not yet signed up for one of those prescription drug cards that if you sign up for one of those cards, it has, in addition to those discounts, $1,200 of value on it and $600 of that value will go away after January 1 of next year. So I encourage you to sign up for those cards. If you have any questions, as most seniors know, you can call 1-800-MEDICARE and have those questions answered.

Health savings accounts--a lot is being written about them in the newspapers today. In fact, in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan, medical savings accounts for the first time will be made an option for us in the Senate and for the 8 or 9 or 10 million Federal employees around the country. Indeed, I look forward to signing up for a health savings account myself here as we reenroll in the next several weeks.

The President's agenda for the upcoming Congress is going to be vigorous. I had the opportunity to meet with the President yesterday, and with the Speaker of the House. Although we focused mainly on finishing the work over the course of this week, as I mentioned in my opening statement, I am very excited about the agenda, the vision that is laid out for next year.

As I also said in my opening comments, I look forward to working aggressively across the aisle, with civility, in a bipartisan way, as we address this agenda that the American people really deserve. The issues are many.

GPO's PDF

We will have the opportunity to discuss those in the future.

Mr. President, we are back for a short period of time. It is real clear, in terms of what we have to accomplish. We are not going to be doing a lot of new business because we have much unfinished business to do.

I do welcome my colleagues back. Over the next several days there will be opportunity for tributes for Senators who are retiring and leaving this body. The Democratic caucus just had their leadership elections and I want to congratulate each one of those new leaders and will do so formally, not quite now but a little bit later, in phone calls to them. We have our leadership elections tomorrow. I look forward, leadership to leadership, to working in a vigorous, robust way to accomplish the agenda before the American people.

I yield the floor.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. There is no unanimous consent required. The Senator is authorized to speak for 5 minutes.


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