Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4462 which would allow Americans to deduct the charitable contributions they make to the Haitian relief efforts in January and February of 2010 on their 2009 tax returns. I commend Chairman Rangel for bringing this bill forward and I urge my colleagues to support it.

The toll of human suffering in Haiti is unimaginable, with up to an estimated 200,000 people who have lost their lives and nearly 3 million people affected by the earthquake. Haiti is the poorest, least developed country in the Western Hemisphere which, even before the quake, suffered from political instability, hurricanes, and food shortages. Even so, the loss of life and destruction from this disaster has left the country in a state of collapse not seen in Haiti in over two centuries.

The images of death and devastation coming from Haiti are driving Americans to donate their time, money, and supplies--it is truly America at its best. All donations, large and small, are helping to provide crucial necessities for this relief effort. Millions of dollars are pouring into non-profit organizations that are making sure that money and supplies go directly where they need to go, to the people of Haiti. The bill we pass today will help encourage even more donations.

We know that the effort to rebuild Haiti and care for those who have been injured will continue for some time to come. The people of Haiti need our help and I am pleased that we are doing all that we can to promote the generosity Americans have shown since the devastating earthquake shook Haiti last week.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4462.

Madam Speaker, I rise to pay special tribute to Julian Wager, the legndary civic activist and community leader in the communities of western Queens, who passed away this month. Aptly honored as the ``Honorary Mayor of Long Island City'' for his extraordinary character and dedication to the neighborhoods of the city he loved, Julie Wager was a uniquely beloved figure who provided lifelong service to others.

Over the course of six decades, Mr. Wager sought tirelessly to expand and improve professional, financial and networking opportunities for businesses and residents in the Borough of Queens. He provided both entrepreneurial and philanthropic services to the people of his beloved community of Astoria. His family's business, Genius Shop, has been an integral part of the fabric of the vibrant Astoria community for more than half a century. Among his many notable contributions to the resilient Astoria neighborhood, Julie Wager helped ensure the commercial vibrance of Steinway Street for future generations.

Mr. Wager was once memorably quoted as saying, ``We work together within the communities, and we appreciate the values of the residents and the merchants. These are the people that support the myriad of charities that exist out there, not the trendy franchised stores who just take the bucks and get out.'' True to those precepts, Julie Wager was one of the foremost reasons why the business and commercial communities of western Queens remain a thriving hub of commercial activity while also serving as livable communities for tens of thousands of New Yorkers.

Among his extensive contributions to the civic and commercial life of western Queens, Julie Wager served as president of the Steinway Street Merchants Association for more than a quarter century. In 1979, he founded the Central Astoria Local Development Coalition and has served as its president for more than two decades. In 1991, he established the Steinway Street Business Improvement District, serving as its president and executive vice president.

Having suffered a serious spinal injury in 2000 that left him a paraplegic, Julie Wager remained undaunted in his valiant perseverance and undeterred from his determination to volunteer his energies on behalf of others. He served as vice president of the Walter Kaner Foundation; former chairperson of A Way Out; and as a member of Queens Community Board 1 for more than three decades. He was also an enterprising and dedicated advertising director for the Queens Gazette, an institutional pillar of the communities he knew and loved so well. He leaves six daughters and nine grandchildren. Like them, the residents and communities of western Queens know that we shall not see the likes of Julie Wager again, and we are all the poorer for it.

Madam Speaker, I salute the life and work of Mr. Julian Wager and I ask that my distinguished colleagues in this House join me in recognizing his extraordinary service and contributions to the civic and business life of our nation's greatest city.

Madam Speaker, I rise to acknowledge the achievements of my good friend John Hobbs, a remarkable man who distinguished himself in his personal and professional endeavors. A respected, highly successful pioneer in the investment management industry, John Hobbs was also a selfless civic activist and philanthropist who was dedicated to education and to the pursuit of justice and civil rights. He bequeathes a legacy of professional excellence and compassion for others.

