[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 41 (Thursday, March 9, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H1954-H1955]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             GOP ACA REPEAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I just came from the Energy and Commerce 
Committee. That committee, along with the Ways and Means Committee and 
the Education and the Workforce Committee, is seized of the 
responsibility to consider the harmful American Health Care Act being 
offered by the Republicans as a better way. It is anything but a better 
way.
  Mr. Speaker, they don't want the American public to see what they are 
doing. They met all through the night. They have been meeting now for 
over 24 hours, without sleep, without rest, without reflection, and 
with no opportunity, Mr. Speaker, for the American people to see what 
is going on. In the dead of night, out of the sight of the public, they 
are hiding their bill and rushing to judgment.
  Why? Because they know, as they have seen in town meeting after town 
meeting after town meeting--that is, of course, those Republicans who 
have had town meetings--that the American public is extraordinarily 
concerned and worried they are going to lose the health care that they 
receive through the Affordable Care Act.
  They are concerned about the premiums and deductibles that they have 
to pay skyrocketing because of the Republican bill that is being 
proposed. They are concerned that Medicare and Medicaid are going to be 
decimated and the life of Medicare reduced in terms of its ability to 
pay the benefits promised.
  Mr. Speaker, the President stood at that rostrum and said he had a 
healthcare bill that was going to give healthcare coverage for 
everybody--not just some, but everybody--at less expense and greater 
quality. There is no such bill that the President has provided us with. 
If there is, and if he has such a bill, Mr. Speaker, I will support it, 
but it is certainly not the bill that the Ways and Means Committee 
ended its work on at 4:30 a.m. this morning.
  The American people, Mr. Speaker, ought to be asking: What are you 
hiding? What is the rush? You have had 7 years to consider this bill. 
That is 7 years. We are meeting tomorrow, we are meeting next week, we 
are meeting the week after. It is not as if we are going on a summer 
break and we need to rush to judgment. It is not that we need to keep 
the American people out of consideration of this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, Democrats in committee and on this floor are doing 
everything we can to slow down this process and to open the doors, open 
the windows, and keep the lights on so that the people who deserve to 
know how a Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act will 
impact their lives and the lives of their family and their children.

                              {time}  1030

  Houses Republicans are marking up this bill without holding a single 
hearing--not one hearing--for a bill that gives $600 billion in tax 
cuts and cuts hundreds of billions of dollars from health care. The tax 
cuts go to the wealthiest in America. Perhaps that is why there are no 
hearings. Perhaps that is why they didn't invite any witnesses. Perhaps 
that is why they are rushing to judgment before the Congressional 
Budget Office, which is nonpartisan and will give us an accurate 
estimate of its cost and who is going to be hurt--Mr. Speaker, 
apparently they don't want the American people to get those facts 
before their representatives have to make a decision.
  I know they voted for repealing the Affordable Care Act almost 65 
times here in this House. Democrats have voted against that because we 
believe the Affordable Care Act is working.
  Is it working perfectly? No.
  Do we need to join together and make it work better for the American 
people? Yes.
  This bill will impact, Mr. Speaker, every single American family and 
business. If enacted, it will force Americans across the country to pay 
more for less coverage and fewer benefits. Shamefully, Republicans are 
hoping they can jam this bill through the House and Senate before 
Members have to go home and face their constituents in April. That is 
why we are having to rush, because they don't want their Members to go 
home in April and say: This is what we are considering, what do you 
think? Because they know. Because they have had hearings, town 
meetings. They haven't had any hearings on this bill, but they have had 
town meetings, and every American has seen the reporting on that, angry 
Americans fearful that they are going to lose benefits absolutely 
critical to them and their families.
  They continued marking up this bill through the night, using the very 
same tactics they claimed we were using when considering the Affordable 
Care Act. We had over 79 hearings not in the middle of the night, but 
during the day. We had over 181 witnesses. That is opposed to zero--
zero--witnesses on this bill. Shame. It gives a lie to the 
representation of transparency and openness and accountability that our 
Speaker has said he would operate this House to ensure that those 
happened.
  They used the same tactics that they claim, as I said, that we were 
considering. In fact, here is what Tom Price, who was then a member of 
the House of Representatives, now the Secretary of the Health and Human 
Services, said: ``The negotiations are obviously being done in secret 
and the American people really just want to know what they are trying 
to hide.''
  He said that on January 6, 2010.
  180 witnesses, 79 hearings, a year and a half or more of 
consideration, yet we have a bill that was introduced Monday night. 
Today is Thursday. Monday night it was introduced, and no hearings. 
Wednesday, deep into the night, and this morning this bill is being 
marked up.
  Kevin Brady, the chairman of the Committee on Way and Means, who held 
a markup until 4:30 a.m., said this: ``I think there is never a more 
critical time for the American public to weigh in on an important issue 
than on health care today and there is a lot about this bill we don't 
know.''
  He said that in a townhall August 10, 2009. Well, now he is chairman 
of the committee, and apparently he has decided that the American 
public doesn't need to know now. When we were in charge, he thought the 
public needed to know, and that is why we had those 79 hearings and 181 
witnesses and townhalls, thousands of meetings and townhalls around the 
country on the Affordable Care Act. But Mr. Brady apparently doesn't 
think that is applicable when he is in charge of the committee.
  Then Speaker, now former Speaker John Boehner said this: ``Can you 
say it was done openly, with transparency and accountability? Without 
backroom deals struck behind closed doors, hidden from the people? 
Hell, no, you can't.''
  But now the shoe is on the other foot, and my Republican colleagues 
are in charge. They are full speed ahead, and the doors are closed, the 
windows are shuttered, and the blinds are drawn.
  The process we had in 2009 and 2010 to write and adopt the Affordable 
Care Act included, as I said, 79 hearings versus zero hearings on this 
bill. Zero. None. 181 witnesses that I have referred to. Zero 
witnesses, zero Americans included from the public in this process. We 
had a 2-year process that was open and recognized how consequential the

[[Page H1955]]

legislation would be, ensuring that Americans from all over the 
country, including doctors, healthcare organizations, providers, 
insurance companies, average citizens could weigh in.
  Now in their rush to pass their repeal, Republicans are doing 
everything they said was wrong and much more. Republicans are terrified 
that the American people will find out what is in this bill. The 
problem they have is a lot of their Members have found out what is in 
this bill, and they don't like it. Hardly any newspaper in America 
likes it. We think the public is thinking they are moving too fast and 
are going to hurt them. They are afraid, however, of having to face 
angry constituents who will see that this bill will take healthcare 
coverage away from 20 million Americans and cause out-of-pocket costs 
to go up for millions more. This bill could destabilize even the 
employer-based insurance market. That is people who know nothing about 
the exchange, but they have insurance through their employer. This bill 
will destabilize their insurance as well.
  The point is, Mr. Speaker, we don't know for sure how bad it is. We 
know it is bad, and that is information we ought to have before being 
asked to vote on the floor or in committee on such consequential 
legislation. My Republican friends say, well, we will have a CBO score 
by the time we consider it on the floor. But they don't want that 
information out for very long because it is going to be very negative.
  Democrats will continue, Mr. Speaker, to do everything in our power 
to slow down this process and throw back the curtain Republicans have 
pulled over this bill and this process in an attempt to hide the 
details of their dangerous plan from the American people. We are ready, 
as I said, to turn the lights out in this Chamber before we let the 
Republican repeal bill turn the lights out on coverage and care for 
millions of our fellow Americans. I do not yield my conviction to 
oppose this bill as strongly, as long as I possibly can.

                          ____________________