Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6504) to extend duty-free treatment provided with respect to imports from Haiti under the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, and for other purposes, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6504, the Haiti Economic Lift Program Extension Act, introduced by my colleague, Representative Murphy.

This legislation extends the HOPE and HELP trade preference programs which provide trade preferences for certain apparel and textile imports from Haiti.

Haiti has endured years of profound hardship, political instability, economic collapse, and repeated natural disasters. As our bill author, Dr. Murphy, shares from his time serving as a medical missionary in Haiti, these trade programs represent an economic lifeline that supports tens of thousands of jobs and sustain one of the last remaining formal industries in the country.

Failing to extend these programs would further destabilize an already fragile situation, worsening humanitarian conditions. Strengthening economic opportunity in Haiti promotes regional stability, pushes back on malign actors trying to gain influence with our neighbors, and advances U.S. interests. Prosperity in our hemisphere enhances security right here at home.

Renewing HOPE and HELP supports nearshoring and more resilient supply chains, benefiting American workers and businesses, while reducing reliance on distant and unreliable sources.

I commend Dr. Murphy for his leadership on this issue. Through his numerous trips to Haiti, he has seen firsthand the human consequences of economic collapse. He also understands the value these programs provide to American businesses, including those in North Carolina that have built reliable partnerships in Haiti.

Last month, the Ways and Means Committee passed this bill unanimously, 41-0, a strong bipartisan signal that these programs work.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Smith).

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Lawler).

Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the remainder of my time to close.

This bill represents a practical, bipartisan step toward stability, security, and shared prosperity right here in our hemisphere.

By renewing the HOPE and HELP programs, we reinforce an effective trade partnership that supports jobs in Haiti, strengthens American supply chains, and advances our nearshoring goals. At a time when Haiti faces extraordinary challenges, Congress should not end a program that has proven to be a force for economic opportunity and regional stability in our hemisphere.

This legislation passed the Ways and Means Committee unanimously because members on both sides recognize the humanitarian and strategic value these programs provide. A stable economy in Haiti contributes to a more secure United States.

I commend Dr. Murphy for his leadership, and I urge adoption of the Haiti Economic Lift Program Extension Act.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bean).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Moran).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from New Jersey.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Kennedy).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Kiley).

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I remind this body that the reason why these COVID-era tax credits expired is because the Democrats focused all their resources on helping their wealthy environmentalists with permanent tax credits for electric vehicles and solar panels.

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

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a bombshell GAO report documenting evidence of widespread fraud, with billions of dollars going to fraudulent enrollees, including as many as 58,000 dead people.

U.S. Government

Accountability Office,

Washington, DC, December 3, 2025.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Preliminary

Results from Ongoing Review Suggest Fraud Risks in the

Advance Premium Tax Credit Persist

Hon. Brett Guthrie,

Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce,

House of Representatives.

Hon. Jim Jordan,

Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary,

House of Representatives.

Hon. Jason Smith,

Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means,

House of Representatives.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)

provides premium tax credits to those who purchase private

health insurance plans and meet certain income and other

requirements. Individuals may have the federal government pay

this credit to their health insurance issuers in advance on

their behalf, known as the advance premium tax credit (APTC),

which lowers their monthly premium payments.

Millions of consumers have purchased health insurance plans

through the marketplaces established under PPACA. The Centers

for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), within the Department

of Health and Human Services (HHS), is responsible for

maintaining the federal Marketplace and overseeing state-

based marketplaces. Under PPACA, states may elect to operate

their own state-based marketplace or to use the federal

Marketplace. These marketplaces determine eligibility for

APTC, based in part on income, and allow individuals to

compare and choose among insurance plans offered by

participating private health care coverage issuers. CMS

estimated it paid nearly $124 billion in APTC for about 19.5

million enrollees for plan year 2024.

Consumers can enroll in health insurance coverage through a

marketplace independently or with assistance, such as from an

insurance agent or broker. As discussed later in this report,

agents and brokers can help a consumer apply for coverage,

including for related financial assistance, and enroll in a

plan. Assistance from an agent or broker is of no cost to a

consumer. Rather, agents and brokers are allowed to receive

compensation directly from health insurance issuers in

accordance with agreements with those issuers and any

applicable state requirements.

Indictments from December 2024 and February 2025 highlight

concerns about agent and broker practices in the federal

Marketplace. Specifically, the indictments allege that bad

actors enrolled consumers in insurance through the federal

Marketplace by falsifying information on their applications.

Additionally, according to CMS, the agency received

approximately 275,000 complaints between January and August

2024 that consumers were enrolled in a plan or had their plan

changed without their consent. Such practices can result in

wasteful federal spending on APTC for enrollees who are not

eligible. Further, such practices can result in harm and

unexpected costs for consumers. These can include loss of

access to medical providers and medications, higher

copayments and deductibles, or repayment of APTC if income or

other eligibility was misrepresented.

We previously reported that APTC is at risk of fraud. For

example, in September 2016, we found that federal and state

marketplaces approved coverage for our fictitious applicants.

Nearly all of these fictitious applicants remained covered

after we sent fictitious documents or no documents to resolve

issues with our applications. Further, in July 2017, we found

that CMS did not design processes to verify eligibility for

APTC, including preventing duplicate coverage.

You asked us to review issues related to fraud risk

management in APTC. This report is based on preliminary

results and analyses from that ongoing work. Specifically,

this report addresses preliminary results from our

1. covert testing of federal Marketplace enrollment

controls for plan years 2024 and 2025,

2. analyses of federal Marketplace enrollment data for plan

years 2023 and 2024, and

3. evaluation of CMS's fraud risk assessment and antifraud

strategy for APTC.

To perform covert testing of federal Marketplace enrollment

controls, we created 20 fictitious identities and submitted

applications for individual health care coverage in the

federal Marketplace. We submitted applications for four of

these fictitious identities in October 2024 for coverage

through December 2024, which was the remainder of that plan

year. We pursued coverage for plan year 2025 for all 20

fictitious identities, including the four identities for

which we already submitted applications. Our covert testing

for plan year 2025 is ongoing, since the plan year is not yet

complete. As a result, we will describe additional details of

the 2025 applications in a future report.

