[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 93 (Tuesday, June 4, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3176-S3178]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Healthcare

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this Senate Chamber has had a lot of 
historic debates. We have considered legislation of great seriousness 
and historic importance.
  I have been on the floor of the Senate when we voted on going to war. 
I can't think of a more serious responsibility that a Member of the 
Senate might have. You know that even at the end of a good day, 
innocent people are going to die, and you have to cast a vote as to 
whether America should make that decision.
  I have been here when we passed legislation that really was 
transformative in terms of the future of this country. After we went 
through the great recession in 2008, President Obama stepped up and 
said that we have to do something about reforming Wall Street, and we 
did. We spent months in committee hearings and brought to the floor a 
bill that is characterized as Dodd-Frank to change Wall Street and to 
make sure we never went through that kind of economic crisis again.
  I was here when we considered the Affordable Care Act 10 years ago. 
That debate went on for over a year, amendment after amendment, change 
after change. We were addressing an issue that affected virtually every 
single American family, if not directly, then indirectly.
  Those are the types of things that have been debated on the floor of 
this Chamber. But look at it now. It is empty. It is so underutilized 
that for hours and hours each business day, we come to the floor to 
make little speeches. At best, we are going to have a vote or two on 
another nomination from the Republican side, usually a controversial 
nomination, and that is it. That is it.
  When you think of all of the possibilities of what we could do in the 
U.S. Senate Chamber for the good of this country, it seems like a 
terrible waste of space and a terrible waste of time. Men and women who 
made great personal sacrifices to run for the U.S. Senate and who serve 
in this Chamber find themselves in an empty Chamber, by and large, with 
nothing going on.
  If you want to see some action, switch your C-SPAN channel over to 
the House of Representatives. In that

[[Page S3177]]

