Verify First Act

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the gentleman from Colorado, for yielding me the necessary and customary 30 minutes for debate.

Mr. Speaker, I am here today to debate the rule for consideration of two separate pieces of legislation: S. 1094, the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act; and H.R. 2581, the Verify First Act.

I begin with S. 1094, legislation aimed at bringing enhanced accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs and improving the care we provide to our Nation's veterans. Among other things, this bill codifies in law the Office of Accountability and Whistleblower Protection at the VA and streamlines the process to demote, remove, or suspend VA employees if evidence proves they engaged in misconduct or poor performance.

Mr. Speaker, last night at the Rules Committee, we had the opportunity to hear from the chairman and ranking member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee about this legislation, Dr. Roe and Mr. Walz. They discussed the bipartisan nature in which they have worked on this issue, along with the bipartisan work done in the Senate, to craft legislation that they hope can achieve strong bipartisan support in this body.

It is because of this display of bipartisanship and cooperation and a semblance of regular order that I am dismayed that I must now address the process and substance by which we are considering the second bill encompassed in this rule, H.R. 2581, the Verify First Act.

Let me connect the dots for you on how we got to this point, and bear with me. The Republican majority's path to take healthcare from 23 million Americans has been as convoluted as it has been chaotic.

Mr. Speaker, as I am sure you and my colleagues should remember, first, the Republican mantra was repeal. Then it was repeal and replace. Then it was repeal and delay, followed by access to coverage, and then, patient centered.

Finally, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle settled on a three-bucket strategy. The first bucket of this strategy was the Republicans'

American Health Care Act. The majority brought their first iteration of this bill to the floor after working on it for 17 days, and, with no hearings, only to have it go down in flames in the most public and spectacular fashion.

So they went back to the drawing board--not to improve the bill, or improve healthcare for the American people, mind you, but to garner enough Republican votes for a bill that ultimately had 17 percent approval ratings. And they added a manager's amendment to get support, then they added another manager's amendment, then another, and another.

Then with a bill patched together with the wants and wishes of powerful healthcare lobbyists and tax breaks for the superwealthy, with no CBO score, and with no way for the American people, let alone their own Members, to actually know what was in the bill, the majority pushed the bill through the House of Representatives.

What did my Republican friends do after passing this inexplicably bad bill? They got on a couple of buses from here at the Capitol and went to a rose garden ceremony hosted by President Donald John Trump to celebrate upending one-sixth of the American economy and taking away healthcare from 23 million people.

That was certainly the Republicans' most recent mission-accomplished moment, and it must have been some celebration because it will be another 2 weeks before the majority would actually get around to sending their healthcare bill to the Senate, due to the fact that they were not sure if it complied with the Senate rules or, more specifically, the Byrd rule in the U.S. Senate.

Then there is the second bucket of this plan, which involves the Trump administration rolling back regulations. Should the work associated with the second bucket proceed as it has with the other two, then I am sure it, too, will be a disaster, benefitting the wealthy at the expense of hardworking Americans.

Mr. Speaker, this brings me to the Republicans' third bucket. According to Senator Ted Cruz, this bucket is ``a sucker's bucket.'' Indeed, some like Senator Tom Cotton have referred to all of this bucket talk as simply a bunch of political spin. Whatever it is, it is an empty bucket.

The most recent bill the Republican majority has decided to dump in this sucker's bucket is H.R. 2581, the Verify First Act. Under current law, premium assistance tax credits are available for eligible individuals and families to subsidize the cost of health insurance. Individuals are not eligible for these credits unless they are U.S. citizens or are living in the country legally.

Currently, applicants have 90 days to provide documentation or otherwise address any issues with citizenship and immigration status, and are presumed eligible to enroll in marketplace coverage. If an individual is unable to provide the necessary documentation, coverage and financial assistance are terminated.

This provision ensures that individuals are not left in a position of having to wait potentially months to be verified before they can afford coverage, and it provides the proper guardrails to terminate assistance if an individual is deemed ineligible. There is no evidence to support the majority's claim that this process is not working.

H.R. 2581 would repeal this 90-day verification period, setting up an unnecessary barrier for eligible individuals to receive the credits they need to afford lifesaving healthcare. Republicans themselves acknowledge that the verification process could take months, but, nevertheless, they are bringing forth today's bill knowing full well that it will make it harder for vulnerable people to access healthcare when they need it most.

It would disproportionately hurt low-income Americans, especially naturalized Americans from immigrant families since they can have a harder time producing documentation needed to verify their citizenship. But don't just take my word for it.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter signed by dozens and dozens of national, State, and local civil rights and advocacy groups strongly opposing this legislation, such groups as the NAACP, the Children's Defense Fund, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, the American Friends Service Committee, the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy, and I could go on, and on, and on, but in the interest of time, I thank the Speaker for allowing it to be made a part of the Record.

June 12, 2017.

Dear Member of Congress: As national, state, and local

organizations concerned about immigrant rights or access to

affordable health care, we are writing to strongly urge you

to VOTE NO on H.R. 2581, the ``Verify First'' Act. This bill

is an attack on people's ability to see a doctor and on

immigrants and people of color. It is not the ``common

sense'' taxpayer protection bill that its supporters would

have you believe.

H.R. 2581 is a dangerous bill that puts up roadblocks for

both citizens and immigrants to obtain timely, affordable

health insurance. It would strip away provisions that provide

for a person to obtain subsidies for enrollment in an

Affordable Care Act (or the contemplated American Health Care

Act) plan while they work with Department of Health and Human

Services to verify their U.S. citizenship or immigration

status. The people most impacted are U.S. citizens who were

born abroad or naturalized. The bill also affects many

immigrants, especially those newly arrived or certain victims

of domestic violence and trafficking survivors.

The fact is that when individuals are not able to

immediately verify their citizenship or immigration status on

an Affordable Care Act Marketplace, it begins an often months

long, strenuous process of sending in documents that must be

physically inspected. Health care assisters routinely say

these clients are the hardest cases they work on because the

process for verifying citizenship and immigration status is a

time-consuming exercise in dealing with inefficient

government processes.

Rather than protect American taxpayers, H.R. 2581 would

strip from American taxpayers important protections that are

needed to overcome deficiencies in federal government

databases. Immigrants who are not lawfully present are

categorically barred from enrollment in health insurance on

the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, and for the subsidies

that make that insurance affordable. Moreover, safeguards

protecting taxpayers are already built into the ACA;

individuals whose citizenship or immigration status cannot be

verified already are required to pay back all of their

subsidies when they file their taxes and ``reconcile'' their

premium tax credits.

Supporters of this bill cite a sloppy Senate Homeland

Security and Governmental Affairs Committee report that

arrived at a made-up number of supposed ``fraud.'' It's just

not true. The committee assumed that every person who lost

coverage for failure to verify their citizenship and

immigration status was undocumented. In the experience of our

organizations and organizations we work with, this is false.

These reports describe the first year of the marketplaces,

and it is well documented that system outages and

understaffing, among other technical problems, contributed to

the federal Marketplace's failure to verify consumers' status

promptly. The Department of Health and Human Services

Inspector General reported in 2014 that a cause of the delay

in verification was the agency's lack of prioritization of

this issue.

Despite huge gains since then, problems still persist. The

Social Security database holding many citizens' information

may not reflect common changes, such as when a person marries

and changes their last name, or when someone naturalizes and

gains U.S. citizenship. People lose their coverage because

they receive notices in languages they cannot read.

