Q: Will Congress keep its good health care even if it passes a bill to change the health care system for everyone else?
A: I don’t support the health care bill passed by the Senate in December because it would mean higher taxes, higher health insurance premiums, more government spending and a raid on Medicare to fund a costly new entitlement program. However, the legislation includes an amendment I sponsored and got adopted by the Finance Committee to have members of Congress and their staffs get their health insurance through the same health insurance exchanges where health plans for the general public would be available. During the closed-door negotiations on the Senate bill late last year, the Senate Majority Leader carved out Senate committee and leadership staff from this requirement. I attempted to offer another amendment to restore the requirement during Senate debate on the health care bill, but the Senate Majority Leader would not let my amendment to fix this loophole even come up for a vote. In addition to Senate committee and leadership staff, the amendment I filed during the Senate debate would have made the President, the Vice President, top White House staff and cabinet members all get their health insurance through the newly created exchanges.
Q: What’s behind your effort, and what’s the record in Congress?
A: The motivation for my amendment is simple: Congress should live under the same laws it passes for the rest of the country. This is the same principle that motivated me to pursue legislation over 20 years ago to apply civil rights, labor and employment laws to Congress. Before President Clinton signed into law my long-sought Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, Congress had routinely exempted itself from these laws. The Congressional Accountability Act made Congress subject to 12 laws, including the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Veteran’s Employment and Reemployment Rights at Chapter 43 of Title 38 of the U.S. Code, and the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1989. Today, I’m working to make sure Congress lives up to the same standards it imposes on others with legislation like my Congressional Whistleblower Protection Act. Iowans have expressed strong support for my effort to apply laws to Congress itself. Whether it’s civil rights, labor and employment law or health care, I’ll continue to keep up the fight against double standards.