Floor Statements

Madam President, I want all my colleagues and everyone listening right now to be very clear about what Republican leadership is planning for today. Faced with defeat after defeat on their plans to rip apart our healthcare system--``no'' on a bill that would spike families' premiums, gut Medicaid, and deny 22 million people healthcare; ``no'' on a bill that would cause chaos and healthcare costs to skyrocket and deny 32 million people healthcare--it appears the Republican leader has a last-ditch plan waiting in the wings.

As soon as they have an official score from the CBO--which could be hours from now--in the dead of night, Senator McConnell will bring forward legislation that Democrats, patients, families, and even many Senate Republicans have not seen, and try to pass it before anyone can so much as blink.

Now, we have heard rumors about what could be in this bill, and based on what we know, Democrats took it upon ourselves to do the best we could to figure out what its impact will be. The CBO scored our best guess at what Republicans are talking about doing, and here is what they found: Sixteen million people will lose their healthcare coverage in the next 10 years under this bill; premiums will increase by 20 percent every single year for the next 10 years; your premiums will increase 20 percent every single year in the next 10 years, all while special interests in the healthcare industry are going to get a massive tax break.

Republicans could still play games with the language as they negotiate in secret somewhere to try to get a bit ``better'' than this, but no matter what they do here, if they jam it through, they will be held accountable for the millions of people who lose care and the millions and millions more who will see their premiums go up.

I hope, when my Senate Republican colleagues began their process, they were not planning to pass a bill in the dark of night to deny millions of people healthcare and hand special interests billions in tax breaks, but, right now, that is the path they are careening down-- even as more and more people are speaking up about what the impact of this legislation would have.

In fact, just yesterday, a bipartisan group of 10 Governors wrote a letter urging Senate Republicans to reject this secret bill, saying it would--I am quoting 10 bipartisan Governors--``accelerate health plans leaving the individual market, increase premiums, and result in fewer Americans having access to coverage.''

I hope every single Senate Republican read that letter.

I also hope they understand that if they pass this bill tonight, it will only get worse from here. If this secret bill--the lowest common denominator--goes through and a conference starts with the House, then every Senate Republican who voted for it has just bought TrumpCare a trip to the White House. The Senate Republicans who so loudly made clear they hated the TrumpCare bill when it passed the House could now very well find themselves being held responsible for sending that same bill straight to President Trump's desk because, let's be honest, extreme conservatives aren't going to rest until they have a bill on the way to the White House that would spike premiums and out-of-pocket costs, gut protections for preexisting conditions, end Medicaid as we know it, defund Planned Parenthood, and kick tens of millions of people off their coverage--a bill that would, in other words, shatter the promises of more responsible Republicans who I know are deeply concerned about ways these outcomes would impact the people they serve.

So, to put it simply, a bill in conference is no excuse to kick people off coverage, spike premiums by 20 percent for everyone, and give a massive tax break to the wealthy, especially because it will simply be an opportunity to hand the keys over to the House Freedom Caucus.

I want to remind any Senate Republican who doesn't want to have TrumpCare on their hands--who truly does want to make our healthcare system work better for patients and families--there is a better path. As Senator McCain said so powerfully earlier this week, we shouldn't let the ``bombastic loudmouths'' drive our work. We should get back to regular order, and we still can.

I am saying to every Senate Republican every chance I get: Drop this partisan, sham floor process. Drop it. Start over with an open, transparent process in which both sides, patients, and families across the country have a voice.

I hope that as big as our differences are, many of my Republican colleagues would prefer that bipartisan voice and route. They have said as much. Their votes to reject the partisan TrumpCare and full repeal bills this week made it even clearer.

So let's have hearings like Chairman Alexander has proposed to do in our HELP Committee. Let's have a public

debate. Let's focus on policies that lower costs, that expand coverage, and improve quality.

Democrats are ready. We are at the table. I hope Senate Republicans who are ready to work on real solutions will join us, but, first, for that to happen, Senate Republicans need to step away from this sham process we are on today. Say no. Vote no. Return us to a process we are all involved in.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I move to commit H.R. 1628 to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions with instructions to report the same back to the Senate within 3 days, not counting any day on which the Senate is not in session, with changes that are within the jurisdiction of such committee.

Mr. President, after months of secret negotiations and backroom deals and shutting out patients and families and women and Democrats and even many Republicans from the process, Republican leaders continue to say they are planning to force a vote on this latest TrumpCare bill tonight--a bill even Republicans admit would throw our markets into turmoil. It is going to kick millions of people off of care, it is going to raise premiums for millions of families, it will eliminate healthcare for women across the country, and so much more--none of it good.

It does not have to be this way. In fact, Republicans can still reverse this course. They can drop this once and for all and join with Democrats to get to work to actually improve healthcare, to reduce costs, to increase access, and to improve quality. We can start over with an open, transparent process, in which both sides--Democrats and Republicans--have a voice and one in which patients and families can make sure their priorities are being addressed.

Now, I know many of our Republican colleagues prefer this bipartisan route. We have heard them say it. They have said it over and over in their votes to reject the partisan TrumpCare bill and

full repeal bills this week, in their discussions of hearings we should be holding, and in their comments even over the past few hours, laying out how devastating this bill would be for patients and healthcare markets and making it clear they do not trust the House to not simply pass whatever moves through the Senate.

So I call on Republicans now to join us. Let's do what my colleague, the senior Senator from Arizona, and so many others have bravely called for. With this motion, we will send it back to the committee, where we can debate it, where we can work together, where we can do what is right for the people we represent.

I urge my colleagues to support this motion to commit in the way that Republicans and Democrats have been talking about. I can personally assure every one of you that I will work with you--and I know other Democrats will as well--if we reject this process and send it back with this motion to commit to do it the right way, the respectful way.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, may I respectfully ask the chairman a question?

It is, and I just----

Regarding time, I just have a question so that Members can know how to manage their time between now and the 45 minutes when we have the vote.

If I could just respectfully ask the chairman, since we have only had this bill for an hour, we have, as you can see, a number of Senators who want to speak. I would just respectfully ask if there is any time we will have between now and the vote to make any comments, since we have just had, for a very short amount of time, the bill that we will be voting on, which will obviously impact millions of Americans.

Mr. Chairman, I----

Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. President, I just wanted to ask how much time is left on a bill that we haven't had much time to look at much in the last hour that we are going to vote on.

Mr. President, I hope all Senators in this Chamber took the time to listen to the very wise words from the Senator from Virginia as to the fact that we are facing real issues in this country and that when we work together and go through the regular process of having committee hearings and no secret negotiations or backroom deals, we can lead this country in the way it should be led.

I thank the Senator for coming to the floor and reminding us that is how we get things done in a way that America accepts it.