Immigrants are required to submit documents multiple times,

or wait while the Department of Homeland Security finds paper

files, a result of deficiencies in their databases affecting

groups like asylum applicants and some survivors of domestic

violence. These are among the many issues consumers face.

Congress has already deprived undocumented immigrants from

the ability to buy coverage, even at full price, so they can

see a doctor when they are sick, but this bill would go a

step further to delay or put out of reach affordable health

insurance for many citizens and lawfully present immigrants.

Our organizations firmly believe that this would be

detrimental to the people we represent and to all of our

communities as a whole. We have seen that when health

insurance is unaffordable, people are effectively prevented

from obtaining access to the care they need to be healthy.

This bill is not just an attack on our health care system,

it is also an attack on immigrants and people of color, which

our organizations stand firmly against. In his statements

when introducing this bill, Rep. Lou Barletta focused the

bill as part of his effort to ``stop illegal immigration.''

Rep. Barletta has a long history of anti-immigrant rhetoric,

from trying to prevent immigrants from leasing a residence to

stating that they should be denied life-saving services in

hospital emergency rooms. This bill is simply a vehicle for

scapegoating immigrants and people of color and will keep

eligible people from accessing health care.

We the undersigned organizations urge you to vote NO on

H.R. 2581 and the continued assault on immigrants and the

health of our communities.

Sincerely,

National

Advocates for Youth; African American Ministers in Action;

American Federation of Teachers (AFT); American Friends

Service Committee; American Intercession; American Society on

Aging; Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum; Asian

Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC; Asian Pacific Institute

on Gender-Based Violence; Asian Pacific Partners for

Empowerment, Advocacy & Leadership (APPEAL); Association of

Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO);

Autistic Self Advocacy Network; Black Alliance for Just

Immigration; Breast Cancer Action; Center for Law and Social

Policy (CLASP); Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc.; Child

Welfare League of America; Children's Advocacy Institute;

Children's Defense Fund; Church World Service (CWS).

Coalition on Human Needs; Columbian Center for Advocacy and

Outreach; Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good

Shepherd, US Provinces; Conscious Talk Radio; Detention Watch

Network; Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund;

Dominican Sisters; Dominicans of Sinsinawa; Family Equality

Council; Farmworker Justice; First Focus Campaign for

Children; Food Research & Action Center; Franciscan Sisters

of the Poor IJPC; Friends Committee on National Legislation;

Generations Inc.; GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT

Equality; Immigrant Legal Resource Center; Indivisible;

Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas; Interfaith

Worker Justice.

Irish Apostolate USA; Jobs With Justice; Justice in Aging;

Justice, Peace and Reconciliation Commission, Priests of the

Sacred Heart, US Province; Lambda Legal; Leadership Team of

the Felician Sisters of North America; League of United Latin

American Citizens (LULAC); Medical Mission Sisters; Mi

Familia Vota; MomsRising; NAACP; NAPAFASA; National Advocacy

Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd; National Asian

Pacific American Women's Forum; National Association of

County and City Health Officials; National Association of

Social Workers; National Black Justice Coalition; National

Center for Transgender Equality; National Council of Asian

Pacific Americans (NCAPA); National Council of Churches.

National Council of La Raza (NCLR); National Education

Association; National Employment Law Project; National Health

Law Program; National Hispanic Medical Association; National

Immigrant Justice Center; National Immigration Law Center;

National Justice for Our Neighbors; National Latina Institute

for Reproductive Health; National Network of Abortion Funds;

National Organization for Women; National Women's Health

Network; Network for Environmental & Economic Responsibility

of United Church of Christ; NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social

Justice; NMAC; OCA--Asian Pacific American Advocates; Our

Revolution; Peace and Justice Office of the Congregation of

Notre Dame; Physicians for Reproductive Health; PICO

National.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Poor People's

Economic Human Rights Campaign; Prevention Institute; Project

Inform; Racine Dominicans; Raising Women's Voices for the

Health Care We Need; Refuge Ministries; Sargent Shriver

National Center on Poverty Law; Service Employees

International Union; Sisters of Charity; Sisters of Charity

of Nazareth; Sisters of Mercy of the Americas--Institute

Justice Team; Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC);

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; United

Sikhs; United We Dream; Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk, U.S.

Province; We Belong Together; API Wellness.

State and Local

Academy of Medical & Public Health Services; Advocates for

Children and Youth; AgeOptions; Almost Home, Inc.; Anti-

Hunger & Nutrition Coalition; Arkansas Advocates for Children

and Families; Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing;

Asian Americans Advancing Justice--Los Angeles; Asian

Community Alliance--Cincinnati OH; Asian Law Alliance; Asian

Services In Action, Inc.; Baltimore Jewish Council;

California Health Professional Student Alliance; California

Immigrant Policy Center; California Latinas for Reproductive

Justice (CLRJ); California OneCare; California Pan-Ethnic

Health Network; California Partnership; California Physicians

Alliance; CASA.

Center for Southeast Asians; Chicago Hispanic Health

Coalition; Child Care Resources of Rockland; Children Now;

Children's Defense Fund--CA; Chinatown Service Center;

Chinese-American Planning Council; Coalition for Humane

Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA); Collaborative Center for Justice;

Colorado Center on Law and Policy; Colorado Center on Law and

Policy; Columbia Legal Services; Community Health Councils;

D.C. Hunger Solutions; DuPage Federation on Human Services

Reform; Empower Missouri; Ensuring Opportunity Campaign to

End Poverty in Contra Costa; Erie Benedictines for Peace;

Esperanza Health Centers; EverThrive Illinois; Farmworker

Association of Florida.

Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC); Give for a Smile;

Greater Kansas City Coalition to End Homelessness; Having Our

Say Coalition; Health Access California; Health Care for

All--WA; Health Law Advocates; Healthy House Within A MATCH

Coalition; Hmong Ohio of Tomorrow; Hunger Action Los Angeles;

IHM Sisters, Immaculata, PA; IL Hunger Coalition; Illinois

Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights; Indivisible

Mountain Home, Idaho; Interfaith Movement for Human

Integrity; IRIS--Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services;

Islamic Civic Engagement Project; Jewish Family & Children's

Service; Kansas Appleseed; Kentucky Equal Justice Center;

Korean Community Services of Metropolitan NY; La Fe Policy

Research and Education Center.

La Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program; Legal Council for

Health Justice; Legal Services of Southern Piedmont; Maine

Consumers for Affordable Health Care; Make the Road New York;

Maryland CASH Campaign; Maryland Hunger Solutions;

Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition

(MIRA); Massachusetts Law Reform Institute; Maternal and

Child Health Access; Maternity Care Coalition; National

Association of Social Workers, CT Chapter; National Tongan

American Society; Nationalities Service Center; NC Child; New

Mexico Center on Law and Poverty; New York Immigration

Coalition; New York Legal Assistance Group; NICOS Chinese

Health Coalition; NJ State Industrial Union Council; NOELA

Community Health Center; Northern NJ Chapter, National

Organization for Women.

