Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Cummings for yielding me time to speak about this important legislation to protect whistleblowers.

Mr. Speaker, I share the concerns that were brought up yesterday in the Rules Committee and today on the floor about the procedure for bringing this bill to the floor without full House committee process. However, I will support the bill because it is so important.

The Dr. Chris Kirkpatrick Whistleblower Protection Act will provide protection for employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs who blow the whistle on wrongdoing in the agency.

As the ranking member of the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, I know full well that whistleblowers are vital to the VA to protect the health and well-being of the men and women who have so bravely served our country. Although we have numerous protections currently in place for whistleblowers, those who are committed to silencing them still manage to find ways to retaliate, which we saw with tragic consequences at the Phoenix VA Health Care System and in Dr. Kirkpatrick's case.

In addition to serving on the House Veterans Affairs' Committee, my role as the founder and co-chair of the Bipartisan Heroin Task Force makes VA's retaliation against another VA doctor, Dr. Kirkpatrick, an especially troublesome tragedy. When he tried to raise the alarm over concerns that another VA doctor was overprescribing opioids that may have led to patient deaths, he was aware that doing so could be harmful to his own position at the Tomah VA Medical Center.

Dr. Kirkpatrick's action was laudable. Veterans have been acutely impacted by the opioid epidemic, and his efforts to reduce prescription rates for veterans is not only a good example for VA physicians, but for all physicians in the U.S. today.

Title II of this bill puts in place a number of requirements for the VA to protect VA employees from several retaliatory measures. It requires the Secretary to put in place a plan to prevent unauthorized access to medical records of VA employees, along with outreach to ensure that VA employees are aware of mental health services available to them.

These and other improvements in title II will not only help prevent the type of retaliation that Dr. Kirkpatrick suffered, they will improve care for veterans to also help make the VA a better place to work.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman McEachin for yielding this time to me.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge passage of H.R. 965, the Saint- Gaudens National Historical Park Redesignation Act.

Named after the great American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, this historic site, located in Cornish, New Hampshire, has preserved his home and working studios since it was established in 1965.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin, Ireland, and immigrated to America with his parents when he was just 6 months old. It was at a young age when Augustus developed a strong interest in sculpting, which set him on a path to Paris and Rome, where he studied art and architecture and worked on his very first commission.

In 1876, Saint-Gaudens was tapped for his first of several prominent Civil War-related commissions, which include the Standing Lincoln statue of our 16th President. At over 12 feet tall, this historic landmark stands prominently in Chicago's Lincoln Park. After working on the statue for close to a decade, the towering piece was unveiled in 1887 to a crowd of over 10,000 people, including President Lincoln's only living grandson.

His most famous work was commissioned soon after: the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, a bronze bas-relief which took Saint-Gaudens 14 years to complete. Located in Boston Common, this iconic sculpture depicts Colonel Shaw and the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, which was the first African-American regiment organized by the Union in the Civil War.

As one of the foremost American sculptors of the 19th century, Saint- Gaudens left a lasting legacy on our country's artistic heritage, which continues to be cherished at our historic site in Cornish.

Since its authorization by Congress in 1964 and establishment a year later, the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site has blossomed into a popular tourist attraction and location for local artists and musicians to share their talents. However, the present name, which designates this location as a historic site, is no longer the most appropriate or useful to accurately portray the complexity of this site.

Whereas, National Historic Sites are typically designated for single buildings or sites that only encompass a few acres in size, the Saint- Gaudens National Historic Site is 190 acres in size and includes multiple buildings, a vast collection of American art, and a small trail network that allows visitors to explore the grounds.

My legislation would simply redesignate Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site to Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, which would more accurately illustrate all that the park has to offer.

In partnership with the Saint-Gaudens Memorial, a private nonprofit that operated the site until it donated the land to the National Park Service in 1965, this historic site offers rotating contemporary and historical exhibitions, concerts, hands-on workshops, lectures, and many other educational opportunities for our visitors.

The array of recreational activities offered to visitors makes this park much more than a historic site. It is a living remembrance to the great American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens and the artistic legacy that he has left behind. It is my hope that this proposed name change will help attract more interest in the park, boost annual visitation, and help drive our local economy.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the House to pass this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer my sincere gratitude for Debbie Watrous and her 24 remarkable years of service to New Hampshire Humanities.

