Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, today is December 1. At midnight and 30 days, at least 5 million Americans could lose access to their health insurance, and 22 million Americans who benefit from enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act--as they began open enrollment 1 month ago--started to see their health insurance premiums spike.

Last week, in honor of Prematurity Awareness Month, I stood on this floor

to talk about how the Affordable Care Act expanded insurance to millions of Americans, how Medicaid expansion expanded insurance to millions of Americans, and how critically important that health insurance coverage is to a full-term birth with a nonfatal outcome for mother and child.

In the middle of the week, with several other mothers of preemies, I talked about my birth story.

Ten years ago, when I woke up one morning and my placenta ruptured and after almost bleeding to death, my daughter, Samantha, was born by emergency C-section. It was the scariest moment of my life. The hardest moment was the fact that I could not hold her, see her, or touch her for 24 hours, as she was in the NICU, and then the moment when I walked out of the hospital and had to leave her in the NICU for 6 more weeks.

I don't remember how much that NICU bill was because I was one of the lucky ones who had health insurance to cover that stay. On average, a NICU stay is $70,000 a day. That is more than a single person who qualifies for the enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act at the maximum rate of 400 percent of the Federal poverty line makes in a year. That person makes $62,600. The average NICU stay is $70,000.

I was lucky not only because I was able to take my daughter home 6 weeks later, but that entire 6 weeks I didn't have to worry about how I was going to pay that bill. All I had to worry about was her and my recovery. There are a lot of people that aren't that lucky.

There are a lot of people trying to decide right now whether to start a family. There are people right now who are in the process of starting a family who wonder if they will be able to afford their health insurance come January 1. They are having to make really tough decisions now, as they are in the middle of open enrollment, as to whether or not they can continue to afford health insurance.

Tonight, members of the Congressional Black Caucus will bring you stories from our constituents, from the States that we represent, of people who will be priced out of the insurance market, who will be one illness or accident away from economic devastation if Congress does not act to extend the enhanced premium tax credits beyond December 31.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Clarke), our chairwoman and the Representative from New York's Ninth District, to tell some stories.

Mr. Speaker, I thank our chair for those remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson), the Representative from Georgia's Fourth District.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his words.

To hear more stories from Georgia, I now yield to the Representative from Georgia's Seventh District, Congresswoman Lucy McBath.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Cherfilus-McCormick), who represents the 20th District.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Ivey), who represents the Fourth District.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

Mr. Speaker, I will take a personal privilege to close this Special Order hour with some stories from Virginia, which I know you, Mr. Speaker, care a lot about. You and I served together in the State legislature there where we were able to find common ground across the aisle a little more easily than we are able to do in Congress.

In Virginia, about 350,000 people benefit from the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, enhanced premium tax credits, 30,000 in my district, the Fourth Congressional District.

For a family of four that earns $129,800 a year, they are looking at premiums that will increase by $4,675. A family of four earning $64,000 a year will see their annual premiums increase $2,571. A 60-year-old couple earning $82,800 a year will see their annual premiums increase $11,968. That is a 174-percent increase. That is what Virginians are facing if we can't find common ground to solve this problem, even temporarily.

Our former colleagues in the General Assembly have predicted that at least 60,000 Virginians would end up canceling their insurance coverage due to affordability if they lose access to the enhanced premium tax credits.

Mr. Speaker, last week, Cardinal News--which covers the Southwest and Southside, Virginia, both of us represent portions of that part of the Commonwealth--told several stories.

There was one from Reagan Fisher Wyssbrod from Salem. Reagan and her husband, who is self-employed, have two children.

Wyssbrod works three part-time jobs to help support the family while keeping the flexibility needed for her children. She spends some days as a substitute teacher and as a business manager for a library association. She does some bookkeeping on the side. None of these jobs offer benefits.

She has a bachelor's degree in psychology, roughly two decades of experience in health insurance and accounting, and she is willing to take almost any job that will offer benefits, she said, even if that means working at McDonald's because she doesn't want to let her children go without healthcare.

Her projected monthly premium increase is $400, which would raise her monthly out-of-pocket costs to $1900. On top of that, her longtime doctor has moved out of network. It is astonishing, she said.

She spent 3 weeks combing through plans and eventually found one that would save the family about $100 a month, bringing their premium down to $1,800, allowing her to keep her doctor, but it has a higher deductible. She said the worst case scenario is her out-of-pocket costs would be $20,000 on top of the monthly premium.

Ultimately, it came down to: I don't go to the doctor that often, my kids don't go to the doctor that often, so we will just roll the dice.

She said: We will wrap some bubble wrap around us, I guess.

I don't think bubble wrap is going to help if they get in a car accident.

Victoria Cassels, an accountant in Roanoke, worries about her adult daughter who lives in Richmond, who is a self-employed graphic designer with an autoimmune disease. Her condition limits how much work she can take on, and she depends on marketplace coverage. Her monthly premium rose by $400, about three times higher than it was last year.

Cassels is going to do what she can to help her daughter cover the costs if she can't take on enough work to meet this new expense. Cassels prepares taxes for individuals and small businesses and says more of her younger clients are

talking about dropping health insurance all together because they just can't afford it.

In the last few years, she has had a slew of clients in their twenties and thirties who have started their own businesses. Just getting started in life, they don't have the savings to afford the increasing cost of health insurance. Without health insurance, it is going to be very difficult for them to start a family.

Ben Pearman, financial adviser from Bent Mountain in Roanoke, runs his own business which is well established, and he has a steady income, but higher monthly costs have led him to reconsider his options.

As a single man in his fifties, he pays for his own health plan. Next year, his monthly premium will jump from $724 to $935. He can absorb the higher cost but is considering switching to concierge care, a model in which the patients pay a flat monthly fee, but that would leave him without insurance if an accident happens.

Linda Bartlett, 64, entered semi-retirement last year, and now works part time at Roanoke's Mast General Store. She turned to the marketplace until she qualifies for Medicare. Her premium is about to double, bringing her monthly payment to $1,200, which is nearly all of her Social Security check.

Mr. Speaker, I yield now to the gentlewoman from Illinois' Second District, Congresswoman Robin Kelly.

Mr. Speaker, I want to put this debate in a larger context. I was in the State legislature where the Affordable Care Act passed. It wasn't perfect. Our healthcare system has never been perfect, but what it did, between the marketplace and expanding Medicaid, is it got the number of uninsured to record lows, at least in Virginia. I can't speak to nationwide, but in Virginia, we saw our uninsured rate go to record lows.