John Hobbs demonstrated a lifelong dedication to education and youth development. He attended Wesleyan University and earned an A.B. and M.B.A. degrees from Harvard University. He served on the Harvard Graduate School of Education's and the Harvard Business School's Dean's Advisory Boards and co-chaired--along with his late wife of 46 years, Elisabeth Atwater Hobbs--the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Capital Campaign. As the Campaign Steering Committee's Co-Chairs in the 1990s, John and Liz helped raise $111 million, the largest sum ever raised by a school of education. They endowed the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Chair of Cognition and Education held by Prof. Howard Gardner. They also helped many students cover education costs through the Hobbs Fellowship. John had been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Common Cents in NYC, on the Governing Board of the Graduate Faculty of the New School University and on the Board of the Foundation for Child Development. He was also a dedicated patriot who served in the United States Air Force Reserve.

As an investment manager, John Hobbs was a co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Jennison Associates, one of Wall Street's first independent institutional investment management firms. At the time, institutional investment portfolios were managed primarily by large bank investment departments, insurance companies, and investment counselors. John and his colleagues built Jennison with the belief that in-house fundamental research and specialized investment teams would generate superior long- term investment returns. Now a subsidiary of Prudential Financial, Jennison manages more than $90 billion in assets for major institutions, mutual funds, and private individuals. Many of its existing client relationships were established while he was Chief Executive Officer.

He was instrumental in Jennison's expansion beyond equities into the institutional fixed income market. He was named Jennison's president and chief executive officer in 1976 and became chairman in 1994. In 1996, he took on added responsibilities as president of institutional asset management for the global money management group of Prudential. In 2000, he took the helm of Prudential's entire equity asset management business, including the active quantitative management firm Quantitative Management Associates. He served as Jennison's vice chairman from late 2002 until he retired in 2003. After the death of his wife, he returned to work and was most recently the vice chairman of Madison Asset Management Group, LLC, a global infrastructure investment specialist.

In addition to his beloved wife who predeceased him, John Hobbs was the devoted father of Margaret M., George C. and Kate H. Hobbs; beloved brother of Eleanor Richardson of Niantic, Conn., and Margaret Sudbury of Winchester, MA. He is also survived by loving nephews, nieces, cousins and friends.

Madam Speaker, in recognition of a lifetime of service to others, I request that my colleagues join me in paying tribute to the late John Hobbs, a great American who made immeasurable improvements to our civic life. John Hobbs' selfless and enduring dedication to others inspires us all.

Madam Speaker, the Joint Economic Committee, which I chair, has just launched a nonpartisan outreach looking for new and creative ideas to accelerate job creation in our struggling economy.

The JEC is looking for ideas that come from outside the bubble of the Beltway and that may be outside the box of conventional thinking. We are surveying executives at Fortune 100 companies as well as at leading small businesses across America looking for their ideas and innovations.

The administration has already identified some of the things we must do to create jobs, including the passage of health care reform.

Under the status quo, the soaring costs of medical care serves as a hidden tax on employers in the form of higher health care premiums. But we are committed to doing more, and we are eager to hear the best ideas from the sharpest minds in the country, looking for innovative new ways to create jobs and produce an economy that is stronger, fairer, and brighter.

Madam Speaker, I strongly believe that open spaces and community parks are a critical part of urban infrastructure. That's why today I am reintroducing the Revitalizing Cities Through Parks Enhancement (RECIPE) Act, that would establish a $10 million grant program for qualified, non-profit, community groups, allowing them to lease municipally owned vacant lots and transform these areas into parks. Parks and gardens created with the grants will not only provide safe places to gather, but will increase property values as well. The grants will be available from the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to groups who have met standards of financial security, and who have histories of serving their communities. To further ensure that these grants are used to make lasting positive changes, land improved and made into open community space under this legislation must be available for use as open space from the local government for at least seven years.

Madam Speaker, I would like to respond to my good friend on the other side of the aisle from the great State of North Carolina who pointed out that there are many jobless Americans. That's true, but let's put this in perspective. The last month that former President Bush was in office, this country lost over 750,000 jobs.

Under President Barack Obama's leadership, we are trending in the right direction. This last month, we lost 11,000 jobs. The last 5 months of the Bush administration, they lost well over 600,000 jobs.