Northwest Health Law Advocates; Northwest Immigrant Rights

Project; Office of the Health Care Advocate at Vermont Legal

Aid; OneAmerica; Pacific Islander Health Partnership; Pitkin

County Human Services; Public Justice Center; Puget Sound

Advocates for Retirement Action (PSARA); Rainbow Center;

Reformed Church of Highland Park; RESULTS--Santa Fe (NM);

Salaam Cleveland; Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education

Network (SIREN); Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word,

Houston; Sisters of St. Dominic of Blauvelt, NY; Sisters of

the Most Precious Blood; Social Justice Committee St. Patrick

Church; South Asian Network; Southwest Women's Law Center;

St. Francis St Vincent de Paul Society; Tennessee Justice

Center; Thai Health And Information Service.

The Children's Partnership; The Latino Health Insurance

Program, Inc.; Turning Points; United Way Bay Area; URI

Feinstein Center for a Hunger Free America; Vermont

Affordable Housing Coalition; Virginia Poverty Law Center;

Voices for Vermont's Children; Voz Hispana Cambia

Comunitario; Washington Community Action Network; Washington

Healthcare Access Alliance; Washington State Labor Council,

AFL-CIO; West Chester Food Cupboard; West Side Campaign

Against Hunger; Westlake Chinese Culture Association;

Wisconsin Council of Churches; Wisconsin Faith Voices for

Justice; Women's Action Movement Washtenaw County, MI;

Worksite Wellness LA; Xaverian Brothers; Young Women United.

Mr. Speaker, ``This bill,'' that letter says, ``is an attack on people's ability to see a doctor and on immigrants and people of color.''

``H.R. 2581 is a dangerous bill that puts up roadblocks for both citizens and immigrants to obtain timely, affordable health insurance.''

If this is what we are in store for with the Republican's third bucket, then it is even worse than a sucker's bucket. It is callous, and it is cruel, and someone described the Vice Presidency once many years ago as a warm bucket of spit.

As my colleague, Congressman Richard Neal, said last night at the Rules Committee, bad process leads to bad product. I agree with Mr. Neal, and this bill is a perfect example of his salient insight. The provisions in this legislation are contingent upon enactment of the American Health Care Act.

If the American Health Care Act is enacted, this bill would not go into effect. That means we are now considering legislation amending a bill that we have already sent to the Senate, and that the Senate has made clear it has no intention of taking up.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin).

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

Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, Donald John Trump issued an executive order placing a hiring freeze on Federal civilian employees across the executive branch. This executive order, like many of the executive orders this President has issued, failed to take into account the effects it could have on our most vulnerable communities.

Veterans make up one-third of all Federal workers. I am very pleased that one is in my office. She is probably smiling because sometimes Charity probably doesn't think I even know that she is in the office. But she is there and does incredible work.

The Department of Veterans Affairs--a severely understaffed agency serving those veterans--cannot afford a hiring freeze.

This week, Republicans are bringing to the floor bills they claim would improve veterans' lives. If the President and my Republican colleagues are truly committed to our veterans, then they should ensure that reckless hiring freezes do not harm them in the future.

Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I am going to offer an amendment to the rule to bring up Representative Schrader's bill, H.R. 696, which would prohibit any hiring freeze from affecting the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert in the Record the text of my amendment, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, what we have here today is a rule with one bill that really was worked on in a bipartisan manner--sort of like regular order like we were promised by the Speaker at the outset of this session of Congress--and another bill, which is just more of the same from this majority: creating problems where none existed before.

The fact remains that the Republicans' healthcare bill and overall bucket strategy is a disaster for the American people, and no amount of Rose Garden backslapping is going to change that fact.

Under the Republican plan, 23 million Americans will be kicked off of their health insurance and $800 billion will be cut from Medicaid. Footnote right there, we hear that the Senate is taking up something. We don't know where and who is doing the taking up, but what I read today is that they are considering a glide path of some kind to cut Medicaid.

Mr. Speaker, cutting Medicaid hurts poor people. Whether you glide it or run it over them, either way you look at it, it hurts them, and we need to pay attention to that, particularly if we are doing it to provide for those of us that are better off in our society.

Seventy-five billion dollars will be cut from Medicare, insurance premiums would increase for people ages 60 to 64 by more than $3,000 a year, and protections for those with preexisting conditions will be eliminated.

I read about a 63-year-old lady who said that all of her conditions are preexisting and she can't afford insurance. H.R. 2581 only adds to this pain by setting up an unnecessary barrier for eligible individuals to get access to healthcare.

But not to worry, under the Republican plan, the 400 highest income families would ultimately get tax cuts averaging around $7 million a year, and that information comes from the Ways and Means Committee's fact sheet.

Mr. Speaker, I and others here very frequently have pointed out that what the Republicans want to do is to cut benefits for poor people--the most vulnerable in our society--and to provide for the better-off tax cuts--those people in our society who least need them.

It occurs to me that if we were to have an opportunity to ask the 400 wealthiest families in this country whether or not they really need a tax cut, my belief, based on the four billionaires that I have known personally--two are deceased now--but in my conversations with all of them, their position was that they didn't need a cut. To the man, each one of them said that, if they were to receive tax cuts, they would prefer that they go to education, particularly education for kindergartners and prekindergartners.

If my Republican colleagues can move past throwing red meat to their base--a group of people, mind you, who are most certainly disadvantaged--one day they are going to wake up and recognize that much of what we are doing here, even though they support it, many of the persons who are doing it, they, too, are caught up in this downward spiral that is involving healthcare in this country, the game that we are playing.

If we are willing to work in a serious manner to address the issues in our healthcare system, then I know that Democrats are ready to work with Republicans. But whatever is going on in the other body, I assure you, no Democrats in the other body are involved in.

Last night I asked the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee whether or not he knew what this bill looked like, and his answer was that he did not.

I also said what I repeat here, that people are hurting in this country. Whether it is ObamaCare that the Republicans, I believe, are going to find that it is going to be hard to fix, or whether it is the Affordable Care Act that is in some phantom hole over in the other body, somehow or another, my friends on the other side are going to be held accountable for all of what is necessary to be done. The only way that is sensible--and I believe that every American is imploring us to undertake--is to sit down together.

I cannot believe that the 435 people plus 6 here in the House of Representatives and the 100 United States Senators do not have the ability to do all of the things that are necessary in order for Americans to receive adequate healthcare and to lead with protecting the most vulnerable in our society.

It is ridiculous to talk about cutting Medicaid when more than 60 percent of the people on Medicaid are seniors that are in nursing homes.

What are we going to say to those families? How are we going to address them when it comes to the reality that they are confronted with while we are up here jaw jacking back and forth about whether or not it is ObamaCare or whether or not it is the Affordable Care Act that we can't seem to find.

Somewhere along the lines, we need to sit down and work together. Failure to do so is to our own peril and to the peril of the citizens of this great country of ours.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

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

Mr. Speaker, I can't believe we are here today attempting to pass such a blatantly discriminatory bill. Under the guise of fighting fraud, Republicans are attempting to pass a bill that will put additional barriers to care for all Americans--all this in exchange for one Member's vote for TrumpCare, which guts healthcare for 23 million Americans, and the Republicans barely passed that bill out of the House.

This bill fails to recognize the diversity of American families; instead, it forces a single approach for all those who need financial help to get the care that they need.

I don't know if everyone on the other side of the aisle knows this, but there are already measures in place to prevent advanced premium tax credits from going to ineligible people. There is already a mechanism in place for Treasury to reconcile tax credits, and any undocumented individual found to have received a subsidy must repay them in full.

