Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, the chairman of the committee got it right, this is historic. This bill is overdue, bipartisan, and bicameral, as it should be.

Today, I rise in support of H.R. 8454, the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act.

Representative Blumenauer and I have jointly cosponsored this bill for four Congresses. Talk about overdue. Although we disagree about recreational marijuana--he supports it; I oppose it--we both concur that in regard to medical marijuana, we need to do the rigorous research to answer the questions.

As a physician, I realize that if we are going to have marijuana legal in over three dozen States for medical uses, we really ought to be able to do the research on it to see what it can and can't be used for. Many claims are made about it--some are legitimate, some will be found to be illegitimate--but the American public deserves to know whether medical marijuana and cannabidiol work for those claims that are being made.

This bill makes it easier to do the necessary, rigorous medical research just like is done for any other drug that has a claim of efficacy in this country. The American public deserves to know what medical marijuana is useful for, because for anyone with those conditions where it is found to be useful, it could be a godsend. But for other conditions where the claims won't be found to be valid with rigorous research, it would be found to be ineffective, and that would help protect American patients as well.

This would modernize our research methods, bringing medical marijuana up to the scientific standards we use for every other type of medication that is sold as a drug in this country.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this bill.

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

Mr. Chair, I thank Ranking Member Granger for yielding.

Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 8294, which includes the FY23 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and

Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations bill.

First, I thank Chair DeLauro and Ranking Member Granger for their leadership in moving these bills through the appropriations process. I also thank the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee chairman, Mr. Bishop, for his leadership in crafting a bill that funds a number of programs with broad bipartisan support, such as rural broadband programs, critical ag research programs, and protections to ensure we have safe food, drugs, and medical devices.

While there are many things to like about this bill, the total discretionary spending level of $27.2 billion, or an 8 percent increase over the previous year's funding, does not acknowledge the economic reality that our Nation faces.

A stunning 88 percent of Americans believe our country is on the wrong track, according to a recent poll by the Monmouth University Polling Institute. That is what Americans are talking about around their kitchen tables.

Just last week, inflation jumped again to a 40-year high of 9.1 percent. We can't keep ignoring this situation. Americans have figured out that more government spending only ends in higher prices for the American people and adds to the inflation problem created by this Congress and the Biden administration's reckless and immoral spending included in this minibus.

In this vein, this division of the minibus provides unsustainable funding increases across the board, most notably for the Food and Drug Administration, which would receive an overwhelming and unnecessary 10 percent increase. A lot of American families wish they were getting a 10 percent increase in their paychecks. Based on how the FDA has handled the infant formula crisis, it is clear that strong leadership is needed at the FDA, not this unnecessary increase in funding.

The bill also includes increased benefits for the WIC program, a great program, but those increased benefits were intended to be a temporary, one-time increase included in the American Rescue Plan. I understand the importance of making sure WIC participants have access to fruits and vegetables. However, this bill is taking a temporary increase in response to COVID and including it in the regular, ongoing program as if to make these increased benefits permanent without regard to the inflationary pressures of out-of-control government spending that is already squeezing taxpayers.

I am also extremely concerned about providing the administration with unlimited spending authority for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, at the end of the next fiscal year. The administration claims this authority is needed for an unexpected increase in SNAP participation, but the President continues to tout record-low unemployment rates, which should translate into a decrease in SNAP participation. Furthermore, the program has a reserve fund totaling up to $9 billion already to address unexpected participation increases should they unexpectedly occur, so providing USDA with a blank check is just simply irresponsible.

In times like these, as stewards of taxpayer dollars, Congress must make tough decisions in the greater interest of the American people. While I support a number of programs in the bill, I cannot support the bill at this unsustainable spending level.

This bill touches the lives of every American, and I hope we can find common ground to support America's farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. As this process moves forward, I am committed to working with Chairman Bishop, Chair DeLauro, Ranking Member Granger, and the rest of our colleagues to resolve these differences.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding the time.