Yet we are not here after having had committee hearings or process or anything. We are here because of backroom deals that have brought us to this floor at a time when no one can accept the fact that all of the proposals are as a result, so far, of how many millions of people will lose insurance--22 million, 15 million, 24 million. That is what we are debating here, and that is a terrible debate. That is not what we should be talking about, but those are the proposals we are being offered.

Again, the Democrats are here. We are not giving up, and we are going to fight any effort to pass TrumpCare until the last possible moment because that will be the result. We are going to speak out for families nationwide--children, parents, patients, people with disabilities, seniors, and people who have called and tweeted and marched and filled our office halls. So many people are worried and, frankly, scared right now. These are families who are being kept in the dark by our Republican colleagues and who are being left to wonder what might happen to their healthcare, their financial security, and even their lives.

It is appalling the majority of Republicans who are willing to go along with this plan and move to begin debate without even knowing what bill they will be debating. Yet, last night, the vast majority of the Senate did something unusual. It showed just how much agreement there actually can be among us, when 57 Republicans and Democrats agreed to reject a full TrumpCare replacement bill and sent a message that we agreed with Senator McCain in that we should stop letting the ``bombastic loudmouths'' drive our work and instead return to regular order and get back to work on policies that actually help the people we are here to represent.

There are responsible Republicans who disagree with the way the Republican leaders have hidden their legislation from Democrats and the public throughout this process, who think there should be an open, transparent process, with both sides at the table, and who want hearings and public debate rather than backroom deals and secret negotiations. I do as well, and I know many of my Democratic colleagues agree.

Now that it is clear that there is absolutely no path to full TrumpCare in the Senate, what is the reason for continuing this damaging, rushed, deeply partisan effort on the floor to jam just any bill through the Senate? Together we can do a lot better than the lowest common denominator bill that simply sends TrumpCare to conference with the House and then gives the Freedom Caucus a blank check to gut Medicaid and put insurance companies back in charge of people's healthcare, and more. Let's be clear. The only reason to pass a cobbled-together, last-minute bill on the floor is to keep the extreme conservative dream of repealing ObamaCare alive, no matter what that means for patients and families.

I truly believe there is a better way to get this done right, and it is to stop what Senate Republican leaders are doing right now and start over.

So, once again, I ask my Republican colleagues to drop this partisan effort and join us at the table. Let's work together to improve families' healthcare, as so many of us truly want to do. My door is open, and I am ready to get started.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, with the support of Senators Gillibrand, Blumenthal, Shaheen, Stabenow, Hirono, Baldwin, Cortez Masto, Hassan, Van Hollen, Leahy, Whitehouse, Brown, Harris, Franken, Feinstein, Udall, Kaine, Coons, Cantwell, Menendez, Reed, Duckworth, Durbin, Warren, Booker, Baldwin, Carper, Nelson, Heinrich, and Klobuchar, I intend to make a motion to commit H.R. 1628, the American Health Care Act, to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions for further consideration to ensure that it does not endanger the health of women. This closed-door, fast-track process is no way to make decisions that affect the health of every single woman in this country. It is imperative that we fix this legislation in an open, regular-order committee process.

I ask unanimous consent that the motion be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I object.

Objection.

Mr. President, I object.

Mr. President, despite all Senate Republican leaders' efforts to keep this mean bill hidden from public view, patients and families know the truth.

This legislation would cause families' healthcare costs to spike. It will gut Medicaid, and it will deny tens of millions of people their healthcare coverage. It will defund Planned Parenthood and take away critical healthcare services that women and men rely on, especially in our rural areas where it is already hard enough to get the care you need. TrumpCare would also completely pull the rug out from under patients with preexisting conditions. I could go on.

I hope every one of my colleagues joins me in voting against this awful legislation, but this vote is far from the last time Senate Republicans need to reject TrumpCare, if they are really serious about protecting patients and families from the damage it would do, because if any version of this awful bill leaves the Senate, extreme Republicans in the House are going to do everything they can to make it even

more damaging--and anyone who believes differently is refusing to see the writing on the wall.

I urge my Democratic and Republican colleagues to vote against this bill and every other version of it that we are going to see in the coming hours and days.

Mr. President, I yield back all of our time.

Mr. President, I raise a point of order that the pending amendment violates section 311(a)(2)(B) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

Mr. President, I am here this evening to stand with the patients and families and communities nationwide to make sure they have a voice to continue speaking out against TrumpCare and to urge our Republican colleagues to stand with their constituents and join Democrats in rejecting this mean bill.

Before I go any further, I want to talk about an incredible group of families I met with recently who are making their voices heard against TrumpCare. These are parents with kids who are battling serious and complex medical conditions. These families have spent the majority of their summer here in Washington, DC, sharing their stories about what having healthcare means to them.

The little lobbyists, young kids 3 years old, 5 years old, should be at home in their neighborhoods like other kids, but, instead, they are here fighting for their own healthcare and their lives.

I held a press conference with these families here in the Capitol, where their parents shared stories about what TrumpCare would mean for them and their families. They spoke about their worries and their fears for the future.

One story was that of Elena Hung and her daughter Xiomara. Xiomara is 3 years old. She will be starting school this fall. You can tell she is one of those kids with incredible energy, who just lights up a room. But Xiomara was born with complications in her lungs, heart, and kidneys. She needs a tracheostomy, a feeding tube, and a ventilator just to stay alive.

Elena has told me what it has meant for her and her family to have healthcare these last couple of years. Elena and her husband both have professional degrees, good-paying jobs, and savings in the bank. They have done everything right, as Elena put it, and played by the rules, but nothing prepared them for dealing with the expensive care Xiomara would need. The hospitalizations, multiple surgeries, and medical equipment have all added up to cost more than $3 million.

Elena talked about the uncertainty that TrumpCare has caused her family. Because of TrumpCare, she said that they are terrified about lifetime caps coming back and about losing their home or going bankrupt. If they lose their healthcare, Xiomara's 10 preexisting conditions may make her uninsurable. This is so wrong. The Hung family should be able to focus on Xiomara, the care she needs, and getting the right specialists and therapies to advance her treatment.

The Morrison family, whom I also met with, shouldn't have to worry about their son Timmy getting the care he needs.

Xiomara and Timmy and all the other little lobbyists deserve to be kids, live at home, to go to school, grow up, and just live. That was Elena's message to our Republican colleagues, and I couldn't agree with her more.

I have seen my share of contentious legislation during my time in the Senate. I have seen quite a few Democratic bills that Republicans couldn't stand. I saw Republican bills that Democrats would never vote for. I understand that some of my colleagues may disagree with certain parts of the Affordable

Care Act. But what I can't understand is why anyone would ignore real life stories of their own constituents whose lives have changed and even been saved by this law. For one, that is not how you have a serious policy debate--ignoring your constituents and facts and fudging the numbers. More importantly, that is not what we were sent here to do by the people we represent. They rightly expect and deserve better.

