[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 160 (Monday, October 24, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7005-H7006]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                CBC HOUR

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from the 
Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen) is recognized for 60 minutes as the 
designee of the minority leader.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I expect to be joined by several of my 
colleagues in a few minutes, but let me begin. We are pleased, and I 
want to take this opportunity to thank the Democratic leader for again 
allowing the Congressional Black Caucus to control this hour of Special 
Orders.
  And here we are again, Mr. Speaker, 10 months into this Congress and 
not one job-creating bill has been brought to the floor. I know that 
the people in my district are suffering, as are constituents in all of 
our districts, and we need to do something significant to help them, 
not next year, but now.
  As a physician, it amazes me that it's even affecting people's 
health. It's increasing violence and crime in some of the hardest-hit 
communities. When we were here a few weeks ago, I was remarking on an 
article that showed how the mortgage crisis was affecting people's 
health adversely. But, of course, joblessness is.
  People don't have insurance. They don't have money to buy their 
medication. They are putting off needed health care to try to save 
money for other things to provide a roof over their family's heads and 
food on the table for their families. And so this long-term 
unemployment is affecting people's health, and it's especially hard in 
those communities that have been distressed for long periods of time, 
even before this recession. With no movement from the leadership in 
this body to even just bring the American Jobs Act to the floor where 
we can debate it and have it voted on, the people are really beginning 
to lose hope.
  To the extent that some have not yet lost hope, I think it's because 
they see President Obama and this Congressional Black Caucus, as well 
as the Occupy Wall Street and occupy all of the other places where 
those demonstrations are being held and the Reclaim the Dream movement 
all working relentlessly on their behalf.
  Today the President is rolling out his new proposals to address the 
crisis, the crisis that began this recession in the first place, the 
mortgage crisis. I understand the theme is ``We can't wait.'' And we 
can't wait here in this House either because the American people have 
been waiting on us for help, and they can't and should not have to wait 
any longer.
  I hope that my colleagues across the aisle would also add a strong 
dose of compassion to their passion for reducing the deficit. In fact, 
at this time, in addition to compassion, setting politics aside and 
doing what's best for the economy and our country is what needs to take 
precedence.
  And it is not cuts. It's not repealing the health care reform bill, 
the Affordable Care Act. It's not stopping regulations that protect the 
health and wealth of the people in this country. It's not destroying 
the safety nets that enable the poor to survive and then provide them 
with a chance to lift them and their families out of poverty.
  Not just Democrats, we should all be ashamed that so much of this 
country's wealth is concentrated in the top 1 percent while our fellow 
Americans, including millions of children, are going homeless and 
hungry.
  I want to focus for a moment on health care jobs, especially since 
the Affordable Care Act, a job creator, is on the Republican chopping 
block. If it were repealed, it would not only set health care back, but 
it would place a heavy burden on an already hard-hit economy. Already 
we know that the health care sector is the only one where jobs are 
being created; and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 
the next decade, the 30 fastest-growing jobs, 17 of them, more than 
half of them, will be health-care related.

                              {time}  1920

  They also report that during the recession, while most industries 
lost jobs, health care added over 600,000 jobs. With an anticipated 
coverage of over 30 million new individuals, it isn't rocket science to 
see how the Affordable Care Act doesn't kill jobs but will be the 
sector to bring this economy back to life. The provisions in that act 
are projected to create more than 4 million jobs over the next 10 
years.
  What we need to be doing now is what the President has called for, 
improving math and science in our schools, and then we should be 
providing education and training for those jobs on all levels, from the 
community health workers to doctors, nurses, and allied health, to the 
most technical jobs in research and technology. And many of those jobs 
are available right now. They will just increase over the next 10 
years.
  I want to read from ``Health Care Employment Set to Explode,'' which 
was published in FierceHealthcare on October 20 of this year. It reads: 
Amid health care reform changes to promote

