Social Security Disability Insurance

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. It is a tragedy that his life was ended and helped bring about the end of his 2,138 consecutive game playing streak in Major League Baseball.

This is a horrible disease, a progressive neurodegenerative condition that rapidly attacks the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord and eventually it affects the control of the muscles that are needed to move, to speak, and even to eat and to breathe. Sadly, it is always fatal.

The bill now under consideration will grant a waiver from the Social Security Disability Insurance waiting period to victims of this terrible disease, no doubt with good, noble intentions, but what we have to remember is that this is not the only tragic disease Americans are dying from. Unfortunately, there are many others out there that are equally debilitating and equally fatal, and the Federal Government should not pick favorites to legislate from among them.

Indeed, this kind of policy and approach to policymaking poses several problems. First, it sets the precedent that some diseases or disabilities deserve preferential treatment and not necessarily with a distinction that sets them apart from that disparate treatment. It would undoubtedly open the door for exemption requests for a myriad of other groups who advocate for worthy causes, including any of the 233 compassionate allowance conditions that are already given expedited review for SSDI.

I have gone through that list and looked at that list and it contains a lot of other horrible, debilitating deadly diseases, among them non- Hodgkin's lymphoma that claimed the life of my father 22 years ago, along with a whole lot of other diseases that are deadly, that are painful, that are debilitating, that result in the incapacitation of their victims.

On top of all that, this approach will set the stage for only those diseases that have the most recognition and the most political backing to find bill sponsors, while others sit at a relative disadvantage with conditions that are more rare and underfunded.

Furthermore, while I am happy to consider working on the waiting period issue, we cannot do so without taking a larger look at SSDI as a whole and its sustainability. We cannot ignore the fact that Social Security is facing long-term insolvency with the DI Trust Fund set to run out in 2032, even sooner than the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund is set to expire and from which it has to borrow funds.

It is undoubtedly a noble intention to help those with ALS, but we will never have parity if we legislate disease by disease, especially among and between diseases that are comparably debilitating. I said it is incoherent and unjust to pick one favorite group where there are others that are every bit as deserving.

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I respectfully, most vehemently disagree with the characterization made by my distinguished colleague, the Senator from Rhode Island.

This is not, with all due respect, an instance of ``we can't help anyone until we help everyone.'' That is a blatant mischaracterization of the facts. We have already 233 conditions that qualify for the compassionate allowance category.

If you look through those, they are full of debilitating, life- threatening conditions. Those categories already do receive expedited treatment. They already are in a category where they have to be reviewed and a decision has to be made within a set period of time--I believe, within the range of 5 months.

That is a good thing, but it is simply not accurate. In fact, it is blatantly misleading to suggest that my argument here boils down to the notion that we cannot help anyone until we help everyone. That is not true. It is the point here that unless or until we can make a distinction between this condition and the other 233 conditions that are on that list, I see no valid basis--other than the fact that this one has more political support and, perhaps, more financial backing--to draw that distinction here. I think it is unfair to those who benefit from and will need to invoke the need for Social Security disability insurance to put it in an even less sustainable posture moving forward.

Yes, in an ideal world we would like to say no waiting period for anyone. In an ideal world we would like to not have anyone have to wait for these sorts of things, but we do have, in our government, a susceptibility to claims that are not substantiated, and we also have people who have to review them. In the absence of a perfect system, it may not be possible. It certainly isn't going to be possible for us to make this program sustainable if we can't put meaningful limits on it.

Again, I am all for finding ways to shorten that waiting period as much as we possibly can. I have yet to hear an argument that sets this condition apart from the others in this category of 233 compassionate allowance conditions.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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Mr. LEE. In no way, shape, or form am I making the argument that we cannot help anyone until we help everyone. That is a mischaracterization of the argument I am making.

I am arguing that if, among and between these 233 categories, we can make no principle distinction between this condition and the others, we are mistreating those other people.

Who is going to stand here for them? Today, I am going to.
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