Congressional Record, Volume 162 Issue 3 (Wednesday, January 6, 2016)

[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 3 (Wednesday, January 6, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H52-H67]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

RESTORING AMERICANS' HEALTHCARE FREEDOM RECONCILIATION ACT OF 2015

Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution
579, I call up the bill (H.R. 3762) to provide for reconciliation
pursuant to section 2002 of the concurrent resolution on the budget for
fiscal year 2016, with the Senate amendment thereto, and ask for its
immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hultgren). The Clerk will designate the
Senate amendment.
Senate amendment:

Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the
following:

TITLE I--HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

SEC. 101. THE PREVENTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH FUND.

(a) In General.--Subsection (b) of section 4002 of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 300u-
11) is amended--

[[Page H53]]

(1) in paragraph (2), by striking ``2017'' and inserting
``2015''; and
(2) by striking paragraphs (3) through (5).
(b) Rescission of Unobligated Funds.--Of the funds made
available by such section 4002, the unobligated balance is
rescinded.

SEC. 102. COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER PROGRAM.

Effective as if included in the enactment of the Medicare
Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (Public Law 114-
10, 129 Stat. 87), paragraph (1) of section 221(a) of such
Act is amended by inserting after ``Section 10503(b)(1)(E) of
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C.
254b-2(b)(1)(E)) is amended'' the following: ``by striking
`$3,600,000,000' and inserting `$3,835,000,000' and''.

SEC. 103. TERRITORIES.

Section 1323(c) of the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act (42 U.S.C. 18043(c)) is amended by adding at the end
the following:
``(3) No force and effect.--Effective January 1, 2018, this
subsection shall have no force or effect.''.

SEC. 104. REINSURANCE, RISK CORRIDOR, AND RISK ADJUSTMENT
PROGRAMS.

(a) Transitional Reinsurance Program for Individual
Market.--Section 1341 of the Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 18061) is amended by adding at
the end the following:
``(e) No Force and Effect.--Effective January 1, 2016, the
Secretary shall not collect fees and shall not make payments
under this section.''.

SEC. 105. SUPPORT FOR STATE RESPONSE TO SUBSTANCE ABUSE
PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS AND URGENT MENTAL HEALTH
NEEDS.

(a) In General.--There are authorized to be appropriated,
and are appropriated, out of monies in the Treasury not
otherwise obligated, $750,000,000 for each of fiscal years
2016 and 2017, to the Secretary of Health and Human Services
(referred to in this section as the ``Secretary'') to award
grants to States to address the substance abuse public health
crisis or to respond to urgent mental health needs within the
State. In awarding grants under this section, the Secretary
may give preference to States with an incidence or prevalence
of substance use disorders that is substantial relative to
other States or to States that identify mental health needs
within their communities that are urgent relative to such
needs of other States. Funds appropriated under this
subsection shall remain available until expended.
(b) Use of Funds.--Grants awarded to a State under
subsection (a) shall be used for one or more of the following
public health-related activities:
(1) Improving State prescription drug monitoring programs.
(2) Implementing prevention activities, and evaluating such
activities to identify effective strategies to prevent
substance abuse.
(3) Training for health care practitioners, such as best
practices for prescribing opioids, pain management,
recognizing potential cases of substance abuse, referral of
patients to treatment programs, and overdose prevention.
(4) Supporting access to health care services provided by
federally certified opioid treatment programs or other
appropriate health care providers to treat substance use
disorders or mental health needs.
(5) Other public health-related activities, as the State
determines appropriate, related to addressing the substance
abuse public health crisis or responding to urgent mental
health needs within the State.

TITLE II--FINANCE

SEC. 201. RECAPTURE EXCESS ADVANCE PAYMENTS OF PREMIUM TAX
CREDITS.

Subparagraph (B) of section 36B(f)(2) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the
following new clause:
``(iii) Nonapplicability of limitation.--This subparagraph
shall not apply to taxable years ending after December 31,
2015, and before January 1, 2018.''.

SEC. 202. PREMIUM TAX CREDIT AND COST-SHARING SUBSIDIES.

(a) Repeal of Premium Tax Credit.--Subpart C of part IV of
subchapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 is amended by striking section 36B.
(b) Repeal of Cost-sharing Subsidy.--Section 1402 of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is repealed.
(c) Repeal of Eligibility Determinations.--The following
sections of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
are repealed:
(1) Section 1411 (other than subsection (i), the last
sentence of subsection (e)(4)(A)(ii), and such provisions of
such section solely to the extent related to the application
of the last sentence of subsection (e)(4)(A)(ii)).
(2) Section 1412.
(d) Protecting Americans by Repeal of Disclosure Authority
To Carry Out Eligibility Requirements for Certain Programs.--
(1) In general.--Paragraph (21) of section 6103(l) of the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end
the following new subparagraph:
``(D) Termination.--No disclosure may be made under this
paragraph after December 31, 2017.''.
(e) Effective Dates.--
(1) Premium tax credit.--The amendment made by subsection
(a) shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31,
2017.
(2) Cost sharing-subsidies and eligibility
determinations.--The repeals in subsection (b) and (c) shall
take effect on December 31, 2017.
(3) Protecting americans by rescinding disclosure
authority.--The amendments made by subsection (d) shall take
effect on December 31, 2017.

SEC. 203. SMALL BUSINESS TAX CREDIT.

(a) In General.--Section 45R of the Internal Revenue Code
of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new
subsection:
``(j) Shall Not Apply.--This section shall not apply with
respect to amounts paid or incurred in taxable years
beginning after December 31, 2017.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section
shall apply to amounts paid or incurred in taxable years
beginning after December 31, 2017.

SEC. 204. INDIVIDUAL MANDATE.

(a) In General.--Section 5000A(c) of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 is amended--
(1) in paragraph (2)(B) by striking clauses (ii) and (iii)
and inserting the following:
``(ii) Zero percent for taxable years beginning after
2014.'', and
(2) in paragraph (3)--
(A) by striking ``$695'' in subparagraph (A) and inserting
``$0'',
(B) by striking ``and $325 for 2015'' in subparagraph (B),
and
(C) by striking subparagraph (D).
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall apply to months beginning after December 31, 2014.

SEC. 205. EMPLOYER MANDATE.

(a) In General.--
(1) Paragraph (1) of section 4980H(c) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting ``($0 in the
case of months beginning after December 31, 2014)'' after
``$2,000''.
(2) Paragraph (1) of section 4980H(b) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting ``($0 in the
case of months beginning after December 31, 2014)'' after
``$3,000''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall apply to months beginning after December 31, 2014.

SEC. 206. FEDERAL PAYMENTS TO STATES.

(a) In General.--Notwithstanding section 504(a),
1902(a)(23), 1903(a), 2002, 2005(a)(4), 2102(a)(7), or
2105(a)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 704(a),
1396a(a)(23), 1396b(a), 1397a, 1397d(a)(4), 1397bb(a)(7),
1397ee(a)(1)), or the terms of any Medicaid waiver in effect
on the date of enactment of this Act that is approved under
section 1115 or 1915 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.
1315, 1396n), for the 1-year period beginning on the date of
enactment of this Act, no Federal funds provided from a
program referred to in this subsection that is considered
direct spending for any year may be made available to a State
for payments to a prohibited entity, whether made directly to
the prohibited entity or through a managed care organization
under contract with the State.
(b) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Prohibited entity.--The term ``prohibited entity''
means an entity, including its affiliates, subsidiaries,
successors, and clinics--
(A) that, as of the date of enactment of this Act--
(i) is an organization described in section 501(c)(3) of
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and exempt from tax under
section 501(a) of such Code;
(ii) is an essential community provider described in
section 156.235 of title 45, Code of Federal Regulations (as
in effect on the date of enactment of this Act), that is
primarily engaged in family planning services, reproductive
health, and related medical care; and
(iii) provides for abortions, other than an abortion--

(I) if the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or
incest; or
(II) in the case where a woman suffers from a physical
disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as
certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death
unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering
physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy
itself; and

(B) for which the total amount of Federal and State
expenditures under the Medicaid program under title XIX of
the Social Security Act in fiscal year 2014 made directly to
the entity and to any affiliates, subsidiaries, successors,
or clinics of the entity, or made to the entity and to any
affiliates, subsidiaries, successors, or clinics of the
entity as part of a nationwide health care provider network,
exceeded $350,000,000.
(2) Direct spending.--The term ``direct spending'' has the
meaning given that term under section 250(c) of the Balanced
Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C.
900(c)).

SEC. 207. MEDICAID.

The Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) is
amended--
(1) in section 1108(g)(5), by striking ``2019'' and
inserting ``2017'';
(2) in section 1902--
(A) in subsection (a)(10)(A), in each of clauses (i)(VIII)
and (ii)(XX), by inserting ``and ending December 31, 2017,''
after ``January 1, 2014,'';
(B) in subsection (a)(47)(B), by inserting ``and provided
that any such election shall cease to be effective on January
1, 2018, and no such election shall be made after that date''
before the semicolon at the end; and
(C) in subsection (l)(2)(C), by inserting ``and ending
December 31, 2017,'' after ``January 1, 2014,'';
(3) in each of sections 1902(gg)(2) and 2105(d)(3)(A), by
striking ``September 30, 2019'' and inserting ``September 30,
2017'';
(4) in section 1905--
(A) in the first sentence of subsection (b), by inserting
``(50 percent on or after January 1, 2018)'' after ``55
percent'';
(B) in subsection (y)(1), by striking the semicolon at the
end of subparagraph (B) and all that follows through
``thereafter''; and
(C) in subsection (z)(2)--
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``each year
thereafter'' and inserting ``through 2017''; and

[[Page H54]]

(ii) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking the semicolon at
the end of subclause (IV) and all that follows through ``100
percent'';
(5) in section 1915(k)(2), by striking ``during the period
described in paragraph (1)'' and inserting ``on or after the
date referred to in paragraph (1) and before January 1,
2018'';
(6) in section 1920(e), by adding at the end the following:
``This subsection shall not apply after December 31, 2017.'';
(7) in section 1937(b)(5), by adding at the end the
following: ``This paragraph shall not apply after December
31, 2017.''; and
(8) in section 1943(a), by inserting ``and before January
1, 2018,'' after ``January 1, 2014,''.

SEC. 208. REPEAL OF DSH ALLOTMENT REDUCTIONS.

Section 1923(f) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.
1396r-4(f)) is amended by striking paragraphs (7) and (8).

SEC. 209. REPEAL OF THE TAX ON EMPLOYEE HEALTH INSURANCE
PREMIUMS AND HEALTH PLAN BENEFITS.

(a) In General.--Chapter 43 of the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 is amended by striking section 4980I.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a)
shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31,
2017.

SEC. 210. REPEAL OF TAX ON OVER-THE-COUNTER MEDICATIONS.

(a) HSAs.--Subparagraph (A) of section 223(d)(2) of the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking ``Such
term'' and all that follows through the period.
(b) Archer MSAs.--Subparagraph (A) of section 220(d)(2) of
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking
``Such term'' and all that follows through the period.
(c) Health Flexible Spending Arrangements and Health
Reimbursement Arrangements.--Section 106 of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking subsection (f).
(d) Effective Dates.--
(1) Distributions from savings accounts.--The amendments
made by subsections (a) and (b) shall apply to amounts paid
with respect to taxable years beginning after December 31,
2015.
(2) Reimbursements.--The amendment made by subsection (c)
shall apply to expenses incurred with respect to taxable
years beginning after December 31, 2015.

SEC. 211. REPEAL OF TAX ON HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS.

