Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask a very simple question: When will the Republicans accept their share of responsibility in guaranteeing the health security of all Americans?

The bill under consideration today, H.R. 3522, is really nothing more than a senseless, heartless, 53rd vote by the Republicans to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act.

Where the ACA is a historic leap forward in health security for millions of Americans, this bill is a shameless stumble backward to the days when insurance companies could exploit the American people with impunity.

Where the ACA promotes women's health and security, this bill allows health companies to charge more to women for their coverage than they do for men.

Where the ACA ends the reprehensible practice of price-gouging Americans with preexisting conditions, this legislation allows insurers selling small business health plans to charge more for coverage for those with preexisting conditions.

This legislation would also allow insurers to impose annual limits on coverage, meaning that health security will run out for many Americans when they get sick--a tragic state of affairs that often results in folks going bankrupt in the face of a pile of unpaid medical bills.

This legislation sends us back to a dark day when too many American families had to choose between a roof over their head and food on the table or paying their health care bills.

The ACA was passed into law to protect hardworking Americans, in part, by making bad, exploitative health insurance plans a thing of the past. The fact that they are wanting to add more people to it is really reprehensible. This legislation allows insurers to sell the same bad business plans that they had before to more people until 2018.

The Republicans have been in charge here and haven't proposed any alternative whatsoever. This legislation jeopardizes the health security of American families by rolling back vital insurance protections made law by the ACA.

Mr. Speaker, I ask again: When will the Republicans act on behalf of the health security of the American people? When will they stop having these PR campaign events just before we are going home so they can send out press releases and say they have done something, when they have done absolutely nothing except try to remove the ACA? When will they care about the people?

Sadly, not today.

This bill is an embarrassment and demands a ``no'' vote.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall 474 (On Ordering the Previous Question related to H. Res. 700), had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall vote No. 475 (On Agreeing to the Resolution related to H. Res. 700), had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall vote 476, had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

On rollcall vote 477, had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall vote 478 (On Passage of H.R. 5230), had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall vote 479 (On Passage of H.R. 5272), had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall vote 480, had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. Speaker, I come today to this floor on what I believe is a very sad day for this House. There is no place left safe for children. Yesterday and today, we have condoned and endorsed activities which put children at risk. Children are not safe in mosques, in churches, in U.N.-protected schools, in hospitals, in ambulances, or even playing on the beach.

167 years ago, my great-grandmother came from Ireland, 12 years old, by herself, on a boat, landed in the docks of New York. If this Congress had been sitting then, she would have been sent back to Roscommon County, to her people, to her family, where a third of the people were dying of famine, a third emigrated, and a third stayed. That is what we would have sent her back to, without a hearing, without anything. She had no rights. And, luckily, it wasn't that way.

There is no resonance for Jesus' command: Suffer the little children to come unto me.

Our country will rue this day.

Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation that will address the gaping hole in our country's workforce of primary care physicians. Due to the retirement of a generation of physicians, the aging of our population, and the entry into the system of some 30 million newly insured thanks to the Affordable Care Act, we do not have enough primary care doctors to meet demand. One estimate projects a national shortage of approximately 45,000 primary care doctors by 2020. This problem will continue to worsen without a major initiative to produce new physicians.

Primary care doctors are the front lines of our physician workforce. Under the right conditions, they oversee and coordinate health care for their patients. They educate patients on how to prevent illness and manage chronic conditions. They are the medical generalists who establish long-lasting bonds with patients throughout their lives. Proper primary care is also one of the keys to containing health care costs. On the other hand, inadequate primary care leads to neglected and mismanaged conditions, which causes costly emergencies and illnesses downstream.

I am introducing the RDOCS Act to help solve this problem. Modeled after the successful ROTC program, RDOCS offers full scholarships to medical students in exchange for a 5-year service commitment in a medically underserved area. RDOCS will be administered by the states, which will send RDOCS scholars to their state-operated medical schools. RDOCS officers (as they are known after graduation) will then become licensed and serve as primary care doctors in their state of residence. The program is designed to ensure that at least 4,000 new scholarships are awarded each year.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, we are going to get close to universal health coverage in the United States. But universal coverage will not be meaningful if we don't have enough doctors to serve our population. RDOCS is a major step in this effort, and in the future Congress must build upon this program by expanding graduate medical education and creating additional residency slots to train these new doctors. I am optimistic that Congress can demonstrate the leadership needed to restore our physician workforce for the next generation.

Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation that will address the shortage of physicians at medical facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs. As we have learned from recent events, long wait times at VA facilities are, in part, a consequence of understaffing and a doctor shortage. The lack of primary care physicians in VA facilities is particularly troubling. Recently, the VA estimated that it had about 400 unfilled vacancies for primary care doctors.

Through the Health Professionals Educational Assistance Program, the VA currently provides for loan repayment and scholarships that fund the education and training of a range of health providers. Unfortunately, Educational Assistance Program benefits are limited and, as currently designed, the program does little to encourage primary care physicians to work at the VA. Furthermore, recent proposals to reform the VA do not go far enough to emphasize training VA doctors who are committed to the practice of primary care medicine.

That is why I am introducing the RDOCS-VA Act, legislation that will strengthen the Educational Assistance Program. Modeled after the successful ROTC program, RDOCS-VA will provide scholarships and stipends covering the full cost of attending medical school, in exchange for a five-year commitment to service as primary care doctors at the VA. RDOCS-VA is designed to directly address the VA's needs by requiring the creation of a minimum of 400 RDOCS-VA scholarships, with flexibility to award even more scholarships in the future.

Once fully implemented, the RDOCS-VA program will be an important tool to ensure that our veterans have access to primary care. As part of future efforts, Congress must build upon this program by expanding graduate medical education and creating additional residency slots at VA facilities. This will allow us to train primary care doctors who are fully prepared to serve our veterans for years to come.

Mr. Speaker, in H.R. 4935, the Child Tax Credit Improvement Act of 2014, Republicans are offering a bill that claims to help families but actually does great harm to low-income families with children.

It is really quite a surprising piece of legislation, actually, because it is a backdoor pay increase for Congressmen and Congresswomen who have children. We don't give ourselves any kind of cost-of-living increase, but this is a backdoor pay increase put forward by the Republicans.

Under this bill, couples making between $150,000 and $205,000 would be newly eligible for the child tax credit. So that is all of us, folks. Thank the Republicans for this.

This bill does not, however, make permanent a key provision made to the law in 2009 that is set to expire in 2017. This improvement expanded the refundable portion of the tax credit for millions of hardworking, low-income Americans. Under H.R. 4935, families making minimum wage would lose a portion of their tax credit in 2018. This means that a single mother in South Lake Union, Seattle, working full- time, making $14,500 a year, struggling to support two children, will lose $1,725 in 2018.

In addition, this bill requires one of the taxpayers claiming the child tax credit to have a Social Security number. This provision will harm millions of American kids who are United States citizens living in immigrant families. These children and their families will be cut off from crucial tax relief if this becomes law. That is why the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops opposes this bill's Social Security number requirement. They recognize what you are doing. You are going after people at the bottom to give a pay increase to Congressmen. Vote ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Strengthening

Child Welfare Response to Trafficking Act of 2014.

Today, more than 293,000 American youth are at risk of sexual commercial exploitation and trafficking each year. Far too often, State child welfare systems fail to properly identify and assist trafficked and exploited children. The protective services and protocols established for abused and neglected children within the child welfare system are rarely extended to trafficked children and youth. In many States, such children are often not even categorized as victims.

I would point out that we have on our borders today 57,000 youngsters who have come in whatever way they have come to our attention. One of the real dangers in sort of sending people back into whatever is that you may well be sending them back into sexual trafficking. This is one of the issues that should be looked at in every case where you find a youngster roaming the streets. States have got to look at this issue and figure out a way to deal with it.

We know that youngsters when they age out of foster care have no skills, they have no job, and they have very little to keep themselves alive, and, therefore, they easily become victims of sexual trafficking. This is an issue that this country, if we really care about children, we are going to look carefully at every kid and what are the risks to which they are being exposed.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Taxpayer Identity Protection Act of 2014.

This bill will help cut down on tax fraud from identity theft, a serious problem that costs the government billions of dollars annually. My bill would truncate Social Security Numbers on Forms W-2, and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that implementing it would have a negligible revenue effect.

At the moment, W-2 forms contain a person's full Social Security Number, making it easy for someone to steal an identity. This bill would give the IRS the authority to shorten Social Security Numbers on W-2 forms, making it tougher for a person's identity to be stolen if their W-2 ends up in the wrong hands.

