Pelosi Remarks at Meeting With Tribal Leaders on Health Reform

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Pelosi Remarks at Meeting With Tribal Leaders on Health Reform
Wed Nov 4, 2009 1:48pm EST

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
Democratic
Leaders, and Members of Congress held a press availability this
morning in the
Capitol with tribal leaders to highlight the benefits of health
insurance
reform to the Native American community. Below are the Speaker's
remarks:

"Good morning. There are many honors afforded to the Speaker of the
House and
many privileges that go with this position. I can think of none that
exceed my
enthusiasm of meeting with these leaders. Here we have the tribal
leaders and
leaders of the Congress.

"Appropriately we felt that this time -- November is a very important
month to
honor the heritage of Native Americans in our country. And tomorrow,
these
tribal leaders will be meeting with the President of the United States
in the
White House. As Speaker, I know I speak for all Members of Congress
when I say
that we are honored to be associated with this important recognition.

"We come together at a time when we are on the verge of passing
historic
health care reform legislation and our Members are very enthusiastic
about a
provision in the legislation that includes the Indian Health Care
Improvement
Act. It has been a long time coming and it is a moral responsibility
that we
carry a healthy nation in the country and one that develops with the
participation of our tribal leaders to what works best on health care
in
Indian Country.

"And so this is a historic November month, at a time when we are on
the verge
of doing something great on health care for all Americans, and it is
important
that we do it for our earliest Americans.

"I am pleased that we are joined here today by Jefferson Keel, who is
President of the National Congress of Americans Indians and the long
time
Lieutenant Governor of the Chickasaw Nation. And before I yield to
him, I
would like to just say that the enthusiasm of many of our colleagues
for the
inclusion of key provisions in this legislation has been something
that they
have been fighting for a long time. And our leadership under
Congressman
Xavier Becerra -- he has been a leader on this issue. George Miller
has been a
leader. I am thankful to all the chairs of the subcommittees who had
hearings
on this subject and are fighting for adding this provision. Joe Baca
has been
fighting on the floor as well. Mr. Rahall, the Chairman of the
Committee on
Natural Resources has just been a real champion. So has the Chairman
of the
Health Subcommittee, Frank Pallone, as well as Patrick Kennedy. And I
want to
thank my colleagues from New Mexico, Ben Ray Lujan and Martin
Heinrich.

SOURCE Office of the Speaker of the House

Brendan Daly, Nadeam Elshami, Drew Hammill, +1-202-226-7616, all of
Office of
the Speaker of the House

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS199823+04-Nov-2009+PRN20091104