[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 172 (Wednesday, October 25, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6793-S6795]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Healthcare

  Mr. UDALL. Madam President, Republicans have spent months trying to 
repeal the Affordable Care Act. They knew that tens of millions of 
Americans would lose their care, they knew it would betray our Federal 
trust responsibility to Native Americans, and they knew it would throw 
one-fifth of our economy into chaos. TrumpCare failed because the 
American people opposed it. Americans spoke out against it in record 
numbers. TrumpCare failed to pass four times. We hope that now we have 
put that to bed and we can move on.
  But rather than listening to millions of Americans, President Trump 
has responded by sabotaging the Affordable Care Act. His reckless 
behavior is already causing chaos in the marketplace. His actions have 
hyped up the cost of premiums. He has sent out-of-pocket costs through 
the roof. Instead of helping Americans get better healthcare, he has 
put it out of reach for millions.
  I commend my colleagues Senator Alexander and Senator Murray. They 
have found a bipartisan solution to this new healthcare crisis caused 
by our President. I urge Leader McConnell to put it onto the floor.
  The Affordable Care Act isn't the only healthcare program at risk. 
The President and Republicans are letting funds run dry for other 
critical health programs. Last month, the Children's Health Insurance 
Program expired. CHIP insures almost 9 million children across the 
country, including over 11,000 kids in my home State of New Mexico. The 
Community Health Centers Program also expired last month.

  Republicans failed to extend the Maternal, Infant, and Early 
Childhood Home Visiting Services. That is one of the most effective 
health programs that we have. Without it, more than 1,000 New Mexico 
parents could miss out on home visits. They will not get crucial 
information about how to nurse their newborns, recognize healthy 
behavior in infants, and teach basic skills to their children. The 
Special Diabetes Program for Indians is also set to expire in December.
  I urge Republicans to work with us to reauthorize these critical 
healthcare programs. We need to act urgently. We can get this done by 
Thanksgiving or earlier if we work together.
  Madam President, I want to talk about CHIP first.
  CHIP provides comprehensive health insurance for kids whose families 
do not quite qualify for Medicaid but who cannot afford private 
insurance. CHIP covers basic medical care, like immunizations, 
prescriptions, routine checkups and dental visits. Thanks to CHIP, the 
rate of uninsured kids in America has dropped from 14 percent to 4.5 
percent.
  CHIP has been a lifesaver for some families. This is Colton. He is 
from the small town of Anthony, NM. Colton was 8 years old when he was 
diagnosed with cancer. Fortunately, the cancer was treatable, and he 
was insured by CHIP. So the cost of his treatment and medications were 
covered. Without CHIP, Colton's family would have had to have paid 
hundreds of dollars a month for his treatment, which is the cost of a 
month's rent.
  Families should not have to choose between lifesaving care for their 
children and a roof over their heads.
  Colton's father wrote to the Santa Fe New Mexican, and it read:

       Watching my son battle for his life was almost more than I 
     could bear. I couldn't imagine dealing with the stress of 
     scraping together everything we had to cover the medical 
     bills if we didn't have coverage. Having [CHIP] allowed us to 
     focus on what was truly important--Colton's future and being 
     there for my family as we went through this life-changing 
     experience.

  But, now, States are looking at contingency plans. New Mexico has 
reserves but only until next spring. Some States will be forced to 
cover all of the cost in just a few months, and others are preparing to 
send notices to families that their coverage will end. No parent who is 
already in crisis because of a sick child should have to go through 
that. CHIP was a bipartisan success story. I hope that we can get back 
to working together on this.
  The 50-year-old Community Health Centers Program delivers 
comprehensive healthcare services to some of our Nation's most 
vulnerable individuals--schoolchildren, people experiencing 
homelessness, agricultural workers, and our veterans. In New Mexico, 17 
of these clinics serve 333,000 patients in 90 underserved and rural 
communities.
  The Community Health Centers are also important to the economy in 
rural communities. In New Mexico, they employ almost 3,000 people 
across the State. These clinics cannot sustain a 70-percent funding cut 
if Federal support is canceled. Many would be forced to shut their 
doors.
  I recently visited one of these clinics--the De Baca Family Practice 
Clinic in Fort Sumner, NM. It provides high-quality medical services to 
over 3,000 patients. Over one-fifth of its patients are children, and 
another one-fifth are seniors, but if funding runs out, the De Baca 
Family Practice Clinic will be forced to start laying off essential 
medical staff and to reduce its hours.
  Clinic director Lisa Walraven told me: ``You simply cannot reduce 
funding by 70 percent from a small frontier healthcare facility and 
expect anything other than a significant loss of access to care.''
  Both CHIP and community health centers provide preventive care to 
underserved communities throughout New Mexico. They are supporting our 
healthcare system to ensure that we don't let any families fall through 
the cracks.