The other side will also try to make the argument that this measure will help fight fraud in the healthcare system, that there is somehow overwhelming amounts of evidence that immigrants are the main perpetrators of fraud. Beneficiaries struggling to access care are not the perpetrators of fraud. These are good people trying to do right by their families and by their country.

Of course, my colleagues over there are going to cite a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs report, written by a Republican majority, that found, ``a half a million illegal immigrants received $750 million in healthcare subsidies.''

Well, I have that report right here in my hand, and nowhere does it say that 500,000 undocumented immigrants received millions of dollars in healthcare subsidies, as Mr. Barletta's press release claims. What the report says is 500,000 individuals, and not 500,000 undocumented individuals or any other term that Republicans like to use to disparage immigrants.

There is no evidence to suggest that immigrants without authorization to be here would take the risk of signing on to a government website to fraudulently get healthcare coverage.

So what are the unintended consequences of this bill?

I hate to break it to my colleagues, but the people most impacted are U.S. citizens who were born abroad or naturalized, not undocumented individuals.

This bill is yet another example that the Republican majority will do anything to demonize even the smallest subsection of immigrants in order to gut healthcare for Americans and get their billionaire buddies a big, fat tax break. Whether that means sowing fear in communities by raiding homes in order to hunt people down or denying access to care for legal immigrants who are entitled to care, no excuse is too ridiculous for Republicans to attack the immigrant community.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter signed by 226 organizations in opposition to H.R. 2581.

June 12, 2017.

Dear Member of Congress: As national, state, and local

organizations concerned about immigrant rights or access to

affordable health care, we are writing to strongly urge you

to VOTE NO on HR 2581, the ``Verify First'' Act. This bill is

an attack on people's ability to see a doctor and on

immigrants and people of color. It is not the ``common

sense'' taxpayer protection bill that its supporters would

have you believe.

HR 2581 is a dangerous bill that puts up roadblocks for

both citizens and immigrants to obtain timely, affordable

health insurance. It would strip away provisions that provide

for a person to obtain subsidies for enrollment in an

Affordable Care Act (or the contemplated American Health Care

Act) plan while they work with Department of Health and Human

Services to verify their U.S. citizenship or immigration

status. The people most impacted are U.S. citizens who were

born abroad or naturalized. The bill also affects many

immigrants, especially those newly arrived or certain victims

of domestic violence and trafficking survivors.

The fact is that when individuals are not able to

immediately verify their citizenship or immigration status on

an Affordable Care Act Marketplace, it begins an often months

long, strenuous process of sending in documents that must be

physically inspected. Health care assisters routinely say

these clients are the hardest cases they work on because the

process for verifying citizenship and immigration status is a

time-consuming exercise in dealing with inefficient

government processes.

Rather than protect American taxpayers, HR 2581 would strip

from American taxpayers important protections that are needed

to overcome deficiencies in federal government databases.

Immigrants who are not lawfully present are categorically

barred from enrollment in health insurance on the Affordable

Care Act marketplaces, and for the subsidies that make that

insurance affordable. Moreover, safeguards protecting

taxpayers are already built into the ACA; individuals whose

citizenship or immigration status cannot be verified already

are required to pay back all of their subsidies when they

file their taxes and ``reconcile'' their premium tax credits.

Supporters of this bill cite a sloppy Senate Homeland

Security and Government Affairs Committee report that arrived

at a made-up number of supposed ``fraud.'' It's just not

true. The committee assumed that every person who lost

coverage for failure to verify their citizenship and

immigration status was undocumented. In the experience of our

organizations and organizations we work with, this is false.

These reports describe the first year of the marketplaces,

and it is well documented that system outages and

understaffing, among other technical problems, contributed to

the federal Marketplace's failure to verify consumers' status

promptly. The Department of Health and Human Services

Inspector General reported in 2014 that a cause of the delay

in verification was the agency's lack of prioritization of

this issue.

Despite huge gains since then, problems still persist. The

Social Security database holding many citizens' information

may not reflect common changes, such as when a person marries

and changes their last name, or when someone naturalizes and

gains U.S. citizenship. People lose their coverage because

they receive notices in languages they cannot read.

Immigrants are required to submit documents multiple times,

or wait while the Department of Homeland Security finds paper

files, a result of deficiencies in their databases affecting

groups like asylum applicants and some survivors of domestic

violence. These are among the many issues consumers face.

Congress has already deprived undocumented immigrants from

the ability to buy coverage, even at full price, so they can

see a doctor when they are sick, but this bill would go a

step further to delay or put out of reach affordable health

insurance for many citizens and lawfully present immigrants.

Our organizations firmly believe that this would be

detrimental to the people we represent and to all of our

communities as a whole. We have seen that when health

insurance is unaffordable, people are effectively prevented

from obtaining access to the care they need to be healthy.

This bill is not just an attack on our health care system,

it is also an attack on immigrants and people of color, which

our organizations stand firmly against. In his statements

when introducing this bill, Rep. Lou Barletta focused the

bill as part of his effort to ``stop illegal immigration.''

Rep. Barletta has a long history of anti-immigrant rhetoric,

from trying to prevent immigrants from leasing a residence to

stating that they should be denied life-saving services in

hospital emergency rooms. This bill is simply a vehicle for

scapegoating immigrants and people of color and will keep

eligible people from accessing health care.

We the undersigned organizations urge you to vote NO on HR

2581 and the continued assault on immigrants and the health

of our communities.

Sincerely,

National

Advocates for Youth; African American Ministers In Action;

American Federation of Teachers (AFT); American Friends

Service

Committee; American Intercession; American Society on Aging;

Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum; Asian

Americans Advancing Justice/AAJC; Asian Pacific Institute on

Gender-Based Violence; Asian Pacific Partners for

Empowerment, Advocacy & Leadership (APPEAL); Association of

Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO);

Autistic Self Advocacy Network; Black Alliance for Just

Immigration; Breast Cancer Action; Center for Law and Social

Policy (CLASP); Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc.; Child

Welfare League of America; Children's Advocacy Institute;

Children's Defense Fund; Church World Service (CWS);

Coalition on Human Needs; Columban Center for Advocacy and

Outreach; Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good

Shepherd, US Provinces; Conscious Talk Radio; Detention Watch

Network; Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund;

Dominican Sisters; Dominicans of Sinsinawa; Family Equality

Council; Farmworker Justice; First Focus Campaign for

Children; Food Research & Action Center; Franciscan Sisters

of the Poor IJPC; Friends Committee on National Legislation;

Generations Inc.; GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBT

Equality; Immigrant Legal Resource Center; Indivisible;

Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas; Interfaith

Worker Justice;

Irish Apostolate USA; Jobs With Justice; Justice in Aging;

Justice, Peace and Reconciliation Commission, Priests of the

Sacred Heart, US Province; Lambda Legal; Leadership Team of

the Felician Sisters of North America; League of United Latin

American Citizens (LULAC); Medical Mission Sisters; Mi

Familia Vota; MomsRising; NAACP; NAPAFASA; National Advocacy

Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd; National Asian

Pacific American Women's Forum; National Association of

County and City Health Officials; National Association of

Social Workers; National Black Justice Coalition; National

Center for Transgender Equality; National Council of Asian

Pacific Americans (NCAPA); National Council of Churches;

National Council of La Raza (NCLR); National Education

Association; National Employment Law Project; National Health

Law Program; National Hispanic Medical Association; National

Immigrant Justice Center; National Immigration Law Center;

National Justice for Our Neighbors; National Latina Institute

for Reproductive Health; National Network of Abortion Funds;

National Organization for Women; National Women's Health

Network; Network for Environmental & Economic Responsibility

of United Church of Christ; NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social

Justice; NMAC; OCA--Asian Pacific American Advocates; Our

Revolution; Peace and Justice Office of the Congregation of

Notre Dame; Physicians for Reproductive Health; PICO

National;

Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Poor People's

Economic Human Rights Campaign; Prevention Institute; Project

Inform; Racine Dominicans; Raising Women's Voices for the

Health Care We Need; Refuge Ministries; Sargent Shriver

National Center on Poverty Law; Service Employees

International Union; Sisters of Charity; Sisters of Charity

of Nazareth; Sisters of Mercy of the Americas--Institute

Justice Team; Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC);

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; United

Sikhs; United We Dream; Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk, U.S.

