Providing for consideration of 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 providing for consideration of the bill (S. 1094) to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the accountability of employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.

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, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 1094.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 378, I call up the bill (S. 1094) to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the accountability of employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, this is a historic day. You and many Members of this body

are well aware that bringing real accountability to the Department of Veterans Affairs has been a goal of mine and many of my colleagues for many years. That is why I am proud to rise today to support S. 1094, which passed the United States Senate last week via voice vote.

This bill is heavily modeled off of my bill, H.R. 1259, which passed out of the House with bipartisan support earlier this Congress, and I am proud to have worked with Senators Isakson, Tester, and Rubio to craft this vital piece of legislation.

The Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017 would provide the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs with yet another tool to instill accountability at VA by giving him the authority to expeditiously remove, demote, or suspend any VA employee for poor performance or misconduct while still preserving an employee's rights to due process.

This bill would create an expedited procedure for all VA employees to respond and appeal to proposed removals, demotions, and suspensions for performance or misconduct, or in the case of title 38 employees, which are our healthcare providers, for a question involving direct patient care or clinical competence.

The prenotification and response process would have to be completed within 15 business days, and the employee would be entitled to an expedited appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board where the first step at the administrative judge level would be limited to 180 days.

Additionally, either party would be able to appeal the administrative judge's decision to the full MSPB and would be provided the opportunity for limited judicial review.

This bill would also provide improved protections for whistleblowers by creating a new office and an Assistant Secretary position specifically for accountability and whistleblowers. It would allow the Secretary to reduce an employee's Federal pension if they are convicted of a felony that influenced their job at VA. It would provide the Secretary with the authority to recoup a bonus provided to an employee who engaged in misconduct or malfeasance prior to receiving the bonus, and would allow the Secretary to recoup any relocation expenses that were authorized for a VA employee only through the employee's ill- gotten means, such as fraud, waste, or malfeasance.

Lastly, it would also provide the Secretary with the direct hiring authority he has been asking for so that he can hire medical center directors and VISN directors in a more expedited manner and fill the leadership vacancies across VA.

Mr. Speaker, as I have always said, I agree with all of my colleagues that the vast majority of VA employees--many of whom I know personally and call friends--are hardworking public servants who are dedicated to providing quality healthcare and benefits for veterans.

But for far too long, the failures of bad actors have tarnished the good name of all VA employees. Unfortunately, despite the tireless efforts of our courageous whistleblowers, the extensive reporting on a lack of accountability by the media and the outrage of the American public, we still see far too many instances of VA employees not living up to the standards America expects. Most importantly, they are not living up to the standards that the men and women who have served this great Nation deserve.

This isn't a political issue. This is a veterans' issue. I can't imagine how any Member of this body can defend not standing for veterans to vote for this bipartisan legislation. The lack of accountability isn't specific to any one area of the Department. It is systemic. In the last few years, the committee discovered an instance of a VA nurse scrubbing in drunk for a veteran's surgery--I found that unbelievable--and a care support specialist in the agency's drug and addiction program taking a recovering addict to a crack house to buy him drugs and a prostitute, a VA medical center clerk participating in an armed robbery, and a practitioner watching pornography at work while they were supposedly treating a patient.

What is more, it has been proven that some senior managers have retaliated against whistleblowers, costing VA and, in turn, taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution.

All of these acts in and of themselves are egregious, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. They have one thing in common: none of these employees were held accountable in a reasonable timeframe, if at all.

There are many factors that contribute to this failure, but an antiquated civil service system and a complicated grievance process have left VA unwilling--and sometimes just unable--to jump through the many hoops to do what is right. This is not an issue unique to VA. Too often it is nearly impossible to remove a poorly performing government employee.

Officials on both sides of the aisle have expressed their concern about the current process to remove or discipline subpar employees. Just last year, Mr. Speaker, VA's then-Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson sat before our committee and admitted that it was too difficult to fire a substandard VA employee.

Further, the Government Accountability Office studied the government's ability to hold low-performing employees accountable and found that it took 6 months to a year on average, and sometimes significantly longer, to fire a poorly performing government employee-- 6 months to a year.

I have heard concerns that the bill will hurt the Department's ability to recruit and retain good employees. I don't buy this argument as every employee I speak to tells me the exact opposite.

Good employees want to work in an environment where they know everyone can be held accountable for their actions. I believe the current status quo hurts the morale of the employees who are doing the right thing each and every day.