(a) HSAs.--Section 223(f)(4)(A) of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 is amended by striking ``20 percent'' and
inserting ``10 percent''.
(b) Archer MSAs.--Section 220(f)(4)(A) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking ``20 percent''
and inserting ``15 percent''.
(c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall apply to distributions made after December 31, 2015.

SEC. 212. REPEAL OF LIMITATIONS ON CONTRIBUTIONS TO FLEXIBLE
SPENDING ACCOUNTS.

(a) In General.--Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code
of 1986 is amended by striking subsection (i).
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section
shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31,
2015.

SEC. 213. REPEAL OF TAX ON PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS.

Subsection (j) of section 9008 of the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act is amended to read as follows:
``(j) Repeal.--This section shall apply to calendar years
beginning after December 31, 2010, and ending before January
1, 2016.''.

SEC. 214. REPEAL OF MEDICAL DEVICE EXCISE TAX.

(a) In General.--Chapter 32 of the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 is amended by striking subchapter E.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section
shall apply to sales in calendar quarters beginning after
December 31, 2015.

SEC. 215. REPEAL OF HEALTH INSURANCE TAX.

Subsection (j) of section 9010 of the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act is amended to read as follows:
``(j) Repeal.--This section shall apply to calendar years
beginning after December 31, 2013, and ending before January
1, 2016.''.

SEC. 216. REPEAL OF ELIMINATION OF DEDUCTION FOR EXPENSES
ALLOCABLE TO MEDICARE PART D SUBSIDY.

(a) In General.--Section 139A of the Internal Revenue Code
of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new
sentence: ``This section shall not be taken into account for
purposes of determining whether any deduction is allowable
with respect to any cost taken into account in determining
such payment.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section
shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31,
2015.

SEC. 217. REPEAL OF CHRONIC CARE TAX.

(a) In General.--Subsection (a) of section 213 of the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking ``10
percent'' and inserting ``7.5 percent''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section
shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31,
2015.

SEC. 218. REPEAL OF MEDICARE TAX INCREASE.

(a) In General.--Subsection (b) of section 3101 of the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows:
``(b) Hospital Insurance.--In addition to the tax imposed
by the preceding subsection, there is hereby imposed on the
income of every individual a tax equal to 1.45 percent of the
wages (as defined in section 3121(a)) received by such
individual with respect to employment (as defined in section
3121(b).''.
(b) SECA.--Subsection (b) of section 1401 of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows:
``(b) Hospital Insurance.--In addition to the tax imposed
by the preceding subsection, there shall be imposed for each
taxable year, on the self-employment income of every
individual, a tax equal to 2.9 percent of the amount of the
self-employment income for such taxable year.''.
(c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section
shall apply with respect to remuneration received after, and
taxable years beginning after, December 31, 2015.

SEC. 219. REPEAL OF TANNING TAX.

(a) In General.--The Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is
amended by striking chapter 49.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section
shall apply to services performed on or after December 31,
2015.

SEC. 220. REPEAL OF NET INVESTMENT TAX.

(a) In General.--Subtitle A of the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 is amended by striking chapter 2A.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this section
shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31,
2015.

SEC. 221. REMUNERATION.

Paragraph (6) of section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following
new subparagraph:
``(I) Termination.--This paragraph shall not apply to
taxable years beginning after December 31, 2015.''.

SEC. 222. ECONOMIC SUBSTANCE DOCTRINE.

(a) In General.--Subsection (o) of section 7701 of the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is repealed.
(b) Penalty for Underpayments.--Paragraph (6) of section
6662(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is repealed.
(c) Increased Penalty for Nondisclosed Transactions.--
Subsection (i) of section 6662 of the Internal Revenue Code
of 1986 is repealed.
(d) Reasonable Cause Exception for Underpayments.--
Paragraph (2) of section 6664(c) of the Internal Revenue Code
of 1986 is repealed.
(e) Reasonable Cause Exception for Nondisclosed
Transactions.--Paragraph (2) of section 6664(d) of the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is repealed.
(f) Erroneous Claim for Refund or Credit.--Subsection (c)
of section 6676 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is
repealed.
(g) Effective Date.--The repeals made by this section shall
apply to transactions entered into, and to underpayments,
understatements, or refunds and credits attributable to
transactions entered into, after December 31, 2015.

SEC. 223. BUDGETARY SAVINGS FOR EXTENDING MEDICARE SOLVENCY.

As a result of policies contained in this Act, the
Secretary of the Treasury shall transfer to the Federal
Hospital Insurance Trust Fund under section 1817 of the
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395i) $379,300,000,000 (which
represents the full amount of on-budget savings during the
period of fiscal years 2016 through 2025) for extending
Medicare solvency, to remain available until expended.

Motion Offered by Mr. Tom Price of Georgia

Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will designate the motion.
The text of the motion is as follows:

Mr. Price of Georgia moves that the House concur in the
Senate amendment to H.R. 3762.

{time} 1600

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 579, the motion
shall be debatable for 1 hour equally divided and controlled by the
chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Budget.
The gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Tom Price) and the gentleman from
Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Georgia.

General Leave

Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend
their remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 3762, the
Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Georgia?
There was no objection.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
This is a big day. For the first time--for the first time--since the
law was enacted, Congress is one vote away from sending a broad repeal
of ObamaCare to the President's desk. This marks a significant step in
the fight for patient-centered health care for all Americans. It will
lay the foundation for how Congress can begin to roll back the
disastrous policies that are destroying the sacred doctor-patient
relationship.
The legislation before us today is critical to our larger effort to
rid America's healthcare system from undue Washington interference and
bureaucratic dictates and pave the way for real, positive, patient-
centered

[[Page H55]]

health reform that puts patients and families and doctors in charge of
healthcare decisions.
This bill repeals the most corrosive components of ObamaCare. It
eliminates nearly a trillion dollars in onerous ObamaCare taxes and
eliminates the individual and employer mandate penalties, key pillars
of the ObamaCare scheme.
Under ObamaCare, millions of Americans have been added to a Medicaid
system that fails to provide its beneficiaries with adequate access to
physicians and other providers. We end that.
Expanding Medicaid is not the answer. Reforming Medicaid so that
States have greater flexibility to care for those in need is the
answer.
This legislation also repeals the premium subsidies and tax credits
which have failed to control and, in fact, have increased health
coverage costs. The current law has made healthcare coverage less
affordable and less accessible for millions of Americans.
All of this would be done on a timeline to allow for a new, positive
solution that will make the purchase of health insurance financially
feasible for all Americans and do so in a way that gives individuals,
families, and employers the power to choose the type of coverage that
they want for themselves, not that Washington forces them to buy.
H.R. 3762 also halts Federal funding for abortion providers that are
prohibited under this legislation. It increases--increases, Mr.
Speaker--the funding for community healthcare centers to help direct
more resources to women's direct care. Taken together, the
Congressional Budget Office estimates that this bill would reduce the
deficit by $516 billion over the next decade.
Seven separate committees and the full House and Senate have
contributed to this effort. The entire reconciliation would not have
been possible had the House and Senate not first agreed to a budget
resolution conference agreement. The budget gave Congress the authority
to pursue the reconciliation process and, through that, the opportunity
to put this repeal of ObamaCare on the President's desk.
Ultimately, however, the American people are less interested in
process and procedure. They want results, and they want to know who is
fighting to improve their way of life, who is working to provide relief
to the biggest challenges facing individuals and families and job
creators today.
No matter how you slice it, ObamaCare is harming the American people.
Premiums and deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs are going up,
not down, as the President had promised. Millions of Americans have
been kicked off the coverage that they had. That is less access and
fewer choices at a higher cost. That is exactly the opposite direction
we need to be going, and the American people know it.
We all want a healthcare system that is affordable and accessible and
responsive to our individual needs, full of choices and innovative
treatment options and of the highest quality. That is not too much to
ask, Mr. Speaker. It is certainly achievable, but only if we pursue
patient-centered solutions that are focused on embracing those
principles in health care that we all hold dear.
I look forward to this debate and the opportunity to share with the
American people how we solve this challenge, the challenge in America's
healthcare system, by putting them in charge of their healthcare
decisions, not Washington.
I encourage my colleagues to support this resolution, this measure.
Let's take this final step in reconciliation to send an ObamaCare
repeal bill to the President's desk.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
This is a sad and shameful way to begin the new year 2016 here in the
United States Congress.
This bill is entitled Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom
Reconciliation Act, the freedom of health insurance companies to once
again deny health care to people based on preexisting conditions.
It may be a new year, Mr. Speaker, but here we go again. We are in
this Congress, on the floor of this House for the 62nd time with this
effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and, to add insult to
injury, to deny millions of women access to healthcare choices by
targeting Planned Parenthood.
While the calendar has changed, the Tea Party Republican agenda
remains the same. Despite all the pressing issues we face in this
country at home and abroad, the only thing and the first thing our
Republican colleagues decide to bring to the floor of the House as the
most pressing business to start 2016 is to take away access to
affordable care from 22 million Americans and deny access to affordable
care for millions of American women.
That 22 million figure, Mr. Speaker, that is not my figure. That is
the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that has looked at this
legislation and concluded that, as a result of this bill, 22 million
Americans will lose access to their affordable health insurance. It
will be the freedom to be uninsured, the freedom to not have any
opportunity to have coverage when your family has healthcare needs.
Mr. Speaker, if you look at this chart, you can see that the
Affordable Care Act has already made a dramatic difference in bringing
down the number of uninsured in the United States of America, yet here
we are in a new year, and the first act of this Republican Congress
will be to turn back the clock and change that figure.
I really hope, Mr. Speaker, that our colleagues will begin to focus
on more important issues in the days ahead. Everybody knows that this
will take about a nanosecond for the President of the United States to
veto because the President of the United States is not going to allow
22 million Americans to lose their access to affordable health
insurance, and the President is not going to allow millions of
Americans and millions of American women to lose access to reproductive
choice and a range of healthcare options here in the United States.

It is disturbing, shameful, and sad that this is the way we are
starting the new year. I hope we get on to more important business, Mr.
Speaker.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady), the chairman of the Committee on Ways
and Means, who was a leader of one of the multiple committees involved
in this.
Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak today in
support of the Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation
Act.
Under the leadership of Committee on the Budget chairman, Dr. Price,
and our Speaker, Paul Ryan, we will soon deliver an ObamaCare dismantle
bill to the President's desk.
By passing this legislation:
We will fulfill our promise to use every possible tool to stop the
President's expensive healthcare law;
We will eliminate the unpopular mandates of the backbone of the
Affordable Care Act;
We will protect Americans from tax penalties for failing to purchase
an expensive Washington-approved product that just so many people at
home can't afford;
We will end the tax penalties facing America's job creators who don't
offer health insurance that meets Washington bureaucrats' very
expensive tastes;
We will deliver real relief from a dozen Democrat tax increases that
drive American jobs overseas and punish American workers;
We will protect taxpayer dollars by repealing an ObamaCare slush fund
and ensuring that your taxpayer subsidies don't go to people who aren't
eligible for them, and if they do, they are returned to the Treasury;
We will--and this is important to me--demonstrate our strong
commitment to women's health. Instead of funding Planned Parenthood and
its gruesome practices, we will fund high-quality community health
centers, and we will help ensure more women have access to quality
health care.
We are here today with a bill that cuts taxes, spending, and the
deficit because this Congress did its job.
In closing, while our Democrat friends often accuse us of
relentlessly and tirelessly pursuing the repeal of the President's
healthcare law, the reason is we are fighting for our families and our
patients and our local businesses who have been harmed by it.

