Melvin Watt: “Mr. Chairman, I was in a crime bill markup, so I will try not to take my 5 minutes. But I did want to come over and…”

“Mr. Chairman, I was in a crime bill markup, so I will try not to take my 5 minutes. But I did want to come over and congratulate my colleague from North Carolina on this fine amendment that she has proposed to this bill, and to express my support for this amendment. Before I came to the Congress I spent 22 years practicing law, and a substantial part of my practice was workers' compensation cases. I am sure somebody is going to jump up and say, ``well workers' compensation is State regulated and that makes our point.'' Workers' compensation is State regulated. But in just about every workers' compensation case that I had in which a serious injury resulted, the workers' compensation coverage would come in and make its payments, and the victim would be partially or even in some cases fully taken care of, but there was nothing in place beyond workers' compensation to, at the State level, assure that the condition that resulted in that injury was addressed beyond just that particular victim.”