Our covert testing included applications submitted

independently through HealthCare.gov, which is the federal

Marketplace's website, and applications submitted with

assistance from an insurance agent or broker. For all our

applicant scenarios, we sought to act as an ordinary consumer

would in attempting to make a successful application. For

example, if, during online applications, we were directed to

make phone calls to complete the process, we acted as

instructed.

For applications for plan year 2024, our covert tests

included fictitious applicants

who provided invalid (i.e., never issued) Social Security

numbers (SSN). Additionally, we stated income at a level

eligible to obtain APTC. As appropriate, we used publicly

available information to construct our applications for

coverage and subsidies. We also used publicly available

hardware, software, and materials to produce counterfeit

documents that we submitted, if appropriate for our testing,

when instructed to do so. We then observed the outcomes of

the document submissions, such as any approvals received or

requests to provide additional supporting documentation. The

results of our covert testing, while illustrative of

potential enrollment control weaknesses, cannot be

generalized to the overall enrollment population.

To examine federal Marketplace enrollment for plan years

2023 and 2024, we obtained and analyzed federal Marketplace

enrollment and payment data, including APTC information, from

CMS. We also matched enrollee SSNs in the data to two

additional data sources: (1) Social Security Administration's

(SSA) full death file, a database containing records of death

that have been reported to SSA, as of November 2024 and (2)

April 2025 data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on

APTC reconciliation from tax forms filed for tax year 2023.

We assessed the reliability of all data sets by performing

electronic tests to determine the completeness and accuracy

of key fields. We also reviewed agency documentation and

interviewed knowledgeable agency officials about the

reliability of the data. Overall, we found that the data were

reliable for our purposes.

To examine CMS's fraud risk assessment and antifraud

strategy for APTC, we reviewed documentation of CMS's

policies and fraud risk management activities related to

APTC. This included CMS's 2018 fraud risk assessment for

APTC. Additionally, we interviewed agency officials about

CMS's fraud risk management activities in this program. We

reviewed relevant reports from GAO and HHS's Office of the

Inspector General. We evaluated information from relevant

documentation and interviews of agency officials against

relevant leading practices in GAO's A Framework for Managing

Fraud Risks in Federal Programs (Fraud Risk Framework).

To support all three objectives, we interviewed CMS

officials and representatives from seven stakeholder

organizations that represent agents and brokers, state

insurance regulators, researchers, and one of the entities

that CMS approved to host a non-marketplace website where

consumers can apply for and enroll in a plan offered through

the federal Marketplace.

The ongoing work upon which this report is based is being

conducted in accordance with generally accepted government

auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and

perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence

to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and

conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that

the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our

preliminary findings and conclusions based on our audit

objectives. Additionally, our related investigative work is

being conducted in accordance with standards prescribed by

the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and

Efficiency.

Background

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Haridopolos).

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

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I will remind the body that the reason why these enhanced subsidies are expiring is because the Democrats are the only ones in this Chamber who voted for them to expire on December 31. Apparently, they regret that vote because they focused most of their dollars on making permanent environmental tax policy in the Green New Deal.

Mr. Speaker, they are the only ones who have voted to take away these subsidies. It is laughable, Mr. Speaker, when you hear Members on the other side say that the Republicans created this healthcare crisis.

Guess what. It was the Democrats who wrote the Affordable Care Act that is being debated on the floor right now. They are upset because, as of December 31, it reverted back to the Affordable Care Act, which they have championed, what they passed, not Republicans, Democrats.

Mr. Speaker, the healthcare crisis is clearly created by the Democrats.

We have highlighted the fraud and waste within the exchanges. More than half of the people on the exchanges did not even file one medical claim last year, but those insurance companies were being subsidized.

I want to remind the American people that not $1 goes to them. It all goes to the big health insurance companies that have been doing very well, while premiums for every single American have been rising for the last decade and a half.

Mr. Speaker, with that, I urge this body to vote ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, it is pretty simple: I oppose this motion, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to healthcare, Republicans are focused on lowering costs and expanding choice for all Americans. That is 347 million people, not just 7 percent of the population, which is all you are going to hear from the other side of the aisle, and that is all you have been hearing from the other side of the aisle.

Mr. Speaker, for more than a decade, Democrats have promised that ObamaCare would lower costs. They actually named the bill the ``Affordable Care Act.'' Find one American--find one American who says that their healthcare is now cheaper today than it was when they passed this disastrous bill. You won't. You won't find one.

In fact, the sky is falling because of their enhanced premium tax credits that they made temporary because they decided to make permanent tax benefits for wealthy environmentalists who support them. That is why we are where we are today.

Mr. Speaker, since ObamaCare has passed, we have seen 150-plus hospitals close their doors. Since ObamaCare has passed, we have seen premiums go up more than 80 percent. It doesn't sound like the Affordable Care Act by any means.

Even worse, the Government Accountability Office has confirmed what Republicans have been warning for years: ObamaCare is riddled with

waste, fraud, and abuse. The GAO led a covert investigation by creating fictitious ObamaCare applicants with fake documentation where 100 percent of those applicants were accepted and enrolled.

Guess what? A year later, this year, of that 100 percent, 90 percent were still receiving subsidies. That means that insurance companies were still being subsidized for fake accounts where the people didn't even exist.

Data analysis from GAO also finds that 58,000-plus enrollees matched Social Security numbers with death records, with 7,000 of them dead before enrollment even began. There were dead people on the rolls, but what do they want to do? Their answer is to just continue the same old- same old by extending the current program with no reforms.

Mr. Speaker, one Social Security number alone had more than 125 different policies attached to it--just one. This all came from the GAO. This didn't come from the House Republicans.

We should not continue propping up a system that has completely failed to lower costs for Americans. The Lower Healthcare Premiums for All Americans Act takes a much different approach. It is one that delivers real relief.

First, it provides more freedom and flexibility through CHOICE Arrangements, empowering small businesses to offer tax-free benefits so that their employees can find health coverage that works for them.

This levels the playing field for small businesses, putting them on equal footing with large employers when competing for workers. These arrangements are proven to be successful. In fact, 83 percent of employers using CHOICE Arrangements are offering coverage for the very first time.