[[Page S6794]]

  Indian Country also depends on these programs and others like them to 
provide vital care to their communities. The Federal Government has a 
trust and treaty obligation to provide healthcare to Native Americans. 
Yet the Indian Health Service is severely underfunded. CHIP and similar 
programs help to supplement care that the Indian Health Service cannot 
provide. CHIP currently covers more than 1,400 Native American children 
in New Mexico. Allowing these programs to expire would betray our 
treaty obligations.
  Another program cited that is critical to Indian Country is the 
Special Diabetes Program for Indians. It provides grants to Native 
communities for diabetes treatment and prevention. Without proper 
treatment, diabetes can lead to limb amputation and kidney failure. The 
disproportionate impact on Native Americans is a public health problem 
that we cannot ignore.
  This program is making real progress. It helps to fund over 300 
Native health programs in 35 States, including 29 programs in New 
Mexico. They help educate communities about how to prevent diabetes and 
provide care so that Native patients can manage their diabetes more 
effectively.
  It is one of the most effective public health initiatives ever 
undertaken by the Federal Government. Diabetes-related kidney failure 
has dropped 54 percent among Native Americans. In some States, like 
Alaska, leg amputations among Native people with diabetes have 
decreased more than 68 percent. This program literally saves life and 
limb.
  Program directors across Indian Country tell me that without this 
funding they will have to start laying off staff and limiting their 
diabetes programming. We need to provide funding to Tribal communities 
so that they can invest in projects that will be more effective in 
preventing diabetes over time.
  Congress must act to allow this successful program to reach its full 
potential. We cannot allow diabetes to become a death sentence in 
Indian Country once again.
  The failure to fund CHIP, the failure to fund the community health 
centers, home visiting health services, and the Special Diabetes 
Program will force families into another health crisis. Every day that 
we neglect these programs, more people will suffer. These programs have 
years--sometimes decades--of proven success.
  The American people want Congress to work together to come up with 
bipartisan solutions. Most of these programs were created through 
bipartisan cooperation. Let's get back to that spirit and work together 
for the American people again.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tillis). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, President Trump has been in office now 
for more than 9 months. For this entire time, Senate Democrats have 
been trying to obstruct him from doing the very job that he was elected 
by the American people to do. The President has laid out his agenda to 
create jobs, to grow the economy, and to help hard-working American 
taxpayers. Yet Democrats will do everything they can to stop the 
President from putting his team in place to accomplish these goals.
  They have tried to stop the President's legislative agenda because 
they know that his policies will actually work. When Republican 
policies become law, Democrats know that the people will see how 
successful these Republican policies are. I think Democrats are worried 
that they may never win another election again once we get these 
policies into place. That is why we have seen a record number of delays 
and obstructions by the Democrats in the Senate. They have done it on 
legislation, and they have even blocked the President from filling some 
of the most basic jobs within his administration.
  It started on day one. Normally, on Inauguration Day, the President 
gets a substantial number of people confirmed to his Cabinet. The idea 
is to let the President get his team in place so that it can hit the 
ground running. President Obama had six of his Cabinet Secretaries 
confirmed on Inauguration Day, and President Bush had seven Secretaries 
confirmed on Inauguration Day. These confirmations were by voice vote, 
but that was not the case with President Trump--just two with rollcall 
votes on Inauguration Day.
  Republicans in the Senate did not do anything to try to block the 
Cabinet Secretaries for President Obama, for we understood that it was 
best to give a new President a chance and for all of us to work 
together when we could. With George W. Bush, it was seven. That is how 
it usually works, but not anymore--no, not with this group of Democrats 
in the Senate. They really were never interested in giving President 
Trump a chance. They really do not seem to be working together. Last 
January, President Trump had two people confirmed to the Cabinet on 
Inauguration Day--the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of 
Homeland Security. They were the only two jobs that the Democrats 
allowed the President to fill.
  In President Trump's first 9 months in office, Democrats have 
continued to block the way. They have allowed just 185 of his nominees 
to take their jobs. That is how ridiculous the Democrats have been in 
trying to keep President Trump from putting his team in place. By this 
far into the administration at the same time, President Obama had 364 
nominees in place. The Democrats have blocked judges, Cabinet 
Secretaries, and other high-ranking officials.
  Now, it is interesting because you have seen this. Many of these 
nominees even have Democrat support, and they are not controversial at 
all, but Democrats are doing everything they can to slow down the 
process. During President Obama's first 9 months, he had 364 confirmed. 
So President Obama had gotten 2 for every 1 that President Trump has 
gotten confirmed.
  There are 81 of President Trump's nominees who have gone through the 
committees and another some number today. They are 81 people who have 
been nominated by the President for positions in the government who are 
just waiting right now for a vote on the Senate floor. Many of these 
people got through the nomination process in June but are still waiting 
and being blocked by Democrats in the Senate. It is outrageous.
  Do Democrats really think that these are not important jobs--that 
they do not need people in those jobs to do the important work that 
they have been assigned to do?
  I believe that we should confirm as many of them as possible today. 
There are 13 judges waiting for confirmation. There are 8 U.S. 
attorneys waiting, including the U.S. attorney from my home State of 
Wyoming. These are important jobs.
  We all understand that there is a process that we need to go through 
to fill these positions--to make sure the people are vetted and to make 
sure they are the right people for the jobs. All of these people have 
followed the process. They have been doing everything they have been 
asked to do in that they have filled out the paperwork, filled out the 
disclosures, and have gone through the committees. Now it is time for 
the Senate to get its work done. I would say let's do it today.
  Interestingly enough, in August, the Democrats finally allowed a 
significant number of people to be confirmed. More than 60 people were 
confirmed by voice vote on one day. That is the kind of thing that used 
to be very routine in the Senate--letting a large number of 
noncontroversial nominees be approved all at once. It is now time to do 
it again. There is a significant backlog. So I want to get these folks 
confirmed now. It is time to clear the deck and let these people get to 
work who have been nominated and vetted, who have gone through the 
committees and been approved.
  We need to move these nominations because we have more nominations on 
the way. We are going to have to deal with the nominations of two 
Cabinet Secretaries for positions that are currently vacant. President 
Trump has nominated Kirstjen Nielsen to be Secretary of Homeland 
Security. It is an important job, and she is very qualified for it.