Debbie's time and dedication to serve our state through this organization has been an invaluable contribution, and I congratulate and thank her on her tremendous achievements. Through her role as the Development Director, Director of Special Projects, Associate Director, and most recently as Executive Director, Debbie helped make public programming more accessible. Her work allowed more Granite Staters to discover culture, history, and new ideas.

Now, Debbie will continue her career in service to others with a new position at FoodCorps, where she will work to ensure that children in every school have access to nutritious food so they can live healthier lives and reach their full potential.

On behalf of New Hampshire's Second Congressional District and all those who have benefitted from Debbie's work, I thank her for her many years of service to the Granite State, and wish her the best of luck in her new role.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Steve Norton as he leaves the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies after 12 years of remarkable service to begin a new chapter in his life.

As Executive Director of the Center, Steve helped raise new ideas and improve policy debates through quality information and analysis on issues that are shaping New Hampshire's future. In his previous role as director of Medicaid Services for the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services, Steve worked to ensure vulnerable Granite Staters had access to quality, affordable health coverage.

Through his commitment to public service, Steve has helped improve the lives of countless families and communities in need, and his vision has aided in creating a better future for the Granite State and its residents.

On behalf of New Hampshire's Second Congressional District and all those who have benefitted from Steve's work, I thank him for all he has done for our state. I look forward to our continued work together to make New Hampshire be an even better place to live, work, and raise a family.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Steve Norton as he moves on after twelve years from his role as Executive Director of the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies.

As Executive Director of the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, and previously as director of Medicaid Service for the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services, Steve made invaluable contributions to our community and our state. Through his commitment and compassion, he helped improve the lives of countless families and communities in need, and his vision has helped to create a better future for the Granite State and its residents.

On behalf of New Hampshire's Second Congressional District and all those who have benefitted from Steve's work, I thank him for all he has done for our state, and I wish him the best of luck in his next step. I look forward to our continued work together to make New Hampshire be an even better place to live, work, and raise a family.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer my sincere gratitude for Debbie Watrous and her 24 remarkable years of service to New Hampshire Humanities.

Debbie's time and dedication to serve our state through this organization has been an invaluable contribution, and I congratulate and thank her on her tremendous work.

During her time as Executive Director over the last 13 years, Debbie helped make public programming more accessible. Her work allowed more Granite Staters to discover culture, history, and new ideas.

On behalf of New Hampshire's Second Congressional District and all those who have benefitted from Debbie's work, I thank her for her many years of service to the Granite State. I wish her great joy and success at FoodCorps.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Tom Wagner as he retires after 15 years supervising the White Mountain National Forest and nearly four decades with the United States Forest Service. We are grateful for his dedication to protecting one of New Hampshire's most prized assets: the White Mountains. Through his excellent stewardship of over three-quarters of a million acres that comprise the forest, he has ensured that all will continue to be able to enjoy this national treasure. In so doing, he also improved the lives of thousands in the Granite State who rely on the White Mountains for both their livelihoods and recreation.

I want to applaud Tom for his leadership and advocacy. Dunng his tenure, Tom oversaw the acquisition of 15,000 acres to the White Mountain National Forest and brought numerous stakeholders together to update the long-term strategic plan for the forest. He has been an invaluable resource, and his continuous commitment to New Hampshire's iconic and precious environment is truly inspiring.

On behalf of my constituents in New Hampshire's Second Congressional District, I thank Tom for his many years of dedicated service to the Granite State. His achievements will continue to benefit our state and its incredible natural landscape. I am honored to recognize and congratulate Tom on his retirement and wish him the best of luck in the years ahead.

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, July 27, on Roll Call vote 414, I did not vote. Had I been present, it was my intention to vote NO

Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my colleague, General Bergman, in support of our bill, H.R. 3262, the Grow Our Own Directive: Physician Assistant Employment and Education Act of 2017.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the entire Nation are experiencing a shortage of quality physicians and healthcare providers. For doctors

alone, the Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that, by 2030, the country could face a doctor shortage of over 100,000 physicians. Access to care will only become a harder problem to solve the longer it takes to be addressed.

Nonphysician providers, like physician assistants, are an important part of the solution to this shortage. Physician assistants are highly trained providers that often focus their training on specialties like psychiatry, orthopedics, and internal medicine.

It is fitting that my bill would help get more PAs into the VA to serve veterans. After all, the profession started when a small group of four Navy corpsmen completed the first PA program started at Duke University. That first program was based on the fast-tracked training of doctors during World War II. Veterans and the military have always been a part of the physician assistant profession.

