Kay Bailey Hutchison: “Madam President, I want to speak on behalf of the Grassley motion which would send this bill to committee so that it…”

“Madam President, I want to speak on behalf of the Grassley motion which would send this bill to committee so that it could be marked up and fully debated because while we have had great debate, bypassing the committee process I think has caused us to have to write the bill in this Chamber. I don't think that is a good way to pass legislation. I think we all want to have a Patients' Bill of Rights that is well vented and well debated and that we know will have the intended consequences because the last thing we want to do is have unintended consequences when we are talking about the health care of most Americans. I hope we can commit the bill to bring it back in a better form. Second, I hope people will support the Gramm-Hutchison amendment because this is the Texas law. Senator Harkin, on a news program this weekend, said: I would love to have just the Texas law for the entire Nation. The Gramm-Hutchison amendment is the Texas law verbatim when it applies to suing a person's employer because what we don't want to do is put the employer in the position of standing for the insurance company.”