Floor Statements

Mr. Chair, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``Nay'' on rollcall No. 156.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted ``Nay'' on rollcall No. 143, the Hank Johnson Amendment No. 5.

Amendment No. 6 Offered by Mr. Conyers

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to spend time here with my colleagues. We just heard a diatribe from our colleagues. It is interesting to me to note how they say the American people don't want us to change this, but I have to remind my colleagues that I think the American people spoke very loudly on November 8. We have run multiple times to repeal this bill. I heard one of my other colleagues say that we voted over 60 times, and we are going to vote one more time to get rid of the Affordable Care Act because the American people have delivered that message to us, and we have a President that says that we will do this.

I think, as we go through this, we are going to have some interesting conversations. Considering all the bickering and posturing you see in the media by partisans on the left and the right, it is time for Members of this body to step back for a moment and take stock of where we are in the healthcare debate.

I was not a Member of Congress when the Affordable Care Act was passed. I was a practicing large animal veterinarian in private practice plying my trade and not a political animal, if you will. However, I was concerned to see the way the law was passed. My colleagues on the other side were talking about how this was rammed through Congress and how it was passed in the shadows--or how we are doing that now. But I have to remind them that in 2009 it was passed in the dark of night--no Republican input, no debate, and no discussion. It was just passed and rammed down the American people's throat.

I want to go on here, and I want to yield to a couple of my colleagues before I do.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa) because he has to go tend to some other business. I would like to have his input on this. Doug LaMalfa is my good friend and a great leader up here.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from California.

Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, I was concerned to see the way the law was passed. It was passed in the middle of the night. I thought it was passed through hastily and without transparency. I did not think that boded well for the law's success. Unfortunately, I was proven right.

If you remember the words of the then-Speaker of the House, it was passed without reading it, and the words were: We have to pass it to see what is in it. We have to pass it to see how it is going to work.

Talk about legislative malpractice that was poured on to the American people to get a bill they didn't want, that nobody read. Yet my colleagues on the other side are talking about how we are running this through without anybody's input. It has had 6 years of input, it is coming together now, and our goal is to fix health care for the American people.

As someone who has practiced medicine, I believe that, despite all the good intentions behind the Affordable Care Act, it was doomed to fail, as most Big Government programs are. In fact, one of the main reasons I ran was on behalf of patient-centered, free-market oriented health care. I supported and still support healthcare reform that allows us in Congress to keep our promises when we talk about what we want to achieve.

I was one of the Members that came up here who lost my health care because of the Affordable Care Act. My premiums have gone up over $11,000 since I have been here. My deductibles have gone up and my coverage has gone down. It is a disaster. I have to remind my colleague from Minnesota who was talking about how bad the Republican bill is that his own Governor from the State of Minnesota said that this bill is a disaster, the Affordable Care Act in its present form, and his premiums have gone up 45 percent in his own State.

I want to remind this body that many people lost health care they had before ObamaCare was passed with the promise that if you like your plan, you can keep it. It was broken by our own President of the United States. If you like your plan, if you like your doctor, and if you like your insurance company, your premiums will go down $2,500 on an average. Lie after lie after lie. The American people answered that by electing a majority in Congress to the Republican Party to fix that, and that is what we aim to do.

Supporters of the ACA also told us that the premiums wouldn't increase. It turned out that was false. Premiums in the individual markets have increased partly because ObamaCare has forced insurers to leave the exchange. For example, benchmark silver-level plan premiums have increased by an average of 25 percent from 2016 to 2017, according to the Department of Health. If you like the State of Arizona, the premium this year is going up an astounding 116 percent. They worry about us, and then they blame us for raising the cost of health care. Sophistry, pure sophistry.

Many families have been forced to pay drastically higher out-of- pocket costs, which hits their pocketbooks hard even though they are not wealthy people by any stretch of the imagination. As my friend, Mr. LaMalfa, was talking about the cost, at the end of the month people are finding out they are running out of money before they run out of the month.