Madam Speaker, I rise with concern about H.R. 6087, Improving Access to Workers' Compensation for Injured Federal Workers Act. It was mentioned that it is fine if healthcare practitioners are qualified to deliver workmen's comp. Certainly, in some States, nurse practitioners and physician assistants--nurse practitioners, specifically, can practice without a physician oversight, but the question is whether that is appropriate for workmen's compensation.

Remember, workmen's compensation includes people who have been injured or claimed to have been injured on the job. These employees deserve the highest level of care, the highest level of evaluation, of diagnosis, certification, and treatment. And what this bill does is turns over the qualifications for who is going to treat those injured Federal workers to the State to make the decision. Because it says, Well, if in a State they decide that a physician assistant practicing independently is just fine, well, that Federal worker is not going to have the benefit of having a physician involved in that care.

Madam Speaker, this is a serious policy debate. This debate should be taking place, I believe, not on a suspension calendar but actually come under a regular rule and be debated for whether or not this is the way we want to treat Federal employees, that we want to subject them to a State level of care as opposed to a level of care that we think is appropriate, again, for an injured Federal worker.

So, Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from the American Medical Association strongly opposing H.R. 6087.

American Medical Association,

June 5, 2022.

Hon. Nancy Pelosi,

U.S. House of Representatives,

Washington, DC.

Hon. Kevin McCarthy,

U.S. House of Representatives,

Washington, DC.

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader McCarthy: On behalf

of the physician and medical student members of the American

Medical Association (AMA), I am writing in strong opposition

to H.R. 6087, the ``Improving Access to Workers' Compensation

for Injured Federal Workers Act.'' This legislation would

allow nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants

(PAs) to diagnose, prescribe, treat, and certify an injury

and extent of disability for purposes of compensating federal

workers under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA).

Current law prohibits non-physician health professionals

from making these determinations and reserves this function

to physicians who have the education, training, and expertise

to make these evaluations. The AMA remains steadfast in its

commitment to patients who have said repeatedly that they

want and expect physicians leading their health care team. In

a recent survey of U.S. voters, 68 percent say it is very

important for a physician to be involved in their

diagnosis and treatment decisions. However, H.R. 6087

effectively removes physicians from the care team and sets up

our federal workers for suboptimal health outcomes and

increased costs, without improving access to care. At a time

when inflation is at an all-time high and our economy is

still struggling to recover from the costs associated with

the COVID-19 pandemic, now is especially not the time for

Congress to enact this type of policy change.

Madam Speaker, they give reasons. They say, look, education matters. Patients want physicians involved in their diagnosis and treatment decisions. I think that is true.

They say that increasing the scope of practice of nurse practitioners or physician assistants can lead to increased healthcare costs, specifically mentioning the fact that there are studies now that show that when a nurse practitioner is involved or a physician assistant----

Madam Speaker, they mention that, for instance, opioid overprescribing occurs four times as much when a nurse practitioner is involved. Obviously, in a workers' comp case where injury may be determined, this could be significant. This is something we should deal with.

Finally, even the AMA recognized that they are concerned that we are attempting to pass this under suspension of the rules usually, typically, reserved for noncontroversial bills.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

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

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Texas for yielding me the time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition tonight to H.R. 7790, the Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act, a bill that just continues the majority's reckless spending spree without actually fixing the infant formula crisis this administration caused.

Like parents across America, I am frustrated by the Biden administration's lack of urgency to address this completely predictable crisis. In fact, infant formula supply challenges started last fall and were exacerbated with the Abbott recall of infant formula and the facility closing in February.

At that time, the administration and the FDA should have made it a priority, back in February, to get this plant safely back online as quickly as possible. Instead, they allowed yet another crisis to occur. In fact, the facility remains idle 3 months later, with just a recent announcement by the FDA that they have now come to an agreement with Abbott on how to reopen the plant.

The answer to the formula shortage is the families need more formula, and we need to get one of the largest domestic producers of formula safely operating again.