Province; We Belong Together; API Wellness;

State and Local

Academy of Medical & Public Health Services; Advocates for

Children and Youth; AgeOptions; Almost Home, Inc.; Anti-

Hunger & Nutrition Coalition; Arkansas Advocates for Children

and Families; Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing;

Asian Americans Advancing Justice--Los Angeles; Asian

Community Alliance--Cincinnati OH; Asian Law Alliance; Asian

Services In Action, Inc.; Baltimore Jewish Council;

California Health Professional Student Alliance; California

Immigrant Policy Center; California Latinas for Reproductive

Justice (CLRJ); California OneCare; California Pan-Ethnic

Health Network; California Partnership; California Physicians

Alliance; CASA;

Center for Southeast Asians; Chicago Hispanic Health

Coalition; Child Care Resources of Rockland; Children Now;

Children's Defense Fund-CA; Chinatown Service Center;

Chinese-American Planning Council; Coalition for Humane

Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA); Collaborative Center for Justice;

Colorado Center on Law and Policy; Colorado Center on Law and

Policy; Columbia Legal Services; Community Health Councils;

D. C. Hunger Solutions; DuPage Federation on Human Services

Reform; Empower Missouri; Ensuring Opportunity Campaign to

End Poverty in Contra Costa; Erie Benedictines for Peace;

Esperanza Health Centers; EverThrive Illinois; Farmworker

Association of Florida;

Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC); Give for a Smile;

Greater Kansas City Coalition to End Homelessness; Having Our

Say Coalition; Health Access California; Health Care for All-

WA; Health Law Advocates; Healthy House Within A MATCH

Coalition; Hmong Ohio of Tomorrow; Hunger Action Los Angeles;

IHM Sisters, Immaculata, PA; IL Hunger Coalition; Illinois

Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights; Indivisible

Mountain Home, Idaho; Interfaith Movement for Human

Integrity; IRIS--Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services;

Islamic Civic Engagement Project; Jewish Family & Children's

Service; Kansas Appleseed; Kentucky Equal Justice Center;

Korean Community Services of Metropolitan NY; La Fe Policy

Research and Education Center;

La Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program; Legal Council for

Health Justice; Legal Services of Southern Piedmont; Maine

Consumers for Affordable Health Care; Make the Road New York;

Maryland CASH Campaign; Maryland Hunger Solutions;

Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition

(MIRA); Massachusetts Law Reform Institute; Maternal and

Child Health Access; Maternity Care Coalition; National

Association of Social Workers, CT Chapter; National Tongan

American Society; Nationalities Service Center; NC Child; New

Mexico Center on Law and Poverty; New York Immigration

Coalition; New York Legal Assistance Group; NICOS Chinese

Health Coalition; NJ State Industrial Union Council; NOELA

Community Health Center; Northern NJ Chapter, National

Organization for Women;

Northwest Health Law Advocates; Northwest Immigrant Rights

Project; Office of the Health Care Advocate at Vermont Legal

Aid; OneAmerica; Pacific Islander Health Partnership; Pitkin

County Human Services; Public Justice Center; Puget Sound

Advocates for Retirement Action (PSARA); Rainbow Center;

Reformed Church of Highland Park; RESULTS-Santa Fe (NM);

Salaam Cleveland; Services, Immigrant Rights, and Education

Network (SIREN); Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word,

Houston; Sisters of St. Dominic of Blauvelt, NY; Sisters of

the Most Precious Blood; Social Justice Committee St. Patrick

Church; South Asian Network; Southwest Women's Law Center;

St. Francis St Vincent de Paul Society; Tennessee Justice

Center; Thai Health And Information Service;

The Children's Partnership; The Latino Health Insurance

Program, Inc.; Turning Points; United Way Bay Area; URI

Feinstein Center for a Hunger Free America; Vermont

Affordable Housing Coalition; Virginia Poverty Law Center;

Voices for Vermont's Children; Voz Hispana Cambio

Comunitario; Washington Community Action Network; Washington

Healthcare Access Alliance; Washington State Labor Council,

AFL-CIO; West Chester Food Cupboard; West Side Campaign

Against Hunger; Westlake Chinese Culture Association;

Wisconsin Council of Churches; Wisconsin Faith Voices for

Justice; Women's Action Movement Washtenaw County MI;

Worksite Wellness LA; Xaverian Brothers; Young Women United;

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the majority that the IRS would be able to do their job if they didn't spend the last 8 years demonizing the IRS and cutting their budget year after year.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin), my colleague on the Ways and Means Committee.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would just remind my colleagues that under the ACA, there is also a verification process for subsidies. But I would just raise the issue that for newborn children, most of whom don't have a Social Security number when they are newborn--and this includes children of our military members serving overseas--if they have a severe health problem, then delaying verification, which can be up to 6 weeks for them, can mean the difference between life and death. And I am talking about a situation such as that experienced by Jimmy Kimmel, if you take the time to see his response to what happened with his newborn.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett), also a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Judy Chu), a colleague from the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased at this time to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), my colleague on the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon.

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

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle are calling this bill and the two other healthcare bills on the floor this week ``fixes'' for TrumpCare. But what exactly is it that you are fixing?

This bill does nothing to address the more than 23 million individuals who will lose their coverage or the $800 billion cut to Medicaid under TrumpCare. Nothing in this bill will do anything to fix the waiver allowing insurers to discriminate against individuals with preexisting conditions by jacking up their rates, and nothing in this bill will do anything to roll back the massive tax cut that they are handing out to the top 400 households in America.

Instead of addressing the real issues with our healthcare system, you bring

a racist bill to the floor that you use to buy a vote, literally, for your TrumpCare bill.

Mr. Speaker, I was addressing a racist piece of legislation that was used to buy a vote for the TrumpCare bill. But the problem is that this bill doesn't do anything that it says it does. It is based on a blatantly partisan Senate report that doesn't even say what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim that it says.

It is baffling how many of my Republican colleagues believe that this report that they keep citing actually said anything about undocumented immigrants. Did you ``read'' this report in the same way that you ``read'' the AHCA and all of its amendments?

If you actually read the report, you would know that it does not state that these individuals were undocumented immigrants, but only that they did not complete the verification process. The hurdles might have been too big, it might have taken too much time or too much effort, and they dropped out of the verification process without completing it.

