Pay for All Your Undocumented Procedures (PAY UP!) Act of 2003

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Today, Congress has the opportunity to reassure the American people that there are elected representatives on their sides. No vote could be more indicative as to the priorities of a Member of Congress.

Is America to have a policy of unrestricted health care for illegal immigrants at the expense of American citizens and legal residents? That is the issue we are discussing today. Voting for H.R. 3722 means that my colleagues are not in favor of spending our limited health care dollars in an unrestricted way to give illegal aliens all the health care that they need in terms of today's standards.

Those Members of Congress voting against H.R. 3722 are draining limited health care dollars that should be going to our own citizens and legal residents.

H.R. 3722 would put some common-sense controls over the $1 billion fund that was created by a rider that was added onto the Medicare bill that passed just a few months ago.

What does H.R. 3722 do? One thing it does not do is add a burden of paperwork to the hospital emergency rooms, and that is a bogus argument. I would warn my fellow constituents that that lie has been spread around this body in order to get people to vote in the wrong way. It is a bogus argument.

To be reimbursed, the hospitals will be asking questions. To get part of that $1 billion fund they will be asking questions anyway. This legislation does not add considerably to any major degree to those questions. It simply adds a following question: Who was the immigrant's last employer or his current employer? Plus, the hospital must then take a photo or a fingerprint, which may be required to get that fund money in the first place. This information would then be available to the Department of Homeland Security and the INS.

This legislation does not require any reporting by the hospitals or the doctors or anyone else to the Department of Homeland Security. That, too, is a bogus argument that is going around, only we will hear it in the debate, I am sure. The hospitals do no investigating, no reporting; they simply have the information that is given to them when the patient is put into the system and that is made available to government agencies. It is the government agencies, the Department of Homeland Security and INS, that do the investigating, that do the rest of the work. Do not fall for bogus arguments.

Our hospitals today feel compelled to provide extensive and even long-term treatment to illegal aliens. That is what our bill, H.R. 3722, does second. It makes sure that our hospitals are relieved of this enormous burden of trying to provide unlimited health care to any illegal that comes into an emergency room.

We have been giving heart bypasses, even transplants. A young girl from Mexico had $5 million worth of expenditures in heart transplants just a few months ago, and then when the transplant did not work, her family, who were here illegally and actually had emigrated here with a $5,000 fee to a coyote, then sued the hospital because the transplant did not work. Well, this cost us billions of dollars a year.

If someone has a genetic disease or something like that, our emergency rooms should not be treating this in the first place; and the fact is, this bill will alleviate that burden by saying that only if a person's life is imminently threatened by that malady do the hospitals have to focus on that and treat someone whose life is immediately being threatened rather than provide hundreds of thousands of dollars of long-term cancer care, genetic problems, et cetera.

This alone will save billions of dollars that should be going to the American people. The doctor will only determine how much treatment is necessary to get this person to a transportation source that will get them back to their home country so their home country can pay for the health care costs, rather than our senior citizens and our young people being deprived of the resources for their health care.

Number three. If it is a life-threatening emergency, the illegal alien will be treated. There is no doubt about that. This bill does not change that. But if he has no insurance, the alien's employer or former employer will be given the bill. Businessmen will be given the bill if they hire illegal immigrants who end up draining away our health care dollars. This makes all the sense in the world.

Now, the businessmen are coming out against this, saying how can we judge? In 2005, there is a system already being worked on and being established that with one phone call they will be able to determine if they are hiring an illegal immigrant. If a businessman has not made that phone call and has hired someone without checking it out, then he will pay for the health care costs rather than having the taxpayer pay for it.

We will hear a lot of people trying to tell us there are a lot of other things in this bill that are not. But it comes down to this: Whose side are we on? Do we care about our own senior citizens more than we care about strangers from overseas? Do we care more about our own people than we care about strangers from overseas?

If we keep trying to provide everything for everybody, our system is going to break down, and it is doing so right now in California. I would urge my colleagues to support 3722 and prove to their constituents just whose side they are on. We could have corrected this a long time ago, but we hear people all the time, and we will hear it today, with every excuse for not doing something. But the fact is some people in our country are benefiting from illegal immigration. They are very powerful. But it is hurting American citizens, and this bill tries to put a stop to that, or at least turn that situation around today with H.R. 3722.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, how much time remains on each side?