The bill also brings transparency to pharmacy benefit managers, requiring them to open up the books to finally give employers the data that they need to increase competition and negotiate better drug prices for workers. The result: Healthcare costs and premiums will be lowered for all--for all Americans, not just the 7 percent that the Democrats are fighting for in the enhanced COVID-era premium tax credits, but also for the 300 million-plus Americans.

Mr. Speaker, ObamaCare has driven costs up and choice down. This bill does the complete opposite.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Lower Healthcare Premiums for All Americans Act and stand with families, workers, and small businesses who deserve--they deserve a real affordable, accountable healthcare plan.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington), the chairman of the Budget Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Hern).

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Miller).

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

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the bombshell GAO report showing the waste, fraud, and abuse within the ObamaCare exchanges.

GAO, U.S. Government

Accountability Office,

Washington, DC, December 3, 2025.

Hon. Brett Guthrie,

Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce,

House of Representatives.

Hon. Jim Jordan,

Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary,

House of Representatives.

Hon. Jason Smith,

Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means,

House of Representatives.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Preliminary Results from Ongoing Review Suggest Fraud Risks in the Advance Premium Tax Credit

Persist

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)

provides premium tax credits to those who purchase private

health insurance plans and meet certain income and other

requirements. Individuals may have the federal government pay

this credit to their health insurance issuers in advance on

their behalf, known as the advance premium tax credit (APTC),

which lowers their monthly premium payments.

Millions of consumers have purchased health insurance plans

through the marketplaces established under PPACA. The Centers

for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), within the Department

of Health and Human Services (HHS), is responsible for

maintaining the federal Marketplace and overseeing state-

based marketplaces. Under PPACA, states may elect to operate

their own state-based marketplace or to use the federal

Marketplace. These marketplaces determine eligibility for

APTC, based in part on income, and allow individuals to

compare and choose among insurance plans offered by

participating private health care coverage issuers. CMS

estimated it paid nearly $124 billion in APTC for about 19.5

million enrollees for plan year 2024.

Consumers can enroll in health insurance coverage through a

marketplace independently or with assistance, such as from an

insurance agent or broker. As discussed later in this report,

agents and brokers can help a consumer apply for coverage,

including for related financial assistance, and enroll in a

plan. Assistance from an agent or broker is of no cost to a

consumer. Rather, agents and brokers are allowed to receive

compensation directly from health insurance issuers in

accordance with agreements with those issuers and any

applicable state requirements.

Indictments from December 2024 and February 2025 highlight

concerns about agent and broker practices in the federal

Marketplace. Specifically, the indictments allege that bad

actors enrolled consumers in insurance through the federal

Marketplace by falsifying information on their applications.

Additionally, according to CMS, the agency received

approximately 275,000 complaints between January and August

2024 that consumers were enrolled in a plan or had their plan

changed without their consent. Such practices can result in

wasteful federal spending on APTC for enrollees who are not

eligible. Further, such practices can result in harm and

unexpected costs for consumers. These can include loss of

access to medical providers and medications, higher

copayments and deductibles, or repayment of APTC if income or

other eligibility was misrepresented.

We previously reported that APTC is at risk of fraud. For

example, in September 2016, we found that federal and state

marketplaces approved coverage for our fictitious applicants.

Nearly all of these fictitious applicants remained covered

after we sent fictitious documents or no documents to resolve

issues with our applications. Further, in July 2017, we found

that CMS did not design processes to verify eligibility for

APTC, including preventing duplicate coverage.

You asked us to review issues related to fraud risk

management in APTC. This report is based on preliminary

results and analyses from that ongoing work. Specifically.

this report addresses preliminary results from our

1. covert testing of federal Marketplace enrollment

controls'for plan years 2024 and 2025,

2. analyses of federal Marketplace enrollment data for plan

years 2023 and 2024, and

3. evaluation of CMS's fraud risk assessment and antifraud

strategy for APTC.

To perform covert testing of federal Marketplace enrollment

controls, we created 20 fictitious identities and submitted

applications for individual health care coverage in the

federal Marketplace. We submitted applications for four of

these fictitious identities in October 2024 for coverage

through December 2024, which was the remainder of that plan

year. We pursued coverage for plan year 2025 for all 20

fictitious identities, including the four identities for

which we already submitted applications. Our covert testing

for plan year 2025 is ongoing, since the plan year is not yet

complete. As a result, we will describe additional details of

the 2025 applications in a future report.

Our covert testing included applications submitted

independently through HealthCare.gov, which is the federal

Marketplace's website, and applications submitted with

assistance from an insurance agent or broker. For all our

applicant scenarios, we sought to act as an ordinary

consumer would in attempting to make a successful

application. For example, if, during online applications,

we were directed to make phone calls to complete the

process, we acted as instructed.

For applications for plan year 2024, our covert tests

included fictitious applicants who provided invalid (i.e.,

never issued) Social Security numbers (SSN). Additionally, we

stated income at a level eligible to obtain APTC. As

appropriate, we used publicly available information to

construct our applications for coverage and subsidies. We

also used publicly available hardware, software, and

materials to produce counterfeit documents that we submitted,

if appropriate for our testing, when instructed to do so. We

then observed the outcomes of the document submissions, such

as any approvals received or requests to provide additional

supporting documentation. The results of our covert testing,

while illustrative of potential enrollment control

weaknesses, cannot be generalized to the overall enrollment

population.

To examine federal Marketplace enrollment for plan years

2023 and 2024, we obtained and analyzed federal Marketplace

enrollment and payment data, including APTC information, from

CMS. We also matched enrollee SSNs in the data to two

additional data sources: (1) Social Security Administration's

(SSA) full death file, a database containing records of death

that have been reported to SSA, as of November 2024 and (2)

April 2025 data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on

APTC reconciliation from tax forms filed for tax year 2023.

We assessed the reliability of all data sets by performing

electronic tests to determine the completeness and accuracy

of key fields. We also reviewed agency documentation and

interviewed knowledgeable agency officials about the

reliability of the data. Overall, we found that the data were

reliable for our purposes.

