Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my opposition to H.R. 2575, the Save American Workers Act. This bill is not only our 52nd repeal vote and another effort to undermine the Affordable Care Act, it actually worsens the problem it purports to fix.

Raising the threshold for full-time employees from 30 hours per week to 40 hours will result in lost work hours for 6.5 million people and essentially eviscerate the employer responsibility requirement.

According to the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation, H.R. 2575 will cause a million people to lose their employer- based health insurance coverage, increase the number of uninsured Americans by 500,000, and add $74 billion to the deficit over 10 years.

This bill will make a shift towards part-time employment much more likely, not less so.

I urge my colleagues to protect American workers and vote against

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

I rise today in support of the Children's Hospitals GME Support Reauthorization Act, which reauthorizes the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Program through 2018.

The Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Program provides vital funding to support the training of pediatricians and pediatric specialists in our children's hospitals.

Continued strong support for CHGME is essential to maintain this investment in our children's health care. Reauthorizing the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Program represents a commitment to ensuring that children throughout the country have access to the quality care they need.

Since its creation in 1999, this program has increased the number of pediatric health care providers, addressed critical shortages in pediatric specialty care, and improved access to necessary care.

The CHGME recipient hospitals represent less than 1 percent of all hospitals, yet train half of all the Nation's pediatricians and pediatric specialists.

As a cosponsor of the House bill that passed in 2013 and a long advocate for the Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Program, I applaud this bipartisan, bicameral effort to preserve and strengthen this important program.

I want to recognize and applaud the leadership of Ranking Member Frank Pallone and Chairman Pitts on this legislation in the House.

I also want to acknowledge the sponsors of the measure we are considering today, Senators Casey and Isakson. I also commend Chairman Upton, Chairman Harkin, and Ranking Member Alexander for making it possible for the House to consider this bipartisan legislation today.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting S. 1557 and sending this legislation to the President for his signature.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Children's Hospitals GME Support Reauthorization Act, which reauthorizes the Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program through 2018.

The CHGME program provides vital funding to support the training of pediatricians and pediatric specialists in children's hospitals.

Continued strong support for CHGME is essential to maintain this investment in children's health care. Reauthorizing CHGME represents a commitment to ensuring that children throughout the country have access to the quality care they need.

Since its creation in 1999, CHGME has increased the number of pediatric health care providers, addressed critical shortages in pediatric specialty care and improved access to necessary care.

The CHGME recipient hospitals represent less than one percent of all hospitals, yet train half of all the nation's pediatricians and pediatric specialists.

As a co-sponsor of the House bill that passed in February 2013 and a longtime advocate for the CHGME program, I applaud this bipartisan, bicameral effort to preserve and strengthen this important program.

I thank my colleague for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to bring up H.R. 15 to demand a vote on the bipartisan immigration reform bill that provides an earned pathway to citizenship.

First of all, I thank my colleague from San Antonio. We are both Texans, and we know the problems. You served a lot of years in the State legislature. I did, too. Frankly, I think a lot of our problems could have been dealt with if Texas would have expanded Medicaid. We are actually giving back money to the Federal Government and not covering children and families in our community because of that.

Frankly, even with the problems with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, I know some States have done a great job, like Kentucky and California. Some States haven't. But I would think that if Texas did their own exchange, we could be the ones making those decisions, I think particularly with the Medicaid expansion.

I appreciate you asking for the Special Order tonight because we are coming down up to the deadline of March 31. In fact, I have to do a commercial first.

A lot of us have done these events on how people can sign up for the Affordable Care Act. I have one that we are sponsoring this Saturday at the Harris County Department of Education building. It is at 6300 Irvington Boulevard in our district. I am partnering with some of your former colleagues: State Representative Armando Walle; State Representative Jessica Farrar; our relatively new State senator, Sylvia Garcia; and our city council member, Ed Gonzalez. We are doing that this Saturday from 9 to 1 so people can come in and sign up.