But this is not a money problem. This is a leadership problem. It is another example of this administration's disregard for hardworking American families who are already struggling with record-high gas prices, food prices, and inflation soaring to a 40-year high.

All of us have constituents impacted by this formula shortage, and this is one issue we should have been able to address in a bipartisan manner.

I thank Ranking Member Granger for her leadership on this issue, offering commonsense solutions that wouldn't have added to our national debt and would have held the FDA accountable for its foot dragging.

Unfortunately, Republican input was dismissed, and this bill just continues the Democrats' strategy of throwing money at the same bureaucrats who caused the crisis and who have not made its solution a priority so that that failed agency can hire even more bureaucrats.

This is yet another missed opportunity to allow Republicans and Democrats to work together for the benefit of American families. Instead, the majority is going it alone, having caused this problem just like they caused the high gas prices, crime in our streets, and rising food prices. They are not solving it with this bill; they are just spending money and adding to the debt our children and grandchildren have to repay.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, come back to the table, work with Republicans, and let's have a bipartisan solution.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise with concern about some of the wording in the preamble. I think this is the reason why we should actually go through the normal process, not a suspension process for something as critical as this resolution.

Clearly, I have no argument against the threat that Russia has against democracies in Europe. My problem is with page 2, line 3: ``. . . internal threats from proponents of illiberalism.'' That is a progressive, leftwing dog whistle for Poland and Hungary. Why in the world, as Russia is attacking Ukraine, and Poland is the center for bringing our military assistance into Ukraine, why in the world in a preamble would we appear to attack one of our NATO allies?

It is unnecessary. It is unwise.

Again, having a Center for Democratic Resilience, I don't have an argument with that. My argument is with the preamble that clearly includes inflammatory language toward two of our best allies in NATO: Poland and Hungary.

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

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia for yielding me time.

Mr. Blumenauer and I have jointly led and sponsored this bill for four Congresses. Although we disagree about recreational marijuana--he supports it; I oppose it--as a physician, I realize that if we are going to have medical marijuana legal, as the gentlewoman from Michigan says, in over three dozen States, we really ought to do research on it to see what it is used for and what it can't be used for because, Madam Speaker, many claims are made about it. Some are legitimate; some are illegitimate.

The American public, if we are to have this product legal in 37 States now, they deserve to know whether it works for what the claims are made.

What this bill does is simple. It makes it easier to do rigorous medical research, the same type of research we expect to be done on any of the drugs that are sold as medicines in this country. That is what this bill does.

It has been a long time coming. I thank the chairman for bringing this bill out. Hopefully, it gets across the finish line in both Houses and goes to the President's desk for signature.

Madam Speaker, the American public deserves to know what medical marijuana is useful for because, again, for anyone who has one of the conditions that it might be useful for, this could be a godsend. For other conditions where it is claimed, it will be found to be not effective, but the American public needs to know.

The Medical Marijuana Research Act is the way to get this done. Modernize our research methods. Bring them up to the scientific standards we use for every other type of medication in this country that is sold as a drug.

Madam Speaker, I support H.R. 5657.

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

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

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

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the bicentennial birthday of a true American hero, Harriet Tubman.

Born in Dorchester County, in Maryland's First Congressional District, Harriet Tubman is best known as the conductor of the Underground Railroad. Born a slave, Tubman escaped and risked her own freedom to guide countless other slaves to freedom at great personal risk.

In honor of her life achievement, in the next few weeks, numerous events will be held in and around Dorchester County to celebrate her 200th birthday. The Harriet Tubman State Park and Visitor Center will be hosting discussions with archaeologists and historians, as well as conducting walking tours, live music events, artifact displays, and a film premiere.

As we close out Black History Month and begin Women's History Month, I urge my colleagues and all Americans to join me in honoring the memory of Harriet Tubman. She truly embodied the American spirit. From her thirst for freedom to her courage under fire and her passion for helping her fellow man, she is an example to us all.

Madam Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to celebrate her here today on the floor of the people's House.