Roger Marshall

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that myself, Senator Cassidy, and Senator Paul be permitted to speak prior to the scheduled recess.

Mr. President, thanks for letting us come to the floor, and I do appreciate my colleague Senator Bill Cassidy being here with me today as well.

Could you imagine you are in the market and you need a new car, you need a new truck, and you really need it badly--you don't have a way to get to and from work--so you get online and you look at the different models out there and be expected to make a purchase without knowing what the cost of that truck or that car was?

Well, that is the way healthcare is right now. We expect consumers to have all the healthcare delivered to them, and months later they get a bill for it. We think that patients deserve pricetags just like consumers do in every other form of business.

You think about the challenges of America today. Certainly the cost of living is upfront, and it is personal. And one of the big drivers of that cost is healthcare, health insurance. We have seen it go from 13 percent up to 18 percent of GDP. We have seen the cost of healthcare for a family go from maybe $500 a month a decade or two ago and now it is probably over $2,000 a month.

So certainly the cost of healthcare, in so many ways, is driving inflation. This matters. It matters to the patients. It matters to the employers that are paying for the health insurance or a big portion of it. It matters to the Federal Government.

If you are trying to balance the budget, if we could get the cost of healthcare under control, that would help us get toward a balanced budget.

I mean, my goodness, it is a $7 trillion budget. Maybe $2 trillion, two-sevenths of our Federal budget, is on healthcare. So if there were more pricetags, it would help bring the cost of healthcare down; actually, about $1,000 a month. If patients had pricetags, it could bring down the cost of healthcare $1,000 a month.

Our bill, as you may know, came out of committee 22 to 1, good bipartisan support. Our bill has real teeth to it as well. Our belief is just like in all forms of business, transparency helps consumers. And that is what we are asking here.

We are not asking anything different than any other business. We want total transparency so patients can look at the different prices. A healthcare provider would have to give their cost upfront, not an estimate; a real price upfront as well.

And, again, I just can't emphasize enough that this is bipartisan. It is ready to move, and that this is so important to the American consumer.

I will stop there, and I will yield to my colleague from Louisiana.

Mr. President, I certainly want to echo my gratitude to my colleague Senator Hickenlooper for his help with this bill and his staff and my staff and the HELP Committee staff as well, all of the work they have done on this bill--bill that will bring immediate relief to everybody across the country.

Real examples: An MRI of your knee might be, in one place, $300, and in another one, it might be $3,000. A hip replacement in one facility might be $15,000 but $150,000 in another location. We are not making those numbers up; that is the discrepancy you are going to hear about.

Look, patients deserve pricetags.

Mr. President, notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 522, S. 2355; further, that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, certainly I agree on many of the points my colleague made, and certainly I am in favor of expanding association healthcare plans. The goal of that is more competition, and that is all we are trying to create. My colleague says this won't work, but transparency works in every other industry. I think it is well documented that our bill would save $1,000 per month.

Here is the big fallacy in his argument. He is right that the insurance companies have negotiated these rates. So within one community, this insurance company has negotiated one rate with a surgery center, one rate with the hospital, one rate with an imaging center. So all I say is the patient deserves to see what that negotiated rate is, and then they can compare it. So it is like we agree, but he disagrees with the final step here: We want patients to know what that negotiated price is.

A real example: Getting a hip replaced at a surgical hospital might cost $15,000 or $20,000, but at the hospital down the street, it might be $150,000. The same way with an x ray. Going to the hospital, you know, the x ray--the MRI might be $3,000 there but $300 down at the imaging center.

So I agree that those prices have been negotiated, but I want to make sure it is in the hands of the consumers. Could you imagine driving down the street and gas stations--you didn't know how much the gas was going to be? Of course you wouldn't be able to make a good consumer choice.

So that is all we are asking, is full transparency in healthcare just like in every other industry.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to ask the Senate body to join me in the stopping of the funding of viral gain-of-function research.

Viral gain-of-function research is what led, of course, to the COVID virus being developed and, of course, the COVID epidemic. I think it is important to pause and stop and think why this is still important--what is it now--5 or 6 years later.