To examine CMS's fraud risk assessment and antifraud

strategy for APTC, we reviewed documentation of CMS's

policies and fraud risk management activities related to

APTC. This included CMS's 2018 fraud risk

assessment for APTC. Additionally, we interviewed agency

officials about CMS's fraud risk management activities in

this program. We reviewed relevant reports from GAO and HHS's

Office of the Inspector General. We evaluated information

from relevant documentation and interviews of agency

officials against relevant leading practices in GAO's A

Framework for Managing Fraud Risks in Federal Programs (Fraud

Risk Framework).

To support all three objectives, we interviewed CMS

officials and representatives from seven stakeholder

organizations that represent agents and brokers, state

insurance regulators, researchers, and one of the entities

that CMS approved to host a non-marketplace website where

consumers can apply for and enroll in a plan offered through

the federal Marketplace.

The ongoing work upon which this report is based is being

conducted in accordance with generally accepted government

auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and

perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence

to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and

conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that

the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our

preliminary findings and conclusions based on our audit

objectives. Additionally, our related investigative work is

being conducted in accordance with standards prescribed by

the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and

Efficiency.

Background

APTC Eligibility and Enrollment Processes

APTC Eligibility

To qualify for a premium tax credit, individuals must be

enrolled in a qualified health plan offered through a

marketplace and meet certain criteria. These tax credits can

be paid in advance through APTC. See figure 1 for the APTC

eligibility requirements.

The amount of the premium tax credit varies based on

household income and the cost of a benchmark plan. The credit

limits what the consumer would pay for that plan to be no

more than a certain percentage of their household income. The

American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 made temporary changes to

premium tax credits by expanding eligibility to higher-income

individuals and increasing premium tax credits for lower-

income individuals for tax years 2021 and 2022. For example,

the law increased the premium tax credit amounts for eligible

individuals and families, resulting in access to plans with

no premium contributions for those earning 100 to 150 percent

of the federal poverty level. It also expanded eligibility

for premium tax credits to include certain individuals and

families with incomes at or above 400 percent of the

federal poverty level. Public Law 117-169--commonly known

as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022--extended these

provisions through the end of tax year 2025. See table 1.

In 2013, CMS developed the Data Services Hub (Hub) to help

verify applicant eligibility in an automated manner. To do

so, the Hub matches applicant information, such as SSN and

estimated income, against trusted data sources. These sources

include records from SSA and IRS. In the federal Marketplace,

the system generates an inconsistency when data matching

processes are not able to verify applicant information

against the Hub's trusted sources. When an inconsistency is

generated, applicants are instructed to provide documentation

to support information on their applications that cannot be

verified by the Hub's data matching.

Marketplaces and Enrollment Pathways

States, along with the District of Columbia, may elect to

rely on the federal Marketplace or operate their own health

insurance marketplace. Table 2 describes the types of health

insurance marketplaces.

The federal Marketplace offers multiple pathways to enroll

in health insurance coverage and receive APTC. Consumers in

states that use the federal Marketplace may enroll in

coverage through the pathway known as HealthCare.gov or an

enhanced direct enrollment (EDE) pathway, among others. Table

3 describes examples of enrollment pathways in the federal

Marketplace.

Role of Agents and Brokers

Consumers seeking to obtain health insurance through the

federal Marketplace may receive assistance from agents and

brokers who help them apply for coverage, including related

financial assistance, and enroll in a health plan. In return,

agents and brokers receive payment (commissions or salaries)

from the issuers of the health plans. Agents and brokers must

be licensed in the state in which they sell plans and

registered with CMS to sell plans through the federal

Marketplace. According to CMS, most enrollments in the

federal Marketplace are assisted by an agent or broker

through the EDE and direct enrollment pathways.

CMS is responsible for oversight of agents and brokers in

the federal Marketplace and ensuring that they comply with

federal rules. Agents and brokers are required to, among

other things, obtain and document consumers' consent before

assisting them with applying for and enrolling in coverage

through the federal Marketplace. For example, consumer

consent is required before the agent or broker can:

collect or use any personally identifiable information,

such as name, date of birth, and SSN;

help a consumer apply for coverage or financial assistance

by completing an eligibility application on their behalf; and

actively enroll a consumer in a plan offered through the

federal Marketplace.

After a consumer has applied or is enrolled, the agent or

broker can also update a consumer's eligibility application

or plan selection on their behalf, if the initial consent

authorized the agent or broker to do so, or if they obtained

subsequent consent for any new actions. Agents and brokers

are required to make documentation of consumer consent

available to CMS upon request in response to monitoring,

audit, and enforcement actions.

Fraud Risk Management

The objective of fraud risk management is to ensure program

integrity by continuously and strategically mitigating both

the likelihood and effects of fraud, while also facilitating

a program's mission. The Fraud Risk Framework provides a

comprehensive set of leading practices that serve as a guide

for agency managers to use when developing efforts to combat

fraud in a strategic, risk-based manner. As depicted in

figure 2, the framework organizes the leading practices

within four components: (1) Commit, (2) Assess, (3) Design

and Implement, and (4) Evaluate and Adapt.

In June 2016, the Fraud Reduction and Data Analytics Act of

2015 (FRDAA) required the Office of Management and Budget

(OMB) to establish guidelines for federal agencies to create

controls to identify and assess fraud risks to design and

implement antifraud control activities. The act further

required OMB to incorporate the leading practices from the

Fraud Risk Framework in the guidelines. The Payment Integrity

Information Act of 2019 repealed FRDAA but maintained the

requirement for OMB to provide guidelines to agencies in

implementing the Fraud Risk Framework.

In its 2016 Circular No. A-123 guidelines, OMB directed

agencies to adhere to, the Fraud Risk Frameworks leading

practices. In October 2022, OMB issued a Controller Alert

reminding agencies that they must establish financial and

administrative controls to identify and assess fraud risks.

In addition, the alert reminded agencies that they should

adhere to the leading practices in the Fraud Risk Framework

as part of their efforts to effectively design, implement,

and operate an internal control system that addresses fraud

risks.

The Federal Marketplace Approved Subsidized Coverage for Nearly All of

Our Fictitious Applicants in Plan Years 2024 and 2025, Suggesting

Weaknesses Persist

Our convert testing of enrollment controls in the federal

Marketplace suggests weaknesses have persisted since our

tests in plan years 2015 through 2016. All four of our

fictitious applications received subsidized coverage through

the federal Marketplace in late 2024. Additionally, although

our work is ongoing, as of September 2025 18 of our 20

fictitious applications for plan year 2025 were receiving

subsidized coverage. We will continue to monitor the status

of these applications during plan year 2025.