The success, though, is that the Web site was down for 2 months, but we have seen a huge number of people signing up--5 million as of last week. I hear on Monday of this week they had 1 million contacts, both by phone and to the Web site.

So there is a need out there for the Affordable Care Act. It is landmark health care reform.

I was on the subcommittee and the Committee of Energy and Commerce to help draft part of it. We did days and nights of drafting amendments. We had both bipartisan amendments adopted, including one on mental health that Congressman Murphy from Pennsylvania and I had worked out to expand mental health coverage.

Of course, we live in a bicameral Congress and sometimes the Senate doesn't always do what we would like

to do on the House side. That is the nature of it. But the Affordable Care Act is expanding health care access.

You mentioned some of the successes that we have. I know as a State legislator I would have loved to have a State law that required insurance companies to pay 80 percent of their premiums they received back as benefits. I don't know of any State that does that. I would have loved to have that in Texas.

Somebody who pays an insurance premium, whether it is employer health care or an individual health policy, they can be guaranteed that 80 percent of their premium will come back in benefits. That is what the Federal law is.

We hear our Republican colleagues say they still haven't come up to an alternative to the Affordable Care Act--because they can't.

That is one of the successes in there, and there are a lot of successes. In fact, some of that law is actually Republican ideas that have been built up over the last 20 or 30 years, saying, How can we cover the uninsured in our country?

Our Harris County Hospital district is our catchment. But not all counties in the State of Texas have that option to have a hospital district.

Even in our area, I have a district that is one of the highest in the country of people who work who don't get insurance through their employer. That is why the Affordable Care Act is important. In our district, we have an estimated 261,000 people who would have the opportunity to get health care through the Affordable Care Act. And we are hoping to sign them up. We started in November, and we have had these workshops literally all over our district, in partnership with lots of different groups.

The Affordable Care Act is particularly important in our districts because we have one of the highest rates in the country of people who are uninsured. It is essential people know that the financial assistance is available under the Affordable Care Act that can lower their health care costs. In fact, nearly 6 of the 10 uninsured people will find that they can find health coverage for $100 or less a month.

Like I said, this Saturday we are having a forum. This forum is a great opportunity for people to come and actually learn about health care options, because health care insurance is important.

After World War II, our country made a decision. The countries we rebuilt in Western Europe had government-run insurance. Canada has government-run insurance. Our country decided to go with employer-based insurance. And that worked well up until about 10 or 12 years ago, where we started seeing employers drop that coverage.

At one time in our country, 80 percent of the people who worked had insurance through their employer. Now it is below 60 percent, and it is getting worse. Although with the Affordable Care Act, we are actually seeing increases. Because even a small business can be eligible for subsidies to cover their employees under the Affordable Care Act.

Like I said, as a member the Energy and Commerce Committee, I am proud of us passing something. It is not perfect, but it is a step in the right direction. I would hope that this Congress and maybe a future Congress can say, Okay, let's see what is wrong with the Affordable Care Act. It is just like we had to go back and fix Medicare on a number of occasions.

Nobody wants to abolish Medicare. It is one of the greatest pieces of legislation that we have ever passed. I would hope that over the years we would not only build on the Affordable Care Act to make people--just like with Medicare--know that they don't have to worry about putting their families in bankruptcy because they have an illness. The Affordable Care Act will help us on the road to protect that.

I appreciate your leadership tonight on this. I know I have a colleague from California from my class who is up next. I thank you for your time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize World TB Day and call for a continued effort to drive down rates of tuberculosis (TB) across the world and accelerate progress toward ending TB as a threat to global public health.

World TB Day is an opportunity to raise awareness about TB-related problems and solutions and to support TB-control efforts. While great strides have been made to control and cure TB, much more needs to be done to eliminate this disease.

Often believed to be a disease of the past, TB is still a life- threatening problem in the United States and around the world. Anyone can contract TB, and our current efforts to find and treat latent TB infection and TB disease are not sufficient.