I am reminded of one family in my district whom I met with personally many times over my tenure in Congress. They had to deal with the intense treatments and frequent hospitalizations for an illness that has hit two generations of their family very hard. They had coverage through an employer that they started out with, and it was a $350-a- month premium right before the ACA passed in 2010. However, around the time the ACA mandates kicked in, their plan went up over $100 a month. Today their premium is a staggering $680 a month. That is over $8,000 a year in premiums, nearly double what they were paying before the ACA. These are the people that sent us up here to fix health care. Unless you are making six figures a year, this is an absolutely painful sum.

Mr. Speaker, I may not generally be a supporter of government benefits, but I do believe very strongly that our government should make every effort in protecting our Nation's vulnerable population, especially the chronically ill. My concern is the ACA has resulted in those groups being harmed more than anybody else. Particularly for those who had employer-provided insurance prior to the ACA, the law's effect has been hurtful, especially if their coverage was for families afflicted by long-term illness. Simply put, no healthcare law should ever make things worse for people who were responsible and had health care to treat a medical condition. If anything, that is the opposite of health care.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Babin), who is a good friend of mine. Dr. Babin has practiced dentistry in our military and in the private sector. Right after graduating dental school, he was commissioned in the Air Force as an officer and was stationed overseas. I thank the gentleman

for his service. He later returned to his native east Texas to open his own dental practice, which he operated for over three decades. He has served on the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners and as a member of the American Dental Association.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate Dr. Babin's comments. He is very astute. He has been around health care. You know how this thing is not working and the strain it has put on people in your district, as it has in mine, and people around the country.

I am relieved that Congress is moving forward on legislation to right these wrongs. It feels so good to be a Member of Congress today to live up to a campaign promise that everyone in the majority in the House, Senate, and executive branch says: We are going to fix this; trust us. I have the complete confidence in that. I look forward to engaging with my colleagues.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse). He is a farmer, small-business man, and good conservative who understands the importance of keeping government out of our healthcare system.

Our country's farmers have been hit hard, just as much as others, by ObamaCare. Congressman Newhouse is, no doubt, well aware of these issues.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my good colleague from Washington State. I appreciate his words, his thoughtfulness, and the stories. You learn more from a story than you do facts and figures.

I want to go over a couple of things here. As we have heard, the average increase of health plans in the United States rose by over 35 percent. I already talked about Arizona: 116 percent this year alone.

The insurance exchanges that were set up--the 26 in the beginning-- are down to 5, with some counties not even having exchanges to purchase insurance.

I think for the people that are watching this at home, whether they are Members of Congress, the American citizens, I want you to listen to this, and I want to take you back to the information that came out when the Speaker of the House then talked about, we have to pass it to see what is in it, how it is going to work. Then I want you to picture the words of the architect of this bill, Jonathan Gruber: The lack of transparency and the stupidity of the American voter helped ObamaCare pass.

The Democrats want to blame this body, the Republicans, for wrecking health care. This is what they passed on us and the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), who is the only pharmacist serving in Congress. As a healthcare professional, he knows these issues very well.

He is the co-chair of the Community Pharmacy Caucus and sits on one of the main healthcare committees in Congress, the Committee on Energy and Commerce. He ran his own business, like me, and witnessed firsthand the problems that government regulations and red tape cause on job creators, large and small.

I want to remind folks, too, that there were over 22,000 pages of rules and regulations that came out of the Affordable Care Act.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Dr. Carter. I appreciate his being here. The effort he has put in, working diligently to help us right this wrong that

has been instilled upon the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis), a great colleague of mine who is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research of the Committee on Agriculture; a member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; and the Committee on House Administration.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis). He brought up a very astute point. This is collapsing on itself. If we were to do nothing, this would collapse, and the American people would be left without any coverage. We have heard other people on the other side say: Leave it alone.