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds and just note that this fund of a billion dollars that was created that we now have to put some controls on, and that is what 3722 is trying to do, creates a perverse incentive. If we let this go through as it stands, what is going to happen is this: people who come to the emergency rooms who are American citizens or legal residents who have no insurance will be put behind and at the end of the line and the illegal immigrants will be put to the front of the line because the Federal Government is picking up the tab.

This is a perverse priority. We should be taking care of our own citizens before we take care of illegal aliens.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

What is shameful is how shameful some of my colleagues are getting the facts totally wrong and do not know what they are talking about. Someone must have briefed them with the wrong information.

This bill does not require our hospitals to gather any significant more information. The information that is being gathered that my colleague is complaining about, what we just heard, the great condemnation of all the questions that must be asked and all the information that must be gathered from this U.S. citizen, who might be an illegal, is already required of the hospital in order to get the funding, the billion dollars, that was set aside for them. It is not required by my bill. It is required in order to get reimbursement.

My bill simply says that if they are going to ask those questions, and they are going to expect to get reimbursed, they also have to ask who the employer is and get a fingerprint or a picture, which they are probably going to have to get in order to be reimbursed in the first place. So the gentleman's complaints are not against 3722. His complaints are that the Federal Government is now going to have an unlimited reimbursement for illegal immigrants and they are going to ask some questions for it. Do not blame 3722.

And let me note this also: we have had an example given to us of an American citizen who is there, and he is being threatened because he has to answer whether or not he is an illegal immigrant or not. The greatest threat to the treatment of American citizens and legal residents is that we are going to spend all of our available health care dollars taking care of illegals who should not be getting that money. The greatest threat to our senior citizens, to our young people is that we have a limited amount of health care dollars and my colleagues want to spend it on people who have come here illegally.

My colleague pointed out this will bring tens of millions of more people here and even a greater drain until the system breaks down.

The bottom line is the people who are in favor of spending our limited dollars on American citizens and a very doable system here that is no more complicated than what the hospitals are

going to have to go through to get reimbursement in the first place should be voting in favor of H.R. 3722. If they want to spend their money on people who came here illegally, rather than our own citizens, waste those dollars, make sure more illegals get in, go ahead and vote against H.R. 3722.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, again we hear this bogus argument that this bill is going to create more paperwork. The paperwork and the questions that we are talking about are required by hospitals who are going to be trying to get reimbursement through this billion dollar fund, which was snuck into the Medicare package with a back room deal, I might add. It is not required by my legislation; it is required to get reimbursement. If a hospital does not want to be reimbursed, they do not have to ask any questions, they can do whatever they want.

Let me note, all contagious diseases have been exempted by this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.

Let me note that if we really want to have the spread of disease in this country, let us set ourselves up as the HMO for the whole world. Let us make sure that everybody in the world knows that if they can get their kids to the United States, we will take care of them, and see how many diseases we are going to get.

That is what is happening in California right now. Diseases are beginning to materialize because people have brought their children and brought their seniors as well to come to the United States to be treated. We have got to end that syndrome because the money is coming directly from the health care dollars that should go to our own citizens, and it is luring more people with disease into our country.

This is a catastrophe. The best way to prevent it is to vote yes on

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute.

We keep hearing the bogus arguments. This requires the doctors to ask so many questions; we know now that is not true. Only the people who are trying to get reimbursed from that billion-dollar fund are going to ask the questions. This bill has minimal added questions. Two. Who is your employer and then taking a picture or getting a fingerprint which might be required in order to get reimbursed in the first place.

Do my colleagues on the other side of the aisle really believe in unlimited treatment for illegal immigrants without asking any questions? Is that what we are going to do? Who benefits from that? Certainly the illegal immigrant does and the tens of millions of other illegal immigrants who come into our country seeking health care, yes, they are going to benefit.

Who else benefits? The employer who does not want to offer health care to his employees. That is who benefits. That is who is being subsidized here. Behind the scenes when you get to the Chamber of Commerce and these other people opposing this, that is what their motive is. They do not want to offer health care to their employees. This gives the government the subsidy to subsidize them hiring people at below minimum wage level and, in fact, off the books at times. If you want to combat illegal immigration, this is the way to start; and it does not add any new paperwork or any new questions for the doctors.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. This bill does not require the first order of business to ask questions. This bill says if you want to be reimbursed from that billion dollar fund, yes, you are going to have to ask some questions, anyway, and adds one other question: Who is your employer? It does not require the doctors to turn anybody into the INS, although we have heard that over and over again in this debate. It does not require that. It requires their files to be available to the INS and to the Department of Homeland Security. It is those agencies that then follow through. The doctors do not have to report anything. It just has to be available on a computer.