What we have seen for the last 7 years--and since the Republican leadership began their efforts to repeal the ACA--has been truly unprecedented. In January of this year, the Republican leadership kicked Democrats out of the process entirely under reconciliation. Since then they have done everything possible to prevent not just Democrats but anyone other than their own party to be involved in that process--no hearings, no scrutiny, no public input, no expert testimony. When they finally released the TrumpCare bill after months of negotiating in secret in a room of 13 men, it was no surprise that it was immediately rejected by people across the country because it was clear that their bill isn't actually about healthcare--far from it. Their bill is about giving a massive gift to the wealthy and already well-connected on the backs of children and working families and people with disabilities and the sick and elderly.

So Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and millions of people have stood up and said no to this awful bill, no to increasing costs to families and seniors, no to putting insurance companies back in charge, no to kicking tens of millions of people off their health insurance, no to attacking women's health and rights. In fact, one study came out showing it was the least popular bill in three decades.

I guess it is no surprise that my Republican colleagues didn't want to defend this bill, but here is what is frankly appalling: What did Republican leaders do in the face of large-scale, popular rejection of the bill? What did Republican leaders do after Members of their own party said that they couldn't vote for it without massive changes to help more people? They made the bill worse. They did nothing to address the concerns that even many Republicans--Governors, Senators, and so many others--had about the massive cuts to Medicaid that would be devastating to patients and to our States. They did nothing to truly address the defunding of Planned Parenthood and cutting off access to care for millions of women. They included an opioid fund so insignificant that a Republican Governor said it would be like ``spitting in the ocean.''

When it comes to affordability and putting insurance companies back in charge, Republican leaders not only didn't fix that problem, they made it a whole lot worse. They caved to the most extreme Members of their caucus by including the Cruz-Lee provision. Now with every sweetener, every tweak, they have not only made the bill worse, they have made it unworkable, and even in violation of the Senate reconciliation process.

Now, as soon as tomorrow, the Republican leadership is saying that they are going to move forward with either a vote on their failed TrumpCare bill, a vote to repeal the ACA entirely--with no plan to help families who would be devastated--or maybe a vote on the disastrous House version of the TrumpCare bill. Nobody knows, especially our Republican colleagues.

It is like Leader McConnell is setting up Senate Republicans to play ``choose your own adventure'' with our families' healthcare. Even he does not know for sure where this will end, but he is clearly willing to do whatever it takes to get to yes, and so is President Trump. He is doing what he does--tweeting threats, stirring up his extreme base, sending Vice President Pence to twist arms to try to convince a few more Republicans to stay quiet about their very legitimate concerns. Yet, as we head toward a possible vote tomorrow, I hope my Republican colleagues--especially those who have already indicated that they oppose this bill and process--will demand better for their own constituents.

I am going to keep saying this until it sinks in, which is that Democrats are ready, as we always have been, to work with Republicans to improve our healthcare system and make healthcare more affordable, more accessible, of higher quality, and to clean up the mess that has now been made with their efforts to sabotage the ACA in order to jam this TrumpCare bill through.

Let's be clear. As President Trump and Republicans have tried to pass TrumpCare legislatively, they have also implemented it by undermining our current healthcare system. Unless they get serious and get to work with Democrats, families are going to face higher premiums in 2018, and they will have fewer choices--all because of partisan political tactics.

This fight is on the razor's edge, and Democrats are going to keep doing everything we can to stop it. We just need a few Republicans to join us, to stand on the side of patients and families and say no to TrumpCare. Democrats will do everything we can to persuade more Republicans to join us, but what has made the difference thus far, what has truly mattered, is when Republicans have heard from their own constituents.

I am here tonight to strongly urge people across the country to ramp up the pressure in these last few hours. Keep calling and tweeting. Double down on your advocacy, and make your voices heard. Again, we have less than 24 hours until the Republican leadership plans to hold a vote.

Republican Senators, we also need to hear from you. Now is the time to stand up, do the right thing, and oppose TrumpCare once and for all.

I know a number of our colleagues are going to be coming to the floor tonight to talk about this, and they will be raising their voices and their concerns. I urge all Senators to stand with us tomorrow and vote no.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, July 22, 2017, marks the 30th anniversary of the enactment of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, our Nation's landmark law designed to prevent and address homelessness. Many communities in my home State of Washington and across the country are confronting a surge in homeless and housing-insecure individuals, and the resources brought to bear by McKinney-Vento are essential to continued progress. The McKinney-Vento Act also marked the first time that Congress provided dedicated funding to ensure equal educational opportunities for children and youth who are experiencing homelessness. The law requires States and school districts to remove barriers that homeless children and youth face in receiving a high-quality education. In the years since the McKinney-Vento Act was passed, hundreds of thousands of young people experiencing homelessness have received the supports they need in order to attend school, graduate, and secure a well-paying job that can provide for their families.

I am proud to have introduced and seen enacted legislation to remove barriers and provide support to homeless children and youth, from early childhood through postsecondary education. Many of these laws have codified best practices pioneered by dedicated Washington State educators determined to make a difference for homeless children and youth.

I have fought and continue to fight for funding that makes a difference for homeless children and youth, veterans and other adults, and families experiencing homelessness. I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating the success of the McKinney-Vento Act and recognizing how far we still have to go in order to solve our homelessness crisis and make sure that every child in our country has access to a quality education no matter where they live, how they learn, or how much money their parents make.

Mr. President, at a time when millions of people nationwide are speaking out and making absolutely clear ``no to more attacks on women's health and women's rights and no to the kind of hate and division President Trump sowed on the campaign trail,'' it is unconscionable that my Republican colleagues are moving now to confirm a circuit court nominee who is so clearly anti-women, anti-choice, and so clearly unqualified and unfit to serve on the bench.

Our Republican colleagues may think that no one is paying close attention to this nomination, that perhaps they will just slip this one through. They are wrong. Today I am here, along with many of my colleagues, to take a stand, to make sure that families know just who President Trump is trying to fill our Nation's court system with and call on Republicans to reject this nomination of John Bush to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

I consider my decisions about whether to support judicial nominees to be among the most important and consequential choices I make as a Senator. Like Supreme Court Justices, circuit court judges have lifetime appointments. They set legal precedent. They decide on the majority of Federal cases. They can change and shape the lives of generations to come. So it is a responsibility I do not take lightly.

There are so many troubling aspects of this nominee's record-- previous statements, writings, legal views--they should alarm every American, from his views on LGBTQ rights, race, and campaign finance reform, to his vision of the environment and election laws.

I would like to start with one aspect of his record that is especially important to me as a woman, a mother, a grandmother, and a U.S. Senator, and that is what this nomination would mean for women. For nearly a decade, Bush has made countless inflammatory, offensive, and troubling comments on a number of issues important to women. It is not possible to go through them all, and, frankly, most should not be repeated on the Senate floor, but I do want to make clear what kind of nominee this is.