That is irresponsible, and we will not do that. We will repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and we remove it from Washington bureaucrats and government mandates. If government can tell you what kind of insurance to buy, you have to buy it, and if you don't, they penalize you, what else can they force you to do?

Our Constitution is not a function of the government. Government is a function of the Constitution. Yet when government steps beyond the boundaries of the Constitution, it is up to us, we, the people--and we are the representatives of we, the people--to change how government works. That is what we are doing with the repeal and the replacement of the Affordable Care Act. We have heard about the nightmare this has caused to the American people, to our economy, the loss of jobs, the depression of job growth, wage growth. We can go on and on for hours, but it is not going to fix this problem.

What I want to focus on for the next few minutes is what the replacement does do. We have heard about the mandates that are going away, the taxes that are going away, the expansion of Medicaid. The reality in America, our country is in financial dire straits. It is unsustainable. It would be imprudent for us to sit by and do nothing while the country goes into default.

So with the direction we are going, this will bend the cost curve to Medicaid to make it solvent for a longer period of time. This will empower the individual to have health care and make those decisions between the doctor and the patient, the way it should be, instead of a government-controlled mandate.

This empowers individuals to be more responsible for themselves, to incentivize them to go out and buy health care by the use of health savings accounts, where they can buy over-the-counter medications to share with family members the benefit of the health savings account.

Republicans, Democrats, and Independents all want preexisting conditions covered, so that is something we all are in agreement with. There is the argument about should children be able to stay on their parents' policies until the age of 26. Personally, I don't think they should have to--I think they should be out on their own, but I have heard from enough people in my district that I am willing to compromise and go along with that. Truth be known, children could already stay on their parents' health plan until the age of 26 if they were actively enrolled in college or disabled. So we are compromising.

This will make health care better. It puts health care into the hands of the American people and their doctors and drives government out of it. Let them oversee the process.

We have heard over and over again that we need to open up the market across State lines. There is legislation coming out that will free up the insurance companies. We are introducing legislation to hold harmless insurance companies now, before we get through with this process, so that insurance companies are not held to the standards of the Affordable Care Act, so that they can start writing policies today when this legislation passes, so they can write their policies and start marketing now so that the American people will have time to research these products.

There will be a transition period. I can't guarantee it is going to be smooth. I can guarantee you it will be smoother than the last one.

I think the last thing I want to leave the American people with is we don't want to pull the rug out from anybody. We will do everything possible, and I know on both sides of this. I would think the Democrats, with the debacle that they created, the legislative malpractice that they passed in the dark hours of the night in December of 2009 or 2010, that they would want to come to the aid to fix health care for the American people instead of chastising us and telling us how bad and how wrong we are to interfere.

This plan is going to collapse on its own. We invite them to come to the table to help us fix this because this is for all Americans, not just Republicans. It is for all Americans--Republicans, Democrats, Independents, everybody. I would hope they would come and help us do this.

I think the last thing, Mr. Speaker, is this is a historic opportunity. The Wall Street Journal said never before has there been a chance to change a program as significant as what we are getting ready to do. We are the ones who are going to lead this effort to bring healthcare stability to the American people.

I look forward to the discussions in the future. I ask the American people to believe in the people you sent up here to fix this. We are going to get it right.

One last thing. I will guarantee you that this bill will be read before it is passed, and we will know how it is going to work.

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

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

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 9 o'clock and 14 minutes p.m.), the House adjourned until tomorrow, Friday, March 10, 2017, at 9 a.m.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today not only to celebrate African American History Month, but to celebrate two stories lost to mainstream history. The first story is the original Underground Railroad, and the other story is of Josiah T. Walls.

Students across the country have heard stories about the Underground Railroad during the Antebellum Period; however, there was a Road to Freedom that existed before the United States was even established, and that road went south to the free territory of Spanish Florida. In fact, the National Park Service held its sixth annual Underground Railroad Conference in St. Augustine in 2012 to highlight this very story which started with eight recorded families seeking freedom in 1608 in Florida.