All Four of Our Fictitious Applicants Received Subsidized

Coverage in Late 2024

To test enrollment controls, we developed and submitted

four fictitious applications to obtain insurance coverage

with APTC through the federal Marketplace. We applied for

coverage for these four applicants in October 2024. We

submitted the applications outside of the open enrollment

period, using a special enrollment period for low-income

applicants. in two cases, we applied for coverage directly

through HealthCare.gov. In the other two cases, we applied

via telephone with assistance from an insurance broker. The

brokers that assisted us used EDE systems to submit our

applications.

The federal Marketplace approved fully subsidized insurance

coverage for all four of our fictitious applicants for

November through December 2024. The combined total amount of

APTC paid to insurance companies for all four fictitious

enrollees was about $2,350 per month. While our fictitious

enrollees are not generalizable to the universe of enrollees,

they suggest weaknesses in enrollment controls--such as

identity proofing and income verification--in the federal

Marketplace through both HealthCare.gov and EDE systems.

Table 4 summarizes the results of our covert testing of

enrollment controls for plan year 2024.

The results of our covert testing for plan year 2024 are

generally consistent with results of similar testing we

conducted for plan years 2014 through 2016.

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

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers. I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot of comments from the Democrats on this side of the floor.

Back where I come from, the comments that I have heard, we call it hogwash, because it has not been true and it has not been factual. This bill before you will lower healthcare costs for all Americans, not just the 7 percent that they are fighting for. It lowers costs for all 347 million.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4313) to amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to extend acute hospital care at home waiver flexibilities, and to require an additional study and report on such flexibilities, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material on this bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act introduced by the Committee on Ways and Means Health Subcommittee chairman, Mr. Buchanan, and Congressman Dwight Evans.

I think one of the healthcare-related conversations that frustrates a lot of us around here is the typical year-end healthcare policy extender mess.

The legislation in front of us takes the successful hospital at home program and removes it from that chaos by providing it with a renewed 5-year authorization so more Americans can receive care in the comfort and convenience of their own home.

Hospital at home has become embedded in the fabric of our healthcare system. More than 400 hospitals in nearly 40 States have participated in the program, which has built a track record of improved patient outcomes.

In Health Subcommittee Chairman Buchanan's home State of Florida

alone, there are 23 hospitals participating in this program. Hospital care provided at home cuts mortality rates, reduces the risk of falls and infections, and lowers recovery times. It also can save costs versus expensive in-person hospital visits. It is no wonder that 99 percent of patients said they were satisfied with the program.

At a Ways and Means Committee hearing, we heard the incredible story of a hospital at home patient from North Carolina named Roy who was diagnosed with sepsis and initially treated in a hospital. There, he was disturbed by beeping sounds, uncomfortable in the hospital gown, and alone with no one able to visit him. His recovery was much better at home.

He was able to sleep in his own bed and visit with friends and family. He also continued to receive the same level of care he would have otherwise received at the hospital. His recovery at home was rapid, complete, and without any infections.

Mr. Speaker, I represent one of the most rural districts in America. The long drives to a hospital faced by people living in small towns in remote areas can make seeking care prohibitive. Hospital at home shrinks the physical distance stopping rural patients from getting care. Hospital at home has been a proven success for getting more Americans the healthcare that they need.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Buchanan).

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smucker).

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to approve this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5284) to require the Social Security Administration to make changes to the social security terminology used in the rules, regulation, guidance, or other materials of the Administration, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Claiming Age Clarity Act, bipartisan legislation introduced by my Ways and Means colleagues, Representative Lloyd Smucker and Don Beyer.

Planning for one's retirement can be stressful enough without having to interpret needlessly complicated terminology. Unfortunately, millions of Americans claiming Social Security today often face confusing and misleading terms used by the agency that make it that much harder to make informed decisions about one's financial future.

Under the legislation before us, the Social Security Administration will be required to update the agency's language to make it clearer and more straightforward. This will help ensure that Americans do not accidentally claim benefits earlier than they should, are completely informed, and don't potentially miss out on substantial income during their retirement years.

This is critical for the nearly 100,000 citizens living in Representative Smucker's district and the over 80,000 in Representative Beyer's district who are nearing retirement age today. It is why organizations like the AARP, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and the Association of Mature American Citizens have come out in support of this bill, which received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Ways and Means Committee. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smucker).

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

Mr. Speaker, no American entering retirement should lose out on their hard-earned Social Security benefits because the Social Security Administration failed to provide information in clear and understandable terms. We need to make it easier and not harder for individuals to plan for retirement in this country.

The Claiming Age Clarity Act is a positive step in the right direction. Representatives Smucker and Beyer are to be commended for forging this bipartisan consensus on a policy that will improve retirement security and ensure the bureaucracy here in Washington better serves American seniors.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5345) to amend title VII of the Social Security Act to provide for a single point of contact at the Social Security Administration for individuals who are victims of identity theft, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, in recent years, the theft and misuse of Social Security numbers has become a very serious problem in our country. In 2024 alone, there were over 3,000 reported data breaches, and over half of them included compromised Social Security numbers. For victims, the fallout can be overwhelming.

Instead of finding clear guidance at the Social Security Administration to deal with this stressful situation, too many folks are bounced from one office to another. They receive conflicting instructions and spend months trying to resolve what should be a straightforward issue.

During a previous Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security hearing, we heard directly from a mother about how a single point of contact at the Social Security office would have been beneficial in helping her deal with the fallout from her daughter's Social Security number being compromised.

Protecting Americans from identity theft is not a partisan issue. This bill provides a simple and commonsense fix to provide victims of identity theft with a single point of contact at the Social Security Administration when their number is lost or compromised.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman David Kustoff for his leadership on this bill. Thanks to his work, victims of identity theft whose Social Security

numbers have been compromised will get the help that they so need.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Kustoff).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I am prepared to close.

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

Mr. Speaker, identity theft has become a major issue in our country. One of the main ways that bad actors exploit victims is through the misuse of their Social Security number.

