On the recordMarch 19, 2010
I wish to go back to the subject my colleague, Senator McCain, was discussing earlier today. He had printed in the Congressional Record a letter sent by the Governor of the State of Arizona to the Speaker and to the majority leader of the Senate relating to the health care legislation, imploring them not to impose the new mandates that would cost the State of Arizona additional funds for covering Medicaid patients and urging the Members of the Congressional delegation to reject the legislation that does that. It is not clear yet, because it has been hard to go through the entire legislation, what all the changes are in the last bill, but I do wish to discuss those that have at least been identified by the staff who have had an opportunity to read the bill since it was put on the Web site yesterday. To back up a little bit, let's remember there was a bill that passed the House of Representatives. Then there was a bill that came out of the Finance Committee in the Senate. It was combined with the bill that came out of the HELP Committee in the Senate. This was done behind closed doors. It was essentially done by the majority leader in the Senate. That bill was not the subject of the normal committee process, but it was presented to the Senate floor.