During this period, thousands of men, women, and children fled from the colonies of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. These individuals headed to Florida to gain their freedom thanks to the Edict of 1693, which was issued by the then-Spanish Government that stated that any man, woman, or child who found their way to Spanish Florida would be granted freedom.

The people at the heart of this story are the Gullah Geechee who trace their lineage to West Africa. Once free in Florida, the Gullah Geechee people thrived, establishing communities, forts, and deep roots throughout Florida's Third Congressional District, roots that still can be felt today.

The second story is of Josiah T. Walls. He was a man who was born into slavery in 1842 in Virginia. He worked as a slave. The Civil War broke out, and he was conscripted by the Confederate Army to serve as a cook in the Civil War. He got freed by the Union soldiers, served with the Union soldiers, and after the war, he moved to Florida to fight in the Seminole American wars. During that time period, the war ended, and he moved to Gainesville, Florida, where he became the first African- American mayor of our city where I come from.

During that time, he became a very successful businessperson. He was elected to the Florida Assembly, and then later he was elected to the U.S. Congress, serving in this very body here today. His elections got challenged, and he lost his role as a Representative in the House. He ran again the next year, won again, and served a full term. Then the third term he ran, he won again. His election got challenged by a Confederate soldier, and he lost his seat.

He went on to become a prominent businessman in north central Florida, owned a farm, and was very successful until the freeze of 1906, which put him out of business. He moved to Tallahassee and became a newspaper owner and printed a local newspaper.

He rose to prominence, but at his death, he was but a footnote in the histories not just of our State, but of our country. Here is a man that was born into slavery, rose to prominence, and was forgotten by history.

I tell these stories because these stories, like many stories in our early history, must never be forgotten and must be remembered by our history lest we repeat it. It must also be taught to our children so that they are inspired and they see themselves in the history books like these other folks.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.J. Res. 42, and I thank Chairman Smith for taking the lead in fighting for American workers with this commonsense piece of legislation.

I believe there has been a misconception about the intent of this CRA. Congress is not acting because we have a malicious intent to punish American workers. We are not even trying to disincentivize them from participating in the program.

My colleague, Mr. Davis, said we should strengthen our programs, and what we are attempting to do is exactly that: strengthen the system that is intended to help unemployed Americans and allow them to prepare to reenter the workforce.

The 2012 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act made commonsense reforms to the unemployment insurance system with the goal of assisting Americans in returning to gainful employment. Yes, this included allowing States, like my own of Florida, to determine whether or not they wanted to include drug screening and test unemployment insurance applicants. And, yes, the law specifically stated two conditions: if the applicant had lost their job due to drug use and if they were seeking a new job that regularly required new employees to pass a drug test.

Now, when the Department of Labor drafted the rule, they clearly went beyond the intent of Congress and tailored it too narrowly. This will only hurt prospective employees in the long term.

The rule covers occupations such as those that require the employees to carry firearms, flight crews, transportation, and the like.

The problem here is that employers in occupations outside of this narrow scope also regularly require drug testing of their employees.

So under this rule, unemployed Americans who are using and looking for employment outside of the specific occupations outlined in the rule could potentially find employment in a different industry, be drug tested, and subsequently terminated.

How is this helping American workers? It doesn't make sense to me, and it shouldn't make sense to any of my colleagues either. This is a bad rule, and it needs to be repealed so the Department of Labor can go back to the drawing board and craft a rule that will actually strengthen the unemployment insurance, help the American worker, and ultimately strengthen the economy.

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, February 2, 2017, Gainesville, Florida, and the State of Florida lost a favorite son in Mr. Perry C. McGriff. Perry was an icon in my hometown of Gainesville, Florida, and was known for his strong civic duty in helping people wherever and whenever they needed it.