[[Page H56]]

Yes, the President will surely veto the bill, even though this bill
has strong popular support. My belief is that exercising your
constitutional right and power to legislate is never wasted if you are
fighting for principles your constituents believe in.
Give the American people a clear moral choice. Let the President
explain why his healthcare law is raising costs on so many American
families and businesses. Let him stand on the wrong side of history by
defending unethical medical practices that, frankly, many Americans
find abhorrent.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, it seems to me expanding access to
affordable health care for 22 million Americans who didn't have it is
being on the right side of history.
I am now pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Colorado
(Ms. DeGette), a distinguished member of the panel which, I am sorry to
say, was set up as part of a witch hunt against Planned Parenthood, but
I am glad she is there.
Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, the House Republican leadership has a funny
way of wishing the working families of America Happy New Year. Under
this bill, the first substantive legislation of 2016, women and their
families will be hit with a one-two punch to their access to health
care.
First, with the latest attempt to repeal the ACA, House Republicans
would remove the tax credits that help millions of Americans afford
quality health insurance. When families lose that insurance, women
would also lose their free annual wellness exams they get from their
providers under the ACA.
Just to pile on, at the same time millions of women would lose their
free wellness exams, this bill would inhibit their ability to get
affordable well-woman and family-planning services from Planned
Parenthood. More than 3 million American women and men get essential
health care from Planned Parenthood every year, and even more would
need to if the ACA were repealed.
In many parts of the country, Planned Parenthood is the only provider
that offers access to reproductive health services within hundreds of
miles. There are no health clinics that would take over that gap.
Eliminating Federal funding to the organization would limit women's
access to cancer screenings, breast exams, and so much more, and all
because of an unfounded vendetta against Planned Parenthood.
Happy New Year, women and families of America.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3
minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kline), the chairman of
the Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Mr. KLINE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Price for yielding.
I rise today in strong, strong support of the Restoring Americans'
Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act.
We have all heard the stories and the statistics, seen the charts.
ObamaCare is wreaking havoc on our country, on small-business owners,
on working families, and even on students. It is a flawed law that has
led to higher costs for consumers, fewer full-time jobs for workers,
and less access to trusted healthcare providers for patients.
That is why we in Congress have been relentless in our efforts to put
an end to ObamaCare and its harmful consequences. It is why we have
worked to protect hardworking Americans who are still paying the price
for the President's government takeover of health care, and it is why
we are here today.
The bill before us will eliminate key provisions in the President's
healthcare law that are hurting families, small businesses, and
schools. Under this proposal, the tax penalty levied against
individuals who fail to purchase government-approved health insurance
will be gone. The tax penalty levied against small businesses and
schools that fail to provide costly, government-approved health
insurance will be gone. The onerous and arbitrary limits on personal
health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts will be gone.
The punitive tax on medical innovation will be gone.
These and other provisions in the bill will dismantle a fatally
flawed law as well as reduce Federal spending and rein in our Nation's
deficits by roughly half a trillion dollars. These are priorities the
American people sent us to Washington to address, and we owe it to the
men and women we represent to do just that.
We have a responsibility to support this bill and to send it to the
President's desk. I believe the President has a responsibility to sign
it. If he does, it wouldn't be the first time the President has helped
roll back his own healthcare law. In fact, on more than 15 separate
occasions, the President has signed legislation repealing provisions in
the law, not to mention the dozens of changes to the law his
administration has carried out unilaterally.
The legislation is an opportunity for the President to work with us
to move the country in a better direction and show the American people
that their priorities are our priorities.
It is also an opportunity to demonstrate once again we are serious
about reducing the size and cost of the Federal Government, serious
about dismantling a healthcare law that is doing more harm than good,
and serious about paving the way to real reform that expands access to
affordable coverage. That is why I urge my colleagues to support this
bill.
In closing, I want to thank Chairman Tom Price and all of our
colleagues who serve on the House Committee on the Budget as well as
those who serve on the Committees on Ways and Means, Energy and
Commerce, and Education and the Workforce. Their hard work has made it
possible to send this important legislation to the President's desk. I
am grateful for their efforts. Let's get on with it.

{time} 1615

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from
Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky), the ranking member on the Select
Investigative Panel on Planned Parenthood. She will be there looking
after the interests of American women, I am pleased to say.
Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, it is a committee where I serve as the
ranking Democratic member. We call it the Select Committee to Attack
Women's Health.
Now, that select committee was formed last fall after hearings were
held and at which the Republicans accused in inflammatory language that
somehow Planned Parenthood had violated the law.
So these three committees that have already investigated Planned
Parenthood have found absolutely nothing wrong with their activities.
Yet, a select committee was appointed.
The kind of language that was used is exactly the language that the
murderer at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado used. This kind of
inflammatory language is used on one of the number one health providers
for poor women in this country, and it is being attacked unnecessarily.
Now, I serve as the ranking member on that select committee. We will
do everything we can to not only defend Planned Parenthood, but to stop
these relentless attacks on women's health care in this country. It is
shameful. Enough is enough.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), the chairman of the Energy and
Commerce Committee.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, we have a bill to restore America's
healthcare freedom--yes, we do--one that will finally get to the
President's desk.
This legislation seeks to protect folks in Michigan and all across
the country from the rising costs, fewer choices, lost coverage, and
countless broken promises that have defined the President's healthcare
law.
Importantly, it would also give Congress time to enact better
solutions focused on growing patient choice and improving patient care,
lowering costs, providing States like Michigan greater flexibility, and
promoting bottom-up 21st-century healthcare innovations.
The current healthcare law relies on outdated programs of the past
and forces a one-size-fits-all approach on our States that is
unresponsive to patient needs. Folks in Michigan deserve better. The
American people deserve better. And you know what? We can do better.
I helped coauthor one commonsense plan to replace the health law. It
is the Patient CARE Act. It is a pragmatic

[[Page H57]]

solution--in fact, the only bicameral proposal that has been offered--
that repeals the law and replaces it with patient-focused reforms that
reduce healthcare costs and increase access to affordable, high-quality
care.
We empower the American people to make the best healthcare choices
for themselves and their families. It allows Governors the flexibility
to best provide for their citizens, all while driving down costs and
improving quality.
Under the proposal, no one can be denied coverage based on a
preexisting condition. This proposal has other consumer protections as
well. Insurance companies would be prohibited from imposing lifetime
limits on a consumer. Dependents up to age 26 would be able to stay on
their parents' plan, and guaranteed renewability would ensure that sick
patients would be able to renew their coverage.
We also provide a refundable tax credit for the most vulnerable
consumers to buy health coverage or healthcare services of their own
choosing, not expensive insurance that Washington would force them to
buy or face a penalty.
Michiganders covered under Medicaid today would also benefit. The
reforms in the Patient CARE Act would make the Medicaid program more
sustainable for taxpayers, and better management tools will make the
program more efficient, fair, and accountable for everyone who depends
on it.
This plan and the countless solutions offered by my Republican
colleagues in Congress shines a spotlight on a better vision for health
care, one focused on patients, families, doctors, and insurance.
This health law may have been enacted only a few years ago, but its
government-centered premise is not a new one. These obsolete ideas have
failed people time and time again. The public deserves a fresh,
forward-looking approach that embraces 21st-century innovation.
So we have got a solution to restore America's healthcare freedom, to
put ObamaCare in the rearview mirror and replace it with better
healthcare solutions like the Patient CARE Act. It is time to put
patients first. Let them make the choices, not the government.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
With all due respect to Mr. Upton and putting aside the merits of
this bill, this is the 62nd time we are voting to repeal the Affordable
Care Act.
We have never seen a vote in this House on any kind of so-called
substitute to the Affordable Care Act. Our Republican colleagues have
been full of talk, and we haven't seen any action.
I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore), a
member of the Budget Committee.
Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I must tell you how disappointed I am that we
are not starting the new year here with fresh, new, bipartisan
initiatives to create jobs and to move our economy forward.
I just feel like this is for auld lang syne. This is our 62nd vote to
repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act. And, Mr. Speaker, I expect
you to break out in a few verses of ``Auld Lang Syne'' anytime now.
Is it for auld lang syne that 22 million Americans might actually
lose their health insurance if the President would somehow sign this
into law?
Is it for auld lang syne that the Republicans and you, Mr. Speaker,
are proposing that we attack women's health once again and take away
the primary care physician for poor women, 4 out of 10 who say is their
only source of health care?
Is it for auld lang syne that Planned Parenthood visitors--men and
women--who have incomes of 150 percent or below the Federal poverty
level will lose their health insurance?
Is it for auld lang syne that the 62nd repeal vote is taking place so
that half of the health centers are in rural or medically underserved
areas?
Let's get to work, Mr. Speaker, on fresh, new ideas and not auld lang
syne.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Rokita), the vice chairman of the Budget
Committee.
Mr. ROKITA. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Price for his leadership. I
am very proud of the work that the committee has done to get us to this
point--one vote away from this bill getting to the President's desk--
because then the President will finally have a chance to right one of
the wrongs which bears his name and to stop the horrific and unethical
medical practices occurring at Planned Parenthood.
This reconciliation bill repeals a number of onerous taxes created by
the Affordable Care Act. Taxes have slowed the economic recovery, which
means ObamaCare literally keeps people in my district, whom I care
deeply about, from getting jobs.

This bill represents the economic development bill the last speaker
spoke of. And ObamaCare increases health insurance costs for most
Americans. So instead of spending more on their families over
Christmas, people in Indiana and all over this country paid more to
insurance companies instead, all because of ObamaCare.
This repeal bill will save Americans $516 billion over the next 10
years, money they can spend as they see fit instead of how Washington
Democrats dictated at the end of 2009. These are important steps to
returning our healthcare system to us, where decisions are made by
Americans and their doctors, not the Federal Government.
Mr. Speaker, in districts such as mine, many of the plans sold on the
ObamaCare government exchange are classified as small or extra small,
meaning that, in many cases, less than 10 percent of the doctors in the
area are accessible to these families. This means that many Indiana
families have had to give up their doctor and, in some cases, travel an
hour or more just to get basic medical attention.
Timothy Gerking of Danville, Indiana, has seen his insurance costs
for a family of three increase from $400 a month in 2012 to over $1,200
a month in 2016, along with higher deductibles and copays. How is he
supposed to save for college for his kids? How is he supposed to plan
for retirement if he is paying $14,000 a year in premiums?
This is all despite the President's promise that ``if you like your
healthcare plan, you can keep it.'' That was an outright lie to the
American people then, and ObamaCare is still one of the most insidious
laws ever produced today.
The President now has a chance to correct the wrong that he and the
Democrats have done to millions of Americans. I hope that opportunity
is taken by him when it gets to his desk.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), a friend and colleague and the Democratic whip,
who understands that providing health care to 22 million Americans who
didn't have it is a good thing.
Mr. HOYER. The ranking member took the words right out of my mouth.
There are 22 million Americans covered now that weren't covered before.
Mr. Speaker, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, ``House
Speaker Paul Ryan, starting this month, will push to turn the Chamber
into a platform for ambitious Republican policy ideas.''
My friend, Mr. Upton, talked about policy ideas, but Mr. Van Hollen
correctly observed they are not on this floor. You haven't brought them
to this floor. All you have brought is a negative. Bring a positive.
That, presumably, is what your Speaker ought to be talking about.
Many have been wondering what new, ambitious ideas Republicans would
put forward to kick off this new session of the 114th Congress. Well,
today we have the answer, the 62nd effort to repeal the Affordable Care
Act, which everybody knows is not going anywhere.
We have seen this fresh, new idea before. It is coupled with a vote
to defund Planned Parenthood, which will deny millions of Americans
access to affordable health care.
So not only by repealing the Affordable Care Act will we deny health
care to people, but by doing what they are doing to Planned Parenthood,
millions of people will not have access to the health care they are
relying on.
What we have before us is not anything new. In fact, it is a repeal
of health reform that goes even further than the Republicans brought to
the House floor in October, this time also ending tax credits and
subsidies that enable those with modest incomes to afford health
insurance and repealing the expansion of Medicaid.

