Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my amendment, which would require private student lenders to discharge private student loan debt for people who become totally or permanently disabled.

This amendment was inspired by a constituent who came to our office in need. Like many young Americans, my constituent pursued an education and chose to use private loans to help fund her college costs. She was also fully prepared to repay her loans, but tragically she became permanently and totally disabled.

Because of her permanent disability, her mother must now take care of her for life, and not only is the mother her caretaker, she is also the cosigner obligated to carry and pay for this debilitating debt.

Though the student's particular lender allowed her debt to be discharged, her mother, who cosigned the loan, was not dismissed from that responsibility. Though this reality may be foreign to many of us, for those it does affect, it will change their lives forever.

That is why this amendment would right a wrong and bring parity between protections for private student loan borrowers and Federal student loan borrowers.

Currently, private student lenders are not required to discharge the obligation of a borrower who becomes permanently disabled, only in the case of death. However, for Federal student loans in the case of permanent disability or death, loans are discharged.

In addition, Federal student loans do not require cosigners.

Specifically, my amendment amends the Truth in Lending Act to require discharge of private student loans in the case of permanent or total disability of the borrower; require the discharge of cosigners in the case of the borrower's permanent or total disability; require private lenders to discharge a borrower's obligation when they are notified that the Federal Government has discharged the Federal student loans of the borrower.

As we debate the National Defense Authorization Act, it is important to highlight that our servicemembers are disproportionately using private student loans. And these veterans who use private student loans disproportionately use them to attend for-profit universities or institutions. In some instances, veterans leave with nearly double the amount of debt compared to

their counterparts who use Federal veterans' education benefits.

Our veterans, our servicemembers, along with all of our constituents, deserve to be protected in the case of unexpected hardship.

I am pleased that in August, the Biden administration announced it would automatically cancel Federal student loan debt through the Total and Permanent Disability Discharge program. The TPD Discharge program provides loan discharge for the borrower and the cosigner should the borrower become totally and permanently disabled.

This is a first step in providing 323,000 Federal student loan borrowers with disabilities the relief they are entitled to under the law.

It is our responsibility to codify and extend this same needed support to our private student loan borrowers and their families affected with these tragedies.

I pray no one go through what my constituents have gone through.

We must move this commonsense and important amendment forward, and I urge all members to support it.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for wanting to work with me on this. Certainly this is a serious problem, and it is a serious problem for my constituent, and I am sure constituents in any other district in our country.

But there is a misstatement in the gentleman's words. It is voluntary right now on the part of the private lenders, and this bill would codify the requirement to ensure that disability discharge for private student loans is not a choice.

Certainly, when you sign up for a loan, you don't think about planning for becoming totally disabled and unable to afford your own student loans.

Unfortunately, as my constituent case shows, some private lenders do not voluntarily discharge for the borrower and the cosponsor in the case of permanent and total disability. I believe we have a duty to stand up for the most vulnerable among us. This bill would help accomplish that goal.

I commend the lenders who do step up voluntarily, but we need to codify this discharge of liability in the case of total or permanent disability.

I urge support, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, of course there is a clear nexus to our veterans and our servicemembers, and it would be marvelous if all private student loan lenders would voluntarily discharge in the case of permanent or total disability. It just simply isn't the case.

We are trying to ensure parity, regardless of who the borrower owes. We don't believe this would be a difficulty for all of these lenders who you say are willing to do this.

If the lenders honestly want to fight this so that they can take every last dollar of the individuals and their families despite their suffering, they can go to court, and they can ask the court for a remedy.

I urge support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, last week marked a year since our country lost a giant and a friend to all, John Lewis.

Republicans and Democrats of both Chambers rightfully used our platforms to memorialize a man who gave so much, and as many say, he was the conscience of our caucus.

Mr. Lewis nearly lost his life at the age of 25 to those on the other side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in March of 1965 as he nonviolently protested voter suppression laws.

And he dedicated the rest of his life to justice, equality, and protecting the right to vote.

Mr. Speaker, 66 years later we are again on that bridge. Seventeen States have passed 28 laws to make it more difficult to exercise our constitutional right to vote.

We must act.

So I say to my colleagues that stand in the way of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, would you also have stood on the other side of that bridge?