We were able to expand Medicaid on a bipartisan basis because it didn't just benefit urban cores, but suburban centers and rural communities, rural communities that had high numbers of uninsured, that were worried about how their healthcare centers, their hospitals were going to have the volumes to stay open.

We expanded Medicaid. During the--I call it the big, ugly bill, we put millions of Americans at risk of losing their health insurance through cuts to Medicaid. We saw a list of over 300 hospitals in rural areas identified as being at risk of closing.

During the August recess, I traveled all over Virginia not just to talk to my constituents, but as one of only two members of the Energy and Commerce Committee to talk to a wide cross-section of Virginians. I visited a dental clinic in Abingdon. Eighty percent of their patients are covered by Medicaid, 80 percent. The other 20 percent are uninsured.

Before that clinic opened, that community got dental services once a year when a mobile dental clinic showed up, and the line was incredibly long to get one day of dental service a year.

When I visited this clinic, I didn't come in with any talking points. I just came to tour. I asked: What keeps you up at night? The director said: I don't know how we are going to keep our doors open with these Medicaid cuts.

Two TV stations were there who were there when the clinic opened because they understood what a big deal this clinic was, not just for Abingdon, but the entire southwest corner of the Commonwealth. My colleague who represents that area in response to that visit said: Democrats are just fear-mongering.

Well, lo and behold, less than a month later, three rural clinics closed, citing Medicaid cuts in H.R. 1. A hospital in Farmville closed its labor and delivery unit.

I ran for office because I grew up listening to my parents tell stories when they grew up in the segregated South during the Depression. They saw the best of government and they saw the worst of government.

Mr. Speaker, the best of government was when people came together to solve problems and to help people who were hurting through no fault of their own. These were people who were working day in and day out and couldn't afford to put food on the table. They couldn't afford healthcare when they got sick. They couldn't afford a roof over their heads.

The worst of government is when we sit here and focus more on: How can I score political points? How can I benefit the wealthiest 1 percent on the backs of every other working American?

As I traveled around Virginia in August and October, and in the 54 days that we weren't doing our job here in Washington--not having committee hearings and not voting on the House floor--what I heard was people losing faith that our government knows how to be at its best. We have to get back to that.

Our system is not perfect. That is why in the Constitution it says that our government was formed in order to form a more perfect Union. It is not a perfect union but a more perfect Union.

The beauty of our form of government is when we listen to the people and see that they are hurting, we have an opportunity to do something to stop that hurting, an opportunity to feed the hungry, house the homeless, care for the sick, welcome the stranger, and visit the incarcerated. When we do for the least of these, we are at our best.

We have gotten away from that, Mr. Speaker. We better get back to it because the American people are losing faith that this body, Congress, will do its job. We better do it. They are depending on us to. They have told us they are worried. We heard the stories tonight. This is just one thing people are worried about.

We need to get back to our better nature. We need to come together, find common ground, and help people who are wondering: Come January 1, how am I going to afford this health insurance? What am I going to do when my kid burns his hand and ends up in the burn unit with a bill of $15,000 that I can't afford to pay? What am I going to do if my baby is born prematurely and has to stay in the NICU at an average price of $70,000 a day?

People are wondering: Do we hear them, and are we going to act?

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate National Rural Health Day and National Rural Health Month.

Due to a lack of infrastructure and support, rural communities suffer from the worst health outcomes nationwide. Pharmacy deserts, maternal health deserts, mental health deserts, worker shortages, and more limit people's access to care, sometimes forcing residents to travel 1 hour or longer for primary and emergency care.

These communities that already need help accessing affordable, quality care now face a growing crisis due to draconian cuts to Medicaid and the big, ugly law signed in July, which will make it harder for rural communities to access the care that they need.

Mr. Speaker, 338 rural hospitals from across the country have been identified as at risk, 6 in Virginia, 1 in my district.

I traveled around rural areas during our recesses talking to these providers about their concerns. I was accused by my Republican colleagues of fear-mongering. Yet, I was amplifying the fears that they had. Lo and behold, weeks after visiting some of these providers, three rural providers closed their doors citing the big, ugly law's Medicaid cuts.

A Farmville hospital announced the closure of its labor and delivery unit, citing a reduction in Federal care. We need to do more for our rural communities in providing care, not less.

Mr. Speaker, it's not too late to address this health care crisis of Republicans' making. We can start by permanently extending the enhanced premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act to prevent millions more from seeing their premiums skyrocket.

This Rural Health Day, I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to recognize this issue for what it is, and to act now.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor a lifetime of service of one of my constituents, Colonel William Woodard Butler, the 2025 Veteran of the Year for Virginia's Fourth Congressional District.

With over 38 years of service between Active Duty and the Reserves, Colonel Butler has devoted his military career and beyond to improving the lives of our servicemembers, advancing medical research, and giving back to his community.

Colonel Butler completed two overseas deployments, one to Okinawa and another to Qatar. He has over 980 hours of flight time, of which 65 are in combat.

He then rounded out his military career as a professor of aerospace medicine at the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine.

In addition to this, he now serves as an active member of his community, as a trustee for the John Randolph Foundation, and as a member of the city of Hopewell's planning commission.

He helped establish a permanently endowed scholarship for Chesterfield, Hopewell, and Prince George students pursuing a medical career.

I thank Colonel Butler for his service to our Nation and admire all he has done to improve the lives of those in our community, Commonwealth, and country. I am honored to name him the 2025 Veteran of the Year for Virginia's Fourth Congressional District.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Colonel William Woodard Butler, an extraordinary Virginian and the 2025 Veteran of the Year for Virginia's 4th Congressional District. Colonel Butler is an outstanding choice for this honor, having devoted his entire military career to saving and improving the lives of our service members and advancing research in surgery, tropical medicine, hyperbaric medicine, and aerospace medicine.

Colonel Butler has logged over 980 flight hours, including more than 65 hours in combat, and completed two overseas deployments, one to Okinawa and another to Qatar. He concluded his distinguished military career as a Professor of Aerospace Medicine at the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, earning the Air Force's special experience identifier of Clinical/Academic Grandmaster in both Hyperbaric and Aerospace Medicine.

Internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in altitude- induced decompression sickness and aeromedical evacuation, Colonel Butler's research has directly improved the safety and survivability of critically ill and injured service members during transport. His contributions have had a lasting, positive impact on the Department of Defense and have almost certainly reduced the overall transport morbidity for tens of thousands of casualties.