Bush has likened a woman's constitutionally protected right to choose to that of slavery, calling it one of the greatest tragedies in the history of our country. This harmful view is a pattern with Bush. In fact, he consistently uses anti-choice rhetoric, whether he is writing about the right to privacy or other case law.

On top of that, Bush has attacked essential health programs for women and children. For example, he has called the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program--which helps provide at-risk pregnant women the resources they need to raise healthy children-- wasteful.

He has authored an amicus brief advocating for the Virginia Military Institute to continue excluding women from admission, where he stated that there are ``different developmental needs of women and men.''

Most recently, on his Judiciary Committee questionnaire, he failed to disclose memberships with various organizations that do not admit women, as well as people of color.

I could go on and on, and any of these alone would be enough for me to oppose this nomination. There are a lot more. Along with his views about women, we have learned of a disturbing pattern of hostility toward the LGBTQ community.

In several articles, Bush has praised court decisions that attack LGBTQ rights. He has used anti-LGBTQ slurs in his personal speeches. He has publicly applauded statements made by candidates for office and government officials that oppose marriage equality.

When given an opportunity to explain any of these comments or previous writings during his committee testimony, he was evasive and dodged questions, and he certainly did not apologize or clarify any of those comments.

I don't think I need to go any further, but I hope it is becoming increasingly clear that this is not a normal nominee. This is someone who lacks the qualifications and character and

temperament to be appointed to a lifetime position on the Federal bench.

It is time for President Trump to stop trying to divide our country and use Federal court nominations to push his extreme agenda and undo progress for women and the LGBTQ community.

I will remind my Republican colleagues, we have joined together this year to reject extreme nominees like this before--Andrew Puzder and Mark Green. Those, by the way, were temporary Cabinet positions. This is a lifetime appointment. I hope we do the right thing and reject this nomination.

Before I conclude, it is my understanding that Senate Republicans may attempt to misrepresent Bush's harmful record on women. In case there is any confusion, I would like to read a statement from Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky on the Bush nomination:

Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky calls on Sen.

Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul to reject the nomination

of John Bush to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Bush has demonstrated that he is unqualified for this

federal court in upholding fundamental constitutional rights

in his writings comparing abortion and slavery, while

applauding statements that demonstrate a record of hostility

to women and LGBTQ individuals.

Sen. McConnell's statements citing PPINK board members

support on the Bush nomination do not reflect the

organizational position of the Planned Parenthood affiliate

in Kentucky and Indiana and we urge the Senate to reject a

nominee that lacks the independence and temperament necessary

for a federal judgeship.

Mr. President, I urge our Republican colleagues to make the right choice: to reject this nominee and put in place a person in a court position that is a lifetime appointment, one who all Americans feel will represent them on the bench.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Mr. President, from the moment President Trump and Republicans began trying to jam TrumpCare through Congress, I heard from family after family in my home State about the damage their efforts to undermine families' healthcare would do, and this last week was no different. Again and again, my constituents told me what a difference it makes to have affordable insurance, to know that benefits like substance abuse treatment are covered, or to worry about how they would manage if TrumpCare ever became law.

I heard some of my Republican colleagues went out of their way to avoid those kinds of stories when they were home, so I wanted to make sure they heard a few examples now that they are back in town. And I appreciate that many of my Democratic colleagues will also be sharing stories they heard from their constituents over the past few days.

Like many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I come from a State in which the opioid epidemic has had a devastating impact. It has been both heartbreaking and inspiring to talk with patients and families who are doing everything they can to fight back. Right now, the message I am getting from them loud and clear is that they do not want TrumpCare.

Daniel, one of my constituents, was injured in the military. He was given a prescription for painkillers. He was on them for 8 years, and he told me that during that time, his three daughters wondered why he wouldn't play with them. Eventually, Daniel changed doctors and was prescribed Suboxone, which made all the difference for him. He is now able to work again. He manages a grocery store. He relies on Medicaid for healthcare coverage, which covers the hundreds of dollars a month his prescriptions cost. Daniel told me that if he loses Medicaid under TrumpCare, he will not be able to make ends meet and all of the progress he has made will be threatened.

I heard from a constituent named Rachel of Seattle who was addicted to opioids and living in her car when she found out she was eligible for Medicaid. She got connected with Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, where she received wraparound health services, including mental healthcare and primary healthcare. Now she and her husband are successfully in recovery. They are raising a family, and Rachel is going to school. But, just like Daniel, they do not know what they will do if TrumpCare becomes law and the Medicaid coverage that is keeping them going is taken away.

Those are just two of the countless stories I heard from patients and families and doctors in my home State and nationwide. I have heard from cancer survivors who have fought back as hard as they can and are worried that TrumpCare will allow insurance companies to price them out of care because they are now labeled with a preexisting condition. I heard from young parents of medically fragile children who stay up at night worrying about how to afford care for their toddler if lifetime caps on coverage are imposed under TrumpCare. I heard from seniors who simply don't have the savings to cover the premium spikes TrumpCare would cost. I heard from women and men who are furious, and rightly so, that a group of 13 men wrote a bill in secret to defund Planned Parenthood--the Nation's largest provider of women's healthcare-- removing a quality, affordable provider from communities in which it is now very difficult to get care.

These stories are powerful. They make it undeniably clear just how much TrumpCare would hurt people. So it is no wonder that Senate Republicans spent the last week lying low and avoiding defending, oddly, the indefensible. Senate Republicans have read the same independent Congressional Budget Office analysis as we all have. They have heard from countless doctors and nurses and hospitals and nursing homes and patient advocates about all of the ways TrumpCare would raise families' costs and take away coverage. They know that people across the country are completely, resoundingly rejecting TrumpCare. It is the least popular bill in three decades, according to one study.

All in all, TrumpCare shatters every promise President Trump and Republicans made about providing insurance to everybody and making sure no one is worse off. And, incredibly, the extreme rightwing still thinks it leaves too much of the Affordable Care Act intact.

Even though it seems one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who wants to stick up for TrumpCare--including, by the way, President Trump--Senate Republican leaders are still doing everything they can to jam this through Congress as quickly as they can. They are working on backroom deals as we speak and coming up with new ways to sweeten the deal for Senate Republicans who are rightly wary of voting for a bill that would so clearly do so much harm.

In particular, this afternoon I wanted to address the ongoing effort by extreme conservative Senators to double

down on pulling the rug out from under patients with preexisting conditions. They put together this two-track plan to make middle-class workers and families pay more. If they get their way, insurance companies would be back in charge and could tell patients with preexisting conditions or anyone who happens to get sick in the middle of the year ``tough luck,'' and they will do that in a way that even conservative experts predict will cause premiums and deductibles to skyrocket. Senate Republicans are coming up with other ideas, too, such as an opioid fund that a Republican Governor said is like ``spitting in the ocean.''

