[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 23 (Thursday, February 9, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                         THANK YOU AND FAREWELL

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. TOM PRICE

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 9, 2017

  Mr. TOM PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, it is expected that the United 
States Senate will vote on my nomination to serve our nation as the 
Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services shortly after 
midnight tonight. Due to the schedule, if I am confirmed, this is the 
last opportunity for me to address the House.
  The opportunity to serve as a Member of the U.S. House of 
Representatives has truly been one of the greatest honors of my life. 
Respectfully, allow me to take this opportunity to reflect on my time 
in Congress over the past 12 years.
  Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, I wish to thank my wife of 33 years, 
Betty. Her love, support, encouragement, and advice means more than I 
could ever say. In addition, as all here know, these jobs are family 
affairs--and our son, Robert, allowed his dad to be absent more than 
either of us desired. We're so very proud of the adult he has become.
  Furthermore, this job and my passion for serving would not have been 
possible without the support and friendship of my colleagues, 
community, family, constituents, and staff throughout the years. It has 
been a blessing to work with such talented and bright minds to advance 
positive solutions to some of our nation's toughest issues and 
challenges.
  As Members of Congress, our first priority is to be accessible and 
accountable to those we serve, and to help support those living and 
working in our communities. That is why I am proud to say that since 
2005, 164 of Georgia 6th's most bright and dedicated young people 
received an appointment to one of our nation's military academies.
  In addition, we have responded to nearly 600,000 letters, calls, and 
emails. Our caseworkers and team have had the privilege of helping over 
11,000 constituents with federal agencies. Throughout the years, as 
just one part of our outreach efforts, we've made contact with over a 
million constituents via telephone town halls.
  To all the hardworking, decent citizens of Georgia's 6th District who 
have given me the privilege of representing them in Congress--I will be 
forever grateful.
  Mr. Speaker, as you know, constituents are the reason that we're 
given this honor to serve and I know that my Georgia colleagues 
understand and appreciate this immense responsibility.
  Over the years, my Georgia colleagues in the U.S. House of 
Representatives and Georgia's Senators, including Senators Isakson, 
Perdue, and Chambliss, and I have worked together to secure wins for 
our great state.
  We've worked in a bipartisan fashion to help advance the necessary 
expansion of the Savannah Harbor, key to promoting our state's commerce 
and a critical component to helping grow our economy and create jobs.
  We've also worked together to preserve and safeguard Georgia and the 
Atlanta area's access to a reliable water source, so that our local 
communities and state can continue to grow and prosper.
  More recently, we succeeded in enacting a law to rename a Marietta 
Post Office in honor of a true hero, Marietta's Marine Lance Corporal 
Skip Wells, a proud Marine who made the ultimate sacrifice and 
selflessly gave his life to protect his fellow servicemembers and to 
protect our nation.
  Mr. Speaker, I am honored to have served and to have experienced 
firsthand our representative democracy in action, and alongside such 
honorable, dedicated public servants who have offered me both their 
friendship and counsel during my time in Congress.
  Over the past twelve years, I have had the honor to be chosen by my 
colleagues to serve as Chairman of the Republican Study Committee in 
the 111th Congress and in the 112th Congress as a member of the House 
Republican Leadership as Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee. 
In these leadership roles, my House colleagues and I have helped 
advance conservative Republican principles and solutions aimed at 
tackling the challenges facing America.
  Additionally, during the 114th Congress, it was an honor to be chosen 
to serve as the Chairman of the House Budget Committee where we 
succeeded in passing the first joint ten-year balanced budget agreement 
in over a decade. That success was due in large part to the tremendous 
staff on the committee as well as my colleagues who served on this 
committee in both the House and Senate.
  Together, we have much to be proud of, especially the work done to 
advance a real reform of the Congressional Budget Process. We must fix 
our broken budget process in order to enhance constitutional authority, 
strengthen budget enforcement, reverse the higher spending bias in 
Congress, control automatic spending, increase transparency, and ensure 
fiscal sustainability.
  Our budget resolutions have provided blueprints for how we can put 
our nation's fiscal house in order while saving and strengthening vital 
health and retirement programs as well as ensuring needed resources for 
those who protect and defend our great nation; solutions that will 
ensure taxpayer dollars from American families and businesses are spent 
in an accountable and effective way.
  It is through the budget process that Congress has begun an important 
effort to put in place positive, patient-centered solutions to fix our 
nation's broken health care system. The status quo is harming Americans 
and their families.
  Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues know, helping achieve access to 
quality, affordable health care for all Americans has long been a 
driving force behind my legislative efforts in Congress. My first 
professional calling was to care for patients, following in the 
footsteps of both my father and grandfather who were also physicians.
  That's why we authored and introduced the Empowering Patients First 
Act, an alternative to Obamacare with real, patient-centered reforms to 
build a more innovative and responsive health care system--one that 
empowers patients and ensures they and their doctor have the freedom to 
make health care decisions without bureaucratic interference or 
influence.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my goal and commitment to the American people that 
I will work as Secretary of HHS to ensure that our health care system 
adheres to what I call the six principles of health care: 
affordability, accessibility, quality, choices, innovation, and 
responsiveness.
  The new administration and HHS will work together with the Congress 
to get Washington out of the way, to protect and strengthen our 
country's health care system to help improve the lives of the American 
people, to help heal individuals and whole communities across our 
beloved nation.
  It is truly an honor to accept President Trump's nomination to serve 
our nation as the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human 
Services. My obligation will be to carry to the Department both an 
appreciation for bipartisan, team-driven policymaking and what has been 
a lifetime commitment to improving the health and well-being of the 
American people.
  I am humbled by the incredible challenges that lay ahead and 
enthusiastic for the opportunity to be a part of solving them on behalf 
of all Americans. There is much work to be done to ensure we have a 
health care system that works for patients, families, and doctors; that 
leads the world in the cure and prevention of illness; and that is 
based on sensible rules to protect the well-being of the country while 
embracing its innovative spirit.
  With a healthy dose of humility and appreciation for the scope of the 
challenges before us, with the assistance of my fellow Americans and 
with God's will, we can make it happen.
  Mr. Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today 
and once again, thank you to the constellation of individuals who have 
given me this great honor to serve as the Congressman for Georgia's 6th 
District. May God continue to bless you and our beloved United States 
of America.

                          ____________________