Mr. Lewis understood we could not wait for those on the other side of the bridge to join us. We must secure, protect, and expand the right to vote for all Americans to truly honor Mr. Lewis' life, legacy, and our democracy.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Nadler for offering me this minute and a half, and I thank him for his leadership for bringing this bill to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the ALLIES Act. This bill will save lives and protect our allies. It will also honor our commitment to the region. Thousands of Afghans have served as interpreters, drivers, and guides to assist U.S. troops. Their service and commitment have been consistent over the 20 years that now marks the longest U.S. war in history.

The Afghan Special Immigrant Visa, or SIVs, allows people who worked for or on behalf of the United States Government to seek lawful permanent residence in the United States. But as we prepare to remove our troops, the Taliban continues to target our friends. The ALLIES Act of 2021 provides for an additional 8,000 SIVs to accommodate everyone who currently could be an eligible candidate in the pipeline. We have an opportunity and a moral obligation to save the lives of those who served us.

As we draw down our military presence in Afghanistan, many who served alongside our troops continue to face increased threats because of their service to us. We must do the right thing by our brave allies.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Crow for his service and his leadership on this bill, and I urge all of my colleagues to support the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule. PFAS water contamination is personal for all of us. Nearly all of us have been contaminated without our consent, without our knowledge. We all have PFAS in our blood, the forever chemical. High levels of this toxin have dangerous and damaging health effects. The EPA's website describes the effects: ``low infant birth weights, effects on the immune system, cancer . . . and thyroid hormone disruption.''

And manufacturers knew. They knew the dangers of PFAS my entire life. It wasn't until the turn of this century and the heroic work of Attorney Rob Bilott that they were forced to admit what they knew. They knew that PFAS was toxic in the 1960s. They knew it was building up in our bodies, in our blood, by the 1970s. They knew it was contaminating our water by the 1980s. They knew that it was poisoning our own workers by the 1990s. But they hid the truth from their own workers, from their neighbors, from you and me.

We have a responsibility to protect everyone from PFAS contamination and the PFAS Action Act is a step in the right direction in ensuring everyone has clean water. The PFAS Action Act would: require the EPA to establish a national drinking water standard; designate PFOA and PFOS chemicals as hazardous substances; require EPA to regulate PFAS discharge; and provide $200 million annually for wastewater treatment; place a moratorium on the introduction of new PFAS; and require comprehensive PFAS health testing.

All of this would set a standard and provide protections. I am grateful to see a requirement for EPA to develop necessary rules for safe disposal of PFAS. That is included in this legislation.

We cannot continue to allow manufacturers to recklessly poison our communities. As we move forward, remember, it is our responsibility as legislators to educate, litigate, legislate, and finally hold polluters accountable.

I thank Representative Dingell for her tenacity in drafting and passing this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying bill as well as the other two bills in the rule.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, after a year of battling the coronavirus pandemic, my home Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ended its mask mandate.

I am proud of Pennsylvania for exceeding President Biden's goal for vaccinations by the Fourth of July. With over 75 percent of adults with one dose and 60 percent with both doses, we are safely lifting our mask mandate.

I salute my State's leadership in putting health and science first as we sought to get the virus under control.

When this pandemic started, no one knew how long it would take to get past these precautions. At times, it was difficult to see any return to normalcy, but we got there together.

I thank my constituents for their sacrifice. Pennsylvania families, teachers, students, workers, and businesses saved lives, jobs, and businesses.

As we are on our way to beating this pandemic, I look forward to seeing their smiling faces again on Independence Day.

Let's take lessons from this pandemic. American workers need higher wages. Healthcare is a right. School and childcare funding is vital. It is time to upgrade our infrastructure.

Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, what are they afraid of? The truth?

On January 6, I came to this Chamber to try to understand why some of my colleagues were engaged in a lie that the 2020 election was stolen from their candidate. I never expected to finish that day forever shaken and changed by what happened in this Chamber.

Madam Speaker, I was up in the Gallery, right up here. I remember the terrifying banging on those doors as we were exited and wearing gas masks--my fear for my colleagues, the staff, the press, the custodial staff, the Capitol Police, and the anxiety that my family suffered with their mom inside as they watched an insurrection on television, wondering if we would make it out alive.

To be clear, this was a domestic terrorist attack on everyone who works in this Capitol complex. It was an attack on democracy. It was an attack on the peaceful transfer of power. It was an attack on our Nation.