[[Page H58]]

The reason there is not another bill on the floor is because people
would then see how draconian the policies are. These are components of
the Affordable Care Act that have enabled millions of previously
uninsured Americans to gain coverage since 2010.
Senate Republicans took a bad bill and made it worse. I am
disappointed that Speaker Ryan would bring it to the floor as his first
major act of this new session of Congress.
This reconciliation bill would cause an estimated 22 million
Americans, as the ranking member has pointed out, to lose their health
care, would increase premiums by approximately 20 percent, would
provide employers with much uncertainty, and worsen the outlook for
deficits over the long term.
Only in the first 10-year window do you have a savings. The CBO says,
if you go to the second 10 years, this bill is a loser and exacerbates
the deficit.
I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing this 62nd vote to repeal
or undermine America's access to affordable, quality health care.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Roe), a fellow physician who is the chair
of the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee of the
Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Mr. ROE of Tennessee. I thank Dr. Price for the work his committee
has done.
I practiced medicine in rural Tennessee for 30 years. I didn't talk
about health care. I actually provided it for patients. It was a major
reason that I ran for Congress.
The premise of the Affordable Care Act was to increase access and
decrease costs. Everybody in this building agrees on that. What we got
was a 2,500-page bill that few people read that defined what you bought
and then fined you when you didn't buy it, even if you couldn't afford
it. That is what has actually happened.
Healthcare decisions should be made between families, patients, and
their doctors, not by big insurance companies and certainly not by
Federal bureaucrats.
So what is happening to middle class working people in this country
today? Their out-of-pockets and copays have skyrocketed. In the
hospital that I worked in, 60 percent of the uncollectible debt is now
owed by people with insurance. That is because they cannot afford the
out-of-pockets and copays.

{time} 1630

We Republicans have had many ideas. Dr. Price has a bill. I
coauthored a bill with the Republican Study Committee to replace this,
and I will suggest, Mr. Speaker, that you will see that on this floor
to be debated if we are successful in doing this.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Pocan), a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, we were told just a couple of months ago on
the floor of this Congress that there is a new day in Congress. Well,
it doesn't feel like a new day. It feels a lot like Groundhog Day.
I feel like Bill Murray from that early 1990s movie. I wake up, I
shower, I get on a plane, I come to Washington, I plan on voting how to
create jobs or help lift people's wages. Instead, I am voting on taking
away health care from 22 million people.
The next week, I wake up, I shower, I get on a plane, I fly to
Washington. What do I do? I vote on taking away health insurance for 22
million people.
Sixty-two times this body has voted to repeal health care. But we
have also now made a new one of a dozen times we have now devoted to
defund Planned Parenthood which, with this body's Speaker, in my home
State of Wisconsin, means 62,000 women last year would not have gotten
access to health insurance.
It is no wonder that with bad, recycled ideas like that, the public
has such disdain for Congress. It is not a new day in Congress. It is
just Groundhog Day.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Black), a fellow healthcare
professional, who is a member of both the Budget Committee and the Ways
and Means Committee.
Mrs. BLACK. Mr. Speaker, I hold in my hand Planned Parenthood's
annual report, and in these pages, you will find the true war on women.
By their own numbers, taxpayer funding for this organization is up,
while preventative healthcare services are down and abortions continue
to stand at over 320,000 a year.
I am proud to support today's reconciliation bill to defund Planned
Parenthood and to redirect those dollars to true preventative
healthcare services for women, because Americans, and women, in
particular, deserve better than this.
We may not be able to change the President's heart on this issue--
goodness knows we have tried--but we can put him on record. If this
President truly thinks that my constituents' tax dollars should fund
this scandal-ridden abortion giant, that is on his conscience, but he
should at least be forced to put a pen on paper and explain the belief
to the American people.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Levin), the ranking member of the Ways and Means
Committee.
(Mr. LEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, this bill is reckless and has zero chance of
becoming law. But most significantly, it is heartless. What it says
from Republicans here to millions, an Unhappy New Year. You could take
healthcare insurance away from 22 million people. To them, these 22
million, from Republicans, an Unhappy New Year.
It will repeal funding for Medicaid expansion in 30 States and the
District of Columbia, leaving 14 million low-income Americans without
health care. To those 14 million Americans, from House Republicans, an
Unhappy New Year.
It would eliminate the tax credits for low-income families and
individuals, a key part of what makes ACA affordable. It would
eliminate the individual and employer mandates, undermining the patient
protections and access measures that helped dramatically reduce the
rate of uninsured in this country.
The Republicans are also using this bill to continue their
ideological obsession with depriving women access to affordable family
planning services and lifesaving cancer screenings by defunding Planned
Parenthood.
This bill deserves not only the veto that is coming, but a ``no''
vote on the floor of this House.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Boustany), a fellow physician and member
of the Ways and Means Committee.
Mr. BOUSTANY. I thank Chairman Price for yielding time.
Mr. Speaker, this is an important day in the House of Representatives
because the House is preparing to send a package directly to the
President. There will be no Senate filibuster. We have gotten around
that issue. This bill goes to the President directly, and he can either
sign it or veto it. But this bill repeals the very foundation of
ObamaCare, and it stops Planned Parenthood funding. It is as simple as
that.
This package is also important to me because I have a provision in
there that I authored that repeals this employer mandate. This has been
a really bad piece of legislation that was in place, this employer
mandate, because it has forced small businesses to limit hiring or to
resort to part-time employees. This is just a terrible thing, at a time
when unemployment has been high and people are looking for work.
This bill will help undermine and get rid of the foundation of
ObamaCare which, I know as a physician, has accelerated the negative
trends in health care, of which there are many. I can't get into all of
them now, but that is not the affordable, patient-centered health care
that the American people deserve.
We can do much better. We will do much better. This is the first
step.
Let's put this on the President's desk. Let's call his hand, and
let's either force him to veto this, which we will try to override it,
or sign it.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I don't think that the President is
going to mull over this decision for very long. He is going to veto
this because the President doesn't want to deny 22

[[Page H59]]

million Americans access to affordable care, which is exactly what the
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office tells us is what this will do,
and he doesn't want to deny access to health care to millions of women
and families.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Pallone), the distinguished ranking member on the Energy and Commerce
Committee.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, here we are again. It is a new year and a
new session of Congress, but House Republicans are yet again up to
their old partisan tricks.
Today, House Republicans have chosen to spend the first week of 2016
attacking women's health with a radical GOP reconciliation bill which
would defund Planned Parenthood and strip away affordable family
planning services and lifesaving care for millions of women across the
country.
Overall, this is the 11th time the House majority has voted to attack
women's health in this Congress, including 4 prior votes to defund
Planned Parenthood. Meanwhile, it is also the 62nd repeal vote of the
Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Speaker, this reconciliation bill is futile. It is political. It
is unfortunate. We have a lot of work to do to help working families in
this country, and today's bill reverses great progress in healthcare
coverage and access and increases the deficit.
In fact, CBO estimates that this extreme legislation would increase
the uninsured by about 22 million Americans after 2017. We also know
that, if defunded, Planned Parenthood's 2.7 million patients would be
left without care, resulting in dangerous consequences.
Just look at what is happening in States that have already
implemented this radical agenda. In Indiana, such policies led to an
HIV epidemic, and in Texas, it left tens of thousands of women without
access to contraceptive care and increased incidences of life-
threatening at-home abortions.
We can't allow the rest of the country to go down this dangerous
path, all because of the ideological and political whims of
politicians.
Mr. Speaker, I can go on and on about the consequences of this bill,
but driven by an extreme agenda, Republican policies are harmful, and
they have to be rejected. I urge a ``no'' vote.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time
remaining on each side, please?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Georgia has 13 minutes
remaining. The gentleman from Maryland has 16\1/2\ minutes remaining.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), who has been a champion
for patient-centered health care and is the vice chairman of the Energy
and Commerce Committee.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, the lie of the year for 2013 was that
dubious phrase, ``If you like your health care, you can keep it.'' We
know that the deception has become obvious. And what we do know is that
7 million Americans lost their employer-sponsored health insurance
because of the ObamaCare bill.
We also know how harmful this has been to seniors; $700 billion was
raided, raided from Medicare, the Medicare trust fund, by the way.
What we know from our constituents is that when they go to the
exchanges and shop, they end up with a product that--we are even
hearing from the insurance companies. There is one of them that says
they never should have been there and they are probably going to pull
out next year and the product is too expensive to afford and too
expensive to use. Premiums are up by double digits in a single year.
Out-of-pocket costs are soaring.
This is why having an ObamaCare insurance card does not give you
access to affordable health care. It does not give you access to
affordable health care. It is, indeed, unaffordable.
We know the injury will continue to hardworking Americans. That is
why we stand united today in supporting the reconciliation bill and the
repeal of ObamaCare.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Washington (Mr. McDermott), a member of the Budget Committee and the
Ways and Means Committee.
(Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, here we are again, the same fraudulent
bill being brought out here again.
The gentleman from Michigan says that they have a plan. They have a
plan. We have been waiting 5 years for you to bring that plan to the
floor and let us have a vote on it.
There is no plan that you are willing to bring to the floor because
you do not care about the American people and their health security.
Taking it away from 22 million people and assaulting women with this
bill is simply clear evidence that you do not care what happens.
Now, you may think this is good election year politics. But back in
the States, the Republicans--even the Governor of Kentucky, a
Republican, has decided, you know, I don't want to take it away from
people who are on Medicaid.
We tried this in Washington. We already know that if you leave in
place the requirement that insurance companies give insurance to
people, no matter what their healthcare state is, you are going to sink
the individual market. We lost it in the State of Washington, and you
are sentencing the whole country to that. Besides, you have said you
want the repeal vote to be on the 22nd. You know it is going nowhere.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), the Republican majority whip.
Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairman of the Budget
Committee for the good, hard work that his committee did for bringing
this bill to the floor.
Ultimately, Mr. Speaker, this is something that we have been talking
about doing for a long time, but now we have the opportunity to have a
vote on the House floor that will send a bill to President Obama's desk
that actually guts ObamaCare and defunds Planned Parenthood.
This is something very important to people all across the country.
But this is something that allows us through the reconciliation
process, which is a rare opportunity.
There have been a lot of really good bills that this House has passed
to address problems, whether it is getting the economy back on track,
whether it is pushing back on so many of the radical agenda items,
through regulatory actions, through executive actions that this
President has done to try to circumvent the Constitution and Congress,
and they go over to the Senate, and Senate Democrats filibuster the
bill. And because of their archaic rules that require 60 votes just to
bring a bill up, so many of those bills don't even come up for debate,
Mr. Speaker.
So the budget process of reconciliation gives us one opportunity a
year, if we are able to come together and agree on a budget, which this
House and Senate did. We came to agreement, in fact, on a budget that
gets to balance in the 10-year window for the first time since 2002.
And it also gives us that one opportunity to move a bill through, not
just the House, but through the Senate with a majority vote, rather
than 60 votes.
Why that is so important, Mr. Speaker, is it allows us to finally put
on President Obama's desk this important question. This President needs
to be confronted with this, and he will now be confronted with the
question about addressing his failed healthcare law that has denied
health care to millions of people, that has resulted in double-digit
increases for so many others. In my home State of Louisiana, we are
seeing over 20 percent increases because of this failed law.
And then also, to defund Planned Parenthood. That bill will now go to
his desk with this important vote.