We must raise awareness, enhance prevention, control, and treatment efforts, and develop new therapies to treat TB, especially for multi- drug resistant (MDR-TB) and extensively-drug resistant TB (XDR-TB).

Everyone has a role in ensuring that one day TB will be eliminated. As a co-chair of the Congressional TB Elimination Caucus and longtime advocate on this issue, I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress and our partners to further the commitment to a world free of

Mr. Speaker, I rise to express strong objection to the decision to use the Affordable Care Act's individual responsibility requirement to pay for the SGR reform.

This bill hijacks a thoughtful solution to a problem that has been harming Medicare beneficiaries, providers, and our budget for years and turns it

into a political stunt. This decision is a poison pill and nothing more than more partisan politics.

Congress has overridden the SGR-mandated cuts to Medicare physician payments each year since 2003. Year after year, these temporary patches have been costly and disruptive. Reforming the system is long overdue. Temporary fixes to SGR are a losing situation. The money still has to be spent, but only to just maintain the broken status quo.

The bipartisan, bicameral SGR bill is the closest we have come to fixing this problem once and for all, and this decision gets us further from that goal. Repealing the ACA is a game we have played now 51 times. Holding SGR reform hostage to destroy the ACA and deny millions of Americans access to managed care is disgraceful. Our seniors, our doctors, including the AMA, the Texas Medical Association, the California Medical Association, and the American people deserve better.

In order for our health care system to work, Americans must have insurance. Delaying or repealing the requirement that individuals obtain coverage would drive up premiums and leave millions uninsured. Again, this is purely a partisan pay-for which proves that there is not a sincere effort to finally enact SGR reform but rather just another political game.

Mr. Speaker, I was not able to be in Washington on March 4 through March 6, 2014 for votes because of the inclement weather and meetings in the district with the Secretary of Energy and EPA Administration.

If I had been here, I would have voted as follows:

On passage of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, as amended, I would have voted ``yes.''

On passage of the resolution supporting the people of Venezuela as they protest peacefully for democratic change and calling to end the violence, I would have voted ``yes.''

On the Motion on Ordering the Previous Question on the Rule for H.R. 3826, the Electricity Security and Affordability Act, and H.R. 4118, the SIMPLE Fairness Act, I would have voted ``no.''

On H. Res. 497, the resolution providing the rule for H.R. 3826 and H.R. 4118, I would have voted ``no.''

On the U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act, as Amended, I would have voted ``yes.''

On the Motion to Recommit H.R. 4118, I would have voted ``yes.''

On passage of H.R. 4118, I would have vote ``no.''

On passage of the Energy Efficiency Improvement Act, I would have voted ``yes.''

On the Motion on Ordering the Previous Question on the Rule for H.R. 2824, the Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America Act, and H.R. 2641, the RAPID Act, I would have voted ``no.''

On H. Res. 501, the resolution providing the rule for H.R. 2824 and H.R. 2641, I would have voted ``no.''

On the Smith of Texas and Schweikert Amendment, I would have voted ``no.''

On the Capps/McNerney Amendment, I would have voted ``yes.''

On the Schakowsky/Lowenthal Amendment, I would have voted ``yes.''

On the Waxman Amendment, I would have voted ``yes.''

On the Motion to Recommit H.R. 3826, I would have voted ``yes.''

On final passage of H.R. 3826, I would have voted ``no.''

On the Motion to Table H. Res. 504, I would have voted ``no.''

On the Jackson-Lee Amendment, I would have voted ``yes.''

On the McKinley Amendment, I would have voted ``no.''

On the Nadler Amendment, I would have voted ``yes.''

On the Johnson of Georgia Amendment, I would have voted ``yes.''

On the Motion to Recommit H.R. 2641, I would have voted ``yes.''

On final passage of H.R. 2641, I would have voted ``no.''