And as Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz pointed out at a joint economic hearing last week, that job creation during the Bush administration was fueled by an artificial bubble. Inflated housing prices and a ballooning real estate market spurred consumption and hiring and put us in a very dangerous position where we find ourselves today.

We owe it to the 15 million jobless Americans to invest in aggressive job creation policies which will be on the floor today in the Democratic jobs program.

Madam Speaker, on December 14, 2009 I missed rollcall votes Nos. 969 and 970.

Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall vote No. 969, recognizing and supporting the goals and ideals of National Runaway Prevention Month and, No. 970, commending the Real Salt Lake Soccer Club for winning the 2009 Major League Soccer Cup.

Mr. Speaker, while one month with fewer job losses does not show success, it certainly shows that we are trending in the right direction.

This blue is since President Obama took office; the red is the time under former President Bush. You see back in January of 2008 we started losing jobs. Here is when the Presidential candidate for the Republicans claimed that the fundamentals of our economy were sound. And in the last month that President Bush was in office, this country lost over 740,000 jobs.

The blue shows the direction under the Obama administration where we are trending in the right direction. It's not success, but it certainly shows we are trending in the right direction from over 70,000 jobs to 11,000 jobs. It's a tragedy for any family that has lost a job, but it does show that one election has truly made a difference in our economy.

Madam Speakers, I am pleased to join my colleagues Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Congressman Jerry Nadler in introducing bipartisan legislation that addresses a horrific period in world history: World War II and the deportation of millions of Jews and others to concentration camps. This bill would affect French railroad companies, which took more than 75,000 Jews from France to concentration camps during World War II, less than 3 percent of whom survived. Under current law, these foreign entities are immune from legal action. Specifically, the bill provides plaintiffs the right to seek damages against the French National Railway (Societe Nationale des Chemines Fers Francais--SNCF) in Federal Court for its transportation of French and other Jews to Auschwitz as well as its supply of personnel to facilitate the transportation and the assessed charges per person. The French Government claims immunity from legal action due to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, yet the FSIA was passed 30 years after the action causing the damages for which the plaintiffs seek. The bill allows the plaintiffs to sue regardless of the strictures of the

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1242) to amend the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to provide for additional monitoring and accountability of the Troubled Assets Relief Program, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert additional material.

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

I rise in strong support of H.R. 1242, the TARP Accountability and Disclosure Act of 2009. This bill would require the Department of the Treasury to establish an electronic database for tracking all TARP funds. The bill would create a database available to the public on the Internet that will track in real time the spending of funds in the Federal Government's Troubled Asset Relief Program called TARP. If UPS can track millions of packages clear across the world on any continent at any time, we can certainly track where $700 billion in taxpayers' money has gone. In fact, we have a duty to do so.

When TARP began, the Treasury Department never required the financial institutions it funded to explain what they did with the money. And over a year later, we still do not know. It is past time for us to have a system so that the American people can tell in real time, enhancing its value as a regulatory tool and also as a preventative oversight tool. Taxpayers have a right to know how their tax dollars are being used. I believe that in order to ensure transparency, we should require the use of the technological tools that are available today.

Currently, TARP data are presented in filings in over 25 different agencies, including filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Web sites, Federal Reserve registration data, the FDIC data, over-the-counter trades, and Commodities Futures Trading Commission data. The data sources are not only housed in different agencies but are in incompatible systems and formats, making the material unusable. These agencies are unable to share the data with each other and to learn from it.

The bill, which I have coauthored with Representative Peter King and 42 of my colleagues, requires all relevant TARP data, including regulatory filings and public records, to be collected by the Department of the Treasury and put in a consistent standardized format so that TARP funds will be transparent and traceable. This bill would also provide the ability to monitor inconsistencies that may indicate waste, fraud, and abuse at both the corporate and individual officer levels. By using tools that currently exist, individual filings and transactions can be pulled together to create a single view of an institution and provide better management and regulatory oversight.

The basic data elements would include but not be limited to the following: the capture and standardization of every transaction the institution is involved with, wherever possible; news releases, press releases and other sources of public data; counterparty filings; securities transactions; UCC filings in certain cases; and transaction data, including mortgages, debt issuance, and fund participation.

