[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 41 (Thursday, March 9, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H1955-H1956]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEALTH CARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kentucky (Mr. Barr) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, ObamaCare is collapsing. It is hurting more 
people than it is helping. It is forcing Americans to buy insurance 
they don't like, they don't need, and cannot afford. Premiums have 
increased by an average of 25 percent this year. Deductibles

[[Page H1956]]

are skyrocketing. Nearly 70 percent of U.S. counties have only two or 
fewer insurers offering plans on their State's exchanges. Thirty-four 
percent fewer doctors and other healthcare providers accept ObamaCare 
insurance compared to private insurance. Congress must act decisively 
to protect the American people from this failed law.
  The American Health Care Act is an important step in this process. 
While not perfect, it moves us significantly in the right direction, 
which is why The Wall Street Journal says that the legislation would be 
``the most consequential social policy reform since the welfare 
overhaul of 1996.''
  I am also encouraged that the committees of jurisdiction are, as we 
speak, entertaining amendments in regular order that will improve the 
legislation. But even without these amendments, the American Health 
Care Act is a dramatic improvement over ObamaCare.
  The bill ends job-killing individual and employer mandates. It cuts 
$1 trillion of ObamaCare's worst taxes, including the medical device 
tax, the health care insurance tax, and the Medicare payroll tax. It 
blocks Federal funds from Planned Parenthood. It reduces regulations so 
that individuals can buy plans that they want and can afford. And it 
reforms Medicaid by returning power to the States.
  Some have criticized this bill because it lacks certain important 
reforms that will bend the cost curve down, such as association health 
plans, interstate competition, reforms to facilitate more competition 
and choice in the private health insurance marketplace, and medical 
liability reform. These are important reforms, and I support them.
  In fact, I have introduced a medical liability reform bill that would 
deal with the doctor shortage and junk lawsuits and reduce costs. 
Unfortunately, these reforms are not eligible for inclusion in the 
reconciliation bill under the rules of the Senate. But it is important 
to note that this is just the first phase in a three-phase process to 
repeal and replace ObamaCare.
  This bill is a crucial and necessary first step in a step-by-step 
process. In stark contrast to ObamaCare, we are actually reading the 
bill, and we invite the American people to do the same--
readthebill.gop. I hope all Americans will take this opportunity to 
learn more about this bill and offer their feedback.
  Mr. Speaker, we have tried to put Washington in charge of health 
care. Now it is time to put patients, their doctors, and their families 
in charge.


       CFPB Regulations Hindering Manufactured Housing Financing

  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, last month, a hospital worker in Paducah, 
Kentucky, applied for a loan of $38,500 to finance a manufactured home. 
He had an 8 percent down payment. His monthly income was $2,200 per 
month--plenty to cover the all-in housing costs of $670 per month. The 
payment for his own home would have been less than what he was spending 
on rent, but he was unable to get financing. He contacted his local 
banks and credit unions, but they did not finance manufactured homes.
  This hospital worker from Kentucky can't get financing because of the 
very entity that was created to protect consumers--the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau. That is right, the Federal Government is 
protecting people right out of homeownership. Consumers are protected 
so much they can't even purchase a manufactured home.
  Lenders have stopped making manufactured housing loans because of the 
Dodd-Frank Act and CFPB regulations. Even worse, current owners are 
having to sell their homes below market value to cash buyers because 
potential buyers can't find financing.
  And this isn't just anecdotal. Government statistics prove that CFPB 
rules have prevented credit-worthy consumers from accessing affordable 
financing that would allow them to purchase manufactured homes. 
According to 2014 HMDA data, manufactured home loan volume for loans 
under $75,000 decreased in the first year that these regulations went 
into effect.
  This is proof that many lenders who were previously willing to make 
manufactured home loans are no longer capable of doing so under Dodd-
Frank. These are exactly the kinds of top-down bureaucratic Federal 
regulations that my constituents in rural Kentucky are fed up with.
  The CFPB has the authority to make adjustments to its requirements, 
but it has refused to act even when the data shows that consumers are 
being harmed.
  A bipartisan group of Members of this body came together in the last 
Congress to do what the CFPB has refused to do. The House voted three 
times to make these changes so that people seeking to purchase 
manufactured homes would have access to financing.
  I invite my colleagues to join me in this fight for consumers. Let's 
work together to make these changes to the CFPB and to their 
regulations and stop Federal bureaucrats from hurting modest income 
Americans who need access to affordable housing and deserve access to 
the American Dream of homeownership.

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