Bill Nelson: “I wish to say to the very distinguished Senator from North Dakota he has always been one of the foremost advocates for…”

“I wish to say to the very distinguished Senator from North Dakota he has always been one of the foremost advocates for improving Indian health on the tribal lands, and I intend to support him. I thank him for his advocacy. In my State of Florida, we have a number of very prominent Indian tribes, the Seminoles, the Mikasukis, and others. The good fortune is they do not have the health problems other tribes have throughout other parts of the country. Yet there are some problems in Florida as well. This is a matter we cannot continue to close our eyes to. We need to help them. I intend to support the Senator from North Dakota on this bill. I look forward to its passage and, hopefully, working out the problems with the White House so they will not veto this legislation. Madam President, I wish to talk about this. We are now obviously in a recession: the gyration of the stock market, the weakness of the dollar, the roiling markets around the world, the emergency meeting of the Federal Reserve, the cutting of the rate three-quarters of a percent, from 4 1/4 to 3 1/2, the likelihood they will meet again next week and cut the interest rate further. We are in a full-scale recession. I have returned from my State of Florida and this recess having done town hall meetings all over the State, in which the town halls were packed, with standing room only. They were out into the hallways.…”