Unfortunately, when people contact the Social Security Administration for help with a stolen or missing Social Security number, they are often met with red tape, waiting for callbacks, confusion, and conflicting information. Callers will get bounced around to multiple SSA employees or have go through different processes just to get the help that they need.

This bill sponsored by Representative Kustoff will make it easier for Americans to resolve issues with stolen or missing Social Security numbers by providing them with a single point of contact at the SSA.

I, once again, want to thank Representative Kustoff for his great leadership on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'', and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5348) to amend title II of the Social Security Act to provide for the reissuance of social security account numbers to young children in cases where confidentiality has been compromised, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, a lost or stolen Social Security number can cause a lifetime of harm to American children. Every year, more than a million children become victims of identity fraud.

Current Social Security Administration policy makes it extremely difficult for families to get a new Social Security number for a child, even when families know the original number was compromised through no fault of their own.

Previously, the Ways and Means Committee heard direct testimony from a mother who had to battle with the Social Security Administration when her 1-month-old child's Social Security number was compromised, and she was denied a new number.

This bill, the Social Security Child Protection Act of 2025, sponsored by Representative Smucker, will help families when their child's Social Security number is lost or stolen. It requires the SSA to issue a new number to children under the age of 14 when the child's card has been compromised versus sitting around and waiting for a malicious act to take place.

This is a straightforward solution that will help protect children and families from fraud.

I urge my colleagues to support this so we can continue to stand together to better safeguard the identities of American kids.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smucker).

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

A mother testifying before the Ways and Means Committee told us how it took ``hours of effort over months'' to protect her daughter from identity theft and that ``the threat will never completely go away unless she is assigned a new Social Security number.''

This mother had to battle with the SSA after her infant daughter's Social Security number was compromised. Unfortunately, the story is all too common for millions of Americans who have had their Social Security numbers stolen or misused each year.

By taking swift action today, we can prevent a lifetime of financial harm to American children across the country.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5346) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to reform certain penalty and interest provisions, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Fair and Accountable IRS Reviews Act introduced by our colleague, Representative Glenn Grothman.

While not a member of the Committee on Ways and Means, I know Representative Grothman to be a tireless advocate for American taxpayers, as represented by this important piece of legislation that will go a very long way toward protecting their rights.

The legislation ensures that rogue IRS employees are not able to unfairly impose penalties and fines on taxpayers without going through proper channels of authorization and doing so in a timely manner.

Right now, an IRS agent can impose a penalty on an American taxpayer before obtaining a supervisor's approval. Moreover, they can shop around for any other employee at the agency that they wish to seek permission from since current law does not require approval from a direct supervisor.

These loopholes undermine the no-signature, no-penalty principle. Representative Grothman's bill received unanimous support at the Committee on Ways and Means. It is an important policy reform that will reinforce fair treatment of taxpayers at the IRS.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman).

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

Mr. Speaker, American taxpayers should not be at the mercy of rogue IRS agents who are handing out fines without reasonable due process. At the very least, agents ought to have actual prior approval before issuing a penalty and should not be allowed to go around looking for a sympathetic employee to grant them that approval.

I commend our colleague, Representative Grothman, for introducing this straightforward legislation that puts in place some guardrails around the IRS and its agents. This bill will help restore integrity to the agency's processes. Above all, it will protect the

rights of American taxpayers, whose interests we must continue to look out for.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the Fair and Accountable IRS Reviews Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5349) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to improve services provided to taxpayers by the Internal Revenue Service by providing greater judicial review, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Tax Court Improvement Act, bipartisan legislation introduced by Representatives Nathaniel Moran and Terri Sewell. As a former judge, Congressman Moran knows the importance of fully protecting Americans' legal rights and due process, and I appreciate his leadership on this issue.

This bill strengthens taxpayer rights during judicial proceedings before the U.S. Tax Court.

The court will be able to more expeditiously resolve cases as the legislation enhances the efficiency of its judicial review to the benefit of the taxpayer. This will increase the court's productivity, and Tax Court judges will also be held to the same disqualification standards as other judges. Finally, the court will now have the ability to extend taxpayer deadlines where timely filing is impractical.

The U.S. Tax Court is the only venue where taxpayers can dispute a tax estimate without first paying that tax. Taxpayers must stand on equal footing when going toe-to-toe with the IRS. Without the guarantee of rights, taxpayers are put in a situation where the

IRS is essentially saying: Heads, I win. Tails, you lose.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to stand with American taxpayers and support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Moran).

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

Mr. Speaker, the Ways and Means Committee has been working tirelessly to strengthen taxpayer rights. This year alone, the committee has approved several pieces of legislation giving taxpayers fairer treatment. The Tax Court Improvement Act is another one of these solutions.

The IRS is the most feared Federal agency for good reason, but we are working to change that. In addition to pursuing partisan aims, it has a long-documented history of treating taxpayer rights as mere suggestions.

This bill will give taxpayers more confidence and greater protections when litigating their case before the U.S. Tax Court.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Moran and Congresswoman Sewell for championing taxpayer rights. This bill received total support in the Ways and Means Committee, and I urge all my colleagues to do the same here in the House.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Dr. Jon Cozean of Farmington, Missouri. Dr. Cozean, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, died November 11, 2025, at the age of 87.

Jon was a lifelong learner. He started a radio station. He studied journalism at the University of Missouri, earned a master's degree from George Washington University and a doctorate in international relations from the American University. He worked for the New York Times at its Washington D.C. bureau. It was the sudden death of his father in 1985 that brought Jon back to Farmington to lead the family business. He was a fourth-generation owner of Cozean Memorial Chapel and was inducted into the National Funeral Directors Association Hall of Excellence.

He was a man of quiet dignity, sincere kindness, and genuine interest in people. Jon was a fixture at community events. He invested in his hometown in a variety of ways from taking photos of the high school football games to teaching at Mineral Area College to serving as Mr. Country Days in 2018. Jon was best known for his passion for local history. He loved to share details about the Farmington community with audiences who came to appreciate their heritage more because of the way Jon brought their hometown story to life.

