[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 4 (Friday, January 9, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E41]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                   SAVE AMERICAN WORKERS ACT OF 2015

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                               speech of

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 8, 2015

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 30, 
the so-called ``Save American Workers Act of 2015.'' Republicans claim 
this bill is a fix to the Affordable Care Act and vital to protecting 
American jobs. But that's simply not true. According the non-partisan 
CBO, raising the threshold for employers to provide coverage from 30 
hours per week to 40 could lead them to shift more employees to part-
time work, end employer-sponsored coverage for one million people, and 
leave up to half a million completely uninsured. Even conservative 
analyst Tuval Levin agreed, writing recently in the National Review, 
``Putting the cutoff for the employer mandate at 40 hours would put 
far, far more people at risk of having their hours cut than leaving it 
at 30 hours.'' On top of the assaults on workers' hours and benefits, 
CBO estimates the bill would increase the federal deficit by $53 
billion over the next decade.''
  Republicans have brought this irresponsible bill to the floor on the 
heels of more news that the Affordable Care is working. Yesterday, 
Gallup released data showing the percentage of uninsured Americans is 
declining steeply and HHS announced that nearly 6.6 million Americans 
selected plans or were re-enrolled in the federal exchange since open 
enrollment began.
  As I have said before, I am more than willing to work with my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make genuine, reasonable 
improvements to the Affordable Care Act. Along these lines, I want to 
commend Congressman Joe Courtney for bringing an altemative proposal to 
the Rules Committee yesterday. Unfortunately, today's bill does not 
meet the definition of a genuine, reasonable improvement.
  Finally Mr. Speaker, if Republicans were really serious about helping 
employees they would support the CEO/Employee Paycheck Fairness Act. 
The bill is simple. It says if corporations want to be able to deduct 
the bonuses and compensation for their CEOs and other executives over 
$1 million, they better be giving their employees a fair shake. I urge 
my colleagues to reject the 40-hour bill and join me in a real effort 
to support American workers.

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