Colonel Butler's exemplary service has earned him national and international recognition. In 2019, he was inducted into the National Air and Space Museum's Wall of Honor. In 2022, he received the Aerospace Medical Association's prestigious John Ernsting Award, and in 2024, he was honored with the Chesterfield Education Foundation's BRAVO Award.

Following more than 30 years of combined active duty and reserve service, Colonel Butler continued his dedication to the mission as an Aerospace Medicine Consultant to the Air Force for an additional decade. He has authored over 150 publications, including 29 peer- reviewed articles, 39 peer-reviewed abstracts, and 23 proceedings, technical reports, and textbook chapters, culminating in a definitive 200-page monograph on the safe aeromedical evacuation of critically ill and injured casualties.

Beyond his remarkable professional achievements, Colonel Butler has remained deeply involved in his community. He serves as a Trustee for the John Randolph Foundation, a member of the Hopewell City Planning Commission, and an active congregant at the Family of God Church in Chesterfield. He also helped establish a permanently endowed scholarship for students in Chesterfield, Hopewell, and Prince George pursuing medical careers and is an engaged member of the William and Mary Alumni Book Club in Richmond.

Mr. Speaker, Colonel Butler's legacy of service, both in uniform and in his community, embodies the best of Virginia's 4th Congressional District. His lifelong commitment to science, service, and community betterment stands as an inspiration to us all. I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating Colonel Butler on being named the 2025 Veteran of the Year and in thanking him for his decades of exemplary service to our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 245th anniversary of the First African Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia, one of the oldest continuously operating Black congregations in the United States and a cornerstone of faith, resilience, and community leadership in the Commonwealth and in Virginia's 4th Congressional District.

The church's roots run deep into Richmond's past. On July 1, 1841, members of three Baptist churches gathered at First Baptist Church to formally organize what was to become ``The African Baptist Church of Richmond.'' That founding charter included stipulations that reflect the fraught realities of its time, including the oversight of religious instruction by a committee of white members of Richmond's Baptist churches.

Founded in 1780, during a time when the vast majority of African Americans in Virginia were enslaved, First African Baptist Church began as a congregation of free and enslaved worshippers who sought spiritual refuge and self-determination in the heart of Richmond. Despite extraordinary obstacles, the congregation persevered, grew, and became formally recognized as an independent church in 1841 under the leadership of Reverend Robert Ryland.

Throughout its remarkable history, First African Baptist Church has stood as a beacon of hope and activism in Richmond. It was a center for abolitionist organizing, education, and

later, for the Civil Rights Movement in Virginia, playing a vital role in advancing justice, equity, and opportunity for all.

I had the honor of joining the congregation for their 245th anniversary celebration and witnessing firsthand the deep faith, unity, and pride that continue to define this historic church. Under the dedicated leadership of Reverend Dr. Rodney D. Waller, First African Baptist Church remains a powerful force for good, empowering future generations through worship, education, and community outreach.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating the 245th anniversary of the First African Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia, and in recognizing the profound contributions this historic congregation has made to our Commonwealth.

Mr. Speaker, the United States has one of the highest preterm birth rates in the world, which is a leading cause of infant mortality.

Today, the March of Dimes released its 2025 report card on the state of maternal and infant health. The United States received a D-plus for preterm birthrate for the fourth consecutive year in a row.

In 2024, 380,000 babies were born prematurely. That is 10.4 percent of all babies born. The worst rates are in the southern region of the United States.

These statistics are personal for me. My daughter was born 9 weeks early when my placenta ruptured. We both nearly died. She spent the next 6 weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit. We were among the lucky ones. Far too many mothers and babies don't have that same outcome.

Mr. Speaker, today I join Representatives Jennifer Kiggans and Robin Kelly to introduce a bipartisan resolution to designate November 2025 as Prematurity Awareness Month, and I join my colleagues to do more to prevent preterm births.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to anchor this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour.

Sometimes the voices of people and businesses impacted by congressional action or inaction get lost in the back-and-forth of the floor and the media.

For months, Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have focused on amplifying the stories of our constituents, and tonight we do the same, amplifying the stories of people whether they are small business owners, they are employees, they are self-employed, farmers, or others, who could find themselves unable to afford healthcare without an extension of the enhanced premium tax credit.

We know that there is a healthcare crisis looming in this country. We know that every American is one illness or accident away from economic devastation. That is the point of health insurance, to make sure that when they need care, they can access it without going bankrupt.

While the healthcare system isn't perfect, the point of the Affordable Care Act was to ensure more people had access to insurance through Medicaid expansion, through employer provided healthcare, and through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. It is called Marketplace Virginia in my State.

The more people have insurance, the more we know when they need care they can get it and not go bankrupt. More importantly, they can get primary care and preventative care so that when they get sick--because they will--they don't show up in the hospital when it is too late or more expensive to treat. Also, when more people show up in those hospitals uninsured, they will get care, and the cost of that care goes to everybody else.

Tonight, Mr. Speaker, you will hear stories of people who purchased their insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchange who, because of the enhanced premium tax credits, can actually afford their premiums. Without those tax credits, many of them--we have heard time and time again--will be forced to choose: Do I buy that healthcare plan, or do I feed my family?

Do I pay for that healthcare plan, or do I pay my mortgage or my rent?

Do I buy that healthcare plan, or do I pay my utility bills?

For too many Americans, the cost of everything is too high. Unfortunately, many are being forced to forgo health insurance and gamble and hope that they won't get sick. They will, and we will all pay the price for it.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell).

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Brown).

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Clarke).

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

Mr. Speaker, Speaker Johnson has called the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits a boondoggle, but let me tell you what those tax credits have meant for millions of Americans.

Over 80 percent of the tax credit goes to help working people in States that

President Trump won. Since they were introduced, more than half of the growth in national enrollment has come from Texas, Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.

Who are these folks? They are not the 29-year-old sitting in his mother's basement playing video games. They are restaurateurs, beauticians, landscapers, mediators, chiropractors, funeral directors, farmers, ranchers, freelancers, contractors, and gig workers, and now they are stuck.

As open enrollment began and they opened their mail, they found that their premiums, in some cases, doubled; in some cases, tripled. I heard from a local restaurateur in my district, Lester Johnson. He and his wife own Mama J's, a beloved restaurant in the Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond, which was once known as the Harlem of the South.

The Johnsons rely on ObamaCare, or the Affordable Care Act, for themselves and their 8-year-old daughter. They pay $700 a month, and Lester has estimated that, if the subsidies expire, his bill will go up to $1,400 a month. He has about 40 employees, and they would see premium hikes, as well. Lester says: It is a lot of money for people. I think everyone is feeling the anxiety.