Communicable diseases, we keep talking about that, that also is wrong. The bill exempts communicable diseases. Let us talk about the real issue, illegal immigration. How many services are we going to give people until we get tens of millions of more immigrating into our country?

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I would ask my colleagues to seriously consider this vote, and I would remind them that there are people all over the United States, especially their constituents, who are looking at this vote as a determinant as to whether or not we believe that illegal immigration is something that should remain uncontrolled and should continue in the years ahead, or whether we should start doing something about it.

There is a seething among the American people, among the working class and middle-class people. They know that illegal immigration has had a horrible impact on their lives. It has brought down wages. We actually had a policy that permitted unlimited illegal immigration into our country, and because of that, working class people do not make as much money as they did before.

Now we have a situation where illegal immigrants who go for emergency treatment, we are being told that we have to give them unrestricted and unlimited treatment, health treatment, and it is going to be paid for by the Federal Government. But that is not true of U.S. citizens. What about those middle-class, working-class people? They are out of work; they do not have insurance.

In this situation today, we have created the perverse priority that our government is reimbursing hospitals and helping illegals, but we will not do it for our own citizens.

We have a horrible problem in this country with illegal immigration. It is hurting many people's lives. Yes, rich corporations in the Chamber of Commerce, they get to hire people who are not even paying taxes half the time. They do not have to provide health insurance anymore because there are all these illegals willing to work anyway. That is very damaging to the American people.

Also we are spending billions of dollars here already on cancer treatments, organ transplants and genetic problems. We are spending about $10 billion on this every year.

This legislation says the only free treatment that somebody gets at an emergency center, illegal or not illegal, is if their life is under a threatening situation. I think even that is very generous of us in the United States. Interestingly enough, if someone goes through the process of being a legal immigrant, they do not get their health care covered, they do not get it reimbursed by the Federal Government.

Mr. Speaker, unless H.R. 3722 passes, we have set up the priority of helping illegal immigrants. Do not think that will not attract tens of millions more illegal immigrants to this country who have diseases that need to be treated. That makes sense. Think about it. This is common sense.

The American people are waiting to see whether or not we are going to use our scarce health dollars to take care of our senior citizens, to take care of our own people, to take care of our own little kids, or whether we are going to attract tens of millions of new people here and give that money away to strangers.

This is not mean-spirited. This is down-in-your-heart. We love everyone in this country. We have a diverse country, every race and religion. It is that love for each other that keeps us together. We have to care more about our own people, and that is not mean spirited, than we do about people that come here illegally.

Mr. Speaker, I would ask my friends and colleagues to support H.R. 3722.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3\1/2\ minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 3722. I think this is one of the most outrageous pieces of legislation I have seen this year, and unfortunately I believe it is a misguided bill. I believe that this bill does not stand for all of those that we represent in our districts.

I understand that through the census count we account for everyone in our districts, and that goes for the gentleman from Orange County, California (Mr. Rohrabacher), where I know he has an undisclosed number of people who may not be registered or accounted for; but he gets credit for that. Those numbers are put into place because we represent every single person, whether they are accounted for or not legally.

This bill goes in the wrong direction because it asks for our hospitals to become enforcers of immigration law. I cannot underscore how important it is to discuss this matter. Because as it is now, in California, we have already gone through the battle of 187 and trying to keep health care services and English educational services for children. The courts found that unconstitutional. Do we have to go to battle again?

Why does this bill have to direct our resources that right now are so, so important for every single person in our districts and be used to ask our hospital administrators, doctors, nurses, aides, to now require to have 5 years' worth of records that they must maintain giving some kind of evidence that they serve people who may be undocumented? That, in and of itself, I would say is a waste of time and money, money that should be afforded to sick people.

What happens in a classroom when you have a sick child who may, under no fault of their own, be there and not be a U.S. citizen? When they go to kindergarten, there is nothing that says that the child next to them will not be infected by maybe a contagious disease that they have. Hopefully, that never happens; but the fact that they would be prevented from health care services, and just knowing the fear that that family would have to go through to enter into the doors of a hospital knowing somehow they may not come back; that somehow Homeland Security is going to be there to pick them up and ship them back. And what about a woman going through active labor? She will be deported, because under the gentleman's bill that is what it says. The bill goes in the wrong direction.

