Reaction Of Senator Patrick Leahy To The President's State Of The Union Message

January 27, 2000

"I have a Vermont Yankee's reaction to the President's message. He laid out an agenda that is less ambitious than it should be during strong economic times, but unfortunately it is more ambitious than the partisanship in Congress may allow us to achieve. This should not be a year of treading water. Those in Congress who are saying we will not get much done this year should remember they are not being paid to warm the benches.

"The President is exactly right in urging Congress to stick to the sound fiscal principles that have fostered our economic growth. Deficit spending is dead and we need to keep it dead, and next we need to pay down and retire the national debt. Nothing else we do will be more important than that for our children and grandchildren, and for ourselves.

"I strongly support the President's call for a Medicare prescription drug benefit. We also need long-term solutions on Medicare and Social Security, but given the makeup of Congress, it looks like those solutions will have to wait for the next administration and the next Congress."

ACCOMPANYING THIS: Reaction of Sen. Patrick Leahy To Several Key Initiatives Proposed By The President

Highlights Of Key Leahy-Related Proposals In The President's State Of The Union Message

[Several proposals the President outlined Thursday night in his State of the Union Message are directly related to policy initiatives led by Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont (an exception is the prescription drug benefit which, unlike the first three proposals, is not a Leahy initiative but has long been advocated by Leahy).]

Land Conservation:  The $1.3 billion Clinton land conservation initiative will help protect water quality and preserve farmland. This builds upon and expands upon conservation programs authored by Leahy in the 1990 and 1996 Farm Bills (for instance, the Conservation Reserve Program, wetlands protection program, etc). Already, in Vermont these voluntary programs have contributed $5 million for farmland preservation.

Infectious diseases and global AIDS prevention:  The President is requesting an additional $100 million to combat HIV/AIDS overseas, where Americans are increasingly at risk; $50 million for a new vaccine fund for children in poor countries where epidemics often start; and $20 million to improve surveillance of infectious diseases. These build upon Leahy's Global Infectious Diseases Initiative, now entering its third year, and they will be handled by the Appropriations subcommittee where Leahy is the Democratic leader.

Financial and Medical Records Privacy:  President Clinton expressed disappointment that Congress failed to enact comprehensive medical records privacy legislation; he urged that Congress finally pass legislation during this congressional session. Leahy has long been the Senate's leading advocate and sponsor of medical privacy legislation. Leahy also is the author of a financial privacy bill, which he introduced last fall.

Health Care:  The President proposes prescription drug benefit for seniors and extended health care coverage for the 44 million uninsured Americans. The President has presented several meaningful and realistic steps, in Leahy's view, toward making health care more affordable and more accessible for Vermonters and other Americans. The Clinton initiatives will significantly reduce the number of uninsured low-income children and their parents and, for the first time ever, provide a prescription drug benefit within the Medicare program.

SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY COMMENTS ON SPECIFIC PROPOSALS:

"The President's land conservation initiative deserves our support. These programs are some of the best sprawl-busters around because they offer timely incentives so that farmers not are not forced to sell their land to developers."

"President Clinton's infectious diseases proposal is a significant investment that will go a long way toward curbing one of the most challenging humanitarian and health care crises facing our country and the world in the new millennium."

"President Clinton rightly called Congress's bluff on medical records privacy legislation. Congress has failed to act for year after year, but there is still time to get this job done by passing a comprehensive bill that offers the strong privacy protections that Americans expect and deserve."

"We have continued to overlook the millions of Americans who lack health insurance. The President's plan is a meaningful and realistic step that deserves bipartisan support. It would significantly reduce the deplorably high proportion of Americans without health insurance."