[[Page S6795]]

  Do the Democrats plan to block her confirmation to be Secretary of 
Homeland Security? Do the Democrats plan to obstruct this qualified 
woman from doing the important job she has been nominated by President 
Trump to do?

  The President deserves to have his team in place. The Senate has an 
obligation to get that work done. The Department of Homeland Security 
deserves to have a Secretary in place to keep us safe. That is how it 
has worked in the past and how it should be working now.
  These people manage major Departments of the government. They manage 
many career workers. We know that the Washington bureaucracy has grown 
tremendously over the years and that it is very difficult to eliminate 
people who aren't doing their jobs properly. We have seen it in the 
scandals over the years. Remember the Gold King Mine disaster? 
President Obama's EPA--the group who is supposed to protect the 
environment--actually dumped 3 million gallons of toxic wastewater in a 
river in Colorado. Remember the scandals involving bureaucrats in the 
Department of Veterans Affairs, the IRS, and the General Services 
Administration during the Obama administration? We need Presidential 
appointees in place overseeing these Federal workers to make sure that 
the government of the people is accountable to the American people.
  The Senate needs to be involved in providing oversight through our 
power of advice and consent. Democrats don't want that to happen. They 
have been keeping the Senate from providing that oversight, dragging 
out the process, making sure that the bureaucrats whom they seem to 
have more faith in are accountable to the American people rather than 
those whom the American people voted for on election day.
  These are important jobs, and we have qualified people ready to do 
the work. Democrats have delayed for 9 months. It is time to break that 
logjam today.
  I thank the Presiding Officer.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.