Let me be clear. There is no ``fixing'' TrumpCare. No tweak around the edges is going to turn TrumpCare--which, by the way, is just a tax break for special interests and the healthcare industry on the backs of patients--into a healthcare bill that actually helps people. There is just no way. TrumpCare, as the President said, is mean at its core, and unless it is dropped altogether, Senate Republicans are going to have to decide whether they stand with their party or the people they came here to represent.

So to everyone out there who has called and written and rallied and tweeted, you are having an impact. You are why TrumpCare isn't already law. But you cannot give up now, and Democrats here in the Senate won't either. We are going to keep doing everything we can to make sure Senate Republicans can't hold their noses and vote for TrumpCare just to hand big corporations a tax break and President Trump a hollow political win, whether it is next week or the weeks into August.

I also want to remind my Senate Republican colleagues again that we have made clear all along the way that there is a better way to do this. Democrats are ready. We are willing to work with you on policies that make healthcare more affordable and workable for patients and families.

So I am here today to say I hope you all listen to the stories our Democratic colleagues are bringing to the floor. Think about how devastating TrumpCare would be, and do the right thing. Drop this mean bill once and for all so all of us can get to work on real healthcare solutions that actually help people afford care, get covered, and stay healthy. If you do, you won't have to defend this defenseless bill a minute longer.

Thank you. I yield the floor.

Mr. President, today, with my colleague Senator Cantwell, I wish to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the construction and operation of the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, more commonly known in Washington State as the Ballard Locks. The Ballard Locks are not just symbolic of our region's rich maritime history, but a century later, they remain vital to the economy, public safety, environment, and more in Puget Sound.

As early as the 1850s, settlers in Puget Sound recognized the benefits of connecting the region's freshwater lakes to the saltwater of Puget Sound. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Navy expressed interest. Ultimately, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Army Corps, initiated planning for the locks in the late 1890s and work began in earnest under Hiram M. Chittenden, the Seattle district engineer for the Army Corps from April 1906 to September 1908. Construction began in 1911 after the locks received approval from Congress, and the Ballard Locks were formally opened for vessel traffic on July 4, 1917.

The Ballard Locks enable commercial and recreational vessels to travel to the docks, shipyards, warehouses, maintenance and repair facilities, and marinas in the region's freshwater lakes while also reducing maintenance costs and prolonging vessel life in the freshwater environment. The importance of the locks is underscored by their annual usage. Each year, the Ballard Locks support 45,000 vessel transits and 14,000 lockage counts, which makes them the busiest lock in the United States in overall vessel traffic. If you only count commercial vessels from fishing fleets to oceangoing freight shippers and more, the Ballard Locks are the 12th busiest in the Nation.

Mr. President, like other infrastructure across Washington State and the Nation, the Ballard Locks are showing their age. Senator Cantwell and I commend the Army Corps for its work to restore and modernize the locks, and we are doing our part in Congress to support these efforts. Year after year, we work to help Presidential administrations understand the critical importance of the Army Corps' work, and we make sure budgets actually reflect that need. We stand ready to continue to work with our partners in Puget Sound to complete the necessary repairs and upgrades of the Ballard Locks, as our regional economy and the more than 200 businesses that rely upon the locks cannot afford an extended, unplanned closure.

Mr. President, before I begin, I want to make something absolutely clear. This healthcare fight is anything but over. TrumpCare is not dead--not even close--and we cannot let up. It is no surprise that Senate Republicans needed another week to try to jam their TrumpCare bill through, given everything it would mean for families' health, their financial security, and their lives.

So, while we do not know what kind of backroom deals the Senate Republicans will cut or which Republicans will decide that they care more about toeing the party line than protecting the patients and families in their States, here is what we do know. The majority leader is not going to give up. He wants to get to yes, and so does President Trump, so the backroom deals and arm-twisting are going to go into overdrive starting now.

That is why my message is, to every patient and family, every mom and dad, adult caregiver, doctor, nurse, teacher, anyone who believes TrumpCare would be devastating for their communities: Do not let up the pressure. We saw what happened in the House. We need to keep fighting, and Democrats are going to keep fighting along with all of you.

One has to ask, given how mean this bill is and how clearly patients and families are rejecting it, why are my Republican colleagues pushing ahead?

It is not like this is some kind of forgone conclusion. At any moment, Republicans can drop this effort and work with Democrats on healthcare policies that will actually help patients and families and not hurt them. Yet it is clear right now that Republican leaders are not interested. In fact, they have done just about everything possible to prevent not just Democrats but anyone, including most of their own party, from being involved in this process.

As Democrats have made clear, this is unprecedented. I was here when the Affordable Care Act was debated and passed. We organized dozens of bipartisan meetings. We held hearings, and we took amendments from both sides. We certainly did not leave the fate of women's healthcare up to a few men.

Yet, with the Republican's TrumpCare plan, there have been no hearings, and there has been no scrutiny, no public input, no expert testimony. Why is that? It is that their bill is not actually about healthcare--far from it. Their bill is about giving a massive gift to the wealthy and the already well-connected on the backs of children, working families, the sick, and the elderly. It is an enormous broken promise, and yesterday's CBO report made that alarmingly clear.

Republican leaders promised to lower healthcare costs. This plan will actually raise them, especially for seniors. They promised not to pull the rug out from under patients, but this plan would take coverage from 24 million people and gut Medicaid with even deeper cuts, by the way, than would the House's version. Under their bill, they said no one would be worse off. Tell that to a woman who would have to pay as much as $1,000 extra for maternity care or who would have to see her local Planned Parenthood center closed. They said their bill would protect patients who have preexisting conditions. Read the fine print. The fine print says, this plan is a backdoor way of putting those patients' fates in the hands of the insurance companies.

This is truly shameful.

Republican leaders promised they were committed to tackling our growing opioid epidemic, but with this plan, all of our efforts--all of the work left to be done by the States--would be at risk. That would be incredibly harmful.

Over the past year, I have met so many families in my home State of Washington who have lost a loved one to the opioid crisis--in Bellingham, in Spokane, in Yakima, in the Tri-Cities--in community after community. I know the same stories are actually being told in West Virginia, in Ohio, in Kentucky, and in Pennsylvania--in States all across our country. I have heard directly from people who are on the path to recovery who have told me how their getting treatment and Medicaid coverage changed their lives for the better.

What will they do under TrumpCare?

I would be ashamed, too, if I had to defend this cruel bill over the upcoming recess. I would be ashamed if I had to explain this bill to constituents of mine like Jennifer England.

