Jeff Bingaman: “First, let me begin with a subject that is extremely important to my State and to many of our States. That is Medicaid.…”

“First, let me begin with a subject that is extremely important to my State and to many of our States. That is Medicaid. I want to address two different proposals there. First, there is a proposal the administration has made related to Medicaid. We don't have a written proposal as yet, but we do have various statements from Secretary Thompson. We had a hearing this morning in the Finance Committee that the Presiding Officer attended, as did I. We have had testimony and oral statements and very brief descriptions, but we do not have a written proposal or even a detailed outline of what might be proposed by the administration. But in what they are proposing, I find some real serious concerns. The other proposal I want to discuss is one I am working on with Congressman Dingell--we hope to introduce it probably early next week-- entitled ``Saving Our States.'' I will try to describe a little bit each of these. The Nation's Governors have been here this week. I had the good fortune to speak to them last Sunday at one of their subcommittee meetings on human resources about Medicaid. It is clear that they are under severe stress at this point fiscally. It is estimated the States are facing nearly a $30 billion shortfall this year and an $80 billion shortfall in fiscal year 2004. In my view, it is important that the Federal Government respond to that.”