{time} 1645

It is a historic vote. I would encourage the President to sign this
bill. It would be an important landmark moment in his Presidency. If he
vetoes it, it shows the country just what is at stake if you have a
President that is willing to do this for the American people.
I urge a ``yes'' vote, and I look forward to this vote.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, yes, that would be important to show
that we have a President that doesn't want

[[Page H60]]

to eliminate affordable health care for 22 million Americans.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms.
Castor), a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, Democrats in Congress begin the
new year with a renewed commitment to working families across this
great country and a commitment to standing up to the special interests
that hold so much sway here in Washington, D.C. In contrast, House
Republicans begin the new year with the first vote that is a vote
against women, a vote against women's health, and a vote to target
Planned Parenthood all rolled into one.
Now, women across this country will not forget the coordinated smear
campaign against Planned Parenthood last year that was based upon
false, manufactured videos full of distortions and misinformation.
We will not forget how Republicans in Congress acted in concert with
the shady group and used the controversy to eliminate family planning
support and vital cancer screenings for women across the country. It is
especially troubling that my GOP colleagues begin the year targeting
folks who really need the help the most: working families, young women,
and women of color.
While Republicans choose to start the year this way, what I hear from
women, parents, moms, and dads at home is that they want greater
economic security and greater personal security. That is what Congress
should be focused on in 2016, not an attack on women's health.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
gentleman from the great State of Michigan (Mr. Moolenaar), a
productive member of the Budget Committee.
Mr. MOOLENAAR. Mr. Speaker, today we will vote to repeal the
President's healthcare law. It is a law that the American people have
opposed from the very beginning when it was passed without bipartisan
support. The American people opposed it even when the President
promised that they could keep their coverage and their doctor. They
also opposed it when that promise was broken. They opposed it when the
law taxed their health insurance and the medical devices that help them
live longer, healthier lives.
Today the American people still oppose the President's healthcare law
because it makes them pay higher premiums for policies with deductibles
that are too expensive. That is why today, 6 years after it was passed,
we are voting to send a repeal of this law to the President's desk.
This repeal will save the government $500 billion over the next 10
years and empower people to make their own healthcare choices.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I hope everyone listens carefully when
our colleagues say that it will save money over the next 10 years,
because the Congressional Budget Office says this will actually lose
the taxpayer money over the longer term. We all hope to live and have
our children live in the longer term.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Pascrell), a distinguished member of the Budget Committee and Ways and
Means Committee.
Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Ranking Member, through the Chair, this is
nonreconciliation if I have ever seen it.
The Affordable Care Act pulling back from Medicaid expansion, do you
know what that means? Have you examined what that will do? It will take
away essential tax credits that the law provides to help the middle
class and middle class families purchase health insurance.
Here we are repealing the ACA for the umpteenth time. In addition to
cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood, the new version of the bill
which came back from the Senate would also prohibit Medicaid from
paying for services at Planned Parenthood. Because Federal law strictly
prohibits Federal Medicaid dollars from being used to pay for
abortions, regardless of how you try to get that message out and convey
this nonfact, that is not the fact. This addition would specifically
prohibit payments to Planned Parenthood for healthcare services like
preventive health exams.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 1
minute.
Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I contend that that is un-American. Read
my lips. Cancer screenings. I contend that that is un-American. And you
have nothing in your budget, and you have nothing in your so-called
plan--which dematerialized before it materialized--that would take care
of these folks.
And the subject of birth control, since you like to talk about it all
the time, that, to me, is un-American. That, to me, reduces freedom in
the greatest country on the planet.
So what will we come up with? In a bill that came before us without
regular order--you tout all the time that we need regular order, we
have got to go through the process and get the bill in front of us--
this did not go through the process. This committee that you had was a
joke. You know it and I know it.
So what a spirit of reconciliation, what a horror--what a horror--
being projected on the American people. It is too bad. It is not a good
way to start the new year, and I am not hopeful for the future.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their
remarks to the Chair.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Lance), a productive member of the
Energy and Commerce Committee.
Mr. LANCE. Thank you, Chairman Price, for your tremendous leadership
on this and many other issues.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Restoring Americans'
Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, the first ObamaCare repeal bill
that Congress sends to the President's desk since the law's enactment
in 2010.
This bill effectively repeals mandates and taxes at the very heart of
the law and saves taxpayers nearly half a trillion dollars over the
next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Our action here in the House today is an important step toward
replacing ObamaCare with patient-centric solutions that lower
healthcare costs, protect jobs, and allow Americans to keep their
doctors and their health care if they like them.
To be clear, there is more work that needs to be done to make full
repeal and replacement a reality, but our congressional efforts today
provide important momentum to help make that a reality in 2017 with a
new President.
I urge all my colleagues to support H.R. 3762.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Scott), the distinguished ranking member of the Education
and the Workforce Committee.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding.
The House is yet to take another vote in 60 seconds to demonstrate
its relentless fixation on systematically destroying the Affordable
Care Act. More specifically, we must vote on a budget reconciliation
package that, if enacted, will take away healthcare access for millions
of Americans.
This isn't a new exercise. In addition to the 61 unproductive votes,
futile lawsuits have been brought in courts, and meritless attacks have
been mounted with the goal of destroying the progress we have made. And
we have made progress improving a system that didn't work for American
families before the Affordable Care Act.
Since the enactment of the law: over 17 million uninsured Americans
have gained insurance; young people can stay on their parents' policies
until age 26; healthcare costs are growing more slowly today than in
past decades; annual checkups are not subject to deductibles; an
insurance company can't charge you more for just being a woman; we are
in the process of closing the prescription drug doughnut hole; and if
you want to change jobs or start a business or start a family, you have
healthcare options even if you have a preexisting condition.
That is the progress we have made. Despite that progress, the
legislation before us turns the clock back on all of that progress. I
urge my colleagues to oppose the bill.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), the distinguished majority
leader of the House of Representatives.

[[Page H61]]

Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I appreciate the work that the chairman has done. I know he is
chairman of the Budget Committee, but before he stood on this floor, he
was a doctor. He is still a doctor today, and I know the passion that
he brings to bring the right type of reform for a medical system that
actually works in this country. That is why today is so important not
just to him, but to all of us.
We have worked hard--I would say relentlessly--to make that day
happen. Yes, we fought to delay, defund, and actually repeal ObamaCare.
This law is a failure. We know it, and I know all of you on the other
side of the aisle know it as well. Twelve co-ops have failed. State
exchanges are failing. No matter where you stood on this issue, you
went home and you heard from your constituents.
Now, if you voted for it, you are going to have to answer to the
President's promises, because he just didn't promise a few in this
room. He promised all Americans. Do you remember what he said? He said:
``If you like your healthcare plan, you'll be able to keep your health
care plan, period.'' He also said, Mr. Speaker: ``If you like your
doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period.'' Mr. Speaker, he
also said ObamaCare would ``lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a
typical family per year.''
Those are direct quotes--it is just that not one of them came to
fruition.
Now, I know what I will hear on the other side of the aisle, and they
probably won't mention this, but on this floor, Republicans and
Democrats joined together to dismantle the employer and individual
mandates. In a bipartisan fashion, we delayed the medical device tax.
In a bipartisan fashion--a lot delivered from the other side--we
delayed the Cadillac tax, cut funding to the healthcare rationing
board, and stopped the taxpayer bailout of insurance companies.
Many of our attempts have been successful in undoing key parts of
this law. But today, for the very first time, we send a bill repealing
ObamaCare to the President's desk.
Also, after watching the horrific videos of Planned Parenthood
employees casually discussing the sale of infants' organs, we knew
something had to be done. Something had to be done to make sure
taxpayers were not forced to support organizations that engage in such
inhumane practices. Today we send a bill to the President's desk that
ends taxpayer funding for abortion coverage and abortion providers like
Planned Parenthood.
No matter where you go in this country, no matter whom you talk to,
no matter what party they belong to, they know things are wrong in this
country. People are hurting under ObamaCare, human life is being
disregarded, and now Congress will put it to the President and hold him
accountable for the terrible policies this administration has pursued.
Mr. Speaker, I don't have any delusions. For the sake of the American
people and too many unborn children, I hope the President signs this
bill. But the President has made his position very clear. No matter how
wrong he is, he will veto any bill that repeals ObamaCare or defunds
Planned Parenthood. If he does, we will vote to override.
I, and I know many of my colleagues, have worked with colleagues on
the other side of the aisle trying to persuade them to join with us. We
asked them to join us and stand with the American people against
ObamaCare and against taxpayer funding of the abortion industry. But no
matter how the override vote ends up, what we are doing today is still
important. When a Republican President takes office next year, Mr.
Speaker, we can use reconciliation again. We won't have to worry about
a veto from the White House, and we can overcome any attempts by the
Democrats to filibuster and obstruct.
You see, from the foundation of this bill and from the work of many
colleagues in the medical community and doctors that serve as Members
of Congress, we will create a patient-centered healthcare system that
gives power to the people, not to bureaucrats in Washington.
So, Mr. Speaker, that is why today is important, because with this
bill we can do it--this year or the next, but we will.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the Republican
leader, Mr. McCarthy, who said that they have worked hard and
relentlessly to make this day happen--a day that would eliminate
affordable health care to 22 million Americans.

{time} 1700

I want to make sure all of our colleagues understand that this is not
a fact coming from the Democrats. There is the saying that you are
entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own
facts.
That is a fact that came from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office. In fact, they were responding to a letter from Mr. Price, the
chairman of the Budget Committee. The letter reads:

Dear Mr. Chairman, At your request, CBO and the staff of
the joint committee have estimated the budgetary effects of
this bill.

It goes on to say:

And analyze the bill.

It is their conclusion on page 9 of the letter to the chairman:

Enacting H.R. 3762 would increase the number of people
without health insurance coverage. Relative to current law
projections--

That means relevant to the current law with the Affordable Care Act
in place.

would reduce by about 22 million people in most years after
2017.