He is worried about his family and the families of those 40 employees.

I heard from Bron Hansboro, the owner of The Flower Guy Bron, a Richmond small business:

We have been looking at this coming down the pike for a few months, and I have had to be proactive, and I have had to consider what it looks like for my business if these credits are removed, and what it looks like is taking increased risk and finding money that doesn't exist to make sure that we can supplement and offset the cost of my sole employee's expenses.

His sole employee is Ronni Moss, who said: I found fulfillment in my part-time work as a floral and event designer with Bron. In 2021, I left my corporate job for full-time employment. It was an important move for me to work in a dream career while contributing to the success of this small business. At reasonable rates, I have purchased health insurance on the marketplace, and the benefits that they have offered at my corporate job while they allowed me to give birth to my handsome son, it is the marketplace that has proved more valuable to me. Now, with the increased insurance on top of the increase in groceries and other living expenses, I am not sure how my family is going to manage it.

We have heard from farmers across the district who are already struggling, particularly soy farmers. In my district in Virginia, we have some of the largest number of soy farmers in the Commonwealth. They are already struggling under the tariffs and as a result they can't sell their crops.

One of my farmers said to me: Basically, unless you are a beef cattle farmer, you are already a volunteer right now, and now we have to figure out not only how we feed our families but how we pay for our health insurance because we purchase under the marketplace.

Why is it so important that people are insured? I was in the Virginia Legislature when we expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The reason we did it is because we had rural hospitals that were about to close. We had so many people who were not getting preventative care, and it was leading an already bad maternal health crisis to get worse. It was leading an already bad infant mortality crisis to get worse. It was leading a preterm birth crisis to get worse.

By getting people connected to a medical home, paid for by insurance--in that case, Medicaid, or later when we created a State- based exchange--through the exchange, they could get preventative screenings that could identify cancer while it was still treatable. Pregnant women would be healthy when they got pregnant and not have to deal with hypertension and other chronic diseases that lead to a high maternal mortality rate.

We saw health outcomes improve. We saw hospitals, which were on the verge of closing because of the high number of uninsured, overcome that risk.

During the summer recess, I visited a dental clinic in far southwest Virginia in Abingdon. Before that dental clinic opened, communities in southwest Virginia waited a full year for a dental clinic that was part of a larger healthcare clinic to come where they could get basic dental care, such as dentures and other types of dental care.

When this clinic opened, 80 percent of their patients are Medicaid recipients. Twenty percent are uninsured.

Now thanks to the pending Medicaid cuts, they don't know what they are going to do. They are worried about the uninsured in that community who are covered by Medicaid and now that community is also worried about those that are insured through the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Speaker, because without your health insurance, you don't know what you are going to do when, in the blink of an eye, your child is injured.

I know that fear. When my son was about 3 years old, in the blink of an eye, he burned his hand. I happened to be in a rural area as part of a conference. We went to the local hospital. They didn't have a burn clinic. This was on a Saturday. They said you can drive back to Richmond and on Wednesday there is a burn clinic and they can take your son, or we can see if we can get him admitted to UVA Hospital or VCU Hospital, both of which were hours away, but we can see if he can get admitted right now. I said: We are going to see if he can get admitted right now.

Between the ambulance ride, a week in the hospital, and the treatment, because I had employer-provided healthcare, I still had to pay $1,000 out of pocket. The total bill was $15,000. This was 12 years ago. Think about what that bill would be today.

I was fortunate. Because I had employer-provided health insurance, I only had to pay $1,000, but I think about how many people don't have that and Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act is their only option.

Right now they are worried about whether that option is going to be available. What does that mean for the people that I represent? In Virginia, about 350,000 people benefit from the enhanced premium tax credits.

For a family of four that earn just under $130,000 a year, they will see their premium go up 43 percent, to $4,675.

For a family of four who earn $64,000 a year, their premium will go up 20 percent, $2,571 more that they have to pay for insurance. For a 60-year-old couple earning $82,000 a year, they will see their premium go up 174 percent. Their premium will go up $11,968.

Most of the families I talk to don't know where they are going to find that money. They don't know if they are going to be able to pay that premium. They do know one thing, guaranteed, they are going to need healthcare. They don't know if they are going to be able to pay for it. We will continue to raise these stories because too many people are depending on Congress to act. Their lives literally depend on it.

Hopefully before December 31, we will find the political will to extend these tax credits. If we don't, we better come up with a solution to ensure that Americans all across this country can access the care they need when they need it. If we don't, how are we going to look them in the eye and say we served their needs?

I worry about that. I worry about that mother who wakes up one morning, bleeding, 9 weeks away from her due date who goes to the hospital and isn't sure how she is going to pay that bill, if she makes it.

I worry about that mother whose child has to stay in the NICU for 6 weeks who doesn't know how she is going to pay that bill. I worry about that mother who has to figure out how am I going to get my child the developmental care that she needs to ensure she meets her milestones because all that costs money that she probably doesn't have, and that mother could have been me.

I was fortunate that I had insurance, and while I worried about whether my daughter or I would make it, I didn't have to worry about how I would pay for it. There are too many Americans who go to bed at night wondering, is that lingering cough something that I need to go to a doctor for today? Can I afford it, or do I wait until I can't breathe and I am in the emergency room?

That is what is at stake. It is not a game about will Democrats or Republicans win. It is a question about

whether the American people can get the care they need when they need it.

The Congressional Black Caucus will stand up every single day and fight not just for our constituents but for every single American whether you live in an urban core, a rural holler, a suburban cul-de- sac, no matter where you were born, although we know--let me clarify that if you are not a citizen, you are not eligible for the ACA. Let's just put that to bed for a minute.

No matter where you were born, where you live, the color of your skin, how you worship, you can get the care you need when you need it and know you won't go bankrupt.

That is all people are asking for right now, and we are going to fight to make sure that every single American can go to bed at night not having to worry about the answer to that question.

Mr. Speaker, I thank you for your attention tonight. I ask you to come together to find a solution to this crisis.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 8 o'clock and 47 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the House adjourned until tomorrow, Tuesday, November 18, 2025, at 10 a.m. for morning-hour debate.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of the Honorable James M. ``Jim'' Holland, who faithfully served the people of Chesterfield County's Dale District for nearly two decades before his passing on October 14, 2025. I had the honor of working closely with Jim and witnessing firsthand his deep love for and unwavering dedication to his constituents. His kindness, humility, and steadfast commitment left a lasting impression on everyone who knew him, and his influence will be felt for generations to come.