Jennifer is a woman from Kent, WA. She is a mom, a softball coach, and a cancer survivor. Because of coverage she had under the Medicaid expansion, she decided to play it safe and go to the doctor to get a lump checked out, something she told me she would not have done before. Jennifer was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. It was about to spread to her lungs and could have been deadly. Jennifer went through rounds of chemo and trip after trip to the doctor. On March 8--her daughter's 18th birthday--she was finally able to tell her daughter she was in the clear. Now Jennifer is terrified of what this bill would mean for her finances, for her family, and for her life if her Medicaid coverage goes away.

I would be ashamed if I had to defend this bill to Kelly Hill, from Seattle.

I met Kelly during a recent tour of Seattle's International Community Health Services clinic. Kelly shared with me that she has been living with HIV for 17 years and has a son with a severe developmental disability. Fortunately, Kelly told me she was able to get Medicaid when she needed it the most, in graduate school, when she was first diagnosed and when she was pregnant with her son.

Today, her son Avram is 15 years old and cannot be left unattended. He is going to need expensive care and support for the rest of his life. Medicaid plays a crucial role in keeping Avram active at home, in their community, and it allows Kelly the opportunity to have a full- time job so she can support her family. Kelly knows just how important access to healthcare is and the harm and uncertainty TrumpCare will cause.

I want to be very clear. If Republicans jam through TrumpCare this month, they will own the consequences. They will have to defend this bill to people like Jennifer and Kelly in their own States, and they will be responsible for increasing families' healthcare costs, undermining protections for people with preexisting conditions, defunding Planned Parenthood, and allowing insurance companies to charge women more. They will be responsible for taking away care for seniors, pregnant women, and people with disabilities.

Again, Republican leaders can still choose to drop TrumpCare once and for all. I am not going to take any chances, though, and neither should anyone who is listening who joins Democrats in opposing TrumpCare. I fully expect the backroom deals to continue and to get even worse now that Republican leaders have been forced to delay this week's vote. I just hope the Republicans who are rightly concerned about the impact of TrumpCare will take a close look at the facts on the table, will recognize it is time to change course, and will stand strong for their constituents.

That is what this debate should be about, making sure the people whom we represent can count on the security of healthcare when they get sick so they will not have to consider forgoing treatment for a sick child because they do not have the money and so they will be treated fairly and equally in our healthcare system.

That is what I have been thinking about these last several weeks. It is why Democrats have been holding the floor all of these nights, participating in rallies, and staying out on the Capitol steps. It is why my friend, the senior Senator from Hawaii, took to the floor yesterday and bravely talked about what this fight now means to her personally. As she said, everyone is only one diagnosis away from a serious illness, and no one should have to worry about what he will do if and when that moment comes.

In this country, healthcare should be a right, not a privilege reserved for the few. That is what Democrats are going to keep fighting for, and we will not let up.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, what we are seeing here today is just the latest broken promise from President Trump and his Republican Party. After weeks of secret negotiations, back-room deals, shutting out patients, families, and Democrats and even many Republicans from this process, Senate Republican leaders are now just days away from putting a bill on the floor that could not be more impactful or more devastating to families' bank accounts and their health. As even Republicans are pointing out, there has not been a single hearing, no robust debate, no opportunity for the people who will really suffer under this bill to see exactly how bad it would be.

This disastrous TrumpCare bill deserves full scrutiny under an open process, like the process that Democrats conducted when we passed the Affordable Care Act. We held hearings, we took amendments from both sides, and we certainly didn't leave the fate of women's healthcare up to a few Republican men.

Senate Republicans are right to be ashamed of this mean and heartless legislation. Just like the House TrumpCare bill, it will increase premiums, it will undermine protections for people with preexisting conditions, it will defund Planned Parenthood, and it will allow insurance companies--insurance companies--to charge women more. It is going to gut Medicaid. It will take away care for our seniors, pregnant women, people with disabilities, and it will take health insurance coverage away from millions of people across the country--and for what? To give another massive tax cut to the wealthy and well-connected.

I would be ashamed, too, if I had to defend a bill that is cruel. I can certainly understand why Republican leaders do not want to give people time to see what is in this bill and why they don't even want to give their own Members time to see how much their constituents hate it, but that is the bed Senate Republicans have now made. If they are going to try to pass this disastrous version of TrumpCare, at the very least they shouldn't get to jam it through without the public knowing good and well what they are up to.

Mr. President, I ask a parliamentary inquiry: Is the Chair able to confirm that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions considered S. 1679, the Affordable Health Choices Act, which was ultimately incorporated into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in executive session on 13 calendar days prior to reporting the bill favorably?

That is confirmed.

So I ask unanimous consent today that any substitute or perfecting amendment offered to Calendar No. 120, H.R. 1628, not be in order if the text of the amendment has not been the subject of a hearing, subject of executive session, during which amendments from both the majority and minority were considered and reported favorably by the Committee on Finance and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Mr. President, I heard the objection.

I just have to say, the exchange we just heard is exactly what we have been objecting to. We were told the bill would be online at 9:30 this morning. It was online at 11. I have a copy of it, but we are hearing from the other side now that this isn't the bill. This is a discussion draft. We aren't going to see the bill. We will not see the real bill, apparently, until next week, even though we were told we would see it this morning.

This has been the problem we have had since this discussion started. We started in January with a process which cut us out of this under reconciliation. Thirteen men in a private room wrote this ``discussion draft,'' which is not a bill, that we are supposed to now look at and decide whether we like it--and the American public--a discussion draft, a bill even the other side doesn't know what we have. That is what we are objecting to.

We are asking that the American people--who have a right to know what is going to impact every one of their lives, every one of their families, every one of their communities, every one of their businesses--have more than a discussion draft, more than 10 hours of debate, time to look at it, and know how we are going to do an amendment process next week.

I would be happy to.

Oh, Mr. President, I am well aware of that; and I will remind our colleagues and everybody in this country what will happen: There will be 10 hours of debate, where we hopefully have more than a discussion draft that we will be allowed to offer amendments on, and there will be no debate on those amendments. No one will know what it is. It will be a chaotic process on this floor. The American public will not know. We will be able to tell them days later, after this gets undone.

That is not an amendment process. That is not what we went through when we passed the Affordable Care Act. The American public deserves better.

Mr. President, since the first day of this administration, I have heard from women in my home State and nationwide who are fearful of what President Trump will do to their health and rights--from appointing a Supreme Court Justice who has made clear that he opposes the historic ruling in Roe v. Wade, to trying at every turn to undermine women's access to safe, legal abortion here in the United States and abroad, to proposing a budget that would defund Planned Parenthood and devastate investments in women's health. I know from letters, calls, emails, tweets, rallies--you name it--that across the country women feel under attack because of this administration's policies and the willingness of Republicans in Congress to make sure they are carried out.

Women are worried and, unfortunately, they have a right to be, especially in this moment. In a matter of

days, Senate Republicans could bring their version of TrumpCare to this floor. As many of us have said, this is the worst bill for women in a generation. It will cut off access to critical healthcare services at Planned Parenthood, our Nation's largest provider of women's healthcare. It will allow our insurance companies to go back to charging women more and interfere with women's constitutionally protected reproductive rights. In fact, at literally every stage of life, TrumpCare would stand in the way of women's access to the healthcare they need.