On passage to provide for the costs of loan guarantees for Ukraine, I would have voted ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring to the attention of my colleagues the tragedy that took place in Khojaly, Azerbaijan 22 years ago today, February 25, 1992. That evening, scores of lives of innocent Azerbaijanis living in Khojaly were lost and many others were wounded or taken hostage when their city was brutally attacked.

With a population of 7,000, Khojaly was one of the three largest urban settlements of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. Nagarno-Karabakh is recognized by the United States and the United Nations as Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenia.

At the time, the Khojaly tragedy was widely covered by the international media, including the Boston Globe, Washington Post, New York Times, Financial Times, and many other European and Russian news agencies.

Over two decades later, there is still too little attention or interest paid to the plight of Khojaly outside of Azerbaijan.

According to Human Rights Watch and other international observers the massacre was committed by Armenian troops, reportedly with the help of the former Soviet 366th Motor Rifle Regiment. Human Rights Watch described the Khojaly Massacre as ``the largest massacre to date in the conflict'' over Nagorno-Karabakh. In a 1993 report, they stated ``there are no exact figures for the number of Azeri civilians killed because Karabakh Armenian forces gained control of the area after the massacre'' and ``while it is widely accepted that 200 Azeris were murdered, as many as 500-1,000 may have died.''

Soon after the attack, Time Magazine published the following report on the Khojaly Massacre: ``While the details are disputed, this much is plain: something grim and unconscionable happened in the Azerbaijani town of Khojaly two weeks ago. So far, some 200 dead Azerbaijanis, many of them mutilated, have been transported out of the town tucked inside the Armenian-dominated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh for burial in neighboring Azerbaijan. The total number of dead--the Azerbaijanis claim 1,324 civilians were slaughtered, most of them women and children--is unknown.''

Azerbaijan has been a strong strategic partner and friend of the United States. The tragedy of Khojaly was a crime against humanity and I urge my colleagues to join me in standing with the people of Azerbaijan as they commemorate this tragedy and urge world leaders to help bring a peaceful solution to the occupation of these lands.

Mr. Speaker, I was unable to be in Washington on Monday, February 10, 2014, for votes because of events in our district. If I would have been here I would have voted as follows:

On passage of H.R. 2431, the National Integrated Drought Information Systems Reauthorization Act, rollcall No. 55, I would have voted ``yea.''

On passage of H. Res. 447, a House resolution supporting the democratic and European aspirations of the people of Ukraine and their right to choose their own future free of intimidation and fear, rollcall No. 56, I would have voted ``yea.''

On approval of the Journal, rollcall No. 57, I would have voted ``no.''

Madam Speaker, I rise today to express my opposition to H.R. 7, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.

Longstanding federal policy explicitly prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions, except for certain narrow circumstances of rape, incest, or severe health complications that threaten the life of the mother. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) maintains this ban and a federal appeals court confirmed that no federal dollars may be used to pay for abortion services under the law.

Far more sweeping in scope than the title implies, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act goes well beyond codifying the Hyde amendment and protecting public funds. This bill intrudes on women's reproductive autonomy and access to health care, manipulates the tax code to put additional financial burdens on many women and small businesses, and unnecessarily restricts the private insurance choices available to consumers today.

The House of Representatives should be spending our time working to improve access to health care for all Americans, instead of deceptive legislation that interferes with a woman's ability to make personal, private medical decisions.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my opposition to H.R. 3362, the Exchange Information Disclosure Act, which is yet another effort to undermine the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The Exchange Information Disclosure Act requires weekly reporting by the Department of Health and Human Services on health insurance enrollments through HealthCare.gov and any and all problems consumers experience when using the website.

While I support strong congressional oversight through sufficient reporting and transparency, the reporting required by this bill is overly burdensome, unfunded, and in excess of requirements for other public or private programs. And it includes another attack on navigators charged with enrolling uninsured and underinsured Americans in the new exchanges.