The report also doesn't say that hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants enrolled and received premium credits. The report states that ``as of September 30, 2015, CMS awarded approximately $750 million in advance premium tax credits to individuals enrolled through healthcare.gov who CMS later determined to be ineligible. . . .''

It is funny that the daughter of Mexican American immigrants is able to read and understand the distinctions made in this report better than some of my native-born colleagues can.

Mr. Speaker, I want to close by begging my Republican colleagues to prove to me that this bill isn't about shutting out immigrants from access to care: legal immigrants or children of those born overseas to our military or newborn children or victims of domestic violence or victims of human trafficking.

Prove to me that you care about the health and wellbeing of all Americans, regardless of the color of their skin or their economic circumstances.

I am actually in agreement with you that ineligible individuals should not see a single penny of the subsidies provided by both the ACA and the AHCA, but there are protections already in place where only citizens and people lawfully present in the United States can enroll in marketplace coverage and get subsidies to help them pay their premiums and cost-sharing charges.

This bill doesn't fix anything. It just seeks to further demonize immigrants as criminals and people with my last name out of the healthcare system.

Instead of wasting our time on a bill that is in search of a problem to solve, a problem that doesn't even exist, let's work together to make sure that other Americans are not caught up in the unintended consequences of this bill and aren't denied coverage when they are actually eligible for those subsidies and that coverage.

Let's actually work on a better way for the American people.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

I am opposed to the bill.

Mr. Speaker, this is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill.

If adopted, the Verify First Act will proceed to final passage as amended.

The Democratic motion to recommit simply amends the Verify First Act to ensure that our most vulnerable--newborns and infants--do not experience a delay in health coverage.

We know that the citizenship of newborns can't be verified electronically because they don't have Social Security numbers yet when they are born. In order to verify their child's status, parents have to send a copy of their child's birth certificate, which can take anywhere from 1 to 6 weeks to obtain, depending on the State, and that is the best-case scenario if the parents throw a perfect game in documenting and planning for the arrival of their newborn. Just like any perfect game, a little luck is involved in that.

That luck includes having the Social Security Administration process your child's Social Security number as soon as they receive it, that the Administration doesn't make a mistake in the spelling of your child's name, and that you have the financial resources and education to know exactly what steps you need to take to ensure that your newborn has coverage the moment they come out of your womb.

When most people are anticipating the birth of a child, that is not what they are thinking about. The birth of a child is one of life's most precious moments. The joy you feel when you hold your child for the first time should be the only feeling going through your mind. Filling the paperwork out to ensure that your child is covered shouldn't even be something that you should have to worry about.

But the Verify First Act, as currently drafted, would give you another thing to worry about and add an unnecessary barrier for newborns to receive the care they need. God forbid if your child needs extra care after they are born but doesn't have coverage because your plan is waiting to verify your child's status.

A child's life should not hang in the balance because of paperwork and red tape. For all the claims that Republicans are the pro-life party, they sure know how to make life difficult for a newborn as soon as they are out of the womb. They claim to protect the lives of the unborn and crusade against lifesaving institutions such as Planned Parenthood. But where are their morals and love of life after the child is born? It somehow magically disappears, and they will throw every obstacle up to ensure that newborns don't receive the care that they need and that they are entitled to.

Whether it is through the unintended consequences of a poorly drafted bill such as this one, or gutting the program that covers half the births in the U.S., Republicans will do everything to gut access to care or place obstacles in struggling people's paths. That's right, by cutting over $800 billion out of Medicaid, Republicans are endangering the health and welfare of all newborn children.

Earlier I asked my Republican colleagues to prove to me that they care about the health and well-being of all Americans regardless of the color of their skin or their economic circumstances. Well, I am asking them now to prove to me that they care about the well-being of newborn children.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for the Democratic motion to recommit, and let us write a bill that will actually help all U.S. citizens get the coverage that they need and are entitled to.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 378, I call up the bill (H.R. 2581) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require the provision of social security numbers as a condition of receiving the health insurance premium tax credit, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill currently under consideration.

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

Last month House Republicans took a significant step to return patient-centered healthcare to the American people. We passed the American Health Care Act. The American Health Care Act begins our step- by-step process to repeal ObamaCare and replace this collapsing law with a 21st century healthcare system that truly works for American families, job creators, our States, and our taxpayers.

Now, as work on the American Health Care Act moves forward in the Senate, we are moving forward on a parallel track to deliver more solutions for the American people. One of those is the Verify First Act, sponsored by Congressman Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania.

This legislation takes important action to protect taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud, and abuse. It prevents the American Health Care Act's monthly tax credits and ObamaCare's current subsidies from being dispensed until the legal status of an eligible recipient can be verified.

Under ObamaCare, people who are in the United States illegally are prohibited from receiving taxpayer-funded subsidies to help purchase health insurance; but like so many aspects of ObamaCare, there is a major defect. ObamaCare starts by assuming a person is a legal resident and sends the money right away even if the verification process is still incomplete.

As we have seen with so many Federal programs, it is all but impossible to get fraudulently claimed money back after it is already out the door. This flaw of ObamaCare is no different. It has resulted in taxpayer-funded subsidies being spent on people who are not in the United States legally and, therefore, not eligible to receive them.

My constituents in Texas and yours around the country work too hard to see their tax dollars wasted by Washington's carelessness. The best solution to protect taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud, and abuse is to stop it before it occurs, and that is what the Verify First Act by Mr. Barletta will do.

This bill strengthens existing verification tools by making a commonsense change. Rather than sending the money first and confirming legal status later, it verifies legal status up

front. So if you want to receive financial support for health insurance, this bill simply requires that you first provide a Social Security number or another form of acceptable information to validate citizenship or immigration status.

This commonsense change will apply to ObamaCare beginning with next year's open enrollment period, and after ObamaCare is repealed, it will apply to the tax credits offered in the American Health Care Act when they take effect. This helps ensure that taxpayer-funded assistance for the purchase of health insurance is only distributed to people who are eligible, not to those who are in our country illegally.

I want to thank Congressman Barletta for his leadership on this important legislation. The Verify First Act is a much-needed solution to safeguard taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud, and abuse both now and in the future, and that is crucial as we continue our efforts to repeal and replace the failing ObamaCare law. It is vital to improving America's health system for the long term.

I urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting the passage of the Verify First Act, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Barletta), the author of the Verify First Act, and as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, I am proud to advance this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly), a key member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis).

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Marino).

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Renacci), a colleague of mine on the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, the rules of the House are very clear about imputing the character of lawmakers, and I would warn the gentlewoman, she is treading on the rules.

I am considering.

I will monitor the remainder of the remarks.

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

Let's make sure we fact-check some things here. Nothing in this bill changes the eligibility of the Affordable Care Act and who is eligible for it. In fact, the Republican healthcare bill that passed the House, according to the American Action Network, there will be roughly 5.3 million more Americans that will be eligible for help for their healthcare under the Republican plan than under the Affordable Care Act.

Let's fact-check a couple of other issues. We are told that this has all come about because the IRS has not funded properly, but I would remind our Democrat colleagues that the majority of our Democrat colleagues supported the spending levels, which President Obama signed into law regarding the Internal Revenue Service.

Secondly, they have raised the issue that there are no Social Security numbers available. But in truth, nearly 96 percent of children born in America receive their Social Security numbers within 2 weeks. There is an expedited process going forward to achieve the others as well.