Born in Gates County, North Carolina, in 1951, Jim Holland served honorably in the U.S. Army's 18th Airborne Corps before earning degrees in accounting and business administration from Fayetteville State University and North Carolina Central University. A certified public accountant, he built a successful practice and later taught accounting for 24 years at Virginia Commonwealth University, inspiring generations of students with his belief that numbers are a tool for integrity and empowerment.

Elected in 2008, Supervisor Holland was the longest-serving member of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, chairing the Board in 2014, 2021, and 2024. Known for his calm and collaborative leadership, he guided the county through the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, championing strong schools, fiscal responsibility, and community investment. His dedication led to major improvements in local infrastructure and the renaming of the Beulah Recreation Center in his honor in 2025.

Beyond his contributions in local government, he represented Chesterfield on numerous regional and state boards and was appointed by multiple Virginia governors for his expertise and judgment. Deeply rooted in his faith and community, he served as a deacon and Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church Centralia and received the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Service Leadership Award earlier this year.

Jim Holland is survived by his wife of 52 years, Judith, and their children, Jessica and James, Chesterfield County and the Commonwealth of Virginia have lost a devoted public servant and educator whose legacy will endure in the community he helped build.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating the life of Supervisor Jim Holland, a man guided by faith, service, and a lifelong commitment to leaving things better than he found them.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Shineforth, formerly known as UMFS, on the occasion of its 125th anniversary of service to children, families, and communities across Virginia.

Founded in 1900 as the Virginia Conference Orphanage, the organization has evolved over the past century to meet the changing needs of vulnerable children and families. From its earliest days, providing care and shelter for orphans, to its transformation into United Methodist Family Services, and now as Shineforth, the organization has remained steadfast in its mission: to create a world where all children can belong and thrive.

Over the past 125 years, Shineforth has pioneered innovative services for children in foster care, those with special education needs, and youth facing behavioral health challenges. Its programs, including foster care and adoption services, residential treatment, community- based support, and the Charterhouse School, have become a model of compassion, resilience, and evidence-based care.

What has not changed is Shineforth's unwavering belief in the worth and dignity of every child. Generations of families in Virginia have been strengthened because of the care, advocacy, and vision provided by this organization and its dedicated staff, volunteers, and supporters.

As Shineforth celebrates this remarkable milestone, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring 125 years of transformative service. May the next century of Shineforth's work continue to light the way forward for children and families in Virginia and beyond.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to extend a warm welcome to His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Spiritual Head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the second largest Christian Church in the world. It is a distinct honor for our Nation's Capital to host such a revered global religious leader whose life's work has been defined by faith, peace, and reconciliation.

His All-Holiness has long been a tireless advocate for interfaith dialogue, human rights, religious freedom, and environmental stewardship. For decades, he has traveled the world promoting understanding and respect among faith traditions and urging us to safeguard our common home for future generations. His spiritual leadership has touched the lives of millions of Orthodox Christians and countless others across the globe.

I am especially proud to represent the Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Richmond, Virginia, a vibrant and

faithful community that stands as a testament to the Orthodox tradition's rich history and enduring presence in America. Their commitment to faith, service, and fellowship reflects the very values His All-Holiness has championed throughout his ministry.

On behalf of the 4th Congressional District of Virginia, I welcome His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Washington and extend deep gratitude for his lifelong dedication to promoting peace, unity, and justice in our world.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Special Olympics Virginia and the Law Enforcement Torch Run as they celebrate 40 years of extraordinary service to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

For four decades, Special Olympics Virginia has provided year-round sports training and competition to thousands of athletes, empowering them to achieve their personal best while fostering inclusion, respect, and community engagement. Through these programs, athletes not only develop athletic skills but also gain confidence, leadership abilities, and lifelong friendships.

The Law Enforcement Torch Run exemplifies the incredible partnership between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve. Officers across Virginia have carried the Flame of Hope, raising awareness and vital funds to support Special Olympics programs. This collaboration has helped break down barriers, build trust, and promote understanding for individuals with disabilities.

As we celebrate this milestone, we recognize the dedication of athletes, coaches, volunteers, and law enforcement officers whose commitment has transformed the lives of countless Virginians. The legacy of Special Olympics Virginia and the Law Enforcement Torch Run is one of inclusion, compassion, and unwavering support for every athlete's potential.

I congratulate the Special Olympics Virginia and the Law Enforcement Torch Run on 40 years of service and in celebrating their continued impact on communities throughout our Commonwealth.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Pallone for the time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to H.R. 3062, the Promoting Cross-border Energy Infrastructure Act.

My concern is that this bill is going to be bad for our national security interests, in addition to leading to rising costs that will ultimately harm consumers.

Currently, the State Department must sign off on all cross-border energy pipelines and power lines. However, this bill would remove that requirement so that FERC and the Department of Energy would have the final say on pipelines and power lines, respectively.

While FERC and DOE could consult with other appropriate Federal agencies, such consultation is optional.

If there is a disagreement between the State Department and the Department of Energy or the State Department and FERC, this bill says that our national security and diplomatic interests will take a back seat, and at the end of the day, FERC and DOE will make the final call on critical decisions that could impact international relations and national security issues.

It is disconcerting to hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle call national security and diplomatic interests political, as the committees of jurisdiction have traditionally taken great pains to keep politics out of those agencies. More importantly, FERC and DOE simply are not equipped to have the final say on national security and diplomatic decisions.

As we have heard, this bill could also drive up costs for consumers at a time when many Americans are already facing rising costs and struggling to make ends meet.

It will allow modifications to projects without any need for a permit or environmental review. This means a developer can radically expand a cross-border pipeline without any Federal review.

It also specifically curtails the Federal review for pipelines from Texas to Mexico that carry natural gas to Mexican LNG facilities.

These provisions would facilitate increasing LNG exports, which have been shown to drive up prices for American consumers.

Mr. Speaker, for the sake of our consumers, our national security interests, and the future of our planet, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on H.R. 3062.

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 subject of this Special Order hour.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to anchor this CBC Special Order hour. For the next 60 minutes, members of the CBC will have an opportunity to speak directly to the American people.

Today, the Congressional Black Caucus is remembering an anniversary. It was a terrible anniversary that happened 62 years ago today in Alabama.

Mr. Speaker, to begin our commemoration, I yield to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Figures).

Mr. Speaker, it is now my privilege to yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell).

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining.