I am standing with people in my district. And, in fact, there are several hospitals in the gentleman's own district who are against the bill. Some of the hospitals in Orange County: Garden Grove Hospital Medical Center, Loma Linda University, Queen of Angels Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, Scripps Mercy Hospital, Suburban Medical Center, Sutter Medical Center in Santa Rosa, and Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.

Throughout the State of California we are finding many of our friends, both in public and private sector hospitals, are against this bill. So I do not think we are standing alone here. I think we are standing very united that we see a very misguided bill, unfortunately, that is being presented to us today.

The Federation of American Hospitals, the American Hospital Association, the Catholic Health Association of the United States, and the National Association of Children's Hospitals are all in agreement that this bill goes in the wrong direction.

I would ask for Members to consider the people who are joining us today that are saying this is the wrong message. We all have an obligation, I believe, to provide under our own laws service to people who come to our hospitals. That is a given. We do that. And maybe it is an unfunded mandate, but it is one we all abide by. I do not think we are in a position to turn people away.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes and 20 seconds to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez).

(Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 20 seconds to the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I submit for the Record letters from various hospitals and organizations in opposition to this bill.

May 13, 2004.

RE: H.R. 3722 (Rohrabacher)--Oppose

Dear Congresswoman Solis: On behalf of Private Essential

Access Community Hospitals, Inc. (PEACH, Inc.), representing

37 private safety net hospitals across California, I am

writing to express our strong opposition to H.R. 3722

(Rohrabacher), which would require hospitals to document the

immigration status of those seeking emergency care. We ask

for your NO vote when this measure comes before the House

this month.

In California and throughout the nation, private safety net

hospitals are a vital segment of the safety net, providing

critical health care services to diverse populations within

their communities, including undocumented immigrants. PEACH

hospitals consider it part of their mission to provide

essential services to all who seek care regardless of any

barrier, including ability to pay or immigration status.

We have two primary concerns about H.R. 3722. First and

foremost, our hospitals are in the business, socially,

morally and economically, of saving lives and protecting the

health care of their communities. They are not in the

business of serving as immigration officers. This is neither

the role of hospitals nor an effective use of extremely

limited hospital funds and staff time--particularly in an

emergency department setting.

Second, we believe that H.R. 3722, rather than discouraging

the tide of illegal immigration, would instead have a

negative impact on public health care. Individuals who are in

need of emergency care, including those with contagious

conditions and/or who are seriously ill, would be forced to

avoid treatment in order to avoid the threat of deportation.

This would likely result in the spread of serious and

contagious conditions to the greater community creating a

health care epidemic as well as a secondary wave of patients

needing costly emergency care.

PEACH appreciates the desire to stem illegal immigration,

but H.R. 3722 sets a very dangerous precedent by using health

care providers as adjunct Border Patrol. We urge you to

defeat this ill-advised measure, and appreciate your

consideration of the views of those who are on the front

lines of health care every day.

Sincerely,

Catherine K. Douglas,

President and CEO, PEACH, Inc.

On behalf of:

California Hospital Medical Center, Central Valley

General Hospital, Citrus Valley Medical Center--Inter-

Community Campus, City of Hope National Medical Center,

College Hospital Cerritos, College Hospital Costa Mesa,

Community Hospital of San Bernardino, Community and

Mission Hospitals of Huntington Park, Daniel Freeman

Memorial Hospital, Fountain Valley Regional Hospital

and Medical Center.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/3\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Guam (Ms. Bordallo).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Linda T. Sanchez).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hinojosa).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

In closing, I urge all my colleagues to join the hospitals, doctors, nurses, business owners, women's groups, children advocates, civil rights organizations, and, yes, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to stand strongly against this bill. We cannot let this bill be the message to send to the American people about what the U.S. Congress thinks about the role of hospitals. We cannot let this bill be the message we send to the American people about what we think about immigrants, hardworking, tax-paying immigrants who come to this country for a better life, just as my parents did some 50 years ago. In fact, the average immigrant contributes about $1,800 more in taxes annually than he or she receives in any form of benefit, because they do not collect. We can do better than this bill. I urge my colleagues to vote against

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this legislation. Seldom has this House had before it a more ill-considered proposal. This legislation purely and simply attempts to turn our frontline medical care providers into Border Patrol police.

Unlike what was just told us by the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher), this is not their mission. They do not ask these questions now. It is not their professional responsibility. It is not the appropriate role for those committed to saving lives and protecting the health care of our communities.