This is the same for employees of the Department who are veterans. I know that some have said that this would hurt veterans who are employed at the VA since they make up a large percentage of our VA employees. But as a veteran myself and as my fellow veterans here today would agree, we don't serve, whether in uniform or civilian clothes, because we prioritize our individual protection. The mission always comes first, and at VA, the mission is our veterans.

Veterans want to work alongside colleagues they know are working hard for the men and women who they served alongside.

Mr. Speaker, before I close, I want to acknowledge some individuals who have made this bill become a reality.

First and foremost, I want to thank the 18 veterans groups representing millions of veterans and their families who are supporting this bill and real accountability at the VA. Many of them are in the gallery today, and I can't thank them enough for all they have done and all they continue to do for our Nation's heroes.

Many of these groups took a courageous stand in support of VA accountability, even when it wasn't a politically popular idea. And I especially want to thank Concerned Veterans for America, The American Legion, and Paralyzed Veterans of America for being some of our earliest and staunchest supporters.

I also want to thank someone who, this Congress, has been with us from day one, and that is the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Dr. David Shulkin. We have worked with Secretary Shulkin and his team to draft the bill that is before us today, and I am thankful for his and President Trump's support.

President Trump and Secretary Shulkin have endorsed this legislation, not because they want to punish or make it harder to recruit employees, but because they see this change is needed if the Secretary is going to meet the President's goal of truly reforming the VA.

I also want to thank the bipartisan group of Senators who we worked with in crafting this bill, including Senator Isakson; Senator Tester; and the primary sponsor, Senator Rubio. Senator Rubio and his staff have been with me every step of the way, and I am thankful for his and his staff's efforts over the years.

I also want to thank a good friend of mine, Ranking Member Walz, and his staff for their support and leadership.

They have been fantastic. I also want to thank Speaker Ryan and Majority Leader McCarthy and their staffs for helping us bring this bill to the floor.

Lastly, I would like to single out former Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, a good friend, great leader of this committee, and my chairman for 6 years. His leadership got the ball rolling on this issue, which led to House-passed legislation twice last Congress and kept the spotlight on accountability issues at VA through his dogged oversight.

Finally, I would like to thank my staff, and especially the professional and communications staff of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, for their years of hard work on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, today, we have a bipartisan, bicameral bill that makes meaningful change to VA's civil service system, while maintaining due process rights.

Today, we have the opportunity to make real and lasting changes to a broken system.

Today, we can stand together with veterans against the status quo that has failed them for far too long. They deserve better.

I hope all of you will join me, and the 18 veterans organizations that support this legislation, to do what is right and send this bill to the President's desk.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), the majority leader.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from California (Mr. Takano) for his support.

I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), my good friend and vice chair of the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Coffman), an Army and Marine veteran deployed to Iraq.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maine (Mr. Poliquin), my good friend and a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Dunn), a veteran and a member of the committee, to speak on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington), chairman of the Economic Opportunity Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Rutherford), a member of our committee and, for many years, who was in the process of protecting us in law enforcement.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bergman), the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee chair and a lieutenant general in the Marine Corps.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman

from Puerto Rico (Miss Gonzalez-Colon), a new member of our committee, who is doing a great job.

Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Messer), my good friend who I have served with for 6 years on the Education and the Workforce Comittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mast), a combat-wounded veteran, Bronze Star winner, Purple Heart winner, Defense Meritorious Service and Army Commendation Medal winner.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Mast for those kind words and words spoken for every American veteran.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick).

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

Today is a proud day, I think, for this Nation. The United States of America does more for its veterans than all other nations in the world combined; and I don't think that, on some days, that is even enough for these heroes that have served us and many of whom have spoken this afternoon.

I want to express my appreciation to the minority and the majority staff, and to Sergeant Major Walz for walking hand in hand. As he said, this was not an easy process. There were a lot of difficult issues that we both dealt with.

I also want to thank our friends on the Senate side who also went through the same process and brought a bill to the floor that we can all, I think, enthusiastically support.

The Secretary said when he was first chosen--and I might add, 100-0, Secretary Shulkin was a bipartisan agreement in the Senate. I think he is a leader to transform the VA. He asked for accountability. He said: I cannot do my job as Secretary if I don't have this piece of legislation.

So he was very supportive, along with President Trump, so we gave him that.

We also protected due process rights for the employees who work for the VA--a very important issue.