The PA workforce offers unique value to rural and underserved areas. In places like northern New Hampshire, in my district, PAs help resolve shortages for family physicians and primary care physicians, shortages that have existed for decades.

My bill would leverage the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve access to quality care for veterans and rural locations alike. It would create a pilot scholarship program that awards no less than 250 scholarships over 5 years to PAs.

Currently, the VA has approximately 2,000 PAs. My bill would increase the PA workforce at the VA by over 10 percent.

In exchange for these scholarships, PAs would be required to work at the VA, and their placement would be focused on sending providers to rural and underserved areas. We know that if a provider is placed in New Hampshire, they tend to stay there.

This bill would also help get veterans with medical training in the workforce and with good-paying jobs. It is crucial that we help our veterans find excellent career paths that utilize the skills they learned while in the military service, and it is an added bonus that these veterans get to take care of their brothers and sisters in arms.

The final provision in my bill was included in the Choice funding bill we debated just moments ago. This provision would provide PAs in the VA with competitive pay based on the community they serve. This provision is crucial because it helps recruit and retain these critical providers. The GAO recently reported that PAs experience the highest loss rate of any critical occupation, higher than doctors and nurse practitioners.

I would like to applaud my colleagues for coming together in a bipartisan way to craft the Choice funding bill. Not only will the bill fund the Choice Program for another 6 months, but it includes a number of important reforms that will improve service for all of our veterans. These provisions include improved authority for hiring in job shortage areas, measures to increase accountability within the VA, and my provision to boost the pay of PAs.

I would like to thank my esteemed colleague on the House Veterans Affairs' Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Chairman Bergman. His support for this legislation was crucial to its passage today. I thank our chairman, Dr. Roe, and our ranking member.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to immediately pass this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because it is long past time that the American people got a better deal.

All Americans want the same thing: a fair chance to get ahead and a better deal than the raw deal that many have right now.

Granite Staters in my district want to have the skills to get ahead in the 21st century economy. We want better pay and better jobs. Many women, and increasingly more men, are what we know as the ``sandwich'' generation, caring for young children and aging parents and relatives, often at the same time.

That is why we need paid family leave and sick leave. We need to expand our educational system and skills training for all types of opportunities.

Just this week, the Girl Scouts of America announced 23 new merit badges in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This is symbolic of what we need to do as a nation. Encourage young people, boys and girls, to pursue their interests in the fields that will be the cornerstone of the 21st century economy.

America deserves a better deal, and that is what we are offering.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 414.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong opposition to the bills we are considering today which would short- circuit the approval process of fossil fuel projects at the expense of our environment and private property owners.

In my home State of New Hampshire, Granite Staters are all too familiar with the problems of siting natural gas projects and the disruption this can cause for small rural towns.

In 2015, energy giant Kinder Morgan proposed a large natural gas pipeline project that would have cut through 17 New Hampshire towns in my district which are home to numerous environmentally sensitive areas that would have been negatively impacted by this project.

Throughout the review process, I heard from thousands of my constituents whose concerns were not being heard by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Thanks to the commitment and tireless efforts of these advocates, Kinder Morgan eventually pulled the plug on the project, but there is so much more that needs to be done to give average citizens a seat at the table during FERC's review process.

The bills we are considering today would do nothing to elevate the concerns of impacted communities during the FERC proceedings, and these bills aim to jam through risky pipeline projects while constraining other agencies from concluding important environmental reviews.

We all know that FERC acts as a rubber stamp for fossil fuel projects, and the bills we are considering today further narrow the opportunities for private landowners to push back against projects and try to protect their land from eminent domain.

At a time when pipeline expansion has increased dramatically, we should be working on bipartisan solutions that increase public participation during FERC proceedings. That is why I have cosponsored legislation to create an Office of Public Participation within FERC that would level the playing field for average citizens and give them a seat at the table.

H.R. 2910, which we just debated, does nothing to achieve this goal and will only lead to more communities being left in the dark during FERC proceedings.

H.R. 2883 would eliminate the need for a Presidential permit for cross-border energy projects and dramatically narrow the environmental review to the narrow portion of the project that crosses the border. These cross-border projects are oftentimes hundreds of miles long. It simply makes no sense to conduct an environmental review on the small portion that crosses the border. That is just common sense.

For the good of our environment, for the good of our communities and public lands, I urge my colleagues to oppose these harmful pieces of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud my colleagues for passage of my three amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act last night.