We are told, listening today: there is no fraud in ObamaCare; there is no fraud to worry about; there is no need for this bill by Mr. Barletta.

But I remind our colleagues that twice the Government Accountability Office looked at eligibility within the Affordable Care Act. In 2014, they used fake identities to see if they could obtain ObamaCare coverage on the exchange, and in 11 out of 12 applications--some with no data at all--the GAO was granted subsidies for people who don't even exist.

So you say: Well, that is 2014. Certainly, things got better.

Well, last year, they ran it again in the special enrollment period, and in this test, the GAO was able to obtain coverage for imaginary people in 9 out of 12 cases.

We are told today that our taxpayer dollars aren't being wasted. Well, the American public knows better, and they know this because we have worked for 7 years to oppose what we knew would be a failing law. We held more than 200 congressional hearings. We had 65-plus hours of open debate on the American Health Care Act, and 37 bills passed the House that were ultimately, in one form or another, included in the Republican bill.

The bottom line is this, Mr. Speaker: Our Democrat friends are in denial. ObamaCare is collapsing. Prices have more than doubled. They haven't gone down. They have more than doubled for most Americans; in some States more than tripled, and those rates aren't going down. They are skyrocketing. People aren't getting more choices of healthcare plans. They are disappearing.

Texas has seen nine insurers abandon our State--I think more than any other State--and it is getting fewer and fewer. It is occurring across the country.

You are not able to see more local doctors and go to more local hospitals; just the opposite. It is fewer, and that is hurting everyone in America. ObamaCare is a sinking ship, and it is taking some very good Americans down with it.

The question is: Do we begin to give people a lifeline to truly affordable care?

With this bill, Mr. Barletta insists in a commonsense way that your tax dollars go to those we are trying to help: those who can't get healthcare at work; those who don't get it through government programs like Medicare or the VA; those small-business people; those folks coming out of college; those entrepreneurs who are at home starting a new business or raising their families; even those early retirees. Those are the people we are trying to help, and every dollar counts.

Mr. Barletta's bill, which I am proud as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee to bring to you, makes a commonsense requirement: that you be verified to get those subsidies before you receive them; to make sure those precious dollars actually go to the Americans we are trying to help.

I strongly support the Verify First Act. If you stand for stopping waste, and fraud, and abuse in protection of your tax dollars, I would urge your support for this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit.

Mr. Speaker, this isn't about verifying for infants. Ninety-six percent of children receive their Social Security numbers within 2 weeks after they are born in a hospital, and many of them have parents who are eligible for these credits as well, so it is immediate care. Even without all that, they can achieve and receive healthcare immediately as they process the premium support.

In the American Health Care Act that passed the House, there are more than $1 billion set aside to help further the verification process to make sure that we are providing timely credits--but for those who are eligible. In truth, our friends across the aisle want to detract from the challenge today, which is that ObamaCare is a sinking ship.

Today's bill is about the taxpayers. Congress has to do all in its power to ensure the money taken from hardworking taxpayers is actually used for programs that improve their lives in this country and are not frittered away on fraud and abuse.

That is why this bill is so critical. It doesn't change eligibility. It simply says that we are not going to pay first and chase later, which always is a losing approach for taxpayers. Not a dollar of taxpayer money should go out the door until citizenship or legal status is verified, period.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to defeat the Democrats' motion to recommit and stand on behalf of taxpayers who want those dollars to go to Americans we are truly trying to help for the first time get truly affordable healthcare.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and working with me on this important issue. I also thank leadership for recognizing this issue and working with me to fix the problem.

I am proud to rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 2581, the Verify First Act.

My bill is intended to stop fraud in the distribution of healthcare tax credits and protect taxpayer dollars. It is simple: the American people expect that we are verifying that someone qualifies for taxpayer money before that money goes out the door.

This is about the Federal Government being good stewards of the money our constituents send to Washington. Every Federal dollar that goes to someone committing fraud is a dollar that is not going to a person who truly needs and deserves assistance.

No one should be allowed to commit fraud at the taxpayers' expense. No business would give a refund without first verifying a receipt.

Yet this is exactly what is happening under our current healthcare system. The law claims that taxpayer money will only go to people who qualify for it. Yet no one is being held responsible for making sure that that happens. My bill does that.

Under current law, the Federal Government pays tax credits to individuals without first verifying that they qualify to receive them. If individuals cannot verify their legal status, the IRS is then forced to chase after the money.

This pay-and-chase model of distributing tax credits has greatly increased costs to the taxpayers. A 2016 Senate report revealed that, under ObamaCare, $750 million in taxpayer-funded healthcare subsidies went to people who did not qualify for those benefits.

We could fix this problem and save time and money so that IRS agents are helping people, instead of trying to recover improper payments by verifying legal status first.

My bill simply requires the IRS to work with the relevant Federal agencies to verify that an individual is a

citizen, national, or lawfully present in the United States before tax credits go out the door. This can be done by verifying an applicant's Social Security number or other immigration documents. Again, the American people expect that we are already doing this.

Under my bill, everyone who applies for the advance premium tax credit will be verified for legal status. Most people won't even know that this is happening because the verification check is so quick.

My bill also includes protections that ensure that individuals who are legally entitled to these tax credits are not penalized if there is a delay in verifying their documents. I first raised this issue last year with the previous administration. I am raising it again this year because there is no evidence that anything has been done to address it.

Nobody wanted to take responsibility for mismanaging $750 million of taxpayer money. Everyone pointed fingers at other people. My bill holds people accountable.

While I received assurances from the current administration that it would implement and follow a process to verify legal status, my bill would require it in law. This issue is too important to be left to the changing positions of unelected Federal bureaucrats. The American people deserve to know that their representatives are doing everything in their power to protect taxpayer money.

The Verify First Act provides that certainty and upholds the integrity of the health insurance premium tax credit by putting an end to fraud and abuse.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the cosponsors of my bill for their support. They include Diane Black, Mo Brooks, Jeff Duncan, Jimmy Duncan, Mike Kelly, Doug Lamborn, Mike McCaul, David McKinley, Kristi Noem, Jim Renacci, Mike Rogers, Lamar Smith, Jason Smith, G.T. Thompson, and Joe Wilson.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record letters of support from NumbersUSA and FAIR, two groups that have been working with me to protect the interests of the American worker and legal immigrants.

NumbersUSA,

Arlington, VA, May 23, 2017.

Hon. Lou Barletta,

House of Representatives,

Washington, DC.

Dear Congressman Barletta: NumbersUSA, on behalf of our

more than 8 million activists, applauds you for introducing

the Verify First Act to ensure that health care tax credits

are not paid to illegal aliens or other disqualified aliens.

As you know, NumbersUSA opposed the ineffective verification

provisions in the Affordable Care Act because we knew they

would result in taxpayer-funded subsidies being sent to

illegal aliens. Our concerns, unfortunately, were confirmed

by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental

Affairs, which reported that more than $700 million in

Obamacare subsidies had been paid to ineligible aliens by

2015. Like you, we recognized that these same ineffective

verification procedures in the American Health Care Act

(AHCA) would result in the payment of health care tax credits

to illegal or otherwise ineligible aliens.