Whistleblower protections. We could not do our job, Mr. Speaker, if we did not have these whistleblowers. There are 350,000 employees, 154 medical centers, and over 800 outpatient clinics. There is no way that we could monitor that without their help. So their protections are there.

Mr. Speaker, I want to encourage both sides of the aisle to support S. 1094, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

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

I would like to associate myself with the chairman's remarks, especially the thanks of all the people involved in this. I think, Mr. Speaker, this is the third time we have come to this body this Congress, as the chairman and the ranking member of the VA Committee, as fellow veterans, as friends and American citizens, on issues of utmost importance to our veterans. We do have a constituency. We do have a special interest group that we look out for: America's veterans.

Those 18 groups, plus millions of Americans across this country, their collective voices through their organizations, through the Disabled American Veterans, through The American Legion, articulate every Congress in front of us what their top priorities are. This year, they came in front of us and said the three things that Congress needs to get done, needs to get right, and needs to get moving as soon as possible in this 2-year period that we have is: appeals reform, choice extension of care in the community, and an accountability bill.

Well, I am proud to say this is the third of those three. The other two have moved here in a bipartisan manner.

In the climate that we are in, and the uncertainty that the American public is feeling--quite honestly, probably the frustration they feel with this body--I think it is important to note that none of those things were easy lifts, none of them were locked in, and many of them contained things that were pretty ideologically polarizing.

Chairman Roe, through his leadership and with the professional staff, was able to navigate to get to that point that the top priority and focus was care for veterans--making sure that care is delivered in a timely manner; making sure those delivering the care are the best possible; and, as the chairman said, if they are doing their job, they are afforded their constitutional rights and appeals. If they are not, I agree with the chairman, they should be removed as quickly as possible. They should certainly not be rewarded for that. That strengthens the VA. That strengthens those good employees.

Again, keep this in mind: This is the second largest agency in the Federal Government. It has a $190 billion budget. It has 350,000-plus employees. It is an issue that unites us and that Americans are passionate about.

So we stand before you today with an issue that is unified, as Americans, as accountability. Certainly, the examples that Chairman Roe mentioned, no one is going to defend those. I am pleased because I think the chairman clearly understands that every time one of those issues goes unaddressed in a timely manner, it hurts the morale of the entire agency and erodes trust in the system by Americans.

Those veterans who use the VA system know they are getting quality care. On any given day, tens of thousands of appointments and procedures are being carried out in the most professional manner. All of that is undermined if a bad employee is allowed to not live up to those standards.

So I am pleased to say that I am in full support of this piece of legislation. The way this was done is the way we are taught in school how it is supposed to work. We debate, we send something there, we don't agree, then we let the Senate do that. We all work together to get something. We bring back that little, I am just a bill sitting on Capitol Hill. Now it is back over here. It is not perfect in everyone's mind, but it is certainly perfect in terms of how legislation is done and reaching those goals. Everyone compromised.

I think the chairman needs to be singled out on this. I thank him for commenting about Chairman Miller. We had Mike Michaud on our side work on that, too. Others have been here and done it, but we needed someone to get it over the line.

The three pieces I mentioned--appeals, choice, and accountability-- are certainly things that were on everybody's mind. All three are going to pass through this House.

Just a couple of notes on this. This does maintain due process protections for employees, and I support that. I hope we can come together and pass the compromise piece.

The bill promotes accountability by giving the VA the tools it needs to hold bad employees accountable, while maintaining those constitutional-mandated workplace rights.

At this point, I would say that Secretary Shulkin has earned the trust of, certainly, this committee, certainly of the veterans service organizations, and I would say, if you don't know, the American people. He has asked for some of these things. I take that very seriously. If he says this will add to accountability, if he says this will make his job better in delivering care for veterans, that weighs heavily.

He asked us for these things. He asked and was part of making that. We should be grateful that he is willing to work with Congress.

It also requires VA to evaluate supervisors based on their protection of whistleblowers. This commonsense provision aligns the incentives for supervisors to protect whistleblowers when they shed light on dangerous situations and problematic employees at the agency.

I want to be clear: we don't support collective bargaining rights just because it is a union issue that we think should be there, those of us who ideologically believe workplace protections allow for a larger voice and protect good employees who are pointing out bad behavior from being arbitrarily fired without a collective will to fight back.

One person in a manager's office with no support or no legal right is a very dangerous situation. One employee being backed by workplace guarantees and their union collectively bargained rights helps make us stronger.