Dr. Jon Cozean is part of the fabric of Farmington. He leaves a legacy of caring that's exemplified by the many lives he touched. I join with the Farmington community in mourning his loss but celebrating his life of service today before the United States House of Representatives.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Anna Kathleen Cummins Kennedy of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, whose life exemplified service to country, devotion to family, and tireless commitment to community. Born on January 1, 1925, near Falmouth, Kentucky, Anna Kathleen was the seventh of ten children on her parents' farm. When her mother died at age 12, she immediately assumed the duties of running the household, caring for her younger brothers, cooking, and keeping the home, all while continuing her education and graduating from Falmouth High School in 1942. During those formative years she became an extraordinary cook, an immaculate homemaker, and a steadfast caretaker to her family.

After contributing to the wartime labor force in Cincinnati, Ohio, she enlisted in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service in early 1945 and trained in New York. She served with the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps at Naval Air Station Memphis, Tennessee, where she ministered to service members during the final months of World War II. She was honorably discharged in January 1946 after devoting service to her country.

In the closing days of her service, she met Ardell O. Kennedy at the Memphis Naval Air Station. They married in January 1946 and began their family in 1947. Ardell and Anna enjoyed 71 amazing years together welcoming their four children: Karen Delleen, Bonnie Lee, Mark Alan, and Douglas Ray. They both made education a priority, ensuring each child completed college and pursued careers in nursing, teaching, and law.

The Kennedys made Poplar Bluff their permanent home in 1950. For two decades Kathy raised her children while serving as a devoted wife and mother and as an active leader in her church and community. She was a charter member of Fellowship General Baptist Church and served as Den Mother, PTA member, Vacation Bible School director, Sunday School teacher, and participant in mission and quilting societies. She devoted herself to food, clothing, and fund drives and served Eastern Star for more than 50 years, holding local and state offices.

Once her children were grown, Kathy worked for more than 25 years as a clerk at livestock auctions across Missouri and Arkansas. She cherished family gatherings, hosted Sunday dinners, and traveled with relatives to nearly every state. She was a talented craftswoman whose creativity touched every part of her life. She enjoyed bowling for both fun and friendship, and her love of reading kept her mind curious and engaged. She became grandmother to 10 and great-grandmother to 16, creating cherished quilts and paintings for each and continuing to nourish her family with homemade meals as long as she was able.

It is my honor to recognize Anna Kathleen Cummins Kennedy for a life defined by courage in service, devotion to family, and enduring generosity to her community. Her legacy of care, craftsmanship, and commitment stands as a model of the quiet, steady contributions that strengthen families and towns across our Nation. On behalf of myself, Congressman Jason Smith and the community she served, I offer profound appreciation for her remarkable life.

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

Mr. Speaker, before November, Americans wondered whether our best days were behind us. Democrats fueled inflation. They opened our borders, funded illegal immigration with your tax dollars, and increased IRS audits on the middle class, all while leaving the working class behind.

President Trump promised to make America great again, and 77 million--77 million Americans supported that promise. They voted for change. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act delivers for the American people.

This is the largest tax cut for working families, farmers, and small businesses in U.S. history. Households making under $100,000 will see a 12 percent tax cut compared to what they pay today. The average family of four will see nearly $11,000 more in their pockets each year. Real wages for workers will rise by as much as $7,200 a year. A waitress working for tips will keep an extra $1,300. A lineman working overtime after a storm will keep an extra $1,400.

While Democrats defend illegal immigrants, fraudsters, and bureaucrats, Republicans are standing up for the American people, putting more money in their pockets. President Trump promised no tax on tips, overtime pay, or car loan interest, and tax relief for seniors. We are delivering on all of those items and more.

Families win in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Over 40 million households will benefit from a higher child tax credit of $2,200. We boost the standard deduction to give a tax cut to the 91 percent of middle-income families who use it, up to $31,500.

Young Americans win. We expand choices for educational freedom and open up savings options to include trade schools.

Moms and dads get new support for adoption, paid leave, childcare, and healthcare costs. Kids get Trump accounts, giving them a financial stake in our country's future.

We bring back American jobs and our manufacturing base by protecting or creating more than 7 million jobs, including 1 million new small business jobs each year.

We rein in Washington by delivering the largest cut in mandatory spending in U.S. history.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is for the people who don't have lobbyists in this town: the farmers; the welders; the waitresses; the nurses who are pulling double shifts; the truck drivers who are hauling goods across this country; and the folks who work hard, play by the rules, and ask only for a fair shot and a government that works for them, not against them.

It is for places like Peachtree City, Georgia; Yukon, Oklahoma; Petersburg, West Virginia; Erie, Pennsylvania, and all of the other communities that the Committee on Ways and Means visited over the last 24 months. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is their bill.

It is about restoring sanity in a town that has lost it, cutting waste, and reining in reckless spending. It demands that, if you are able to work, you should. It stops asking working families to foot the bill for Washington's bad decisions.

Let's get this done, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Kustoff).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Smith).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood) for the purpose of a colloquy.

Mr. Speaker, yes, it is the legislative intent that vehicles shall be treated as ``acquired'' as of the date on which a written binding contract is entered into for their acquisition and a payment has been made.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Estes).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Miller).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Feenstra).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 47 seconds to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Yakym).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Knott).

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

Mr. Speaker, I represent one of the poorest congressional districts in this country. I can tell you this piece of legislation is for those working families, those small business owners, and those farmers who are doing everything they can just to get by. It is not for the millionaires and the billionaires.

How many waitresses who are tipped are billionaires? How many billionaires work hourly jobs and overtime? None do so.

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

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

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

Wow, Mr. Speaker, we have stood in this Chamber for over 8 hours listening to a lot of words, a lot of comments, a lot of inaccurate statements, and where I come from--could we have order?

Mr. Speaker, I come from the Show Me State, and what we just heard can be defined in one word, a bunch of hogwash is what we have heard for 8 hours on that side of the building. I will tell you, for the 8 hours--could we have order?

Mr. Speaker, the 8 hours of hogwash that we just heard will not change the outcome that you will see very shortly when we deliver historic tax relief for working families, small business owners, and farmers.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Johnson), our great Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, today, we embark on a golden age for working families and small businesses with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

We make permanent the 2017 Trump tax cuts. We add a $1,300 tax cut for families, compared to what they are paying this year, and halt a $1,700 tax increase.

Working families, farmers, and small businesses win with this bill. We expand and make permanent the small business deduction and increase the child tax credit, the standard deduction, and the death tax exemption.