We need a select subcommittee to understand what happened on January 6, where many of our lives were at risk. We need to know the facts and circumstances. We need to know the truth so that it never happens again.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3385) to waive the requirement to undergo a medical examination for aliens who are otherwise eligible for special immigrant status under the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 3385.

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

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3385, the Honoring our Promises through Expedition for the Afghan SIVs Act--or the HOPE for Afghan SIVs Act--proposes a small, but impactful, change to expedite the issuance of special immigrant visas to those who served side by side with American troops in Afghanistan, and whose lives are at risk as a result.

The Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program allows individuals who worked for or on behalf of the United States

Government or for the NATO International Security Assistance Force in support of the American mission to seek lawful permanent residence to the United States. To qualify, applicants must meet specific eligibility criteria and pass rigorous background checks; a process that, on average, takes 3 years.

Additionally, every applicant who is found to be eligible for a visa must complete a medical examination before they are approved to come to the United States. However, in the capital city of Kabul, there is only one clinic certified by the United States Government to provide these mandatory examinations.

The already high demand for services was worsened by the deteriorating security conditions and a new outbreak of an intense third wave of COVID-19. It is now nearly impossible for applicants to schedule this mandatory life-changing appointment while in Afghanistan.

The HOPE for Afghan SIVs Act would allow the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security to quickly respond to these emergency conditions in Afghanistan by authorizing a blanket waiver of the medical examination requirement for people who are otherwise eligible for special immigrant visas.

Once safely in the United States and removed from the threat of violence, those eligible people must complete the required medical examination within 30 days. To ensure compliance, Afghan special immigrants would be admitted to the United States as lawful permanent residents on a conditional basis. Conditions would be removed only when the Secretary of Homeland Security confirms that the examination has been completed and the individual is not inadmissible to the United States on health-related grounds.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join Mr. Crow of Colorado, and I thank him for championing this issue and working across the aisle to build consensus and awareness for the importance of this legislation. I also thank Ranking Member Jordan for his collaboration and support in the drafting process.

As we draw down our military presence in Afghanistan, many who served alongside our troops continue to face increasing threats because of their service to our country. We must do right by these people, and H.R. 3385 is an important first step.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Crow).

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Crow for his service, his powerful words, and his commitment. I thank Representative Wenstrup, too, for his powerful words.

Our Afghan allies serve alongside U.S. troops, diplomats, and government employees. We must do right by the people who have worked to protect our country and our servicemen and -women.

Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone to support them through the HOPE for Afghan SIVs Act. I support this important legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, today is day 173 of this Congress and the 150th of the Biden administration. These days have been spent governing to repair our global standing, to accelerate our vaccination program, and to boost a struggling economy.

With the American Rescue Plan, we have governed to build back better for red districts, for blue districts, for all districts.

In my district alone, here are some of the ways we have begun to build back better: with over $87 million for our school districts, $137 million for local governments, $1.5 million for Head Start programs, and the child tax credit will send an average of $2,400 to 37,000 families.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has received $7.3 billion, a transformative amount, that must address educational and opportunity inequities.

In these 100 days, we have proven we can live up to a responsibility to govern. As we begin to emerge from this pandemic, we are at a turning point where we can build on the success of the American Rescue Plan, find infrastructure investments, and look toward a stronger, more compassionate future.

Madam Speaker, last Saturday, we remembered the murder of 49 people at the Pulse massacre 5 years ago. Tomorrow, we will mourn 6 years since nine people were killed in their place of worship at Mother Emanuel AME Church.

It sits with me every single day that in this country we lose friends and family to the tragic and avoidable scourge of gun violence.

As of this weekend, we have reached 272 mass shootings in this country. It is madness. These acts of violence, sometimes motivated by hate, continue.

Yet, we--and the Senate in particular--have failed to enact commonsense gun violence prevention legislation that would stem bloodshed and end this loss. I implore the Senate to hear the cries of those in their communities, our constituents, and pass the two universal background check bills that the House sent over to the Senate in March.

Families should no longer have to bury their loved ones when we have the ability and the responsibility to close deadly loopholes in our system.

Gun ownership is an important part of our American culture and our Constitution, and now is our chance to come together in a way that preserves this part of our heritage while protecting our constituents and saving lives.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember and honor my constituent and friend, Denise Burstein. Denise passed away on May 13 due to complications related to ALS.

She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and community leader. She was a woman of diverse passions and talent, an avid knitter, quilter, radio operator, and I recently learned that she had a black belt in karate.

