Jeff Bingaman: “I wish to use a few moments of morning business to talk about and describe two amendments I have proposed to the pending…”

“I wish to use a few moments of morning business to talk about and describe two amendments I have proposed to the pending legislation. The first amendment I wish to speak about is amendment No. 138. This amendment, which Senator Kennedy is cosponsoring with me, would extend a critical Federal-State program that assists low-income Medicare beneficiaries to pay the health premiums under the Medicare Program. It uses the Medicaid Program to do that. It is a program that was enacted in 1997. It was slated to be reauthorized at the end of 2002, but, of course, Congress did not enact either Medicaid or Medicare legislation in the 107th Congress. The program was extended by the continuing resolutions that we have enacted in the last few months. It was extended until March 12 of this year. The amendment I have offered will extend that program through September 30 of this year to give us additional time to do a more complete extension. This program is known as the QI-1 Program. It is the Qualifying Individual Program.”