David Thomas: “I am sure that there was significant labor on the part of my friends to put this package together. The package is, and…”

“I am sure that there was significant labor on the part of my friends to put this package together. The package is, and all my colleagues should know, to strike all after the enacting clause and insert the following. The following is a bill. And if you would take the copy that was provided to me, and as you turn through the pages you come to a section, and as in the case nowadays, you know when you send things over faxes that at the top you have a heading and it tells you where it came from? I may not be completely familiar, but this says this is from the USWA Legislative Public Affairs. I believe that is United Steelworkers of America Legislative Public Affairs. So a portion of this bill, obviously, has been generated through the fax machine from folks who I do not believe are under the employment of Congress. However, most of the debate on my friend's side has been focusing on page 100 of our bill, and there he refers to the fact that we say that this new plan that we want to put into effect of providing health insurance to our colleagues is not there in detail; that what it has is an enablement to the Secretary of the Treasury to develop the regulations necessary to carry out the plan. Now, one of the dirty little secrets inside the bill is they do not have a plan either. Because currently COBRA is not subsidized, it is paid for by individuals out of their pocket. They propose to set up a plan which will subsidize COBRA.…”