In the simplest terms, my bill allows the question to be answered, Where has the money gone? And this is a question that pundits and taxpayers ask every single day. Recently, Elizabeth Warren, who is one of the oversight regulators, stated in testimony that she has no idea where the TARP money is. This bill would change this. This would put safeguards in to ensure that proprietary information about financial services companies is not disclosed, and this bill does not put any additional burden on industry. It merely puts in a usable form information that is already required by regulators.

There is broad support for this bill from close to 40 groups from across the political field, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the NAACP, and the Heritage Foundation.

I would like to place into the Record the list of supporters from respective organizations.

Groups that have publicly endorsed the bill (or if a

501c(3) support the ``idea or policy goals'' of the

legislation since they cannot directly support a specific

bill):

United States Chamber of Commerce; Center for Democracy and

Technology; OMB Watch; Project On Government Oversight;

Taxpayers for Common Sense; OpenTheGovernment.org; Institute

for Policy Innovation; Competitive Enterprise Institute;

NAACP; Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund

(MALDEF).

National Puerto Rican Coalition (NPRC); The Hispanic

Federation; Information Technology Industry Council; Heritage

Foundation; Americans for Tax Reform; Center for Fiscal

Accountability; 60 Plus Association; Alabama Policy

Institute; American Shareholders Association; Americans for

Limited Government.

Americans for Prosperity; Caesar Rodney Institute; Center

for Individual Freedom; Center-Right Coalition of Florida;

Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending & Taxes; Council for

Citizens Against Government Waste; Grassroot Institute of

Hawaii; Illinois Alliance for Growth; Illinois Policy

Institute; Institute for Liberty.

Maine Heritage Policy Center; Mississippi Center for Public

Policy; National Taxpayers Union; Oklahoma Council of Public

Affairs, Inc.; Pelican Institute for Public Policy; Pioneer

Institute for Public Policy Research; Rhode Island Tea Party;

Small Business Hawaii; The Aarons Company; Kentucky Progress;

Citizens' Voice for Property Owners.

As we have seen from this time last year, the lack of transparency in terms of how the funds are spent makes this bill necessary. The American people, Members of Congress, and regulators are demanding transparency. It is time that we gave it to them. They are entitled to it.

I would like to thank Members on the other side of the aisle, Mr. King and others, who have been supportive, and particularly Chairman Frank for his leadership and Steny Hoyer for his support. I urge my colleagues to support it. It's past time for us to have a system so that the American people can tell in real time how their tax dollars are being used. I would add that I also believe that it would build confidence in the system, hopefully a confidence that will be managed in an appropriate way.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I would just like to say that the program's effectiveness was testified in support of by economist Mark Zandi, who said, While TARP has not been a universal success, it has been instrumental to the stabilization of the financial system and bringing an end to the credit recession, but there are still serious criticisms of the program that should give us concern about its effectiveness, its cost, and how it can be improved. This bill that brings online transparency would move us in that right direction.

I am strongly in support of it, as well as many of my colleagues.

Having no further speakers, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, today, I am proud to introduce this important bipartisan legislation with my colleagues, Representatives Heller, Nadler, Kennedy, Capps, Waxman, Speier, McGovern, Israel, Grijalva, Richardson, Perriello, Engel, Delahunt, Costa, Watson, Hall (NY), Stark, Chu, Norton, Moore (KS), and Holt. The companion bill has been introduced in the Senate by Senators Franken, Grassley, Hatch, and Feinstein.

I have been working on the issue of DNA technology since 2001 when I, along with former Representative Steve Horn, held a hearing in the Government Reform Committee where we heard from a courageous rape survivor, Debbie Smith.

It was for Debbie, and the thousands of rape survivors like her, that I authored ``The Debbie Smith Act'' to provide Federal funding to process the unconscionable backlog of DNA evidence. This legislation passed as part of the Justice for All Act of 2004, authorizing the necessary funding to start processing the backlog through the creation of the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program. Since 2004, millions of dollars in funding have been appropriated under the Debbie Smith DNA Backlog Grant Program.