Chamber, with a Democratic majority, they are actually legislating. 
That is right. On Capitol Hill, one of the branches of Congress is 
actually passing legislation. Students ought to see it so that they 
know what it looks like.
  Don't look here because we don't do that anymore. We don't spend our 
time dealing with legislation in the U.S. Senate--only with lifetime 
appointments to the Federal bench that Senator McConnell and the 
Federalist Society approve.
  Let me give you an example of something that happened in the House, 
an opportunity for the Senate. It is about the Affordable Care Act.
  The Affordable Care Act passed under President Obama 10 years ago. It 
really changed the way we sold health insurance in America. Before the 
Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies could, and often did, 
use people's medical history to deny coverage or to charge premiums 
they couldn't afford to pay for.
  What type of preexisting condition caused people to be rendered 
essentially uninsurable before the Affordable Care Act? Asthma, 
diabetes, allergies, high blood pressure, arthritis, a history of 
cancer, or even being a woman--that was considered a preexisting 
condition. It raised your premiums and maybe even denied you coverage.
  More than 133 million Americans out of some 360 million in this 
country have a preexisting condition. Five million of them are from my 
home State of Illinois. I bet even more are from the State of Florida.
  Before the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies used to use that 
medical history against individuals and families. The Affordable Care 
Act said, enough of that discrimination against people who have 
preexisting medical conditions. That bill, that law, prohibited 
insurance companies from denying coverage to people with preexisting 
conditions or from trying to charge them higher premiums because of it.
  For the past 2 years, President Donald Trump has had a single focus 
on eliminating the Affordable Care Act and the protections I just 
described. He has attempted in every way possible to eliminate 
protection for 133 million Americans with preexisting conditions. He 
even brought it to the floor of the U.S. Senate early in his 
Presidency.
  I will never forget that night. It was early in the morning, and it 
was a seesaw vote back and forth as to whether we were going to repeal 
the Affordable Care Act. The Republicans, who had been decrying this 
for 10 years, couldn't wait to repeal it, but they had nothing to 
replace it with. So at 2:30 in the morning, through that door walked a 
man whom I consider a national hero, a Member of the U.S. Senate named 
John McCain. John McCain walked through that door, stood in that well, 
and as he could barely move his arm, having had his arms broken as a 
prisoner of war, said no. His ``no'' vote, with that thumb going down, 
changed history. It kept the Affordable Care Act alive. President Trump 
failed, and he has never forgiven that great hero John McCain for 
stepping up for the good of this country and voting no against the 
repeal of the Affordable Care Act.
  The President did not quit with that legislative effort. He decided 
he would try to kill the Affordable Care Act and the protection for 
people with preexisting conditions. He would do it in court if he 
couldn't do it in the Senate.
  President Trump's Department of Justice recently weighed in on a 
Texas court case and argued that the Affordable Care Act should be 
abolished. If that happened, of course, discrimination based on 
preexisting conditions would once again be legal in America.
  In July, the court will hear the appeal of this case. If President 
Trump has his way, Americans will lose this protection if they have 
preexisting conditions. It is just that simple.
  Last month, the House of Representatives, not too far away from where 
I am standing, decided to do something. They decided to legislate. 
Unlike the Senate, they understand that the House of Congress can 
actually pass a bill that might become a law. So they had a debate, and 
they had a vote. On a bipartisan basis, the House of Representatives, 
last month, passed the Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions 
Act. This bill would prevent President Trump or any President from once 
again allowing health insurance companies to discriminate against 
people with preexisting conditions. It would affect 5 million people in 
my State with preexisting conditions and their families.
  Let me tell you about one of them. Her name is Cathy. She is from one 
of our suburban towns outside of Chicago--not the town, really--the big 
city of Naperville. She wrote me about her kids, especially her oldest 
child who has diabetes and the other three children in her house who 
have cystic fibrosis. Cathy wrote: ``As a constituent and someone 
personally affected by cystic fibrosis, I'm asking you to please 
protect access to quality, specialized care for people with pre-
existing conditions.''
  Think about what that mom has been through with those three kids--
diabetes for the oldest and cystic fibrosis for three of her children. 
Can you imagine the sleepless nights, the heartache, and the worry she 
and her family have been through because of those kids? Any family who 
has ever had a sick kid knows it is a special pain, and Cathy has had 
it over and over and over again.
  Cathy, I have to say this: The House of Representatives is here to 
help you. Sadly, the Senate is not. Under Majority Leader Mitch 
McConnell, Republican leader from Kentucky, the Senate is exclusively 
considering partisan, controversial, lifetime appointments to the 
Federal courts and virtually nothing else--nothing else. The Senate 
should be voting on bills that improve people's lives. The Senate could 
pass the bill already passed by the House, and I could send Cathy of 
Naperville a message: We hear you. We want to help you and your kids. 
We don't want you to ever have to worry about health insurance in the 
future because the kids were born with these medical conditions.
  There are other things we could do. How about this for a radical 
idea? Overwhelmingly, the American people, Republicans and Democrats, 
say: Congress, would you do something about the cost of prescription 
drugs?
  What have we done on the floor so far when it comes to the cost of 
prescription drugs in the Senate? Nothing. Every single day, if you own 
a television, you get to see night ads by prescription drug companies, 
and some of them you could repeat right back to them. ``If you are 
allergic to Xarelto, don't take Xarelto.'' How would I figure that out? 
Do you know the most heavily advertised drug? It is Humira. It is for 
an arthritic condition, but it also treats psoriasis. I am learning all 
of this because I see these ads over and over and over again. Do you 
have any idea how much Humira costs? AbbVie, the company that makes it, 
tells you $5,500 a month. Now, if you are crippled with arthritis, 
maybe that is what you need and want to do. If you have a red spot on 
your elbow from psoriasis, probably not.
  So I have a bill that says: Disclose the price of drugs on your ads. 
It is not a radical idea, and it is a price that the drug manufacturers 
themselves publicize. We are not making it up. Put it on your ad. It is 
one step but only one step forward. There are so many things we could 
do to deal with the high cost of prescription drugs that we are not 
doing on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
  Instead, this empty Chamber is for Members of the Senate to come and 
give speeches and maybe look longingly across the Rotunda at the House 
of Representatives, which is actually legislating. What if we decided 
to do something about prescription drug prices? I think America would 
be in shock to think that the Senate actually is legislating.
  We just had another tragedy in Virginia Beach, another mass shooting. 
Twelve innocent people were killed and several others seriously 
wounded. We don't know how that will end, but it is already a gross 
tragedy. It has been repeated over and over and over in virtually every 
one of our States.
  Could we take the time on the floor of the Senate to make sure people 
with a felony conviction record do not buy guns in America? That is not 
too much to ask, is it? Closing that gun show loophole and keeping guns 
out of the hands of people who misuse them, we could be doing that on 
the floor of the Senate but not with Senator McConnell's agenda. It 
doesn't fit. He doesn't have time.

[[Page S3178]]

  We could also be reauthorizing the Violence Against Women's Act. It 
is a bill that used to pass so easily. Democrats and Republicans agree 
that we are against violence involving women. We are not reauthorizing 
it. We are not even considering it on the floor of the Senate.
  The Senate would be a great place to legislate. It would almost sound 
like the movie or look like the movie, ``Mr. Smith Goes to 
Washington,'' where people come to the floor of the Senate, elect 
Senators, debate issues, vote on amendments, have rollcalls, make 
speeches, appeal to the American people, and try to put the majority 
votes together. Wouldn't it be a wonderful return to those thrilling 
days of yesteryear when the Senate legislated?
  But Senator McConnell doesn't have time, no time this year for 
legislation. Maybe next year. If he is in charge, maybe never. I urge 
Leader McConnell and my Republican colleagues, let's get back to work. 
Let's earn our paychecks. Let's use this Chamber for the purpose for 
which it was built. Let's actually debate a measure. Don't be afraid to 
vote, my colleagues in the Senate. I have done it several thousand 
times. It is not that painful. I have constituents who expect nothing 
less of us, to see the Senate at work actually legislating on matters 
that are meaningful. They realize the Senate has become an empty 
Chamber, a legislative graveyard. I am ready to go to work. Perhaps a 
few Republican Senators will join the Democrats in actually doing that.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.