What does society gain by forcing undocumented aliens to forgo emergency care because, as a practical matter, that will be the result if they are asked these questions on their immigration status? What benefit does it make for a woman in labor not to come in for medical care because she is fearing that she will be deported? And what does society gain by discouraging people with contagious conditions, who may put us all at risk, from going in and getting the diagnosis and treatment they need? Do we want someone who might have SARS to be afraid to go in for treatment?

We need to help our hospitals and emergency systems have the resources to treat all people who are eligible for those services. What we do not need to do is to stretch their resources further on a mission that is not theirs to fill. This is not an appropriate action for Americans or appropriate policy on health care for those in need. That is why all of the hospitals oppose this legislation.

I urge that we oppose this bill.

May 7, 2004.

Dear Member of Congress: We understand that the House of

Representatives is expected to soon consider legislation

(H.R. 3722) proposed by Representative Rohrabacher (R-CA).

The undersigned organizations, representing America's

hospitals and health systems, health care providers, and

safety net systems, are united in our opposition to H.R.

3722, the ``Undocumented Alien Emergency Medical Assistance

Amendments of 2004,'' and urge you to oppose this

legislation. We believe it will severely undermine Section

1011 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, improvement, and

Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) and create unnecessary

barriers to life saving treatments at hospitals nationwide.

After months of careful deliberation by the Medicare

conferees, the Congress and Administration included essential

resources for hospitals providing life saving emergency are

to undocumented aliens. The undersigned organizations deeply

appreciated the inclusion of Section 1011 in MMA.

We are deeply concerned that H.R. 3722 would weaken Section

1011 by imposing new burdensome requirements on hospitals in

order to receive any of the resources from Section 1011. In

addition, H.R. 3722 would virtually ensure that illegal

immigrants will avoid getting the appropriate and timely life

saving health care they need, when they need it. H.R. 3722

could pose a significant public health threat for entire

communities because the fear of deportation would inevitably

preclude undocumented immigrants from seeking care for

communicable disease until these individuals are extremely

ill.

Hospitals provide care to anyone who walks through their

doors,--regardless of race, ethnicity or citizenship

status,--twenty-four hours each day, seven days a week. That

is the role of community hospitals. Rep. Rohrabacher's

legislation, however, seeks to create a new role for

hospitals in their communities--that of border patrol agents.

In order to qualify for Section 1011 funding, the Rohrabacher

legislation would require that hospitals demand and upload

personal data--including such ``identifiers'' as fingerprints

and digital photographs--on undocumented aliens to an

electronic database set up by the Department of Homeland

Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human

Services (HHS) for deportation purposes. Furthermore, the

bill requires hospitals to retain original documents and data

for a period of at least 5 years, thus imposing additional

paperwork on an already overwhelmed system.

We do not believe this is in the best interest of the

patients we serve and the nurses and physicians that provide

emergency care. Today's health care delivery system in very

fast-paced and in an emergency situation, the urgency of

providing life-saving care takes precedence over anything

else. Requiring hospitals to collect these data diverts us

from doing our job of caring for patients. Hospitals do not

have the expertise or the resources to interrogate and

investigate patients in the pressured environment of an

emergency.

We respectfully ask that you oppose this legislation should

it come up for a vote.

Sincerely,

Federation of American Hospitals.

American Hospital Association.

National Association of Public Hospitals and Health

Systems.

Association of American Medical Colleges.

Catholic Health Association of the United States.

National Association of Children's Hospitals.

VHA Inc.

Mr. Speaker, I want to repeat, my good friend from Long Beach and Orange, California, is absolutely incorrect. The hospitals do not have to ask this question of emergency care patients. We do not know what the emergency is when they come in, if it is a communicable disease that they are suffering from such as SARS. Hospitals do not ask this question. They give care to the patients.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 3722, the Undocumented Alien Medical Assistance Amendments of 2004.

The Medicare Prescription Drug Act that this Congress passed last year includes $1 billion to reimburse hospitals for their uncompensated care of undocumented immigrants. We included that funding because we recognized the strain hospitals experience in providing uncompensated emergency medical care to the uninsured. H.R. 3722 undoes this goodwill by requiring hospitals to enforce immigration law, refuse emergency medical treatment to immigrants, and have them deported.

