Kohl Introduces First Bills for 109th Congress

KOHL INTRODUCES FIRST BILLS FOR 109TH CONGRESS

Among first introduced bills: extension of national dairy program, class action reform, patient abuse prevention, tsunami food aid, and weekend voting legislation

With Congress reconvening this week following President Bush's second inauguration, U.S. Senator Herb Kohl announced his first bill introductions for the 109th Congress. The bills address a number of Kohl's priorities for the new session of Congress.

"People in Wisconsin and throughout the nation have made it clear that they expect us to work together on their behalf to get things done. The new session of Congress presents a fresh opportunity. I look forward to working with the Administration and members of both parties in Congress to address our priorities, and these bills are part of that effort," Kohl said.

Among the first bills Kohl will introduce in the 109th Congress:

• Extension of the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program. Kohl helped to create this counter-cyclical support program that provides a critical safety net for America's dairy farmers in the 2002 Farm Bill. When dairy prices reached 25-year lows in 2002 and the first half of 2003, the MILC program provided dairy producers with much needed assistance and helped stemmed the tide of losses that dairy farmers had experienced in previous periods of downturn. Wisconsin farmers received $413 million during that period. The MILC program, however, is scheduled to expire in September 2005, two years earlier than the rest of the farm bill commodity programs. Kohl's bipartisan and multi-regional legislation would extend the program for two years.

• Fishing and boating access expansion. Kohl's bill would reauthorize and expand the Aquatic Resources Trust Fund, which distributes monies to states for such activities as stocking fish, maintaining boating access areas and boating safety education programs. According to the Wisconsin DNR, Wisconsin would receive $3 million each year from the trust fund.

• The Patient Abuse Prevention Act. This legislation addresses the protection and care of elderly and disabled patients in nursing homes and home health care. The legislation will establish a national background check system for workers who care for the elderly and disabled to weed out known abusers and people with violent criminal backgrounds. Current state and national safeguards have been inadequate to prevent abuse of patients by those who are supposed to care for them. All states are required to have nurse aide registries, but these registries are not comprehensive or efficiently maintained. Additionally, many states limit their registries to nursing home aides, failing to cover home health and hospice aides.

• Weekend Voting bill. In an effort to increase access to polling places for American voters, Kohl is introducing a bill that would move federal elections to the first weekend in November and open polling places for uniform hours over the two days. Kohl's bill addresses a major shift in the way Americans vote, as voters increasingly opt to vote absentee or early because of increased crowding at the polls.

• Class Action Fairness Act. Kohl and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) are reintroducing this bill to stop unfair and abusive class action settlements that ignore the best interests of injured plaintiffs. The bill makes it easier to move class action cases to federal court, where the judges are much more experienced and there are greater resources to deal with these very large cases. The bill also adds an extra layer of review for the class action settlements by permitting the Attorney General of a state whose constituents are affected to review and object, if necessary, to the settlements before the judge approves it. A Wisconsin case, involving a Baraboo woman, Martha Preston, underscores the need for reform. Preston was an unnamed class member of a class action lawsuit against her mortgage company that ended in a settlement. Ultimately, Preston received four dollars in the lawsuit, while her attorneys pocketed $8 million. Soon after receiving her four dollars, Ms. Preston discovered that her lawyers took $80, twenty times her recovery, from her escrow account to help pay their fees.

• International food assistance bill. In order to help meet the food aid needs of victims devastated by the recent earthquake and tsunami in South Asia, as well as to ensure that funding continues for current food aid programs in other parts of the world, Kohl will introduce an amendment to the supplemental appropriations bill for food aid efforts. Such funding would help provide food aid to tsunami victims in South Asia without diverting food aid funding away from people in other developing countries.

Additionally, Kohl is cosponsoring the following legislation introduced by the Democratic Leadership:

• "Standing With our Troops." This legislation recognizes the sacrifices our troops make by providing them the personnel, equipment, compensation, and benefits they need to them accomplish their mission. The bill would increase military end strength by up to 40,000 by 2007. It would create a Guard and Reserve Bill of Rights to protect and promote the interests of the dedicated citizen soldiers. The bill also provides income security and immediate access to affordable health care for families of those in uniform.

• "Fulfilling Our Duty to America's Veterans." As a new generation of veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan, Kohl and the bill's sponsors are working to protect their rights. This legislation will ensure that all veterans get the health care they deserve while also expanding the availability and accessibility of mental health care. The bill will ensure the same commitment to the soldiers of today that was made to past veterans with a 21st Century GI Bill.

• "Fiscal Responsibility for a Sound Future." This legislation helps to restore budget discipline and fiscal responsibility to the country's finances. The bill's passage would mark a return to budget discipline, including the restoration of the Senate "pay-as-you-go" rule that requires that mandatory spending and tax legislation be fully paid for, or be subject to a 60-vote point of order. Pay-go is one of the crucial budget enforcement tools that allowed the federal government to move from deficit to surplus in the 1990s. The bill would also reinstate mandatory spending cuts to balance the budget.

http://kohl.senate.gov/~kohl/press/05/01/2005125843.html