Frank Pallone: “let me follow up on what our Democratic leader just said. I have to say, as one Member, that I am tired of coming down…”

“let me follow up on what our Democratic leader just said. I have to say, as one Member, that I am tired of coming down here and passing these continuing resolutions, in this case for another week, without getting our work done. The fiscal year began for 2001 on October 1. We do not have a budget. We have the majority of the appropriation bills out there, somewhere, certainly not on the President's desk, that have not been resolved. This Congress, under the Republican leadership, is simply not doing the job. There is time left. There is no reason why we have to go home or we have to sit here and dilly dally over naming post offices, for example, as the leader said. There are a number of important issues that need to be addressed and that my constituents and the average American care about: health care needs, a patients' bill of rights. The Republican leadership keeps talking about how they want to deal with the HMO abuses, but we do not see any legislation coming forward that would solve the problem and get something done so that those people who are being denied care or who are being denied a particular operation or are having problems with access to health care have their problems addressed. We see the Republican presidential candidate talk about prescription drugs, but there is nothing happening here in this Republican Congress to address the problem of prescription drugs.”