[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 105 (Monday, July 22, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1108-E1109]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    AUTHORITY FOR MANDATE DELAY ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. GARY C. PETERS

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 17, 2013

  Mr. PETERS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to recognize 
that this is the first time Republicans have embraced that the 
Affordable Health Care Act is law and supported its implementation 
starting in 2014. By offering and supporting H.R. 2667, House 
Republicans are finally voting for the health care law mandates to be 
implemented a year from now.
  For too long, Congress has been brought to a level of inaction that 
is unprecedented. The gridlock has frustrated me as well as the hard 
working men, women, small business owners and middle class families in 
my district in Michigan.
  Instead of working toward solutions and fixing a broken health care 
system, House Republicans wasted time and resources voting 37 votes to 
repeal The Affordable Care Act wholesale. Without the health care law, 
families would continue to fear illness because getting sick could mean 
bankruptcy. Michigan's middle class can't afford to continue without 
changes to our health care system, and the Affordable Care Act goes a 
long way to solve these problems.
  Today, every Republican who casts a vote to delay the employer and 
individual mandates is voting to get the implementation of the 
Affordable Care Act right and implement the law in full starting in 
December 2014.
  The President has already granted businesses one more year to 
implement the health care law. Without offering Michigan families the 
same temporary, one-year extension without penalty, businesses lose the 
incentive to offer coverage one year from now because their employees 
have already purchased insurance in the interim. These mandates work 
best in tandem as they will in the coming years.
  I look forward to working with Democrats and Republicans to improve 
the transition to more affordable health care coverage for Michigan 
families and businesses when the law is fully implemented.
  The Affordable Care Act will help lower health care costs for women, 
ensure coverage for children with pre-existing conditions, and curb the 
overall cost of health care.
  That is why I voted for the Affordable Care Act, and that's why I am 
voting today to get this law implemented fairly and in a way that

[[Page E1109]]

supports businesses and middle class families.

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