Mr. Speaker, I will put today's anniversary in a larger context, but first, I will center on these four little girls again.

As the congregation of the 16th Street Baptist Church greeted each other before the start of Sunday's service, five little girls gathered in the ladies' room in their best dresses. They chatted about the first few days of the school year. They were excited about Youth Day. They were excited to take part in the Sunday adult service.

Rather than rising to begin prayers, just before 11 o'clock, the congregation was knocked to the ground when a bomb exploded under the steps of the church.

In the basement, 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and 11-year-old Cynthia Wesley were killed. Addie's sister, Sarah, survived but lost her right eye. Between 14 and 22 other people were injured.

Dr. King described the attack as ``one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity.''

Two years later, the FBI shut down its investigation after determining that the bombing had been committed by four members of the local Ku Klux Klan: Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Edward Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry.

They chose the church because it had been a rallying point for the civil rights activities of that tumultuous spring of 1963.

In 1971, Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley reopened the case and requested evidence from the FBI. After building trust with witnesses who had been reluctant to testify, they were able to convict Robert Chambliss on November 14, 1977, of his part in the crime. It would be decades later before the other suspects were tried.

On May 1, 2001, Thomas Blanton was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In 2002, Bobby Frank Cherry was convicted. He boasted that he was the one who planted the bomb next to the church wall. That brag is what sent him to prison.

Justice was delayed, but ultimately, justice for these little girls was had.

Putting this in a larger context, as we grapple with the fact that political violence has reared its ugly head in America yet again, yet again, we see anger, fear, hatred, and division across the Nation. We have been here before multiple times. We don't have enough hours in the day to do a Special Order hour on everyone who has suffered because of political violence.

Focusing on how we move forward, Dr. King's words have been on my mind a lot in the past few years. In response to the violence of Charlottesville after the Unite the Right rally, in response to assassination attempts, in response to school shootings, in response to hate crimes, whether political violence, racial violence, or just violence grown out of hate, Dr. King gave us a way forward in two speeches that I come back to as being relevant today. He gave two speeches, one in 1957 called ``Loving Your Enemies,'' and he gave one in 1967 called ``Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?''

That question is relevant today. We see a lot of chaos around us. We have

lost sight of community, but we come out of chaos when we focus on community.

I am going to read some of Dr. King's words. His speech ``Loving Your Enemies'' was rooted in the Sermon on the Mount. It was rooted in the commandment that Jesus added on the Sermon, in addition to love God, love God as you love yourself, to love your enemies.

Mr. Speaker, he talked about how difficult it is to love our enemies. How do we do it? He gave some practical suggestions.

He said: ``In order to love your enemies, you must begin by analyzing self. And I'm sure that seems strange to you, that that I start out telling you this morning that you love your enemies by beginning with a look at self. It seems to me that that is the first and foremost way to come to an adequate discovery to the how of this situation.''

He went on to talk about how sometimes there is something in the way a person carries himself that triggers a hate response or anger in someone else. He said that the first thing we have got to do is look at ourselves. Was it something I said, even if I didn't mean it? Was it something I posted? Take a look at whether we are embodying love. He said that sometimes we have got to admit there are people that just aren't going to like us, and that is okay.

The second, and much more important one, was that an individual must discover the element of good in his enemy.

``Every time you begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will overbalance the bad points.'' . . . ``We're split up and divided against ourselves. And there is something of a civil war going on within all of our lives.''

He put it in the context of what was happening in the south. I think we have heard rumblings over the past few years and questions: Are we facing another civil war in ourselves?

He said: ``So somehow the `isness' of our present nature is out of harmony with the eternal `oughtness' that forever confronts us.'' . . . ``That within the best of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us, there is some good. When we come to see this, we take a different attitude toward individuals. The person who hates you most has some good in him; even the nation that hates you most has some good in it; even the race that hates you most has some good in it.

``And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls `the image of God', you begin to love him in spite of. No matter what he does, you see God's image there.''

Mr. Speaker, I think that is really important. I regret the fact that I never got to meet John Lewis or Dr. King because I want to ask both of them one question: How did they come to love people who physically threatened or attacked them? They both found a way to do it.

I think it was rooted in the fact that they recognized--and I think all of us watching in this Chamber, and around the world, should remember what John F. Kennedy said, which is that we all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future.

We may violently disagree in theory, but that does not mean we should put that violence into action solely because we don't like what someone has said or what they have done. I think we all need to take a step back and see the face of God in one another.

Growing up, I remember listening to my parents tell stories of my great-grandparents and the racial terror and lynchings that they faced. I remember them telling me stories of the violence of the 1960s. I remember being lulled into this false sense of security as a Gen X child of the seventies and the eighties of how great it is we moved beyond that.

Unfortunately, this week reminded us we haven't. We never will if we don't acknowledge and hold onto the basic decency that tells us, yes, we should love our neighbors but also love our enemies. If we don't, I don't know that we will survive as a country. That is one of the things Dr. King talked about.

As a historian, he talked about how different civilizations fell. He talked about the destructive nature of hatred not only toward the person that is hated but toward ourselves.

One of my favorite quotes from him is how in both of these speeches he said: ``And I say to you, I have also decided to stick with love.

``Hate is too great a burden to bear.''

Hate twists us up. It eats us up and destroys us. He told a story about how he and his brother were traveling in Tennessee. Every time they would go down a road, the oncoming car would leave their bright lights on. His brother said: The next time somebody does that, I am going to leave my bright lights on.

He said: Hold up. Somebody has got to have sense enough to turn down the lights. If we don't, we will both be blinded and run off the road.

I think we are at a point where we need to have sense enough to turn off the lights, to turn down the temperature, and remember our children are watching. Our children are watching.

As we see a rise in gun violence, I have been particularly disturbed by how many children have gotten to the point where they let their hatred allow them to kill other children.

As I raise a teenager and a tween, as a preacher's daughter, I try to instill in them the same message of love our neighbors and love our enemies. It is really hard to do that.

When I am away from home, making sacrifices to make their lives easier, they see not only the violence that we have become numb to but they see people, their mother included, get threatened. They see people that they have seen in this body say the most vicious things on social media. These are people who were kind to them when I was sworn in and when they stood beside me. They ask some pretty tough questions.

As leaders in this country, we have a responsibility to understand that when we stand in this well, at this podium, in our committees, at a press conference, or post on social media, we are not just trying to get clicks, or we shouldn't be. We are not just trying to get attention, or we shouldn't be. We are setting an example for the next generation of leaders. We are setting an example for our children.