Many American citizen and immigrant families who are living, working and paying taxes in the United States are unable to obtain health care coverage for themselves or their families. At a time when health care has become a national crisis due to the large number of uninsured, we need to take steps to heal more, not less.

Undocumented immigrants are not covered by employer health care plans, and they are systemically excluded from public health insurance programs such as Medicaid and SCHIP. We cannot encourage immigrants to refuse to seek medical care due to fear of deportation. It makes no sense. Do we want outbreaks of tuberculosis and other diseases and epidemics common in the developing world right here in America? That is likely to happen if immigrants are refused emergency medical care. This is why hospitals nationwide, the

American Medical Association, and physicians of all types are urging this Congress to reject this attempt to inject an anti-immigrant agenda into the field of medicine. Besides public health, H.R. 3722 fails on a number of fronts.

For instance, it would force hospitals to choose which law they will violate--the one that requires them to provide medical assistance to anyone that requires it, or H.R. 3722 and its requirement that we even deport women while in labor.

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act requires that any patient, without regard to race, sex, creed, immigration status, or ability to pay, be given appropriate emergency care to stabilize his or her condition. This law is consistent with the Hipprocratic Oath, and is meant to ensure that no person in our country will be denied emergency medical care.

I cannot support legislation that could punish employers that unknowingly hire immigrants with fraudulent green cards by forcing them to pay the medical bills. There is no precedent for holding employers liable for injuries and illnesses that are not work-related. Also, I fear that employers will discourage their employees from seeking treatment for any illness.

Are we prepared to possibly read stories of immigrant laborers found injured or dead on sidewalks? It is not difficult to imagine immigrants being left behind by fearful employers trying to avoid the scrutiny of federal immigration enforcement officials.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3722 is a Pandora's box that our Nation cannot open. H.R. 3722 will endanger the health of everyone in America. It will force doctors to violate their oaths and the law, require hospitals to enforce immigration law, and it will encourage employers to force their immigrant laborers to never seek medical treatment.

I urge my colleagues to please oppose this misguided proposal.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to a fiscally irresponsible, unsafe, and discriminatory bill that is only on the House floor due to a back-room deal that was reached late at night to gain passage of the Republican Medicare prescription drug bill. That deal was reached at the expense of Americans of Hispanic descent and of other immigrant groups that are now legal and also U.S. citizens, as well as our Nation's health is disgraceful. We continue to see elements of the xenophobic face of the Republican Party.

What does this bill do? If you are rolled into an emergency room and you do not have insurance, then you are to be asked whether or not you are here legally in the United States. Now, I get rolled into an emergency room, Mr. Menendez, or maybe someone who might even be described as more characteristically Hispanic, or maybe Asian, or some other group, and I do not happen to have insurance, as unfortunately 40 million Americans who are here as U.S. citizens do not have, and I get asked whether or not I am a citizen of the United States. That is shameful. You would not ask any other citizen that. But because I happen to have the misfortune of not having health insurance, you ask me. And of course those of us who look a certain way will for sure be asked.

And then what else do you do? While I am suffering, not only do you want that information, but then we are going to go through an Orwellian process of getting some type of digital electronic identifier of this U.S. citizen who does not have insurance but cannot prove that he is or is not a U.S. citizen lying there in that emergency room. That is what the bill of the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) does. Do not be deceived.

Now, I know he says there are a lot of lies going on about his bill. I guess the hospitals of the Nation are lying as well. Let me tell you what they say. Here is what the American Hospital Association said. It says,

America's hospitals treat everyone who walks through their

doors, and we are opposed to Mr. Rohrabacher's bill because

it is bad policy, bad policy for hospitals, nurses, doctors,

and other health care personnel who work in hospitals, but

most importantly it is bad policy for patients.

Rohrabacher's legislation is bad policy because it takes

hospitals away from what we do best, caring for and healing

our patients. The requirements for reimbursement under the

legislation would turn hospital workers into border patrol

agents. That is not our jobs. We are caregivers, not cops.

And hospital caregivers are already burdened with paperwork

which requires at least 30 minutes, often an hour for every

patient. The additional burden of policing suspected

undocumented immigrants would take health care workers away

from their primary mission of healing and caring.

And not only that, it hurts everyone else waiting in that emergency room for care. Because as we are trying to get all this documentation, for which we give these hospitals no funding to do it, we are also taking away from the care of everyone else there, and we are allowing communicable diseases to spread in communities like that. That is outrageous.

This bill should be defeated. It is shameful that it is even on the House floor.