That is a fact. That is signed by the director of CBO, Keith Hall,
who, as everybody in this body knows, was selected on a bipartisan
basis by the chairman of the House Budget Committee and the chairman of
the Senate Budget Committee, both Republicans. That is a fact.
It is a sad state of affairs when we are ``celebrating'' the fact
that they ``worked relentlessly'' to get to the point to eliminate
affordable care to 22 million Americans.
I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel),
somebody who understands the importance of affordable health care and
is also a distinguished member of the Ways and Means Committee.
Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman for his statement
in pointing out that this is not really a legislative issue. This is a
Republican partisan issue where people have waited for years for this
moment to destroy a bill to put 22 million people out of reach of
medical care.
They are striking over $1 trillion from the bill. They are being
critical of the bill. They didn't say their moment in the Sun was to
provide a better bill. No. They say, if you go back home, you are going
to hear complaints.
Well, President Obama went back home to the American people and was
campaigning for ObamaCare and they reelected him. Now we are saying
that these 22 million people--do you think they are not going to get
health care?
You bet your sweet life on this country they are going to get care,
not the quality care that ObamaCare would provide for them, but they
will be going to emergency rooms. They will get more sick. They will
end up in the hospitals. It will cost us much more than the so-called
trillion dollars we have.
Well, thank God we do have a government where the President can say
no. Thank God we also have a Constitution that says you don't have
enough votes to override what is constitutionally and morally the right
thing to do.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire once again the
time remaining on each side?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Georgia has 7 minutes
remaining. The gentleman from Maryland has 8 minutes remaining.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Stutzman), a wonderful member of the Budget
Committee.
Mr. STUTZMAN. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman just mentioned that this is
a partisan issue. This was a partisan issue back in 2009 when it was
passed. This was forced through against the will of the American
people. That is why you have seen over the past several elections that
the American people want a repeal of ObamaCare and that we start over
with patient-centered free-market health care.
The fact is that I was at a Cracker Barrel a couple of weeks ago. I
was talking to the waitress. The waitress

[[Page H62]]

approached me and she said: You know, ObamaCare was supposed to help
me. She said: My premiums have gone up. They have doubled. My out-of-
pocket expenses have gone from $500 to $5,000. She said: ObamaCare is
not helping me.
This is a story that we have heard time and time again. ObamaCare
hasn't helped the American people. It has put a greater burden on the
American people. Doctors are supposed to provide health care, not
ObamaCare, not the Federal Government. This should be a relationship
between the American people and the doctor that they choose, the doctor
that they were promised that they could keep.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that this reconciliation package is the right
thing at the right time for our country. We need to start over. We need
to fix our healthcare system rather than prolonging and continuing to
enforce a Big Government agenda on the American people.
I ask the Members of this House to support this legislation.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from
Oregon (Ms. Bonamici), a distinguished member of the Education and the
Workforce Committee.
Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this legislation
which would push health coverage beyond the reach of millions of
Americans.
The Congressional Budget Office predicts that enacting this
legislation could result in roughly 22 million more people living
without health insurance. These people are single parents struggling to
cover basic necessities, young adults trying to launch their careers
and start families, and hardworking couples for whom the cost of
insurance won't fit in the monthly budget.
Without affordable health coverage, these Americans will be living
with perpetual fear, fear that they will need to choose between paying
for housing or food and getting treatment, and fear that any medical
emergency could lead them into bankruptcy.
To make things worse, this bill defunds Planned Parenthood, which
would undermine access to reproductive health services and preventive
care for women. That is not only wrong, it is counterproductive.
It is unfortunate that, at the start of a new year, we are debating a
regressive proposal that would make the lives of some of our most
vulnerable friends and neighbors even less secure.
I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will acknowledge that
this bill is irresponsible and join me in voting ``no.''
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen), a fellow Georgian and a freshman
Member of the House of Representatives.
Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his great work on
this important legislation.
Today I rise in support of H.R. 3762, the Restoring Americans'
Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015. This legislation will
dismantle ObamaCare and defund Planned Parenthood.
This bill guts ObamaCare's individual and employer mandates and
repeals the costly Cadillac and medical device taxes. It protects
society's most innocent--the unborn--and also provides additional
funding for community health centers so that women can continue to have
access to the quality care they deserve.

We need to expand patient choice. We need to give the American people
choice. We need to make health care more affordable by offering
patient-centered and cost-effective reforms. Most of all, we need to
give a voice to the voiceless.
This is a historic moment. After passing the House today, the bill
will go straight to the President's desk and President Obama will be
forced to vote on repealing ObamaCare and defunding Planned Parenthood
for the first time. He will have to choose between dismantling a costly
and disastrous law and preventing disregard for human life or
protecting his own political legacy.
Colleagues in the House, please join me and vote in favor of the
Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Oregon (Mr. Schrader), a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Mr. SCHRADER. Mr. Speaker, after drafting and passing a trillion-
dollar deficit-busting tax and budget bill last month, my Republican
colleagues now want to get some of that money back on the backs of
middle- and low-income Americans.
These are the very people that have been struggling to recover from
the Great Recession. These families and small businesses that are
having trouble staying afloat would now lose access to affordable
health care. It is irresponsible.
I don't get it. The Affordable Care Act gives millions a hand up, not
a handout, in order to afford affordable health care. Families are put
in the driver's seat in the health insurance market and are seeing good
results.
This is something we have been doing in Oregon for some time. Market-
based principles and personal responsibility is actually the heart of
the ACA.
Mr. Speaker, I don't understand why we would want to create greater
uncertainty for small businesses, trying to do the right thing by their
employees, by eliminating the small business tax credit, like my
Republican colleagues want to do today.
Rather than waste time on distractions like this, we should be coming
together to build certainty around the basic American right of a
shared-responsibility healthcare system.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler), a diligent and productive
member of the Budget Committee.
Mrs. HARTZLER. Mr. Speaker, ObamaCare is hurting people by reducing
choices, increasing costs, and making it harder for people to access
quality, affordable healthcare. That is why I am proud to stand here
today to support a bill that dismantles key provisions of ObamaCare and
paves the way for better healthcare solutions.
The Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act stops
the government from forcing its citizens to buy expensive healthcare
plans they don't want or need. It saves Americans money by eliminating
many of the ObamaCare taxes.
Additionally, this bill stops taxpayer funding for abortion providers
such as Planned Parenthood. This one abortion provider receives over
half a billion taxpayer dollars a year even though it has been involved
in the harvesting and selling of baby body parts.
It is time to stop all tax dollars flowing to abortionists and
redirect it to healthcare providers who care for women without taking
innocent life.
Congress is listening to the people's calls. Now it will be up to the
President to decide, does he support the people and women's health or
does he support Washington mandates and tax dollars going to Planned
Parenthood.
I urge the President to do the right thing and sign this into law.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), a member of the Judiciary and Homeland
Security Committees.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the manager, the gentleman from
Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen), for his leadership. I also thank my good
friends on the other side of the aisle.
Mr. Speaker, I now understand what the issue is. We are talking
apples and oranges. My friends on the other side of the aisle don't
care about the fact that, in 2013, 18 percent of Americans were
uninsured; in the State of Texas, 28 percent; California, 23 percent;
and Georgia, 22 percent.
Now we have found that we are at a point where we have lowered that
amount and we have lowered the uninsured rate in this country to 11.9
percent. Those are vulnerable Americans and women and families.
We also don't seem to understand that, when our constituents come to
us and talk about premiums, all we need to do is do the constituency
service and kind of assure them and show them the direction into the
marketplace because, in shopping around, you can lower your premium.
But the real issue is whether or not we care about making sure that
those with preexisting conditions can actually get health insurance,
that those in Medicare can actually protect the Medicare system and
make it insolvent in 2030 instead of 2017.
The other question is: Does this bill even have a plan? Is there an
alternative healthcare plan that the Republicans have put in the budget
reconciliation? No, they have not.

[[Page H63]]

Then they want to take away Planned Parenthood. This is not about
disliking Planned Parenthood. It is telling women that they do not have
a choice to choose their own doctors. That is what they are doing when
they defund Planned Parenthood.
Mr. Speaker, it is apples and oranges. They are talking one thing. I
am talking about saving lives and helping Americans keep their health
insurance.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 3762, the Restoring
Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015.
In 1949, Harry Truman became the first sitting President to propose
universal healthcare for all Americans as part of the ``Fair Deal.''
On March 23, 2010, President Obama aided by a Democratic Congress
delivered on this promise.
Before the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, 50 million people in
the United States had no health insurance coverage, with many losing
insurance as a result of the recent recession.
This is the 62nd vote by the GOP since its enactment to end the
Affordable Care Act law.
In 2013, key provisions of the Affordable Care Act began to take
effect and have significantly improved the lives of millions of
Americans.
In 2013, the states with the highest percentage of uninsured were:
Texas with 28.8 percent; Louisiana with 24 percent; Nevada with 23.3
percent; California with 23.2 percent; Florida with 22.8 percent;
Georgia with 22.5 percent; Arkansas with 21.9 percent; Mississippi with
21.7 percent; and Oklahoma with 21.4 percent.
In 2013, when Gallup first began tracking health insurance coverage
just before the Affordable Care Act went into effect, the number of
persons not insured has declined by 5.2 points.
Gallup reported that the percentage of uninsured Americans increased
from nearly 14 percent in 2008 to over 17 percent in 2011, and peaked
at 18.0 percent in 2013.
According to Gallup the uninsured rate among U.S. adults declined to
11.9 percent for the first quarter of 2015, but this fact has not
deterred efforts by the GOP of the House to end this important
lifesaving law.
Mr. Speaker, this steady decline in the number of Americans without
health insurance means that today only about 10 percent of our citizens
do not have coverage.
Many of those most in need of the healthcare coverage provided by the
Affordable Care Act live in the Districts of many members on both sides
of this argument. Texas, my own state, leads the list of states with
the highest percentages of uninsured residents.
The highest concentrations of the uninsured are the poor and
unemployed.
The uninsured rate among Americans has dropped sharply since the
implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which provides: access to
healthcare to the poor through expansion of Medicaid; prevents health
insurance companies from denying healthcare coverage based on pre-
existing conditions; stops health insurance companies from
discriminating against women by charging them higher rates for
coverage, and extends the time children can remain on their parents'
health insurance to age 26.
The Affordable Care Act provides to states at no cost options for
residents to enroll in healthcare programs through Medicaid.
Unfortunately, some states like my state of Texas have rejected this
important component of the Affordable Care Act for those in the state
in most need of healthcare.
Instead of focusing on protecting and caring for the health of our
constituents, we are allowing partisan games to interfere with serving
the best interest of our Districts.
At the end of healthcare insurance enrollment for 2015, more than 8.5
million consumers signed-up for health coverage through the
HealthCare.gov platform or had their coverage automatically renewed.
Of the about 6 million Marketplace consumers whose coverage was
renewed, about 3.6 million actively renewed and 2.4 million consumers
automatically renewed their health insurance coverage.
The 2015 health insurance enrollment period had 29 percent new
participants and 71 percent return participants.
In my state of Texas 1,096,868 individual plans were selected by
visitors to the HealthCare.gov platform.
In 2015, unfortunately Texas remains the state with the highest
health uninsured rate among the 50 states, with 25.7 percent or over
4.2 million residents without health insurance.
Instead of focusing on the issues that the American people want
addressed, we are having the same discussion to repeal the Affordable
Care Act in the efforts of my colleagues to repeal, obstruct and
undermine this law.
What is even more frustrating is that while there is so much energy
in trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, there has been no plan or
suggestions posed on how to replace it.
I want to once again highlight the benefits of the Affordable Care
Act so we can once and for all end the attempts to try and repeal this
law that benefits so many Americans.
Because of the Affordable Care Act, Americans are seeing lower costs,
better coverage, and patient protections that Republicans want to
repeal:
The average premium for employer-provided family health coverage went
up 3 percent in 2014, continuing the trend of lower annual increase,
which means that over the 5 years the healthcare law has been in place
it has saved employers over $1,800 dollars in premiums for employee
family health insurance coverage.
Medicare spending growth per beneficiary was approximately flat in
fiscal year 2014, a significant contributor to extending the solvency
of the program.
The Medicare Trustee now projects because of the Affordable Care Act
that the Medicare Trust Fund will be solvent until 2030 instead of
2017.
Health insurance consumers have saved 9 billion since 2011 because
Obamacare requires insurance companies to spend 80 cents on every
premium dollar on consumer healthcare and empowers States to review and
negotiate premium increases.
129 million Americans, including 17 million children, are no longer
at risk of losing health insurance coverage because of their health.
76 million Americans with private coverage are eligible for expanded
preventative services coverage, which includes 30 million women and 18
million children.
Since the Affordable Care Act went into effect insurers have paid
customers over $1.9 billion in rebates because they did not spend 80
cents on each dollar of premium on healthcare.
Nationwide, nearly 11.7 million consumers selected a plan or were
automatically enrolled in Marketplace coverage.
In 2014, of the 5 million uninsured Texans: 874,000 are eligible for
Medicaid/CHIP; 1,046,000 are in the coverage gap; 1,756,000 are
eligible for tax credits; 1,264,000 are ineligible because of their
income or access to employer benefits.
In 2014, access to affordable healthcare for the self-employed or
those who decide to purchase their own coverage became easier because
of Affordable Insurance Exchanges.
In Texas, 1,205,174 consumers selected or were automatically re-
enrolled in quality, affordable health insurance coverage through the
Marketplace as of February 2015.
The Federal Marketplace Signups and Tax Credits in Texas meant that:
85 percent of Texas consumers who were signed up qualified for an
average tax credit of $239 per month through the Marketplace. 68
percent of Texas Marketplace enrollees obtained coverage for $100 or
less after any applicable tax credits in 2015, and 92 percent had the
option of doing so.
In Texas, consumers could choose from 15 issuers in the Marketplace
in 2015--up from 12 in 2014.
Texas consumers could choose from an average of 31 health plans in
their county for 2015 coverage--up from 25 in 2014.
468,797 consumers in Texas under the age of 35 are signed up for
Marketplace coverage (39 percent of plan selections in the state); and
348,593 consumers 18 to 34 years of age (29 percent of all plan
selections) are signed up for Marketplace coverage.
Texas has received $1,000,000 in grants for research, planning,
information technology development, and implementation of its
Marketplace.
Open enrollment for 2016 coverage runs from November 1, 2015 to
January 31, 2016.
There are now one stop marketplaces where consumers can do what
Federal employees have done for decades--purchase insurance at
reasonable rates from an insurer of their choice.
There are also opportunities for small employers to form pools to use
their collective bargaining potential to find the best deals for
employee health plans.
This Congress has work that needs to be done, and it has work that
should be taken up to increase financial security for workers, their
families and communities as the economy continues to recover, and not
play partisan political games.
I urge my Colleagues to put partisan politics aside and join me in
voting no on the passage of this bill.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), a champion of the pro-life
community.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his
great work on this bill.
Subsidized by over $500 million taxpayer dollars each year, Planned
Parenthood dismembers or chemically poisons a baby to death every 2
minutes, killing over 7 million innocent children since 1973.