The Treasury Department wrote in the Greenbook that ``the risk of identity theft from Form W-2 is high because employers are required to file a Form W-2 for each employee who receives wages.'' It added that, ``providing the IRS authority to require or permit truncated SSNs on Forms W-2 would reduce the risk of identity theft and improper payments resulting from false or fraudulent returns.''

In 2010, a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report estimated that ``$21 billion in potentially fraudulent refunds'' would be issued over the next five years as a result of identity theft. The report noted that this estimate is likely conservative.

Madam Speaker, I was a Navy psychiatrist during the Vietnam war. I treated men who believed they were doing the right thing, but who, having witnessed the obscenity of war, came home shaken, brutalized, and lost. These men were demonized for their experience. Today, we are making the same mistake with Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.

Yesterday, I watched as members of the House Armed Services Committee attacked a U.S. citizen who volunteered to serve his country and who was held in the most deplorable of conditions for 5 years. In my time in Congress, I have never seen a more disgraceful, purely political attack on a U.S. soldier.

How many times have we heard from our generals and our admirals that we never leave a warrior behind? We sent Sergeant Bergdahl to war. We gave Sergeant Bergdahl his gun and his orders. We must bring Sergeant Bergdahl home and take care of him.

Madam Speaker, I am here today to speak for the citizens of Florida, Texas, Washington, Tennessee, Nevada, Alaska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and New Hampshire. These are States without an income tax. They do not have a State income tax. They are allowed to deduct their sales tax that they pay from their Federal income tax and receive a credit for it this year. Now, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee spent 3 years working on putting a bill together; and in that bill--it is called tax reform--it repealed, it didn't just sort of leave unmentioned or anything else, it directly repealed that provision in the law.

We are out here today--nobody denies that small business needs some help. We certainly think that is a good idea. But where are the priorities of the ordinary taxpayers in Florida, Texas, Washington, Tennessee, Nevada, Alaska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and New Hampshire? They are going to pay an extra thousand dollars next year in taxes. They are going to get a tax increase from the Republicans by failing to give them this deduction.

It costs $6.5 billion. We are going to spend 75 or 71--or whatever it is today--billion dollars. One-tenth of that would cover the tax exemption for the people in these States, the ordinary tax citizens that everybody says they are worried about, the middle class, the middle class who is struggling in this society. But this Congress says, no, we have to take care of business. That is all we have taken care of is business so far.

When the chairman had the possibility, he repealed this. Now, he is from Michigan. Why not? Who would care? They wouldn't affect his State.

What is hard for me to understand is how anybody can come out here and not defend the interest of their own citizens. If you represent Florida, Texas, Washington, Tennessee, Nevada, Alaska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and New Hampshire and you vote for these tax bills today and say to your people back home we don't care what happens to you, it ought to be an interesting experience to go on the stump running for election this year.

Everybody's talking about taxes, but we are taking away a tax deduction for the people of these States. And why? I guess we haven't got the money, or maybe the chairman doesn't live in one of those States, or I am not quite sure how all this works, but I'm here to say that people from the State of Washington need to have a tax deduction for the sales tax that they pay in lieu of an income tax.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the 100th anniversary of Seattle's Fishermen's Terminal. Originally planned to be a simple moorage facility, Fishermen's Terminal now proudly stands as home to the finest fishing fleet in the world. For over a century, these fishermen here have contributed immeasurably to local communities and have built a deserving reputation for the Pacific Northwest as America's source for world-class seafood.

Since its founding in 1914, the Fishermen's Terminal has been a fundamental asset to the local economy. Its fresh water location and proximity to large and profitable markets make it an ideal spot for hard-working commercial fishermen to unload their catches. Despite the turbulent nature of the industry, Fishermen's Terminal continues to generate well-paying jobs within the State of Washington. My hat goes off to our local fishermen who for decades have persevered through the various political, economic, and physical challenges of their work.

This centennial gives us an opportunity to reflect on the deeply rooted connection between the Fishermen's Terminal and our community. It is an integral component of the Port of Seattle with an extensive history that predates the establishment of tech or aerospace industries in our State. The resilience that the Fishermen's Terminal has displayed over the last century gives me confidence that it will continue to thrive well into the future.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the multiple generations of fishermen and their families for their dedicated work which has given life to Seattle's Fishermen's Terminal for an entire century.