Perry was born in Arcadia, Florida, in 1937, and went to school at the University of Florida, where he became an all-star standout in both Gators football and baseball. His contributions on the field earned him entry into the prestigious Hall of Fame as a Gators Great in 1969.

Perry was married to his wife, Noel, for 57 years, raised four children--Jana, Mark, Keith, and Matthew--and enjoyed the joy and laugher of their 15 grandchildren.

A tremendous family man, Perry was also successful in business. He was an insurance agent for 48 years. He had the honor of being the youngest person ever elected as mayor of Gainesville, and he was a representative for the State of Florida.

He was a tireless volunteer and doer in Gainesville, receiving countless awards and recognition for his community service. Two of those particularly stick out to me. He received the first ever Ethics in Business Award and the Service Above Self Award, given by the Gainesville Rotary for his lifetime of service. In addition to his time, Perry donated more than 60 gallons of blood and set an example for all to follow.

For all the things Perry was and all the good things Perry did, I will always remember him most for his smile, his great attitude, and his notorious reputation to have his camera at the ready. He was always snapping pictures of people enjoying life and making sure to send to each individual a copy so they could remember the happy moments in the life that he captured.

To Noel and the McGriff family, thank you for sharing Perry's time. Thank you for sharing your husband and father with all of us. We will miss him forever, but we will never forget Perry. All of us, the city of Gainesville, the State of Florida, and I are all better for having known Perry.

Standing Strong Against North Korea

Mr. Speaker, this past weekend, North Korea said it had successfully completed the launch of a new ballistic missile. The Pukguksong-2, a medium-range ballistic missile, was test-fired on Sunday. The actions by the North Korean regime are unacceptable and in clear violation of the U.N. Security Council.

It is imperative that the U.S. stand strong with Japan, South Korea, and all of our allies in the region against the provocative and threatening actions of the North Korean totalitarian regime. It is a regime that is determined to thumb their nose at the world by advancing their nuclear capabilities, thus threatening their neighbors, the region, and for that matter, the world.

The United States and its world partners must continue to persuade North Korea to adhere to the U.N. Security Council resolutions or they choose to invite worldwide sanctions upon them. This is North Korea's decision and nobody else's.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mr. Bilirakis for the work that he has done. And I want to congratulate Chairman Roe for taking over the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

I would also like to thank the committee staff for their diligence and help on this piece of legislation, as well as the co-leads of this bill, Representatives Rodney Davis, Kyrsten Sinema, and John Delaney.

Last Congress, WINGMAN passed the Veterans' Affairs Committee unanimously in the House due to the bipartisan support of the Members of this Chamber. While it was disappointing that we were unable to get it across the finish line in the Senate, I feel confident, given the support this bill has witnessed early on in this year, with 175 Members in the House and 7 Members in the Senate, I am encouraged, and my hope is that we will see it pass the Senate this Congress and be signed into law by the President.

Congressional constituent advocates worked diligently in our district offices to help veterans navigate the VA claims appeals system. But, they are hampered by having to wait weeks, months, and sometimes even years to receive documents from the VA that are often vital to helping the veteran reach a favorable resolution.

WINGMAN will help to expedite the process by cutting out the middleman and providing direct access to the files our office already has permission to obtain. Currently, advocates must have a privacy release form signed by the constituent prior to acting on their behalf. This doesn't change. What changes is the wait time our offices, veterans, and their families must endure while the VA sends us the appropriate documents.

WINGMAN will help veterans such as James, from my district, who had eight separate, but related, claims filed. He didn't know which files were attached to which claims, the dates they were received, which department they were referred to, or that he could have filed one single, fully developed claim. Had my staff had access to the files, which WINGMAN permits, they would have been able to assess the issue and update his claims without having to go on a wild goose chase for the documents with the VA system. Getting his case on track could have happened in a matter of days, rather than years. He is more than deserving of this, especially since some of his claims are over 6 years old.