The Verify First Act will require the Social Security

Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security

(DHS) to actually verify the citizenship or immigration

status of every applicant for a credit under the AHCA before

the Treasury Department issues the credit. Both SSA and DHS

have established, proven methods of verifying status in a

timely and efficient manner, including the E-Verify system,

which relies on data from these two agencies to verify work

authorization, and the Systematic Alien Verification for

Entitlements (SAVE) system, which uses DHS data to establish

welfare eligibility.

Hard-working Americans and legal residents already are

struggling to pay for their own health care. There is simply

no excuse for the Federal government to force them to

subsidize health care for illegal aliens through taxpayer-

funded credits.

For this reason, NumbersUSA is delighted to support your

Verify First Act and we look forward to working with you to

make sure it is enacted into law. We also applaud House

Republican Leadership and the House Ways and Means Committee

for working with you to close this expensive loophole in our

health care system.

Sincerely,

Anne Manetas,

Vice President, NumbersUSA.

Additionally, this legislation is supported by Citizens Against Government Waste and Americans for Tax Reform.

Finally, I include in the Record a Statement of Administration Policy noting that the President would sign this bill into law.

Statement of Administration Policy

H.R. 2581--Verify First Act--Rep. Barletta, R-PA and 14 cosponsors

The Administration supports H.R. 2581, the Verify First

Act. Under Obamacare, millions of dollars in advance payments

of the premium tax credit may have been paid on behalf of

individuals who were likely ineligible beneficiaries,

including illegal immigrants. By eliminating the practice of

providing advance payments while an applicant's immigration

status is being verified, this bill stems the flow of

payments to ineligible individuals under Obamacare and

strengthens the ability of the Administration to ensure

premium tax credits will be appropriately provided to

eligible individuals under the American Health Care Act of

2017 (AHCA). By protecting the integrity of Federal funds,

this bill furthers the President's vision of a more efficient

Federal Government that respects taxpayer dollars.

H.R. 2581 would prohibit advance payments of premium tax

credits to individuals under current law and the AHCA, unless

the Secretary of the Treasury receives confirmation that the

individual is a citizen or a national of the United States,

or is lawfully present in the United States. H.R. 2581 would

also strengthen the AHCA, as passed by the House of

Representatives on May 4, 2017, which the Administration

continues to support strongly.

If H.R. 2581 were presented to the President in its current

form, his advisors would recommend that he sign the bill into

law.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge passage of my bill.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 378 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to my friend, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the rule and the underlying legislation. This rule provides for debate on the final negotiated bill between the House and the Senate. This process began last Congress and resulted in the House passing H.R. 1259 in March of this year.

The Senate introduced and passed the version of the bill we have before us today by voice vote. It mirrors the reforms contained in Chairman Roe's bill that the House has already passed by a bipartisan vote.

Mr. Speaker, we often talk about veterans in this country: We thank them for their sacrifice; we applaud them at sporting events; we tell ourselves that we must take care of them, must repay them for the service to our Nation. But in the past few years, we have discovered that America's care for our veterans has been wholly inadequate. The Department of Veterans Affairs has failed them.

Shameful misconduct at the VA has been rampant, and it has hurt our veterans:

In 2014, we learned that the Phoenix VA concealed extremely long wait lines for patients and that up to 40 vets may have died while waiting for care at the facility;

Just last year, we discovered that a VA Hospital in Colorado Springs also falsified wait time records. The majority of patients at that hospital faced wait times over 30 days, and 28 patients had an average wait time of 76 days. One veteran is even thought to have committed suicide because he wasn't referred for mental healthcare, even though he had been deemed at risk for suicide.

That is why Congress needs to act. S. 1094, the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017, allows the Secretary of the VA to hold all employees at the agency accountable for their conduct.

We desperately need this legislation, not because all the employees at the VA have problems. Quite the opposite. Most VA employees show up to work every day because they are passionate about serving our Nation's veterans. But there are bad apples, people who put our veterans in danger. These people must be held accountable, and, frankly, many of them must be fired.

This bill empowers the Secretary to reprimand, suspend, or remove VA employees who have engaged in misconduct. It also permits the Secretary to recoup bonuses if an employee performed poorly or conducted themselves inappropriately and to recoup relocation expenses for fraud, waste, or malfeasance.

The bill also bolsters protection for whistleblowers, creating an office within the VA devoted to protecting those who expose wrongdoing. Supervisors will be taught how to protect whistleblowers and will be held accountable for how well they do.

And the bill requires reporting to Congress on the performance of senior executives at the VA and on the outcomes of disciplinary actions at the agency.

You may be wondering why Congress has taken such an in-depth interest in an executive branch agency, and I will tell you why. It is our job.

The legislative branch was designed to oversee the executive branch. We appropriate the funds used to pay the salaries of everyone working at the VA. These funds come from the taxpayer. For the sake of the taxpayer, we must ensure that the VA is serving its purpose.

But this bill also empowers the Secretary of the VA, allowing him or her to take immediate action to protect veterans. We can't wait for long appeals processes when a bad employee on the front lines of a VA hospital is harming our veterans.

This legislation should not be controversial. Both Democrats and Republicans want the best for our veterans. This legislation, the legislation we are discussing today, gives the VA Secretary and Congress more tools to hold employees accountable because if we are holding employees accountable, then we are protecting our veterans from abuse.

This bill is one small way to say thank you to those men and women who have served our country. We can never adequately repay them, but we can do our best to provide them with sufficient medical care.

I urge you to support this important legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul), chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security.

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

In response to my friend from Florida's statement about the second piece of legislation that we are dealing with in this rule, I believe it is our responsibility to the American taxpayer, and we are fulfilling that responsibility. We are expected to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. This bill ensures that the government only disburses premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act, or under the American Health Care Act, to those individuals who are eligible for those tax credits.

Under the ACA, an individual who is not lawfully present in the United States is ineligible from receiving a premium credit. Unfortunately, the ACA also allows the government to hand out the tax credit first and verify later.

This pay-and-chase scheme means taxpayer money is flowing out the door to people who don't meet the requirements for premium tax credits, and much of these funds may not be recouped. In fact, under the ACA, over half a million people who were ineligible for coverage and tax credits received credits.

H.R. 2581, the Verify First Act, requires the Secretary of the Treasury to ensure that any department disbursing payments have first verified the recipient's legal presence with information like Social Security numbers. By requiring this verification, we can confirm that, under both the ACA and AHCA, those who receive credits deserve credits.

With that confirmation, we will ensure that these laws are used as they were intended; that the wishes of the American taxpayer are followed. I urge Members to support this important legislation.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, we are here discussing two important bills. One of them fulfills the congressional duty to steward taxpayer dollars well. We shouldn't be handing out tax credits to people without first checking their eligibility for their tax credits. This is common sense.

H.R. 2581, the Verify First Act, will require verification of legal presence in this country before someone can receive a tax credit. It is only fair to the American people that we pass this legislation.

The other bill in this rule, S. 1094, protects our veterans from harm. We all have a commitment to repaying the men and women who have served this Nation in the military. These brave individuals have put much on the line and sacrificed so much time and opportunity. They deserve the best healthcare.

This legislation holds the VA accountable. We need to empower the VA Secretary to quickly fire employees who put our veterans in danger. We also need the VA to report to Congress so that the legislative branch can fulfill its oversight duties.

I thank the sponsors of these important bills--Senator Rubio for S. 1094 and Representative Barletta for H.R. 2581.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the resolution, and I urge a ``yes'' vote on the underlying bills.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.