[[Page H7006]]

health care integration, and national deficit reduction to save, health 
care jobs are projected to soar, according to a report by Bipartisan 
Policy Center Health Professional Workforce Initiative, with The 
Deloitte Workforce Initiative, released on Tuesday of that week. Health 
care employment is expected to rise to 11.9 percent in 2018, and that 
means total health care employment will jump from 15.8 million, where 
it was in 2008, to 19.8 million in 2018, according to that report. From 
2008 to 2018, health care employment will grow by 23 percent compared 
to only 9 percent in all other employment sectors, according to the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics. During that time, health care professionals 
will see the following changes in job growth: registered nurses will 
grow by 22.2 percent; licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses 
will grow by 20.7 percent; home health aides will grow by 50 percent; 
nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants will grow by 18.8 percent; 
personal and home care aides will grow by 46 percent; and physicians 
and surgeons by 21.8 percent.
  There have been so many misrepresentations about the bill from its 
opponents both inside Congress and out, and it's not fair to the 
American public who at the very least ought to be able to depend on 
their elected representatives for accurate information, and they ought 
to be able to expect us to act on that accurate information.
  There are some analyses that suggest that the effect on the economy 
will be minimal, and even though I do not agree, I want to read from 
the conclusion of one such paper, and that paper is entitled ``How Will 
the Affordable Care Act Affect Jobs? Timely Analysis of Immediate 
Health Policy Issues,'' written by John Holahan and Bowen Garrett, and 
it helps to dispel some of the erroneous representations about what the 
Affordable Care Act would or would not do.
  In its conclusion they write: The Affordable Care Act is unlikely to 
have major aggregate effects on the U.S. economy. But they also say 
increased spending because the Affordable Care Act will increase demand 
for health services and demand for labor in the health sector. Cuts in 
Medicare and various cost-containment provisions, if successful as 
proposed by the Ryan plan, would have just the opposite effect--it 
would kill jobs. New taxes on insurers, medical devices, and 
pharmaceutical manufacturers could have adverse effects on those 
industries except for the fact, they say, that coverage expansion would 
provide new revenues well in excess of any new tax obligations. Cost-
containment efforts, if successful, will have the opposite effect, 
reducing growth in spending on Medicare and Medicaid. So cost-
containment efforts, if successful, will have somewhat opposite 
effects, reducing the growth of spending on Medicare and Medicaid, 
which will reduce taxes or borrowing the Federal Government would have 
to undertake. Cost containment then that reduces the Federal budget 
deficit would result in faster economic growth, more employment, and 
higher family incomes. Cost containment would also free up private 
dollars to be spent in nonhealth areas of the economy, thus stimulating 
the economy in many ways.
  They also go on to say that concern over the impact of the Affordable 
Care Act on small businesses is misplaced. All small businesses with 
fewer than 50 workers will be exempt from the assessments. Most larger 
firms already provide health insurance to their workers and so are 
unlikely to face assessments under the law. Small businesses should 
benefit from the availability of lower-cost plans and the efforts to 
increase competition and contain costs within the exchange.
  So I hope that begins to clear up some of the misrepresentations 
about how that bill would hurt the economy, because it would not kill 
jobs, it would not hurt small businesses, and it's not likely to have a 
great impact on larger businesses either.
  The Congressional Black Caucus comes to the floor every Monday night 
that we are in session to call attention to the issues that we know are 
important to our constituents and important to Americans across this 
country. The primary one is jobs, but access to health care is not far 
behind, and we ought to support rather than misrepresent or try to 
repeal the Affordable Care Act, a good bill that's good for the 
American people, good for our economy, and good for our country.
  We are once again calling on this body to pass the American Jobs Act. 
The fact that it comes from President Obama should not be a reason to 
dismiss it and declare it dead on arrival, as some of my colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle have said. After all, many of the proposals 
come directly out of bills that they themselves have proposed.
  So I would say to my colleagues, please, the American people are sick 
of the politics. They're sick of the bickering. They need jobs now. 
They can't wait. We should not wait. Let's pass the Jobs Act now.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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