Another constituent lost her husband while he was serving this Nation. The VA was mailing all correspondence to his widow to an incorrect address. This resulted in an overpayment, which she was unaware of since she was not receiving the mail. The long-term result was a veteran's widow having her account sent to collections, which damaged her credit, and ended with her new spouse's tax return being confiscated. With access to the system files, our office would have had a clearer picture of the timeline of events and been able to direct and streamline our inquiry. Instead, our staff had to hunt down the relevant files from numerous branches within the VA and reassemble them like a jigsaw puzzle.

When I hear the story of Sergeant Abraham or Colonel Bergman or Staff Sergeant Brian Mast behind me, these people have paid a price for their service to this country, and our country owes them a debt. As a country, we can do better by our veterans and their families. WINGMAN will not get rid of the claims backlog or solve all of the problems. What it will do, however, is make the process helping our veterans easier.

Let's put the words ``customer service'' into our government. So I encourage my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the University of Florida's UF Health Shands Hospital pediatric heart transplant program for being named one of the best in the Nation. According to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, this unit has had zero pediatric heart transplant deaths in the last 2\1/2\ years.

Since 2006, the UF Health Shands Transplant Center has performed a total of 120 pediatric heart and lung transplants, making it one of the most active pediatric heart transplant programs in the Southeast. In fact, in the last year, U.S. News and World Report named UF Health number one in the State and fourth in the Nation for pediatric heart surgeries and cardiology. This recognition speaks volumes about the level of care shown by the physicians and their teams at UF Health, and I look forward to watching them continue to be a leader in patient care and innovation in the coming years.

I must end with Go Gators.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Johnson for standing up and defending our Nation's Constitution again, not just in his service to our country during the Vietnam era, but here in Congress and his many years here.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this legislation. As a tireless advocate for the protection of our Second Amendment rights, I am disappointed, but not surprised, in the Obama administration's attempt to impair Americans' right to own firearms, by fiat, in its last days of existence. It is unconscionable and unthinkable that a President would do that to the citizens of this country.

This rule claims to strengthen the National Instant Criminal Background Check but, in reality, acted as a gun grab on individuals who receive disability insurance benefits or Supplemental Security Income payments. Participants in those programs should not be forced to worry that, in order to receive government assistance, they must sacrifice their constitutional liberty at the random whim of a government bureaucrat. The Second Amendment to our Constitution states very clearly that the right to keep and bear arms ``shall not be infringed,'' and Congress cannot stand by and allow unaccountable rulemaking from a previous administration to infringe on that right.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the work, commitment, and character of Scott C. Graves, House Agriculture Committee staff director. Scott is my kind of man--intelligent, understanding, and a straight shooter. His rise from an intern on the House Agriculture Committee to the committee's staff director over 10 years speaks to his strong work ethic. Raised on a cattle ranch in Texas, his commitment to rural America is unquestioned--a view shared on both sides of the aisle. His work as a steadfast advisor to Chairman Conaway solidified his role as a leader who is both fair and firm.

But it's Scott's character that I notice most. As a member of the Agriculture Committee for the past 4 years, I have had the privilege to witness that character as he balances not just the demands of committee members, staff, and interest groups; but of a growing family. Scott, thank you for your guidance, your example, and your friendship. I wish both Scott and his lovely wife Haley all the success in the world as they turn the page onto a new chapter in their lives.

Mr. Speaker, I stand here today in support of the livelihood of an entire region of our country and industry that was unfairly targeted by the Obama administration in pursuit of an ideological agenda to do away with our Nation's abundant coal resources.

The previous administration targeted the coal industry and, by extension, the hardworking Americans employed by the industry under the guise of protecting the environment. We all want clear air and water for our Nation's prosperity, but this rule is so strict, it makes it impossible for companies to continue to operate. It results in layoffs, closed businesses, and ultimately an entire region unemployed.