Under this bill, young girls nationwide would lose Medicaid coverage. College students across the country who go to Planned Parenthood for contraception would find the centers they rely on shuttered. Women would pay $1,000 more a month for maternity care, and women battling cancer and women who are survivors would have to look ahead to being discriminated against for having a preexisting condition. Senior women would watch their premiums spike by as much as 850 percent because of the age tax Republicans have inexplicitly chosen to include in this bill.

I could go on, but let me just say that since President Trump and Republicans first began trying to jam this bill through, I have heard from countless women who would be impacted by the cruel policies I have just described.

One of them is Kelly. Her son has a developmental disability and he gets Medicaid coverage. There is Jennifer, who is fighting cancer tooth and nail and is now worrying about what is going to happen if the Medicaid expansion goes away. There is Tammy, whose congenital heart disease made pregnancy life threatening and who was able to afford safe and effective contraception because of her insurance coverage. Those are just a few examples. I am so grateful to them and to the many, many others who have spoken out and shared their stories.

We might think that with so many women thinking about how this bill would impact them, with so much at stake for women's health, rights, and financial security should TrumpCare be signed into law, Senate Republicans would want to see what women thought of their version of TrumpCare. But they have made it abundantly and offensively clear that they do not.

They put together a working group of 13 men to draft their version. They negotiated in secret. They wrote this bill in back rooms. Now Senate Republicans are keeping it under lock and key until the very last minute so that women have as little time as possible to see just how badly this bill could harm them and their families. Women aren't going to put up with that, and Democrats aren't either.

I am proud to be here this evening with a number of my Democratic colleagues to call on Senate Republicans to stop hiding their bill from women and bring it out in the light for the scrutiny it deserves.

My Republican colleagues are right, I think, to be ashamed of this version of TrumpCare. But that doesn't mean it should be hidden from view, and we are not going to stop until women across the country get to read the fine print, instead of taking 13 male Republican Senators' word for it.

While this is a truly difficult and frightening time for anyone who believes that women should be able to make their own decisions about their own healthcare and who think politicians should not be able to interfere with those decisions, I have also been truly inspired by the response I have seen to the extreme agenda President Trump and Republicans are pursuing.

Since the first days of this administration, when I was so proud to march with millions of women across this country and the world to stand up for women's health and women's rights, women have continued to lead the fight against this administration's constant efforts to take our country backward. That is exactly what TrumpCare would do.

So let me be very clear. If Senate Republicans continue down this path, if they choose to jam a secret bill through Congress and get it signed into law instead of listening to people in this country and to us and working with us on real solutions to fix our healthcare system, you can be sure that women across the country--who will be forced to pay more for their care or lose it altogether--are going to be ready to make sure Republicans own every ounce of the harm they cause.

So I am here tonight to urge Republicans to make the right choice, and I will join women across the country in holding them fully accountable if they don't.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 6 minutes.

Mr. President, I want to thank all of my colleagues for their comments today on the damage TrumpCare would do. Democrats, patients, and families have been fighting back against TrumpCare and Republican efforts to jam it through Congress for months.

I want to take a moment and recall some of the promises President Trump and Republicans made at the very beginning of this process because there truly is a Grand Canyon between President Trump's promises and the TrumpCare bill he has now admitted himself is ``mean.''

At the start, President Trump promised to provide insurance for everybody that was both cheaper and higher quality. When TrumpCare was introduced in the House, Secretary Price said that ``no one would be worse off financially'' under the law. And when Speaker Ryan was asked whether millions of people would lose their insurance coverage under TrumpCare, he said ``no.''

Families were told again and again that TrumpCare would lower costs and keep people covered. As we know, TrumpCare would do the exact opposite. It will raise healthcare costs for people across the country, astronomically for those with preexisting conditions and for seniors, who could pay as much as 850 percent more in premiums. Medicaid would be gutted. Women and men would be unable to get care from the providers they trust and choose at Planned Parenthood. New mothers would pay as much as $1,000 more a month just to get maternity care. Tens of millions of people would see their healthcare coverage taken away.

I could continue. And I want to be clear that those facts came from the nonpartisan, independent Congressional Budget Office.

Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, when TrumpCare passed the House, President Trump ignored those facts and doubled down on his broken promises. He championed TrumpCare, calling it ``very, very well- crafted.'' He promised to get TrumpCare through the Senate, predicting that it would be an unbelievable victory. His Secretary of Health and Human Services called this bill--which would take healthcare coverage away from 23 million people--a victory for the American people. Which people? Maybe President Trump. Maybe special interests who are going to get these massive tax breaks. But not the hundreds of thousands of people in Washington State who are rightly scared of TrumpCare or millions more across the country.

Democrats have come to the Senate floor with story after story about how our constituents would suffer under this legislation, workers who would not be able to make ends meet between jobs without losing health insurance, seniors who know they will go bankrupt if TrumpCare becomes law, moms who stay up at night worrying about whether their child who has a preexisting condition will be priced out of coverage, patients fighting for their lives who are afraid that TrumpCare will kill them and who are literally begging Congress not to do this.

To these patients and families, President Trump's decision to finally admit the incredibly obvious--that TrumpCare is ``mean''--doesn't begin to cover it. To them, that bill is a gut punch. It is the bottom dropping out. It could be a death sentence. And this is especially true because, as hard as Senate Republicans have tried to keep their version of TrumpCare secret, behind closed doors, and in back rooms, as often as some have made promises just like those President Trump and House Republicans were making to try to reassure their constituents somehow that the Senate version of TrumpCare would be somehow less mean, the truth is, we know the Senate version of TrumpCare will be just as damaging.

Senate Republican leaders have already admitted that they expect their TrumpCare bill to mirror 80 percent of the House's. We have House conservatives writing letters to Senate Republicans making demands even meaner than many Senate Republicans want. And we all have a good idea how this is going to end up. ``Mean'' doesn't even begin to cover what TrumpCare would do to my constituents in Washington and to people across the country, but it is a start.

I haven't said this often, but I hope Senate Republicans listen to President Trump. This is a man who knows about mean--from making fun of a reporter with disabilities, to belittling our friend the junior Senator from Florida, to even impugning the senior Senator from Arizona, a war hero. When President Trump says something is mean, that certainly means something.

Mr. President, I hope they think about why he had to make that comment. They realize just how hard it will be to defend this truly appalling legislation, especially after it has been jammed through Congress, hidden from patients, and hidden from families without seeing the light of day. I hope they do what we tell preschoolers to do when they do something mean--apologize and make sure to do better next time. In Senate Republicans' case, that means dropping this effort to undermine families' healthcare once and for all and then joining with us to continue fixing healthcare for the people we serve by making healthcare more affordable, getting more families covered, and maintaining quality of care.