[[Page H64]]

Planned Parenthood is Child Abuse, Incorporated. Now undercover
videos have exposed in numbing candor several high-level Planned
Parenthood leaders gleefully talking about procuring children's
internal organs for a price, all while altering gruesome dismemberment
procedures to preserve intact livers, hearts, and lungs from freshly
killed babies.
Far too many politicians, Mr. Speaker, including our Nobel Peace
Prize-winning President and much of the media, continue to ignore,
trivialize, and even defend these gross human rights abuses.
So know this: We will not be deterred in exposing this Planned
Parenthood scandal no matter how aggressive and misleading the cover-
up.
End taxpayer funding to those who commit these cruel and inhumane
acts in this subsidy for Planned Parenthood.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Restoring
Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act and urge all of my
colleagues to vote to dismantle Obamacare by repealing the most
damaging aspects of this egregiously flawed law.
The legislation before us today will send a strong message on behalf
of the millions of Americans who lost or were forced to switch their
healthcare coverage and/or doctors, as well as those facing additional
charges, higher copayments, and larger annual fees as a result of
Obamacare.
I have supported, and the House has passed, legislation to repeal
Obamacare in its entirety many times but today's vote is different.
Through the reconciliation process, which allows for expedited
consideration and a simple majority vote in the Senate, today's bill
will be placed on the President's desk. The President will have to
decide if he stands on the side of the American people or continues the
misguided policies squeezing middle class families.
In particular, the bill repeals the individual mandate--where
American are coerced into purchasing expensive insurance packages many
do not want or need, and many cannot afford.
Unfortunately for the millions who cannot afford to purchase
Obamacare insurance, the penalties are expensive too.
According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report issued last month,
this year the penalty for noncompliance will spike 47%, up from $661 in
2015 to a whopping $969.
The report also states that for 7.1 million uninsured Americans, the
penalty is still cheaper than the least expensive insurance option
available to them through Obamacare. Since the law did little to
address affordability and the increasing cost of obtaining coverage,
the federal government--the IRS, no less--will now take money out of
the pockets and pocketbooks of Americans, further penalizing the
uninsured.
The President and Obamacare supporters promised otherwise, but health
insurance still remains out of reach for many Americas. Additionally,
those who had quality affordable coverage that they were comfortable
with have seen unwelcome changes that they likely would not have had to
face--but for Obamacare.
The Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act will
also--fully and permanently--repeal two misguided tax increases harming
businesses, innovation and middle-class Americans: the excise tax on
employer-sponsored health insurance, aka ``the Cadillac tax,'' and the
medical device tax.
This legislation moves us a step forward in the process of repealing
Obamacare's mandates, tax hikes and slush funds and begins undoing the
damage inflicted on individuals, businesses, our economy and our
national debt. But we can do more to address these inadequacies of our
healthcare system and provide alternative reforms and solutions.
We have the ability to ensure that all Americans have access to
affordable, high-quality health care. I am a longtime supporter of a
number of positive reforms that can replace Obamacare including:
reforming the private health insurance market so patients and their
doctors are in charge of medical decisions; encouraging healthy
behaviors; incentivizing innovation; ensuring insurance portability and
the availability of high-risk pools; reforming Medicare to be a model
of efficiency; modernizing the tax code to make health insurance more
affordable; and strengthening the health care safety net so no one is
left out.
Finally, the bill before the House today defunds Planned Parenthood.
Subsidized by over $500 million taxpayers' dollars each year, Planned
Parenthood dismembers or chemically poisons a baby to death every two
minutes--killing over 7 million innocent children since 1973.
Planned Parenthood is ``Child Abuse Inc.''
Now, undercover videos have exposed in numbing candor, several high
level Planned Parenthood leaders gleefully talking about procuring
children's internal organs for a price all while altering gruesome
dismemberment procedures to preserve ``intact'' livers, hearts and
lungs from freshly killed babies.
Far too many politicians including our Nobel Peace Prize winning
President and much of the media continue to ignore, trivialize--even
defend--these gross human rights abuses.
So know this: we will not be deterred in exposing this Planned
Parenthood scandal, no matter how aggressive and misleading the cover-
up.
End taxpayer funding to those who commit these cruel and inhumane
acts.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Tennessee (Mr. Cohen).
Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, we ended the 2015 Congress working together
with a tax extender package that I voted for that gave relief to the
medical device folks in an omnibus bill.
But we are back, and there you go again trying to repeal the
Affordable Care Act, taking health care away from people and taking
Planned Parenthood, which gives people who are poor and live in areas
where there is not other healthcare opportunities--taking away from
them the opportunity for preventive health care.

{time} 1715

The last time this was tried in Tennessee, there was a 1,400 percent
cut in women getting preventative care. That is just not right. We just
came through Hanukkah and Christmas, and we ought to think a little bit
about what Hanukkah and Christmas were about and what Moses and Jesus
would be about. I think they would be about saving lives and about
giving everybody an opportunity to live, not patient-centric health
care, but people living and getting health care like every other
civilized, industrialized country in the world provides for its people.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman), a conscientious U.S. Member of
the Committee on the Budget.
Mr. WESTERMAN. I thank the chairman for his leadership.
Mr. Speaker, today is a good day for America because we will finally
send this bill to the President's desk.
The ``Unaffordable Care Act'' is bad for the American people because
it is contributing to the bankruptcy of our country while doing little
to provide Americans with better health care.
Mr. Speaker, I have constituents who used to have health insurance
but who no longer do because their premiums are too high. Now they have
no insurance, and the only thing to show for it is a fine from the IRS.
Medicaid expansion is a blueprint for single-payer, government-run
health care. As an engineer, I can assure you that, if you start with a
bad blueprint, you will get bad results.
Instead of expanding Medicaid for able-bodied, working-age adults,
the administration should work with us to fix the broken traditional
Medicaid program, which is intended for those who most need it: the
elderly, the disabled, and children. In 2014, there were 38.2 million
nondisabled Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 who were not
working at all. More than they need Medicaid expansion, they need
progrowth economic policies that will foster good jobs so they can
simply work and provide for themselves and their families.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from
Massachusetts (Mr. Neal) of the Committee on Ways and Means.
Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, 62 times we have now voted to repeal the
Affordable Care Act. Let me contrast what we are about to do in the
next few minutes with the manner in which Democrats handled the
Medicare part D prescription drug benefit. We voted against it. We
opposed it. We became the majority, and we improved it. That is the
reality of legislating. We closed the doughnut hole. We took a very
difficult piece of legislation--largely resisted on their side as
well--and became the majority and asked: How can we singularly improve
this legislation so that it has broad appeal for the American people?
Today, people take it for granted. They just accept the idea that the
prescription drug bill works for all members of the American family.
Instead, this is the 62nd time of repealing this for the purpose of
political

[[Page H65]]

messaging, with no alternative ever provided--not once.
I hope the media members will use the contrast that I have just
outlined about the prescription drug legislation in Medicare part D
with what the Republicans are doing, once again today, with no hope
other than that of trying to win political points in messaging.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time
remaining on both sides?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Georgia has 2 minutes
remaining, and the gentleman from Maryland has 3 minutes remaining.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I inquire of the gentleman from Georgia
if he has any further speakers.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for
time.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
We finished the debate, really, where we began, which is, on this
first day back of 2016, we are really revisiting the battles of the
past, as the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal) and others have
said.
We heard from the Republican leader, Mr. McCarthy, that they had
worked hard for this day. We know from the nonpartisan Director of the
Congressional Budget Office that, apparently, what our Republican
colleagues worked so hard to do was to take affordable health care away
from 22 million Americans. At the same time, we have heard all sorts of
misinformation and distortions on this floor about Planned Parenthood,
which is an organization that provides women and their families with
health care, that provides cancer screenings, and that provides family
planning.
On national television, when asked whether there was any evidence
that Planned Parenthood had broken any law, even Republican Chairman
Chaffetz of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, who
investigated Planned Parenthood, said: ``No, I'm not suggesting that
they broke the law.'' In fact, that was the finding of other committees
here. Yet, our Republican colleagues have now set up a witch hunt,
special committee to go after Planned Parenthood. Ironically, they
claim to be doing an investigation, but here on the floor, they have,
obviously, already reached a conclusion and have decided to defund an
organization that helps provide health care to American women and
families.
So, rolled into one bill, you have something that would deny access
to health care to 22 million Americans and, at the same time, deny
important health services to millions of American women and their
families.
When our Republican colleagues pose this question and say that the
President is going to be faced with a tough choice, I can assure them
it is not a tough choice for the President, because it is not a tough
choice when it comes to whether or not we take affordable health care
away from 22 million Americans. That should be an easy choice for all
of us. We are not going to do it. It also shouldn't be a tough choice
as to whether or not we defund Planned Parenthood and the services they
provide to American women and families. That is not going to be a tough
choice for the President.
The Republican leader was absolutely right when he talked about the
consequences of the 2016 elections, because we are fortunate that,
today, we have a President who will not sign that bill but who will,
instead, veto that bill. Our colleagues are absolutely right. If you
had a different President, including, as far as I know, all of them on
the Republican side, they would be signing this bill. So this is an
important statement of what our Republican colleagues think is the top
priority on the first day of 2016, which is to get rid of affordable
health care for 22 million Americans.
Let's talk about that with the American public because I believe that
the American public wants to do what the gentleman from Massachusetts
(Mr. Neal) said: Where we find problems and where we need to make
adjustments, we should do it, but we shouldn't turn back the clock and
deny affordable health care to tens of millions of Americans.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of
my time.
It seems, whenever we have a serious issue to talk about on the
floor, the distortions and the utter false statements come out, and
that is a shame because the American people deserve better.
ObamaCare is harming real people, not just from an economic
standpoint across this great land but from a healthcare standpoint. As
a physician, I can tell you that I hear about it daily from my
colleagues. We hear from the other side of folks who tout the numbers
of increase and of folks who have gained insurance. The fact of the
matter is, of the folks who have gained insurance and of those who had
insurance, many of them now have coverage, but they don't have care. If
you earn $30,000, $40,000, or $50,000 and if your deductible is now
$5,000 or $10,000 or $12,000, you may have coverage, but you don't have
care. In fact, individuals are denying themselves treatment right now
because they can't afford the deductibles because of this law. That is
the real world out there. That is the harm that this law is doing.
We heard over and over and over that we want to remove healthcare
coverage from 22 million people. That is utter nonsense, Mr. Speaker.
It is absolutely not true. In fact, my friend from Maryland quoted the
CBO report, and he quoted it accurately, but he skipped over--kind of
glossed over--the part that said that this would be relative to current
law projections. That is right. We want to repeal this law, and we want
to replace it with positive, commonsense, patient-centered solutions
that put patients and families and doctors in charge of health care,
not Washington, D.C., solutions that respect the principles of health
care: accessibility for everybody, affordability for everybody,
choices, and higher quality care--the things that ObamaCare has
destroyed. That is why the majority of the American people don't like
this law and oppose this law. It is because it destroys the principles
of health care that the American people hold dear.
Mr. Speaker, this is the first step and the next step in the process
of repealing ObamaCare and of making certain that we move forward with
positive, patient-centered solutions in which patients and families and
doctors are making medical decisions and not the Federal Government.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R.
3762, the Senate-Passed GOP Reconciliation Bill, appropriately dubbed
the ``Taking Health Coverage Away from Millions of Americans and
Attacking Women's Health Care Act.''
This measure marks the 62nd House vote to repeal or undermine the
Affordable Care Act.
It is the 11th time the House has voted this Congress to attack
women's health care.
Make no mistake: champions of these damaging, reactionary policies
are putting politics over people and undermining the fundamental notion
that health care is not a privilege, but a right.
It is unfortunate that, instead of using this time to advance
legislation that improves our health care system, we are again engaging
in another futile attempt to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood and
put women's health at risk, disinvest in public health and chronic
disease prevention, and roll back coverage gains, consumer protections,
and reforms advanced by the Affordable Care Act.
This Reconciliation measure flies in face of patient access and good
governance.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this damaging
legislation will lead to an estimated 22 million Americans losing their
health insurance after 2017.
Among its many nefarious provisions, H.R. 3762 is designed to halt
Medicaid expansion.
This would devastate millions of hard-working adults and their
families across the country, particularly those in high need
communities.
H.R. 3762 would eliminate Planned Parenthood's ability to receive
reimbursement for all health care services provided under Medicaid.
Health centers like Planned Parenthood are the bedrock of our health
care safety net
Medicaid patients deserve to choose their health care provider and
should not have their choice limited by politically motivated agendas.
Texas is a case study in what happens when Planned Parenthood is
attacked and access is rolled back.