Despite the availability of funding and some progress made, the national backlog continues to persist. Recent media reports have documented that across the country, backlogs continue to rise and sexual assaults occur that might otherwise have been prevented were the kits processed in a timely manner. This bill addresses the continuing rape kit backlog and several other problems that work to deny justice to victims of sexual assault--including the denial of free rape kits to survivors of sexual assault, and the shortage of trained health professionals capable of administering rape kit exams.

By creating incentives for jurisdictions to eliminate their rape kit backlogs, process their incoming rape kits in a timely manner, and publicly report their backlog numbers, this legislation would go a long way to ensuring that the purpose and intent of the Debbie Smith Act be fully realized.

According to the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network, every two minutes someone is sexually assaulted somewhere in the United States. DNA evidence does not forget and it cannot be intimidated. By processing this evidence, we can prevent rapists from attacking more innocent victims and ensure that the survivors and their families receive justice.

Madam Speker, today I am proud to introduce bipartisan legislation, the Runaway Reporting Improvement Act of 2009, along with my friends and colleagues Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Conyers of Michigan, and Mr. Cardoza of California.

One of the few things more terrible than learning that a child was missing would be learning that everything possible wasn't being done to find him or her. Shockingly, the New York Times recently reported that many runaway children are missing not only from their homes, but also from the very database meant to help law enforcement officers find them.

If no one knows that a child is missing, that child is unlikely to be found. It is imperative that everyone--parents, communities, and especially law enforcement authorities--combine their resources and work together to find and protect missing children. The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database is designed to help make information sharing easier. Virtually every law enforcement officer in the United States can access the NCIC database, which means that they can more easily cooperate in investigating and resolving multi-jurisdictional cases.

Every child reported to have run away is supposed to be listed in the NCIC database as a missing person. However, according to the New York Times' series ``Running in the Shadows,'' as many as 16 percent of reported runaways are never entered into the NCIC database. Madam Speaker, this is outrageous and unacceptable. Without an NCIC entry, law enforcement officers will not share information or resources, and are much less likely to find or protect a missing child.

The Runaway Reporting Improvement Act of 2009 would help solve this problem and protect missing children by making two small but useful changes to the current law. First, the bill would require law enforcement agencies to certify that they comply with federal law by entering all missing children into the NCIC database. Second, it would require that law enforcement officers provide someone who reports their child missing with information about the services of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Runaway Switchboard, as well as 24-hour, toll-free contact information for those resources. NCMEC and NRS have a long and successful history of helping parents and law enforcement agencies work together to find and protect missing kids.

Madam Speaker, we simply must do better by our children. The necessary resources are already in place. The Runaway Reporting Improvement Act of 2009, will help ensure that those existing resources are used to find and protect the children who need them most.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act, also known as the Doc Fix. I am proud to represent thousands of doctors who both live and work in New York's 14th Congressional District. Each year, I am visited by hundreds of them and hear from hundreds more, who are concerned about their patient's access to care due to a scheduled annual cut to their Medicare payments. Under the current system, when Medicare utilization of physicians' services exceeds the Sustainable Growth Rate, SGR, target, physicians are unfairly penalized with steep cuts in their payment update. With this bill, we are averting a 21-percent cut in Medicare rates while saving patient access to care by working toward a permanent fix of the SGR. After all, a stable and predictable payment system for physician service delivery is critical to preserving patient-centered care and investing in health care for the 21st century.

H.R. 3961 finally addresses the problem with the SGR formula that plagues Congress each year when we are forced to do a quick fix to prevent drastic cuts to doctor payments. This important legislation makes a critical first step toward physician payment reform by establishing distinct growth rates and spending targets. It establishes fairer growth targets to keep doctors' pay steady and erases the debt that was produced by the short-term patches that stopped cuts from going into effect over the past 7 years. At the same time, it holds physicians accountable for spending growth. H.R. 3961 promotes primary care that can keep Americans healthier longer by providing an extra growth allowance for primary care services to promote access to primary care practitioners in Medicare and throughout the health care system.

H.R. 3961 encourages integrated care to ensure our doctors are communicating with one another. When doctors speak about our care, mistakes are avoided and quality improves.