She devoted her life to helping others, working as a school speech and language therapist and continuing to help children even after her retirement.

She was first to volunteer, whether it was as a local committeeperson with the Boy Scouts, coaching, training therapy dogs, or, after her diagnosis, helping spread awareness of ALS.

To know Denise is to know her husband, Frank. They are two parts of a single smile, wonderful hosts whose brunches are the places to be for friendship, politics, and delicious food.

I join Denise's family, friends, and wider community in mourning the loss of an incredible woman. I am better for having known her.

Madam Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Rodgers and Chairman Pallone for their leadership on this bill.

I, once again, rise in support of H.R. 1629, the Fairness in Orphan Drug Exclusivity Act.

This crucial legislation would close a current loophole that is used to block competition in the pharmaceutical marketplace.

The Orphan Drug Act of 1983 provided incentives for prescription drug manufacturers to develop products to treat rare diseases. This includes an exclusive 7-year marketing right for therapies that receive an orphan drug designation.

For a drug to qualify, it must either be a treatment for a disease or condition that affects fewer than 200,000 people in the United States or a drug intended for diseases that there is no reasonable expectation to recoup research and development costs.

It would require all drug manufacturers who obtain orphan drug status to prove that they have no reasonable expectation that they will recover R&D costs.

This legislation works to prevent companies from continuing to use orphan drug exclusivity status for a newly approved drug with an identical ingredient to the former version without having to prove the inability to recoup costs.

This exact circumstance, as the chairman described, happened when a manufacturer of a buprenorphine product tweaked an older product that had received orphan drug status and subsequently was given a renewed orphan drug exclusivity.

Buprenorphine is used as a treatment for opioid use disorder to help those recovering from addiction. Unfortunately, at the time, the opioid epidemic was raging, as it is today, and was by no means a rare disease. And the drug was by no means a market loser. It was a moneymaker.

Closing this loophole would ensure that products do not receive an unfair market advantage and will get more affordable drugs to patients. It ensures consistency with the spirit and intent of the Orphan Drug Act.

Know that we want to encourage and support the development of rare disease treatments and therapeutics. It is critically important. But we cannot allow this important incentive to be co-opted to allow for unfair market competition for drugs that are not a commercial loss.

This bill was supported unanimously last Congress and has broad support among patient advocates. This bill is about ensuring market competition, reducing barriers to the development of new treatments, and, ultimately, supporting patients.

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from 16 patient advocacy organizations in support of this legislation.

March 9, 2021.

Re H.R. 1629--The Fairness in Orphan Drug Exclusivity Act.

Hon. Madeleine Dean,

Washington, DC.

Hon. Marc Veasey,

Washington, DC.

Dear Representatives Dean and Veasey:

Thank you for your leadership on the reintroduction of H.R.

1629, The Fairness in Orphan Drug Exclusivity Act. Our nation

is in crisis. Each day, 130 Americans die from an opioid

overdose, and according to recent provisional data from the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between June 2019

and May 2020, the number of people who died of an opioid

overdose increased by 38.4%.

We have a responsibility to ensure that all treatment

options are made available to those living with opioid use

disorder {OUD). Last year, this important legislation was

approved by the House of Representatives unanimously.

Unfortunately, the Senate was unable to also act on the

measure before the 116th Congress adjourned. The new Congress

now has an opportunity to pass this legislation swiftly and

improve access to life-saving medication assisted treatments

and prevent more lives from being lost. We, the undersigned

organizations, support H.R. 1629 and urge quick passage of

this important bill that will help ensure the availability of

vital treatment options for OUD that can save American lives.

The Orphan Drug Act, enacted in 1983, allows the Food and

Drug Administration (FDA) to grant manufacturers Orphan Drug

Designation (ODD) and Orphan Drug Exclusivity (ODE) to a

product developed to treat rare diseases and conditions

affecting less than 200,000 patients. In addition, a

manufacturer also can qualify for ODD and ODE if more than

200,000 patients are affected, but there is ``no reasonable

expectation'' of recovering development costs. Few know about

this option, and as a result it is exceedingly rare with only

three uses to date.

In such cases, if a newly approved product has the same

active ingredient as a previous product that received orphan

designation and exclusivity because the FDA determined the

original drug could not recoup its development costs, the

newly approved product does not have to demonstrate the

inability to recoup its development costs. It does not matter

how much time has passed, or how much money the newly

approved drug is predicted to make. This loophole creates the

potential for abuses within the system, and it is not

consistent with intent of the Orphan Drug Act.