Democrats have ideas. We are at the table. We are ready to get to work as soon as Republicans are. It is not too late to make the right choice. The wrong choice is far more than mean. If my Republican colleagues do continue down this deeply harmful path, they should know they will own every bit of the hurt they cause, and they will be held fully accountable.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, Democrats come to the floor this evening as a voice for the people we represent, to fight back against Republican plans to jam TrumpCare through this Senate, increase healthcare costs, and hurt families across the country. Republican leaders may hope that nobody pays attention. They can hope that they can go into these secret rooms and cut secret deals and come out with a TrumpCare bill that they can jam through before anybody notices.

We are not going to allow that to happen. We are here. We are going to fight back. I can only hope that just a few Republicans will decide to listen to their constituents, reverse course, and work with us to improve healthcare instead of standing with President Trump to destroy it.

I start by talking about a constituent of mine whose story I heard and whose voice and perspective should be a part of this debate.

Her name is Lisa. She is from Spokane, which is in my home State of Washington. Lisa served our country in the Navy for 6 years. She goes to school. She works part time, and she says she relies on Medicaid to afford the healthcare she needs. She is very worried that, if TrumpCare passes, she will not only suffer from cuts to Medicaid, but she will lose her coverage altogether because, like many Americans, she has a preexisting condition--asthma.

Lisa is not alone. There are millions of people just like her in Washington State and across this country, and each of them--every patient, every family--has a stake in this fight. They deserve to be a part of this debate, and they have a right to know how TrumpCare would impact them if it is signed into law.

That should not be a partisan sentiment. I have heard Republicans come to the floor time and again, demanding transparency, railing against secrecy, calling for hearings. One Republican Senator who is now the chairman of the Senate HELP Committee came here to the Senate floor back in 2009 to blast Democrats for writing an amendment ``in secret.'' He said: ``None of us on the Republican side knew what was in it,'' and he accused Democrats of trying to pass our bill ``before the American people find out what's in it.''

My friend, the chairman of the HELP Committee, is certainly not alone. Back then, the current Republican majority leader said: ``This massive piece of legislation that seeks to restructure one-sixth of our economy is being written behind closed doors, without input from anyone, in an effort to jam it past not only the Senate but the American people.''

That was not true back then. We held dozens of bipartisan hearings and meetings over months and months and months. But it is what Republicans are doing right now.

The chairman of the Senate HELP Committee, whom I respect and would never think would be a part of an effort like this, told me that he was not planning to hold a single hearing on TrumpCare. The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which is where a lot of work on this bill should be getting done, told my friend the Senator from Missouri that he was not going to hold a hearing either.

There are reports now that Republicans actually have the text of their bill--something is written and almost ready. Democrats do not get to see that bill. People across the country are being kept in the dark. Republican leaders are treating it like President Trump's tax returns and are not allowing it to see the light of day. It is absurd, and it is unprecedented.

We could be just days away from a massive bill being jammed through this Senate, and many Republican Senators are telling press and constituents that they could not even say what was in the bill if they wanted to because they have not seen it either. This bill is so secret that even President Trump's top health adviser, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, told us in a hearing last week that he has not seen how TrumpCare is being changed in the back rooms of the Senate.

Let me ask this. Why are Republican leaders so focused on keeping their TrumpCare work secret? Why are they keeping it locked down so tight and not letting people see what is even in it? What are they so ashamed of?

One Republican Senate aide was quoted as saying: ``We aren't stupid.'' In other words, Republicans know it would be ``stupid'' to put this bill in the public because they know that people across the country--the people they are supposed to represent--would hate it.

That explains a lot.

Republican leaders--those who are writing this TrumpCare bill in secret--know that they would not be able to go back home and defend it. They know that the more people who learn about what is actually in it and what the fine print might mean for them and their families the more people back home are going to rise up and fight back. So they want to keep it wrapped up tight, under lock and key--no hearings, no scrutiny, no public input. When they first announced their secret working group, not even any women were in it. Republican leaders are in their back rooms, desperately trying to cut those final deals, doing whatever they can to bully those last few Republicans into supporting something they know their constituents will hate.

We are here tonight to say that enough is enough. This has to end. Healthcare is too important, and TrumpCare would be too devastating to allow this kind of secrecy to continue.

We do not know exactly what is in the TrumpCare bill that is being written in secret, but--do you know what?--we have a pretty good idea. No matter how much lipstick they put on this pig, based on everything we have heard, this is going the same way that TrumpCare went in the House, and the impact on patients and families would be just as bad. There would be higher costs for families, especially seniors and people with preexisting conditions. Insurance companies would no longer be required to cover basic healthcare--things like maternity care or mental health services, and much more. Women would lose access to see their doctors and the care they need at Planned Parenthood, and millions of people across the country would see their Medicaid coverage taken away.

That means that, nationwide, people who are finally getting treatment for substance use disorders, like opioid addiction, or mental healthcare or access to a primary care doctor under Medicaid are going to lose that access.

This would be so devastating for families across the country. Over the past year, I have had so many families in my home State who have lost a loved one to the opioid crisis. In Bellingham, in Spokane--in community after community--the story is always the same. I have heard directly from people on the path to recovery, like Tyler in Yakima and Mechele in the Tri-Cities, who told me how getting treatment changed their lives for the better.

I could not imagine that any Senator would want to go home, look in his constituents' eyes, and tell them that he helped pass a bill that would take away the tools that those communities need to fight this crisis, but that is what my Republican colleagues are planning to do as we speak.

Let's remember that all of this damage would be done--why?--to give a massive tax break to special interests in the health industry and to hand President Trump a hollow political win. It is truly shameful and it needs to stop.

Last week, we learned that President Trump is now saying that the House bill is ``mean.'' That is, certainly, an understatement from a President who does not often do subtlety, and it is pretty surprising to hear after we all saw him celebrate the House bill at the White House when it passed.

Here is the truth: The House TrumpCare bill is not just mean; it is

devastating. The Senate TrumpCare bill is going to be just as bad, no matter how they try to spin it or how many side deals they cut to claim it has changed.

I have a message for Senate Republicans who are so ashamed of what is in this bill that they are keeping it secret: It is not too late to change course. It is not too late to bring this process out from the shadows. It is not too late to be honest with people across the country about what you are doing. It is not too late to listen to the voices of people like Lisa. It is not too late to abandon this plan to jam TrumpCare through Congress. If you do that, if you stop, Democrats stand ready, as we always have, to work with you to actually make healthcare more affordable and accessible for patients and families across the country.

People across the country are watching. They are paying attention to this. They are not going to allow Republicans to slip this through without any scrutiny, and we Democrats are here to say, loud and clear, that we are going to keep fighting to make sure they have a voice.

I yield the floor.