President Trump promised no tax on tips, overtime pay, and car loan interest. Hardworking Americans working overtime get up to $1,750 more in their pockets under this bill. Those working for tips get $1,700 more. Families buying U.S.-made cars can deduct their auto loan interest.

President Trump promised no taxes on Social Security, and in this bill, we deliver. Low- and middle-income seniors on Social Security will now have their tax liability erased with an increase in their standard deduction.

Under this bill, if you build businesses here in America, you win. Not only do we renew incentives for domestic research and development, but we do 100 percent immediate expensing and the deduction for interest expenses.

We also deliver on President Trump's promise to revitalize American manufacturing, with 100 percent expensing for new factories and improvements of existing facilities. Small- and medium-sized manufacturers also win with greater tax benefits.

We replace bad tax policy with good tax policy, ending Biden-era tax breaks and special interest giveaways to the wealthy, the well- connected, and China. We hold accountable woke elite universities and tax-exempt organizations that abuse their generous tax benefits.

President Trump stopped the flow of illegal immigrants over our borders. This bill will stop the flow of taxpayer benefits to their pockets.

After the October 7 attacks on Israel, rampant anti-Semitism stormed college campuses. The Ways and Means Committee investigated, given the schools' massive tax benefits. Jewish students testified about living in fear as administrators failed to condemn the behavior. No longer. Some of the worst offenders, colleges with endowments reaching into the tens of billions, will now face the same taxation rate as corporations.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act gives America a big, beautiful raise, with the average American household seeing real take-home pay go up by as much as $13,300.

We will save or create 7.4 million jobs, add 1 million new small business jobs annually, and unlock $1.5 trillion in additional small business economic growth, including $284 billion in growth just from manufacturing alone. We can boost short-run real GDP by as much as 5.2 percent and long-run real GDP by over 3 percent.

Renewing the successful Opportunity Zone program will help distressed communities, especially rural ones, by spurring over $100 billion in new investments.

Parents win with expanded education savings accounts to choose the education that best fits their kids' needs. Americans get greater control over their healthcare with expanded health savings accounts. Working families get better access to childcare and a permanent paid leave tax credit.

Supporting the working class is deeply personal for me. I was raised in a single-wide trailer in a town of less than 5,000 people. My grandparents never had running water. The average income in my hometown of Salem, Missouri, is just over $24,000. My priority is the working class because the working class raised me.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Make American families and workers thrive again. Make rural America and Main Street grow again. Help America win again.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the gentleman from California that a family of four making $96,334, the median income in California's Fourth District, would see a $2,167 tax increase if the Trump tax cuts expire.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Estes).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Feenstra).

Mr. Speaker, if the Trump tax cuts expire, in the Congresswoman's district, 95,070 of California-38 families would see their household child tax credit slashed in half.

That is helping your constituents.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Hern).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Miller).

Mr. Speaker, this is what this one big, beautiful bill is all about.

This is what 77 million Americans voted for: make the 2017 Trump tax cuts permanent, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on car loan interest, and tax relief for seniors. The one big, beautiful bill puts money back in the pockets of the people who make this country run.

President Trump promised a new golden age, and House Republicans are delivering on that promise. The American people are counting on Congress to get the job done.

Let's pass this bill. Let's deliver for American workers, farmers, families, and small businesses.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/4\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Malliotakis).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Kustoff).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman), the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Moran).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Yakym).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Van Duyne).

Mr. Speaker, if the Trump tax cuts were to expire in Mr. Gomez's district, a family of four making $62,008, the median income in California's 34th District, would see a $1,139 tax increase.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bean).

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

Mr. Speaker, let's talk about who benefits from this bill. A single mom, a waitress in Nevada is working long hours. She is raising one child. She is living paycheck to paycheck. She gets a bigger standard deduction underneath our legislation. She won't pay taxes on tips in our legislation. She gets a boosted child tax credit.

That is a tax cut of $4,891. That is not pennies. That is real money for working Americans. This is what it means to stand with the working class and millions of tipped workers.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Miller).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. McGuire).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Lawler).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise).

Mr. Speaker, the Democrat leader is mistaken. We aren't currently in the dead of night. We are voting for the one big, beautiful bill first thing in the morning. The relief for working families simply can't wait. We will work until the job is done, and we are going to do that.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Johnson), the Speaker of the House.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 517) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify the rules for postponing certain deadlines by reason of disaster, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Filing Relief for Natural Disasters Act, introduced by Ways and Means Committee members Representatives Kustoff and Chu.

For too many Americans, help from the Federal Government after a natural disaster can take too much time to arrive. This bipartisan bill authorizes the Treasury Department, in consultation with FEMA, to postpone tax filing deadlines for Americans living in State-declared disaster areas just as they do for federally declared disasters.

If a State moves faster in declaring an emergency, the Treasury Department can more quickly respond when it comes to an individual's tax obligations. This legislation will help disaster victims receive desperately needed tax relief sooner rather than later.

Additionally, this legislation doubles the current mandatory tax filing extension following a federally declared disaster declaration from 60 to 120 days.

For most people recovering from a disaster, taxes fall lower on their to-do list than more immediate needs like finding shelter, food, and caring for loved ones. By extending this deadline, we are providing families the breathing room and additional time to get their lives back together.

President Trump was elected on the promise of finally making the government work better for working people. All Americans, but especially Americans recovering from a natural disaster, deserve easier tax filing. With tax day in just a few days, we must look for commonsense, bipartisan ways to make filing and paying taxes less of a hassle.

I thank both sponsors of this legislation for leading on this issue on behalf of the people they represent and all Americans.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Kustoff), the sponsor of this legislation.

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

Everyone knows the Washington bureaucracy doesn't always move quickly, even when Americans are crying out for help after a natural disaster.

This bill allows for the postponing of tax filing deadlines for Americans living in a State-declared disaster area that has yet to receive a Federal disaster declaration.

This bipartisan effort will help those Americans still reeling from a devastating event. After all, they should be focused on restoring their lives and livelihoods first and foremost.

If Washington is slower than a State government to respond, that is not a good enough reason to deny Americans the help they need. This legislation will lighten the load carried by families affected by a natural disaster.

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

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