Enacting H.R. 1629 will: fix this loophole in a narrow and

targeted manner to prevent this abuse of the Orphan Drug Act;

preserve incentives for development of products treating rare

diseases and conditions; and ensure new treatment options

come to market to treat OUD.

During this public health emergency, we need all the tools

we can muster to fight this crisis. We should not tie one

hand behind our back as the exploitation of this loophole

would do.

More than 2.1 million Americans live with OUD, making this

disease far from rare. This disease is a national public

health emergency, and we need to close this loophole to

ensure that all safe and effective treatments are available

to fight this disease. Thank you again for your leadership on

this issue, and we look forward to working with you to help

pass H.R. 1629.

Sincerely,

Advocates for Opioid Recovery, AIDS United, Aimed

Alliance, Daniel's story, Center for U.S. Policy,

Cover2 Resources, FORCE, Healthy Women, Maryland Heroin

Awareness, Mother's Addiction Journey, No More OD's,

Inc., NOPE Task Force, Prevention Action Alliance,

Shatterproof, Tyler's Light, Young People in Recovery.

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record the Statement of Administration Policy issued by the Office of Management and Budget on May 17 of this year in support of this bill.

Statement of Administration Policy

H.R. 1629--Fairness in Orphan Drug Exclusivity Act--Rep. Dean, D-

Pennsylvania, and two cosponsors

The Administration supports House passage of H.R. 1629, the

Fairness in Orphan Drug Exclusivity Act. Orphan drug status

is intended to encourage companies to develop promising drugs

for rare diseases. Current law provides market exclusivity

for drugs that treat any disease or condition which (A)

affects fewer than 200,000 persons in the United States, or

(B) affects more than 200,000 in the United States and for

which there is no reasonable expectation that the cost of

developing and making available in the United States a drug

for such disease or condition will be recovered from that

drug's sales in the United States. H.R. 1629 affects only

drugs that qualify under the latter provision. Current law

allows market exclusivity to be extended for a new version of

the same drug without the drug developer having to show a

lack of profitability for that new version as well. This

legislation would close that loophole, requiring all drugs

that obtain seven years of market exclusivity for conditions

affecting 200,000 or more people to illustrate that they have

no reasonable expectation of recovering R&D costs through

U.S. sales.

The Administration applauds these steps to ensure Americans

have access to high quality, affordable treatments.

Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Pallone for his support on this bill, and I urge all members to support its passage.

Mr. Speaker, 22 million Americans lost their jobs during the pandemic. Slowly we have begun to rebuild, restore, and get back on track. Since President Biden has taken office, 1.5 million jobs have been created--the most jobs created in the first 100 days of any Presidency. Yet, as the April jobs report showed us, we must continue to take additional steps to get Americans back to work.

There are more than 8 million jobs left to go. The American Jobs Plan is vital to rebuilding our community and our economy while protecting our planet. It is a once-in-a-century investment to create millions of good-paying jobs and to lay the foundation for extensive economic growth for the following decades.

In my home State of Pennsylvania, our infrastructure earned a C-minus on its infrastructure report card. There is so much we can do. We need to safely upgrade Pennsylvania's roads and bridges, mass transit, ports, rail, broadband, and water supply.

We have a chance here to make a generational investment and get our Nation back on track with the American Jobs Plan.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2547.

First, I would like to thank and lift up Chairwoman Waters for bringing up and authoring this important package, H.R. 2547, the Comprehensive Debt Collection Improvement Act, and for including two of my bills in this legislation. We must work to ensure that debt collection is fair, transparent, and free from harassment.

One of my two bills is in this package. It is the Fair Debt Collection Practices for Servicemembers Act. It will protect our heroes from unfair and aggressive debt harassment. These debt collection practices are manipulative and can interfere with soldiers' careers, like contacting their superior officers or threatening a rank reduction.

Unfortunately, these practices do not stop with the servicemember. Debt collectors also target military spouses, unfairly burdening our military families who have sacrificed so much.

The language in this bill would specifically prohibit debt collectors from

conveying any threat to a servicemember, or his or her dependents, to have his or her rank reduced, their security clearance revoked, or prosecution occur under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

These tactics must stop; our servicemembers, men and women, make extraordinary sacrifices on our behalf. I thank all the veterans and servicemembers who work in my office, Tim, Dave, and Timmy, and my own two brothers who have fought to protect our country.

