Tom Coburn

I thank Senator Enzi and all those who have worked hard on this bill. I have a few questions in terms of my concern about prenatal testing. Do I understand from the remarks of the Senator from Wyoming that this legislation is directed…

I would just say the following thing: information is powerful. Women in our country are smart. They make good medical decisions. They can and must be informed of the risk of this virus. Seven million women this year will become infected…

I have the assurance of our leadership. What I want is the assurance of the Women's Caucus that they want women in this country to be informed about this risk.

I want to relate a story about a woman by the name of Sharon Coburn Wetz. She was a scrub nurse RN for a surgeon in Midwest City, Oklahoma. The vast majority of her early career was spent in assisting on surgery of the breast. Ironically…

I do not know Virginia, but other States, if you have the information of public health knowledge that is considered confidential, then there is no right to distribute that information.

Right. And today we do the exact same thing on syphilis. Let me put forward to the gentleman that, number one, do we serve society's greater good if in fact we limit the spread of the disease; number two, do we serve the victim's greater…

I cannot answer that. I do not know, but I can say in other government-run health programs, title X clinics, title XI clinics, it is not doctors that make decisions. It is an extension of the doctors, somebody that is abstract making those…

There is a drug on the market known as Trazadone. The brand name is Desyrel. I use that drug a lot. I use the generic as a sleep-inducing aid for senior citizens, but I never use the generic for an antidepressant because it is not as…

That is the same principle as we have today in Medicare. There is no choice; if one is over a certain age, they will participate, unless one chooses not to participate at 64.5 years. Once they choose not to participate, they will never be…

I want to make two points just for the Record to those that might be watching this. Medicare did a prescription drug benefit in 1988. The estimated cost was $4.7 billion. The actual costs, the 1 year that that was in place was $11.7…

I would not have any problem; that is their individual choice. I have a problem in destroying the life of an unborn baby; that is a different topic. But if, in fact, a parent is involved, but under the auspices of the HCSC planning…

Reclaiming my time on that statement to say that that area, that EMA gets twice as much money per person with that than anybody else in the country. If the gentlewoman can stand and defend that while people in Oklahoma are waiting in line…

The drugs that are produced in FDA-approved facilities, they do assure at this time that they are made to the same standard as the drugs that are made in this country. Otherwise, they would not have their approved labeling from the FDA…

Mr. Chairman, what the bill says is that they can negotiate for abortion rights but they cannot negotiate for life. That is the ultimate result of this language. And in fact, it puts in jeopardy every Catholic hospital in this country…

Is it not true that the original House- passed bill had $4 billion in defense spending in it which is not in this bill that was moved to the Defense Appropriations bill?

I just want to continue the point related to this amendment, which is that the vast majority of the people I think in this House are going to want to increase this limit. The point the gentlewoman from California made is there is not…

I guess the point is, the testimony is that it is going to be enhanced by $5 billion just what we do. And if you really think it ought to be broadened, then let us broaden it to everybody. We will defeat my first amendment but you support…

The only question I have is the Federal Government did not set any mandates on any city that their employees be a resident.

It is interesting that of the few people in our body that have experience with this issue, that we now have an attempt to cut off debate. The fact is, I am all too familiar with this procedure. The gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs…

I would make two points. I would concede that there is a difference in mix. I do not deny that. But I also say that if we look at the attrition from the Federal Government, it is one-fifth the rate of private industry today. So that, on an…

Probably significant. I do not know what the average doctor's salary is. But I also know that the average doctor has 8 years additional education and debt that the average Federal employee does not have, the average.

Mr. Speaker, I value the Federal employees that work in my district. This is not about any individual employee. But the average Federal employee's salary in this country is greater than the average salary in this country by $4,000. So they…

The average Member in the House of Representatives turns back almost $45,000 a year, of which, if we gave our staff an 8 percent increase, we would have more than enough money, based on that average turnback. So the fact is, there is…

I would make two points with the gentleman. Number one is if we really were wanting to attack those communities that were underfunded, I would have included the $1.7 billion that is there designed to do the statistical sampling. We did not…

I think the gentleman knows through our conversations that what my preference to do would be just to eliminate the emergency designation. However, the parliamentary rules prohibited both he or I from doing that very thing. I wanted to make…