I think we need to think about that before we post or say something in anger. If somebody doesn't have sense enough to turn on the lights, our hatred is going to blind us to the point where we tear each other and ourselves apart.

I get asked all the time: How do you stand it on the Hill?

How do you stand in the same room with this person or that person?

It is because I do what Dr. King says, which is rooted in love. I look at that person, even if they give me a reason not to, and I recognize: You and I breathe the same air. We both cherish our children's future. We are all worthy of love and respect.

We need to get back to that, Mr. Speaker, because if we don't, then I don't know where that leads.

Does it lead to a civil war?

Does it lead to chaos and everybody just being afraid to leave the house, give a speech, go to a rally, to a movie theater, to school, or to church?

Violence isn't new, but in the past, we have found a way to come together and focus on community in the midst of chaos. I am afraid we are losing the ability to do that. We have a responsibility as Members of Congress and as leaders in our community to show the way, to show a way toward community and to show a way out of chaos.

It is up to us. It is up to us whether we make it to 2026 where we can celebrate a revolutionary idea that the power of government was derived from the people. I don't know if we can do that if we allow hatred to tear us apart. I think we owe it to everyone who has suffered at the hands of violence, political, racial or otherwise.

I want to end with something Dr. King said at the funeral of these four little girls whose lives we celebrate on the 62nd anniversary of when they died:

``Now I say to you in conclusion, life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel. It has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever- flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons,

life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the piercing chill of its winters. And if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him, and that God is able to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace.''

I think there are a lot of people this week who need that hope. I think there are a lot of people who worry and fear: Will they feel the same despair that so many others have felt when a loved one is killed because of hatred?

We owe it to Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley to do our best every day to build what Dr. King called the ``beloved community,'' where someone will not go to a college campus, a church, or to the movie theater and have their lives snuffed out solely because someone hated them.

We can get there if we focus on building community out of chaos, if we focus on the goodness of everybody, and if we focus on love.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman McIver for co- anchoring this Special Order hour tonight.

You don't grow up in the Commonwealth of Virginia without getting history lessons, and those lessons stuck with me. I am cognizant that next year we have the opportunity to celebrate 250 years of an extraordinary, revolutionary, radical idea that had never been tried, truly, before in the world: the idea that the power of government derives from the people, not from brute force, not from getting it from an inheritance, but the consent of the governed to give power to the government.

Why do they do that? It is to meet their needs, to solve their problems. It is an idea that sparked my imagination as a child. It is an idea that as I listened to my parents tell stories of what their life was like growing up during the Depression, growing up during Jim Crow, where they didn't always have their needs met, not because of any fault of their own or their parents, but they saw the best of government through the New Deal, where the Federal Government used its power to help people who couldn't afford to put food on the table, to help people who lost their life savings overnight in the stock market crash, but didn't help all the people because at the same time, my parents saw the worst of government, a government that oppresses some for the benefit of a few.

That sparked my imagination again to say what can I do to make government a force for good that helps people and solves problems, rather than oppresses some for the benefit of a few? Eventually, that question led me to Congress.

After growing up as a member of Generation X on ``Schoolhouse Rock,'' learning about just a bill's journey to becoming a law, I got here and thought, they didn't get it right because there is no song for what I have seen since coming to Congress, particularly in the 119th.

We stand here today, 22 days before government funding expires. We stand here, House and Senate Democrats, ready to pass a bipartisan funding bill that will improve the health of Americans, that will improve access to quality, affordable healthcare, that will improve the safety and economic well-being of every American.

As a matter of fact, our leaders sent a letter to Republican leadership in the House and the Senate to that effect. The very next day, the President sent down a pocket rescission that the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee said was unlawful. I happen to agree.

Most of this Congress, we have watched a President ignore the will of Congress, Mr. Speaker, or we have seen, at the President's request, congressional Republicans cut Medicaid, cut SNAP benefits, put lifetime caps on student loans, Federal student loans, cut funding that Congress appropriated for cancer research, for the National Institutes of Health, a whole host of things. People at home are scratching their heads saying: How does this help me? How does this solve my problem? It creates more.

I spent the August recess mostly in my district, but I spread out a little bit beyond my district because I am one of only two Virginians on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Healthcare, in particular, has been very important to me. I spent time talking to my constituents, and listening, more importantly, to their concerns, what they were worried about, what they were afraid of, and then talking particularly to healthcare providers across the Commonwealth.

What I heard was a lot of anxiety and fear, whether it was my farmers who because of tariff policies aren't seeing the kind of orders-- particularly for soybeans--that they used to see this time of year going overseas. Mr. Speaker, some can't get the parts to repair their equipment because of tariffs. Some businesses have had to raise prices because they have absorbed them for as long as they can. Yet, they are in between a rock and a hard place where if they raise their prices too

much, especially the small business owners, they are going to go out of business.

I heard from State legislators who wonder how am I going to fill the hole in my State budget caused by cuts to Medicaid, cuts to SNAP, and the requirements on States to pay more when I am also trying to fill the holes in NIH funding and in all the other healthcare funding that helps me meet the needs of my constituents. How am I going to fill the hole when I am still waiting for the Department of Education to send money that was appropriated as schools are about to start.

What my State legislators and my local elected officials told me was--I keep hearing people say about how this big, ugly bill is a tax cut, but what it is doing to me is forcing me to either cut services or raise taxes at the State or at the local level.

Congress has 22 days for Republicans to decide whether we are going to have a government shutdown because they have made clear from day one that they are in charge. They have made clear from day one that the President can just decide not to spend money we have appropriated, and that is okay. They have made clear that they can pass reconciliation bills without giving us a seat at the table. It is up to them whether Congress will pass funding that meets people's needs and solves their problems and keeps the government open or not.

I am usually the eternal optimist. I am a little worried. I am a little worried. Virginia has the second highest number of Federal employees, and since the cuts to the Federal workforce have now seen unemployment increase multiple times before the folks that were paid to stay home until September 30 come off the job rolls, those people are not able to find jobs. Mr. Speaker, unlike what our Governor says: Just because you are a NASA engineer, doesn't mean that you are qualified for the healthcare jobs that our healthcare providers can't fill. The big, ugly bill is going to make all of those issues worse.

I want to share some of what I heard from our healthcare providers. You have the academic research hospitals who are worried they can't attract students, particularly medical students, because of the lifetime cap on student loans which are $257,000.