I recognize and appreciate the bipartisan support for this bill.

My second bill in this package was written to correct an unfair practice a constituent brought to our office's attention. A constituent reached out for help getting a private student loan discharged because her daughter had become completely and totally permanently disabled. The mother was left with the remaining balance of the daughter's private student loans as a cosigner.

The lending company said it was their policy to forgive the debt for the borrower but not for the cosigner of the original agreement. Further research by my office staff revealed there was no legal operating standard for discharging private student loans for cosigners after a permanent and total disability.

This is wrong. No one can anticipate permanent disability, and we should work to decrease the burden that these people and their families face, which is what the Private Loan Disability Discharge Act will accomplish.

This legislation will require private student loan lenders to discharge the loan balance for both the borrower and the cosigner if the borrower becomes totally and permanently disabled.

This bill does not punish private lenders; it ensures all lenders are following the same rules.

Both of these bills are about fairness and respect to the lender and consumer, following the spirit of the entire Comprehensive Debt Collection Improvement Act.

This bill would protect servicemembers, small and minority-owned businesses, student loan borrowers, and those with disabilities, medical debt, and more.

This package will place consumers and people first.

Again, I thank Chairwoman Waters for her leadership, and I urge all of our colleagues to join me in supporting this important consumer and constituent protection legislation.

Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Guthrie and Chairman Pallone for their support of this critical legislation.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1629, the Fairness in Orphan Drug Exclusivity Act.

This crucial legislation would close a loophole in the current law that can be used to block competition in the pharmaceutical marketplace.

The Orphan Drug Act of 1983 provided incentives for prescription drug manufacturers to develop products to treat rare diseases. This includes an exclusive 7-year marketing right for therapies that receive an orphan drug designation.

For a drug to qualify, it must either be a treatment for a disease or a condition that affects fewer than 200,000 people in the United States, or is a drug intended for diseases that there is no reasonable expectation to recoup research and development costs.

This legislation focuses on the drugs intended for diseases that there is no reasonable expectation to recoup research and development costs. It would require all drug manufacturers who obtain orphan drug status to prove that they have no reasonable expectation that they will recover their research and development costs and efforts.

This legislation works to prevent companies from continuing to use orphan drug exclusivity status for a newly approved drug, with an identical ingredient to the former version, without having to prove the inability to recoup costs.

This exact circumstance happened when a manufacturer of a buprenorphine product updated an older product that received orphan drug status and subsequently was given a renewed orphan drug exclusivity. Buprenorphine is used as a treatment for opioid use disorder to help those recovering from addiction. Unfortunately, at the time, the opioid epidemic was raging. It was, by no means, a rare disease, and the drug was not a market loser.

Closing this loophole will ensure that products do not receive an unfair market advantage and, therefore, remains consistent with the spirit and intent of the Orphan Drug Act. We must work to ensure people can gain access to newer therapies and medically assisted treatments that are potentially blocked due to orphan designation.

Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Marc Veasey for introducing this legislation along with me. I thank my colleagues in the House for passing this bill without objection on a voice vote just 6 months ago in the 116th Congress.

Again, I thank Chairman Pallone for bringing this bill forward and for his leadership on substance use disorder and behavioral health issues more broadly.

Madam Speaker, I urge Members to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, before coming to Congress, I served as a Pennsylvania State Representative. The legislation I was most proud to be a part of was the bipartisan Act 89 infrastructure bill that helped fix some of Pennsylvania's crumbling roads and bridges.

Signed into law by Governor Corbett in 2013, Act 89 was a serious investment in our infrastructure, but it is not enough. Nationwide, we know that an out-of-date infrastructure system is costly, energy inefficient, and dangerous.

Today, in a moment of low interest rates and historic need and a rapidly warming planet, we have an opportunity and an obligation to invest in a stronger, greener, and better connected future.

The American Jobs Plan is that chance, a chance to build back better and make a generational investment for our grandchildren's future. This includes: roads, bridges, public transportation, drinking water, broadband, and good, clean energy union jobs.

I worked with a Republican legislature and a Republican Governor to help pass Pennsylvania's infrastructure bill. I hope we can get together and work across the aisle for infrastructure investment for the next generation.