The bill requires the VA to improve its training regarding whistleblower disclosures. This is a really key piece. We want to ensure there are no excuses for employees at the VA to not know how to handle protected disclosures. Proper training will be a key to ensure all employees and not just supervisors understand the importance.

No matter what this bill does, it would be hard to support if it didn't do the things the chairman said. It does protect those constitutional rights. It maintains all existing due process protections in current law by ensuring there is notice and an opportunity to respond before an employee is fired.

The bill even improves the appeals process by requiring the VA to provide an employee with the complete evidence file when they are fired, thereby empowering them to appeal sooner. If someone is wrongfully accused of wrongdoing, now they are going to see and have the entire file. We are just asking that they do it sooner.

If someone commits one of the acts that the chairman talked about, it is indefensible for it to take 6 months or a year to have it adjudicated. We certainly want them to have a fair due process, but, again, if we are waiting to get that done, that is holding a position for someone else that could be serving veterans. It also keeps an employee under the cloud of not getting it done and moving on. If they are innocent, we want to move it on as quickly

as possible. We do not jeopardize or change any of their appeal process to come back.

Now is the time to bring real, long-lasting constitutional accountability measures to the Department of Veterans Affairs. I would hope we could come together to pass this. Again, the entire goal of all of the people involved with this was to improve the care for this Nation's veterans, ensuring people's rights to be heard, and a fair due process if they are accused of something, but with the intention that if you are not serving our veterans in the manner that you should, then there are other places you should work. This ensures that those tools are there.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano), my good friend and the vice ranking member of the full Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Brownley), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Health.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Peters), a friend of all of our veterans and a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have remaining.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am certainly willing to yield some of my time to the gentleman from Tennessee if there are other speakers who would like to speak on this if the gentleman's time runs short. If I could save myself 3 minutes for my closing, I would certainly be

willing to do that. I am not certain what the parliamentary procedure is to do so.

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

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

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

Mr. Speaker, you heard it from a wide range of folks here on the floor. This is the way Congress is supposed to work and this is what is expected of us. This is what my constituents in southern Minnesota expect, and this is what the gentleman from Tennessee's or the gentleman from Florida's constituents expect: look at a problem, assess it, come up with some different solutions, and debate those out.

I want to be clear, as I said earlier, these are tough issues. There was debate--heated debate. We may even have raised our voices a few times doing

this, but that is the way the world's greatest democracy is supposed to function.

Again, three of the most pressing issues, three of the top priorities of this Nation's veterans, all addressed in the first 6 six months of this Congress, all addressed to the satisfaction of a wide, bipartisan VSO community that is grateful for it.

I think, in trying to find these challenges and understanding them, people are trying to get at the heart of this. I do think there are great frustrations, and I have said, totally indefensible of the examples given.

But when we had this debate before, there were some examples of bad managers inadvertently firing people who were pointing out things that the manager was doing; and the due process considerations got that person their job back, and we got rid of the manager.

I think that when we first started debating this, I made the case that this could be a right-to-work bill in disguise. This bill is not that. This bill, as the chairman said, was not the intention. The intention was accountability. The intention of the bill was to streamline the process while protecting those due process rights.

I am grateful that the chairman, as always, kept his word. He followed through and he negotiated that.

The thing that I would say before closing here, Mr. Speaker, is that I agree with the majority leader. I think the combination of many things that we are doing possesses the potential to see real reforms moving in the right direction. Something that I think hasn't been mentioned here--that the Secretary did with consultation with the chairman, myself, and others--was that he took the action of streamlining the medical record procedure between the DOD, and the VA added to that.

There is transformational, generational-type change happening at the VA, but none of this will matter. And the majority leader said he expects to see that. We must ensure that it happens. We must ensure the accountability, we must monitor, we must ask that it is happening, and we must come back at this again. If there is a glitch that was unintended, let's come back at it again in this same manner of reaching an outcome.

This is a positive day, Mr. Speaker. I would hope that those folks paying attention to this and watching--certainly the veterans, but everyone--know that Congress can work together; Congress can take on pressing issues; Congress can come up with bipartisan solutions; and Congress can agree that the thing that defines us most is not Republican or Democrat--it is U.S. citizen, it is veteran, and it is care for them.

Today I am proud to get this through here. Let's send it on to the President, and let's all celebrate the Administration signing this into law and moving forward.

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

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.