Two of my amendments would address our Nation's opioid crisis as it impacts or Nation's servicemembers and veterans. They would direct the Defense Department to study the effectiveness of their opioid prescriber education policies and require Department providers to counsel or give referrals to the VA for transitioning veterans that suffer from addiction or chronic pain.

My third amendment would direct the Department of Defense to analyze sexual coercion in the military as part of its annual report on sexual assault.

While I commend the Department for their progress in reducing the occurrence of sexual assault in the military, more work needs to be done. Understanding sexual coercion is important to the safety of our brave men and women, and important for our national security.

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

I am opposed to the bill in its current form.

Mr. Speaker, this is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage as amended.

Like so many communities and States across this country, New Hampshire has been devastated by the heroin and opioid epidemic. Last year alone, my State lost 500 people to substance use disorder.

Helping families, first responders, treatment providers, law enforcement officials, and family advocates in the Granite State confront this crisis has been my number one priority in Congress.

In 2015, Mr. Guinta and I founded the Bipartisan Congressional Heroin Task Force to raise awareness of this crisis and to advocate in a collaborative way for solutions at the Federal level. I am proud to report that our bipartisan task force is now 90 members strong, and we have made important progress in passing legislation and securing critical funding.

But the causes of this crisis are complex, requiring a multifaceted approach addressing every angle of the epidemic, from treatment to recovery, from education and prevention to law enforcement and interdiction.

A primary cause of opioid misuse resulting in heroin dependence is the overprescribing of opioid pain medication.

The data is astonishing. A December 2016 study found that opioids were prescribed to 91 percent of patients after they had experienced an overdose, and, in fact, 63 percent of patients on high-dose opioids were still prescribed high-dose opioids after overdosing.

We have all heard the stories: teens who had their wisdom teeth removed receiving 30-day supplies of opioids, or a person with back pain receiving prescriptions for extended release opioids even though Tylenol would keep them comfortable.

America consumes 80 percent of the global supply of opioid medication, and 650,000 opioid prescriptions are written every single day.

Earlier this year, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the following extraordinary fact: if 100 people take opioid medication for 1 day, 6 percent will still be using 30 days later; and if 100 people take opioid medication for 30 days, 35 percent of those patients will still be using opioids a year later.

Our task force is working closely with the medical community to strengthen prescribing practices so that patients can manage their pain in an effective and responsible way.

Through my role on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, I am working with my colleagues to improve pain management practices at the VA and to better understand alternative methods for pain management.

The White River Junction VA facility in Vermont serving New Hampshire veterans is a great example where they have cut opioid prescriptions nearly in half by incorporating alternative treatments.

While there is much work that we can do to understand this issue, there remain bad actors across this country who are exploiting those who suffer from substance use disorder for their own financial gain.

In rural communities and elsewhere, pill mills churn out opioid prescriptions with no regard for the well-being of their patients. And just last month, a doctor in New England pled guilty to healthcare fraud for overprescribing opioids, including writing more than 1,100 Oxycodone prescriptions in a single month.

Victims of exploitative prescribing practices must have the unencumbered capacity of our legal system to recoup their damages and to deter negative industry practices.

I am concerned that arbitrary limitations in this legislation on legal damages could limit their ability to effectively respond to the opioid epidemic, and that is why my amendment would simply exempt from the legislation any claim or action that pertains to grossly negligent prescription of opioids. Should this bill become law, this provision will help protect those who have been exploited by predatory physicians operating pill mills.

There is so much we should do to roll back this crisis, and I look forward to our continued bipartisan work. But today I urge my colleagues to approve this motion.

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

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Mr. Bill Athanas, who retires today after serving New Hampshire communities for 51 years, 21 years at Inter Lakes High school and 30 years at Franklin High School.

His commitment to students and the community goes beyond simply being a Vice Principal. Bill could be found every morning, rain, snow, or shine, outside Inter Lakes High School with a cup of coffee in hand greeting and welcoming students, as well as catching up with parents. Along with lifting spirits, through his genuine and sunny disposition, Bill attended every event in which his students participated in, always encouraging and cheering them on.

Bill's legacy will read that he tirelessly worked to give every single student the guidance and support needed to succeed, and a warm sincere smile when they most needed it. His plans for retirement include his passion for community service, he will be returning to Franklin High School as a volunteer. We thank Bill for his service to our students and to the community.