Our Nation is blessed with an abundance of natural resources and we should utilize them all: oil, hydropower, wind, solar, and yes, clean coal, too. We must be prudent about how we regulate our energy industries because when one sector is pushed out, it is the moms and dads at the end of the month paying their electric bill that feel the impact the most. All Americans will be affected, but it will be felt more by the ones who can least afford it.

That is why I am opposed to the rule, and I urge my colleagues to support the CRA.

Madam Speaker, life begins at conception. I believe it is our responsibility to protect the millions of unborn children whose voices go unheard.

As a Christian and a father of three, I believe the lives of all children, including the unborn, are just as important as yours or mine. That is why I stand here today in support of H.R. 7. This bill safeguards the lives of unborn children who are robbed of their opportunity to experience the marvels of life.

H.R. 7 closes loopholes that have permitted the subsidization of abortions by taxpayers who are morally opposed to the practice. Additionally, this bill also requires insurance providers who receive Federal subsidies through participation in the healthcare exchanges to report to consumers whether or not they will be subject to a surcharge that covers abortion services at the time of purchase.

It boggles the mind that our Federal Government had the arrogance to skirt longstanding laws in order to trick the American taxpayer into unknowingly contributing to abortions in the first place.

This bill has passed the House numerous times. The merits of the bill are clear. I urge my colleagues to support swift passage of H.R. 7.

Mr. Speaker, today I will reintroduce the WINGMAN Act, a vital veterans' bill that will expedite the claims process for veterans who come to our congressional offices seeking assistance with their benefit claims. The current process leaves thousands of veterans and their families remaining in limbo awaiting resolution on their claims. The status quo is unacceptable, and it must change.

No servicemember should have to wait to receive benefits they have more than earned. This ends with the passage of the WINGMAN Act, which removes the middle man and allows staff to access these records directly, after obtaining a privacy release form without having to wait on the VA bureaucracy. I think if we just listen, this is about customer service. Yes, they are constituents, but they are also customers. Every Member of this Congress--all 535 Members--represents approximately 700,000 constituents, and I like to think that we are in the customer service business as is the VA, the Veterans Administration.

If we can't service our customers, where else can they go?

Last Congress, WINGMAN passed this House unanimously. It passed the Veterans' Affairs Committee unanimously, but it was held up by one Senator who thought he know more than the 435 Members of this body and that he knew more than the Veterans' Affairs Committee. Fortunately, that Senator from Nevada is no longer here, and we are resubmitting this. I am hopeful that this Congress--the Members of this Chamber-- will, once again, reform the veterans' claims process and that our colleagues in the upper Chamber will as well.

Before I close, I would also like to take a moment to recognize Representatives Rodney Davis of Illinois, Kyrsten Sinema, and John Delaney for being coleads on this bill. All three of my colleagues have demonstrated their commitment to fighting for our veterans every day of every year that they have served in Congress.

We have right now right over 150 cosponsors of this bill, and it is a privilege to have their support. I thank them for helping to lead the charge to enact this change and others that are so desperately needed to better assist veterans and their families. Without their support, WINGMAN would not have the broad, bipartisan support that it does now. I urge the remainder of our colleagues to support WINGMAN as well. Let our Nation's veterans know that we've got their six.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring attention to the burden ObamaCare has placed upon my constituents.

They have seen their healthcare costs rise while their quality of care has lowered. It is imperative that we repeal ObamaCare immediately.

I also emphasize to the folks here and at home that, as we repeal ObamaCare, we will make sure there is a stable transition period during the replacement so that people do not have the rug pulled out from under them. This transition period will give us the time we need to ensure our healthcare reform is full of truly patient-centered solutions that allow patients, families, and doctors to direct their health care.

Congress must focus on the principles of affordability, accessibility, and quality to provide the American people with genuine healthcare reform, but we can only get to that point by repealing ObamaCare now. I promise to read the bill before voting on it, unlike how it was passed.