Today, I talked to a physician from Roanoke, Virginia, who has $500,000 in medical school debt. That math doesn't math. When you have enough medical school debt, you have enough debt to pay for somebody's house. Yet now, the next generation of students coming up behind him can only get half of that in Federal student loans. That math doesn't math.

I visited a dental clinic in Abingdon, Virginia. Before the dental clinic, most people west of Roanoke who needed dental services waited until once a year when the RAM Clinic came to Wise County. You would see the longest line you have ever seen of people waiting to get dental services because they live in a dental desert.

Now, this clinic was able to open, and 80 percent of their patients are Medicaid recipients. The other 20 percent are uninsured. They are worried what happens when the Medicaid cuts take effect and the 80 percent starts to decline as to how many are actually paying something. They won't be able to cover their costs. When Medicaid reimbursement rates were already too low for them to completely recover their costs, that is going to be even harder.

When I shared with the press what I was hearing from healthcare providers across the State, how they were worried they were going to have to close because of Medicaid cuts, the gentleman who represents that area said that Democrats are just spreading fear.

Well, imagine my surprise--actually not surprised--when last week Augusta Medical Group, which covers parts of southwest Virginia, announced they were closing three primary care centers in western Virginia as part of its response to the one big, ugly big.

It is not hyperbole. You have rural hospitals that are already operating on the margins who now are going to have to provide more uncompensated care.

Mr. Speaker, when people come off of Medicaid and when the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits for purchasing insurance on the Affordable Care Act Exchange expire if we don't act by the end of this year and more people become uninsured, they are not going to magically never get sick. They are going to get sick.

When they get sick and show up for care, they will go to the emergency rooms. They will be treated. It is going to be more expensive to treat them. It will be uncompensated care. Guess who pays for that? We do when our insurance premiums go up or when the price of care goes up to recover the cost from private insurers.

All of these jobs that are lost, that is also employer-provided health insurance. That is even more uninsured.

My colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee said they are trying to make sure Medicaid is made sustainable for future generations. That bill did not do a thing to address the underlying reasons healthcare costs are going up. It just provided that fewer people would end up getting health insurance, up to 17 million according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Mr. Speaker, I heard a lot about the SNAP benefit cuts. I heard from recipients who were worried, but I also heard from grocery stores, rural and urban. I represent Surry County. Surry County has one grocery store. It opened last year. Prior to that, it didn't have a grocery store for 20 years. That meant that people in Surry County drove 30 minutes to go grocery shopping. They couldn't get a lot of perishable items. They could only get what would fit in a cooler.

The Surry Marketplace helped with that. The Surry Marketplace took forever, but we were able to help them become eligible for SNAP. They would receive SNAP benefits. They knew that certain times of the month the SNAP recipients would come in. It was mostly the seniors living in two senior facilities within walking distance to the grocery store.

The grocery store bought enough fresh food, produce and meat, that made it sustainable for the market to buy fresh food in bulk and know it would be sold. That is 10 percent of their revenue.

Their worry is that when people lose their SNAP benefits, they can't count on that bulk anymore. It will be harder for them to keep their doors open.

I heard the same thing from the market in Church Hill in downtown East End, Richmond. Both of these areas were food deserts before these stores opened. By the way, a lot of their customers are also Medicaid recipients. The same people who lose access to the food benefits and lose access to their healthcare in the HUD funding bill could lose access to rental assistance, as well.

I heard a lot about FEMA cuts. We had a water infrastructure roundtable. I represent cities that have water infrastructure that is over 100 years old. One of them received a grant to help upgrade its water treatment plant and its water infrastructure that failed earlier this year during a storm.

They got a resiliency grant from FEMA to help upgrade that infrastructure so they would know that when there is a natural disaster the water infrastructure will survive it and the people in the region will have clean drinking water. The Department of Homeland Security canceled that grant, saying it had nothing to do with natural disasters.

Mr. Speaker, I think we all want to be sure that a water infrastructure system will provide clean drinking water when there is a hurricane, a tropical storm, or another natural disaster.

From childcare to healthcare to housing to utility bills, these are just a few of the things that I heard from my constituents about how the price of everything is going up. You name it, Mr. Speaker.

So far, the funding actions of the President and Congress have made it worse. We passed an energy bill last week that gutted the very programs that help people weatherize their homes to reduce their energy costs. We cut in half the very department that has that program.

People ask me: Weren't you elected to help people solve problems?

I was, but we have to work together to do it. Just because Republicans are in the majority does not mean that they only govern over Republicans. Democrats, Independents, and Republicans in Virginia's Fourth District and

across the Commonwealth want us to come together to help them solve their problems. That is what the best of government does. It does not make them worse.

In November, the people made very clear--and they continue to make clear today--the cost of everything is too high. When I talk to Republicans, Democrats, and Independents--rural, urban, and suburban-- no matter where they were born, no matter what language they speak, no matter the color of their skin, no matter who they love, no matter how they worship, they want three things: They want to know they live in a thriving and healthy community. They want to know that they have a job that allows them not just to pay their bills but to have a fair shot at a better life for their children than they had. When they get sick, they want to know they can go to the doctor and not go bankrupt.

Every single person that I talked to in my district during the August period said it is getting harder to do that, and they are afraid it is not going to get better.

We answer to our constituents. When we all took our oath of office, we took an oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and to do our jobs to the best of our ability.

When we see people who are hurting and we have the ability to help, our job--or as Matthew 25 says: When we see somebody who is hungry, we feed them. When we see someone who is homeless, we give them shelter. When we see someone who is sick, we provide them care. When we see a stranger, we welcome them. When someone is in prison, we visit them. At a minimum, how about we make sure they are in conditions that are humane?

We can do a lot better. The American people deserve better. It is going to require us to put politics aside and focus on the people. We have 22 days to do it, Mr. Speaker. We have 22 days to decide: Are we going to come together, find common ground, fund this government in a way that helps people and puts people over politics, or are we going to let it all shut down?

I didn't come here to shut down the government. I also didn't come here to vote for a bill that strips food out of children's mouths and that strips healthcare away from the people that need it. That is not what my constituents sent me here to do.

That is not what my constituents sent me here to do. That is not what this government has done in the past when people were hurting.

I end where I started. My parents saw the best of government, and they saw the worst of government.

If we had another hour, I could walk down the path of how a lot of what I am seeing in 2025 reminds me of what my grandparents saw in 1925 or what my great-grandparents saw in 1905, but we only have 1 Special Order hour and not 2.

Let me just say: Let's find our better angels and show the American people the best of government, where we come together and put people over politics and meet their needs and solve problems together.