If this bill was a sincere effort to improve or build upon the landmark health care reform law, then it should have gone through the committee process. Instead, it was crafted to further bog down HHS and make the implementation of the ACA as difficult as possible.

Congress should be using our time to work on legislation to improve the historic law so that millions of Americans can take full advantage of affordable coverage and the landmark reforms and protections included in the ACA, rather than another attempt to delay and derail health care reform.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of tens of thousands of my fellow Texans, the working poor and the unemployed, whom our economic recovery is leaving behind.

Blessed with ample resources, many of our Nation's leading companies and universities, and a ``can do'' attitude, Texas has been America's leader in job creation and economic growth for the past decade.

Unfortunately, this economic success has not reached all Texans. Last year, the Labor Department announced that over 450,000 Texans earn at or below the Federal minimum wage, more than any other State in the country.

Nationwide, 3.6 million Americans earn at or below minimum wage at $7.25 an hour. This is just over $15,000 for someone working 40 hours a week for a full year, or more than $4,400 below the poverty line for a family of three.

These aren't just kids in high school or college earning minimum wage. Less than a quarter of the minimum wage workers are teenagers and nearly 40 percent are over the age of 30. This is simply not right. Nobody, no matter the city or State, can survive, let alone raise a family, on $15,000.

Madam Speaker, it is time for the economic recovery to benefit all Americans, not just the fortunate. Too many of our friends and neighbors are being left behind, and I call on this Chamber to bring up legislation that would increase the minimum wage and renew critical emergency unemployment benefits.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the success and legacy of the war on poverty. The war on poverty, proposed 50 years ago today in this Chamber by then-President and fellow Texan, Lyndon Johnson, paved the way towards the enactment of many of our Nation's most popular and significant Federal programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, Head Start.

These programs, along with Social Security, unemployment insurance, and now the Affordable Care Act, form America's social safety net, which has protected millions of our Nation's children, working adults and elderly from falling into poverty.

Less than 2 weeks ago, through the inaction of this House, 1.3 million Americans, including 65,000 Texans, saw their unemployment insurance disappear. This number will grow to over 3 million in the coming months if action is not taken. This vital lifeline is essential for millions of our fellow Americans who are out of work and struggling to make ends meet.

The 50th anniversary of President Johnson's speech is the perfect opportunity for Congress to show its support for those less fortunate, and I call on this Chamber to bring the legislation to renew Emergency Unemployment today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of our nation's manufacturers, workers, and consumers, and urge the House to bring the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) to a vote immediately.

The MTB is critical for the competitiveness of American manufacturers. The savings from the MTB goes to support manufacturing jobs, allows for reinvestment in capital expenditures and research and development, and decreases the costs of manufacturing in the United States by providing tariff reductions on inputs that are not available domestically.

For a small to medium sized manufacturer, this savings can mean one to two manufacturing jobs.

The last MTB expired at the end of 2012, resulting in higher costs for manufacturers and harming job growth. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has found that the expiration of the MTB will result in a $748 million tax on manufacturing in the United States and economic losses amounting to $1.86 billion over the next three years.

The same study estimated that passage of the MTB in 2010 supported 90,000 manufacturing jobs in the United States and increased our GDP by $3.5 billion.

An MTB tariff suspension is not, as some have suggested, an earmark.

The process is transparent and bipartisan, with an intensive and transparent vetting process involving Congress, the USITC and other federal agencies, and industry. Any company that imports a product on which the duties have been suspended or reduced can benefit, regardless of location in the United States.

Duty suspensions help reduce costs to the entire supply chain from the manufacturer to the customer.

At a time when the American people are tired and frustrated with the lack of progress coming from their elected representatives in Congress, the MTB offers this chamber an opportunity to passage legislation that has wide bipartisan support and will increase competitiveness, create jobs, and lower prices for consumers.

This is a clear win-win for the American people and I urge the House to take up the MTB before the end of the calendar year.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Coffman) be removed as a cosponsor from H.R. 1698.