[[Page H66]]

In short, this measure takes away affordable health care coverage and
puts politics ahead of common sense.
Our constituents deserve better.
I strongly urge my colleagues to oppose H.R. 3762 and get back to
work on behalf of the American people.
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, today, I will vote against H.R. 3762,
the Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015,
which would repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and defund Planned
Parenthood. Republicans eyeing election year points are waging yet
another political battle with President Obama, without regards to
current health coverage and protections for millions of families and
businesses and limiting health care access for millions of women.
The ACA is here and will remain throughout the tenure of President
Obama as a key accomplishment of his administration. Despite dire
predictions, the results of the ACA are remarkable. Our nation's
uninsured rate is the lowest it's been in decades; more than 19 million
Americans today have health coverage because of the ACA. Up to 129
million Americans who have pre-existing conditions no longer have to
worry about being denied coverage or charged higher premiums because of
their health status. Additionally, thanks to the ACA, health care
prices have been rising at the slowest pace in nearly 50 years.
No one pretends the ACA is perfect; I've long claimed it is in need
of refinement. Congress needs to work together to improve the ACA and
pass legislation that continues to make health care more affordable for
Americans. It's unacceptable that we leave behind some of our most
vulnerable individuals because many Republican governors refuse to
expand Medicaid and extend coverage to those most in need.
The obsessive targeting of Planned Parenthood funding is another
reason I will vote against H.R. 3762. The amazing Planned Parenthood
staff and volunteers in my community provide critical reproductive
health services to more than 70,000 Oregon women annually. This
legislation is yet another concerted assault against the provision of
essential service to women, especially women of color and low-income
status.
This legislative merry-go-round must stop. We must instead focus on
solutions that instead build on the promise of healthcare reform; not
just to save money, but to improve the lives of Americans of all ages.
Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to express my strong
disappointment in House Republicans for starting off the New Year with
the same failed policies from 2015. The bill before us today, the so-
called Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, is
simply more of the same. We've been here 61 times before, making today
the 62nd vote to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act. Enough is
enough.
Ultimately, we are wasting time on a bill destined for a veto and
have many reasons to celebrate its imminent failure. This bill is
designed to take health insurance from 22 million uninsured Americans.
It would cut the subsidies provided to low and middle income Americans
living with diabetes and other diseases that allow them to purchase
private health insurance.
It would also eliminate the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF),
which provides investments in public health efforts to prevent and
detect diseases like diabetes and cancer. In the first 6 years of the
Fund's inception, $5.25 billion in resources have been sent to states,
tribal, and community organizations to support community-based
prevention. The Fund should be strengthened, not eliminated.
This bill is also designed to repeal the ACA's Medicaid Expansion. As
representative of a state that has opted not to expand its Medicaid
program, I know full well the consequences of non-expansion. The
139,000 working Alabamians who fall in the so-called coverage gap make
too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to qualify for
subsidies. My states' decision not to expand this critical program is
having a devastating--almost fatal--impact on rural health clinics and
hospitals across my district. This provision to repeal Medicaid
Expansion would have a devastating impact on the 30 states that have
expanded their Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act,
including 14 states with Republican governors.
The bill is also designed to take away family planning, wellness
exams, and life-saving cancer screenings from millions of American
women. The issue of access to reproductive care is very personal to my
constituents as some women have to drive two counties to deliver a
baby. For women in Sumter County, that's as far as Tuscaloosa, which is
an hour away. We shouldn't be in the business of restricting access to
family planning and reproductive care in our communities that are
already struggling from high teen pregnancy, infant mortality, and STD
rates.
While I am pleased to see an effort to repeal the burdensome Cadillac
tax and the medical device tax, I cannot support this dangerous bill in
its entirety. I will continue to work with my colleagues to repeal the
Cadillac and medical device taxes through other legislative vehicles.
Before passage of the ACA, we were spending more money per patient
than any country in the world. Under the law, health care prices have
grown at the slowest rate in 50 years. This is economic progress that
all Americans benefit from. While the Affordable Care Act is not
perfect, there are millions of Americans who now have access to quality
healthcare and are leading healthier lives because of it.
My constituents and the nurses and doctors who care for them deserve
better. They deserve a Congress that works together to fix what's wrong
with our health care system rather that rolling back the progress made
by the Affordable Care Act. In 2016, we should be a Congress that finds
solutions that benefits all Americans. Health care should not be a
privilege.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, it's ironic that during our first sessions
of the new year today, the House gets down to business with fake
business--defunding Planned Parenthood and the 62nd vote to repeal
Obamacare. Never mind the inevitable veto by a Democratic President--
the Republican Governor of Kentucky, Matt Beven has already vetoed his
own campaign promise to repeal the Medicaid expansion. A Washington
Post editorial commended Bevin for ``good sense.'' It's also sound
policy and good politics to claim federal funds that your constituents
have paid for to improve the health care of half a million low-income
Kentuckians.
Defunding Planned Parenthood, or federally funded health care for the
60 percent of their Medicaid patients who depend on Planned Parenthood,
would have the same effect as defunding the Medicaid expansion in
Kentucky. Both would take away from the neediest living in underserved
communities for spiteful political reasons.
Republicans began 2016 with more of the same, by targeting medical
care for the poor. Americans deserve better than the same old
foolishness in the new year.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 579, the previous question is ordered.
The question is on the motion by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Tom
Price).
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and
nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, this 15-
minute vote on the motion to concur will be followed by a 5-minute vote
on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal, if ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 240,
nays 181, not voting 13, as follows:

[Roll No. 6]

YEAS--240

Abraham
Aderholt
Allen
Amash
Amodei
Babin
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Benishek
Bilirakis
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blum
Bost
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brat
Bridenstine
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Buchanan
Buck
Bucshon
Burgess
Byrne
Calvert
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Chabot
Chaffetz
Clawson (FL)
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Comstock
Conaway
Cook
Costello (PA)
Cramer
Crawford
Crenshaw
Culberson
Curbelo (FL)
Davis, Rodney
Denham
Dent
DeSantis
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Donovan
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers (NC)
Emmer (MN)
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Garrett
Gibbs
Gibson
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Graves (MO)
Griffith
Grothman
Guinta
Guthrie
Hardy
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Heck (NV)
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Hill
Holding
Hudson
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurd (TX)
Hurt (VA)
Jenkins (KS)
Jenkins (WV)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jolly
Jones
Jordan
Joyce
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Knight
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Latta
LoBiondo
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
MacArthur
Marchant
Marino
Massie
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McSally
Meadows
Meehan
Messer
Mica
Miller (FL)
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Mullin
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Neugebauer
Newhouse

[[Page H67]]

Noem
Nunes
Olson
Palazzo
Palmer
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Peterson
Pittenger
Pitts
Poe (TX)
Poliquin
Pompeo
Posey
Price, Tom
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rice (SC)
Rigell
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney (FL)
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothfus
Rouzer
Royce
Russell
Ryan (WI)
Salmon
Sanford
Scalise
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Stefanik
Stewart
Stivers
Stutzman
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Trott
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westerman
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)
Young (IN)
Zeldin
Zinke

NAYS--181

Adams
Aguilar
Ashford
Bass
Beatty
Becerra
Bera
Beyer
Bishop (GA)
Blumenauer
Bonamici
Boyle, Brendan F.
Brady (PA)
Brown (FL)
Brownley (CA)
Bustos
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Cardenas
Carney
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castor (FL)
Castro (TX)
Chu, Judy
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly
Conyers
Cooper
Costa
Courtney
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DelBene
DeSaulnier
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Dold
Doyle, Michael F.
Duckworth
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Eshoo
Esty
Farr
Fattah
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Gallego
Garamendi
Graham
Grayson
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hahn
Hanna
Hastings
Heck (WA)
Higgins
Himes
Honda
Hoyer
Huffman
Israel
Jackson Lee
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Kaptur
Katko
Keating
Kelly (IL)
Kildee
Kilmer
Kirkpatrick
Kuster
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lawrence
Lee
Levin
Lewis
Lieu, Ted
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham (NM)
Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
Lynch
Maloney, Carolyn
Maloney, Sean
Matsui
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McNerney
Meeks
Meng
Moore
Moulton
Murphy (FL)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Nolan
Norcross
O'Rourke
Pallone
Pascrell
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters
Pingree
Pocan
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rangel
Rice (NY)
Richmond
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell (AL)
Sherman
Sinema
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Swalwell (CA)
Takai
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tonko
Torres
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz
Wasserman Schultz
Waters, Maxine
Watson Coleman
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Yarmuth

NOT VOTING--13

Cleaver
DeLauro
Hinojosa
Issa
Johnson, E. B.
Kennedy
Kind
King (IA)
Miller (MI)
Nugent
Payne
Rush
Titus

{time} 1754

Ms. KUSTER changed her vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
So the motion to concur was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

____________________