Finally, H.R. 3961 is fiscally responsible and is paid for. This bill will not increase total payments to physicians above what they are today and is paygo neutral.

The old system is broken, and this bill fixes it. With the lack of predictability in Medicare payments, older doctors with older patients retire early and younger doctors are discouraged from entering specialties that treat predominately Medicare patients. Fixing the SGR is critical to preserving Medicare patients' access to care and passage of this bill is a crucial part of health care reform. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I support ending gender discrimination in premium prices.

Mr. Speaker, Sunday, 42,000 people gathered in my hometown of New York City to run the NYC marathon while 2 million more people watched, cheered, and marveled at those who accepted the challenge of running 26.2 miles. It is likely that each participant had a different reason for running, but the ultimate goal was the same: to finish, to

succeed, and to accomplish a goal. As Greek legend explains, the concept of the marathon comes from the long distance a messenger ran to deliver the important news that the battle had been won. Mr. Speaker, as we stand here today to debate a historical bill that will substantially improve the delivery of health care in America, we are the runners at mile 25. The cheers are the loudest, the anticipation is the greatest, and the end, while near, seems very far away. Despite all of the noise, the message is clear: now is the time for health care reform, now is the time to take care of all Americans, now is the time to make sure that families are not forced to see loved ones die because they did not get the care they need and deserve.

I'd like to thank and commend the leadership of Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, Chairmen Waxman, Miller and Rangel and of course, Chairman Emeritus Dingell who has been working on health care reform since he first came to Congress. H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, is a significant and important step toward securing affordable, accessible, and quality health care for all Americans. Our current health care system is broken. Costs continue to increase at unsustainable rates and too many families and businesses are feeling the debilitating burdens brought on by these expenses. Too many Americans have inadequate coverage or lack coverage entirely and are suffering or dying as a result.

H.R. 3962 is critical to the health of our families, to the health of our economy and to the health of our nation;

H.R. 3962 lowers costs for every patient, reins in premiums, co-pays, and deductibles, limits out of pocket costs, and lifts the cap on the amount that insurance companies cover each year;

H.R. 3962 strengthens Medicare, securing the financial stability and solvency of Medicare for years to come, and provides seniors with better benefits and guaranteed access to their doctors;

H.R. 3962 reduces the deficit by over $100 billion in the first 10 years, and likely by even more in the following decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office;

H.R. 3962 provides affordable coverage to those who cannot get health insurance because of pre-existing conditions, including domestic violence and pregnancy, and protects consumers from higher rates due to gender or other factors;

And, very importantly, I am proud that H.R. 3962 includes a public health insurance option that will increase competition and reform our current system. I am grateful to Speaker Pelosi for her steadfast support of this important provision and am confident that it will expand access to care to the many people in need. When 14,000 Americans are losing their health care coverage each day, it is clear that a public option is needed. It will bring down costs, increase access, and improve care for all Americans. The richest country in the world should not have people who go without the basic necessity of health care. The public option will hold health insurance companies accountable for the practices that price people out of the health care they need and deserve.

Health care is the most important public policy issue of our generation that will affect generations to come. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this momentous reform and would like to take the time to highlight some areas of the bill that specifically impact my Congressional district.

H.R. 3962 will improve employer-based coverage for 440,000 residents in my district and will provide credits to help pay for coverage for up to 120,000 households. It will also improve Medicare for 88,000 beneficiaries, including closing the prescription drug donut hole for 8,100 seniors. H.R. 3962 will allow 33,300 small businesses to obtain affordable health care coverage and provide tax credits to help reduce health insurance costs for up to 31,300 small businesses and will cover 26,000 uninsured residents. In short, H.R. 3962 will make health care affordable for the middle class, provide security for seniors, and will guarantee access to health insurance coverage for the uninsured while reducing the federal deficit over the next ten years and beyond.

In addition to representing the residents of the 14th Congressional District of New York, I am proud to represent 14 hospitals. Many of these are the jewels of American medicine, training our nations' doctors, and facilitating cutting edge research that identifies cures and gives hope to millions of Americans and their families. I am pleased that H.R. 3962 recognizes the importance of teaching hospitals and preserves Graduate Medical Education. New York's teaching hospitals, while training our future physicians, are treating the sickest of the sick and poorest of the poor. These payments, including Direct Medical Education and Indirect Medical Education are critical to the survival of these hospitals and to the greater good of medicine.