We all know we lost 1 million Americans to this COVID virus. Twenty million Americans still suffer from long COVID. Many, many Americans died alone--maybe at a nursing home, maybe in their own home. But they weren't allowed to have their own children, their spouses come visit them in those last moments of their life.

We had tens of millions of students miss their senior year of high school, their senior year of college. Maybe it was the State track meet. Maybe it was the State softball team they had been working on their whole life.

We have kids that still have learning disabilities or are lagging in their learning--specifically reading--not to mention their social interactions and their social development. This COVID virus left a huge physical, economic, and emotional scar on America.

And that is why I am asking that we stop this viral gain-of-function research. I am so proud that the President, recently, has agreed to stop the funding. I have been calling for the stopping of this since 2021 as well.

And I think it is important to realize how Anthony Fauci evaded the intentions of Congress and the rules from his own White House. Even President Obama asked him to stop doing viral gain-of-function research, but, of course, Anthony Fauci had more attorneys than Carter has pills, and they always found some loophole. Then, when they couldn't do it here, he offshored the funding of this.

Make no mistake about it, the United States was funding viral gain- of-function research for decades. This was Anthony Fauci's baby. He thought that this was his ticket to a Nobel Prize.

You know, whether you are a physician, like myself, or a mom or dad or a businessperson, a military officer, you always had to sit there and weigh the benefits and the risks of something like this.

I mean, what the benefits are, I am not sure of. You know, maybe they said it was so that if some unknown organism appeared, that we would be able to develop a vaccine. But, of course, the downside was always the fear of risk of a virus they made in a laboratory, of it escaping.

And, of course, why wouldn't there be? Multiple times in history, viruses, microorganisms have escaped from laboratories. It is practically impossible to control it. In 1978, a smallpox virus escaped from a lab in the United Kingdom. In 2007, foot-and-mouth virus accidently released from a United Kingdom lab. In 2014, the CDC had an anthrax issue. Again, in 2014, NIH-FDA, there were unsecured smallpox vials seen.

These mice they were doing experiments on and infecting them with these monster viruses, from time to time, escaped.

So it seems like we were set up for failure. And, again, despite scientist after scientist, President after President, warning Anthony Fauci to stop doing this research, he persisted and he persisted and he persisted, until finally COVID-19 was accidentally released from a lab in Wuhan, China. And the rest is history.

And that is why I think it is so important that we stop the funding for this once and for all. Let's codify what the President has done here and make sure--at least until someone can come to this Congress and say: Look, we have a foolproof system for keeping this in control.

But when you are making monster viruses, the worst-case scenario is probably some type of terrorism; that it would be so easy, once these are made, to be replicated and turned into a terrorist weapon--much more of a serious consequential threat to America than nuclear warheads are.

Think about this: This virus alone has exponentially been more lethal than all the years of nuclear weapons.

This bill does one simple thing: It stops Federal tax dollars from funding the kind of research that could turn a virus into a weapon--no more offshoring risks to avoid oversight, no more asking permission from the very Agencies that created the problem.

Mr. President, that is why today, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further consideration of S. 738 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. President, today we honor the life and legacy of Richard Allen ``Rick'' Ball of Great Bend, KS. Rick was a respected businessman, dedicated community leader, and devoted family man whose service left a lasting impact on those around him.

For decades, Rick served the Great Bend community as a trusted certified public accountant and partner at Adams, Brown, Beran & Ball. He helped local businesses and organizations succeed through his sound advice and steady guidance. His leadership earned him recognition as the 2012 Great Bend Citizen of the Year and the 2008 U.S. Small Business Administration Financial Services Champion of the Year.

However, Rick's dedication extended well beyond his professional career. He gave generously of his time through the Great Bend Chamber of Commerce, United Way, the Golden Belt Community Foundation, and many other local organizations. He also enjoyed hunting, gardening, and golfing, and he was known for his kindness and willingness to help others.

Though he will be greatly missed, Rick's legacy lives on through his wife Lois, his children and grandchildren, and the many people whose lives he touched. His example will continue to inspire the Great Bend community for years to come.

I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Richard Allen ``Rick'' Ball and in offering our prayers and sympathies to his family, friends, and the entire Great Bend community.