H.R. 3962 takes into account diverse patient populations, the cost of goods and services, and the higher costs incurred by teaching hospitals. Teaching hospitals tend to treat the most complex cases and are the first to adopt innovative technologies and techniques that advance patient outcomes, so their costs are often higher than average. A policy that reduces spending arbitrarily runs the risk of stifling innovation which is why I am pleased that the bill is sensible on how it addresses geographic variation. This bill recognizes the pitfalls of a blanket overhaul. It requires the Secretary of HHS to contract with the Institute of Medicine to conduct two studies. The first is a study of wage levels which will look at the hospital wage index and the physician geographic practice cost index and will recommend changes to the methodologies, if necessary. The second study looks at the geographic variation associated with volume and intensity of services in Medicare, Medicaid, and private sector spending per capita. The IOM is encouraged to understand and separate out higher-than-average spending due to unavoidable or desirable factors (e.g., patient demographic and clinical risk factors and wage levels) from higher-than average spending due to avoidable or undesirable factors (e.g., excessive medical errors, and practice patterns differing from best practices). The bill wisely includes specific prohibitions against recommendations to reduce graduate medical education, disproportionate share, and health information technology payments.

While I am pleased with the bulk of the bill, I am concerned that H.R. 3962 does not extend the 340B discounts to drugs purchased for inpatient use, a provision that was included in an earlier version of the bill. Currently, the 340B Drug Pricing Program requires pharmaceutical manufacturers that participate in Medicaid to sell outpatient drugs at discounted prices to disproportionate share hospitals (DSH) that serve a high threshold of low-income, uninsured and underinsured patients. Under current law, DSH hospitals participating in the 340B Drug Pricing Program pay approximately thirty percent more for their inpatient drugs than their outpatient drugs, although the drugs are frequently the same. The inpatient and outpatient settings serve the same low-income population that the 340B Drug Pricing Program was designed to assist. These discounts lower costs for patients and taxpayers. At a minimum, extending the 340B Drug Pricing Program to inpatient drugs would reduce inpatient drug costs by fifteen percent. These new resources could be better used to provide direct patient care. I am hopeful that during Conference, the House will cede to the Senate language and extend the 340B drug pricing to inpatient drugs. After all, now is not the time to deprive safety net hospitals from millions of dollars in savings needed to treat the most vulnerable in our communities.

Mr. Speaker, the task is huge and the rewards even bigger. Today we will vote to cover 96 percent of Americans without adding a dime to the deficit. We will be doing what's right for our families, what's right for our economy, and what's right for our future. I urge my colleagues to look at the larger picture and remember that today we will make a lasting difference in people's lives.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, it is outrageous that even the historic bill to extend health coverage to 96 percent of Americans includes an abortion fight because of the anti-abortion movement.

The Stupak amendment is a huge step backwards for American women.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the Stupak/Pitts amendment which plainly discriminates against women, puts women's health at risk, and marks an unprecedented restriction on people who pay for their own health insurance.

The commonsense Capps Compromise which was agreed to during debate in the Energy and Commerce Committee ensures that taxpayers will not be paying for abortion and reflects the status quo and current law.

It prohibits federal funds from being used for abortion but still allows women to use their own money to buy the coverage they need.

Despite this effort to address concerns raised by pro-life Members, Representatives Stupak and Pitts decided to further restrict women's access to care by offering their shortsighted, dangerous, and discriminatory amendment to H.R. 3962.

The Stupak/Pitts amendment would make abortion coverage virtually inaccessible for most women in the new exchange.

It does so by:

(1) Banning abortion coverage in the exchange for women who receive subsidies, except by separate rider that they could only purchase with their own, private funds.

(2) Making it highly unlikely that women buying insurance in the exchange with their own money could obtain abortion coverage.

It is an outrage that at time when we are making historic changes-- expanding American's access to health care--a group of legislators are bonding together to deprive women of the very health care they both need and deserve.