[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 206 (Thursday, December 19, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7197-S7198]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               H.R. 1865

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, today the Senate passed H.R. 1865, one 
of two appropriations packages needed to fund the Federal Government 
for fiscal year 2020.
  Eight appropriations bills are part of this consolidated 
appropriations bill--eight bills that fund programs which impact every 
part of our lives--and I am pleased that we have made several strong 
steps to better serve the American people.
  For Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay, the bill provides a historic 
level of funding for EPA's Chesapeake Bay program and continued funding 
for the dredging needs of the Port of Baltimore. In addition, the bill 
provides funding for the Army Corps of Engineers to resume oyster 
restoration work in the bay. These are hard-fought wins, and I 
appreciate the work of those in the Maryland and Chesapeake Bay 
delegations to help get this done.
  After years of Republican opposition, this bill finally funds 
critical gun violence research at the Centers for Disease Control. Gun 
violence is an epidemic, and we should be engaging our best minds to 
find solutions to keep the American people safe. I am also pleased that 
the bill includes funding for the CDC to research sexual abuse 
prevention and for the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality to 
support diagnostic error research--issues I have worked on in the 
Appropriations Committee. The bill also includes important increases 
for medical research at the National Institutes of Health and delivers 
funding to implement the Childhood Cancer STAR Act.
  H.R. 1865 includes a funding increase for the Infant and Early 
Childhood Mental Health Program, which helps develop, maintain, or 
enhance infant and early childhood mental health promotion, 
intervention, and treatment programs for children at risk of 
developing, showing early signs of, or having been diagnosed with 
mental illness. The bill also includes funding to continue the National 
Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative, which helps 
child welfare and mental health workers better understand and address 
the mental health needs of children, youth, and their families moving 
toward or having achieved permanency through adoption or guardianship.
  I am also very pleased that the bill continues the Federal funding 
commitment to WMATA. I, along with Senator Cardin and our colleagues 
from Virginia have introduced a WMATA reauthorization bill that would 
authorize an additional 10 years of Federal funding. WMATA is the 
Nation's transit system, and maintaining our Federal support is 
essential for the local economy and for the people who live and work 
here. Given the significant Federal ridership, it is incumbent on us to 
ensure the Federal Government pay its fair share.
  The bill fully funds a housing mobility demonstration project that 
Senator Young and I have worked to develop. I look forward to the 
results of the program as we look to expand housing vouchers and give 
families a safe and stable place from which to build their futures. The 
bill also funds the community development block grant and HOME 
Partnership Program, two crucial economic development programs that 
were eliminated in the President's budget.
  I am pleased that the bill rejected a number of the President's cuts 
to education and actually boosts funds for afterschool and student 
support programs. It increases funding for title I and IDEA, two 
foundational programs that help students in underserved areas and those 
with disabilities have the resources they need to get a good education. 
The bill expands access to early education by increasing funds for the 
child care and development block grant and provides more K-12 
wraparound services with boosts to the Full Service Community Schools 
and Promise Neighborhoods Programs. The bill increases the Pell grant 
and continues funding for Senators to pay their interns--an initiative 
I have worked closely on with Senators Murphy, Schatz, Collins, and 
Murkowski.
  While the bill is mostly focused on domestic policy, I appreciate the 
inclusion of language I authored to hold Saudi Arabia to the ``gold 
standard'' section 123 agreement as a condition for Export-Import Bank 
financing for U.S. nuclear exports. We should not be transferring 
sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia without the establishment 
of strong nonproliferation guardrails. I am also pleased that the bill 
retains my provisions to sanction foreign government officials 
responsible for the detention of American citizens and locally employed 
staff of U.S. diplomatic missions, urges the Indian Government to 
reverse course in Kashmir, bans the sale of arms to Turkish President 
Erdogan's bodyguards, and mandates comprehensive oversight of the 
administration's travel ban and refugee resettlement policies. In 
addition, this legislation provides critical humanitarian and 
development assistance for our partners and allies around the world, 
despite President Trump's repeated attempts to cut the foreign 
assistance budget dramatically.
  Importantly, H.R. 1865 includes a 10-year reauthorization of the 
Patient-

[[Page S7198]]

Centered Outcomes Research Institute, PCORI. When PCORI was first 
created, there was broad agreement about the critical need for 
comparative effectiveness research, CER. The CER research being done 
through PCORI is helping to generate more personalized, more reliable 
research that is directly relevant to individual patients and doctors. 
There are significant evidence gaps about what medical treatments and 
services are most clinically effective and for whom. We need more 
information, and that information must quickly get into the hands of 
patients and providers so they can make better-informed decisions about 
their health care. PCORI-funded research is helping to fill that gap, 
and I am pleased that this bill will allow it to continue for another 
decade.
  The bill also includes important policy improvements contained in the 
PCORI Reauthorization Act, S. 2897, legislation I introduced with 
Senators Warner, Cassidy, and Capito. H.R. 1865 will ensure that PCORI-
funded research is designed to take into account and capture the full 
range of clinical and patient-centered outcomes, including the 
potential burdens and economic impacts of various medical treatments, 
items, and services like out-of-pocket costs and nonmedical costs to 
patients and families. Additionally, it adds a requirement that the 
Government Accountability Office report on any barriers that 
researchers funded by PCORI have encountered in conducting studies or 
clinical trials, including challenges covering the cost of any medical 
treatments, services, and items.
  I am, however, disappointed that this bill eliminates Medicare's 
contribution to the PCOR Trust Fund. Medicare beneficiaries benefit 
greatly from PCORI-funded research. This includes a number of projects 
that have focused on helping older adults and their caregivers make 
better-informed decisions about their health care options, as well as 
research on diseases and conditions that disproportionately impact 
beneficiaries. I am concerned that divesting Medicare dollars sends a 
signal to PCORI that Congress is not interested in this critical 
research continuing to be funded. I am pleased that this bill increases 
the mandatory appropriation to help make up for the loss of Medicare 
funds, but Congress must maintain this investment over the full length 
of the authorization.
  I am pleased that H.R. 1865 includes a number of other bills that I 
am proud to cosponsor, including the CREATES Act, the Patient Access to 
Cellular Transplant Act, and the Protecting Beneficiary Access to 
Complex Rehab Technology Act.
  While I support much of this bill, I am deeply troubled by some of 
its provisions.
  I have serious concerns about parts of the tax extenders provisions 
of the package. It is unfortunate that following on the heels of a tax 
cut for wealthy households and big corporations that increased the 
national debt by nearly $2 trillion, the tax changes in this bill 
increase deficits by a further $426 billion. While I support some of 
the changes, we should have paid for them by scaling back wasteful tax 
breaks for those at the very top. And some of them represent additional 
giveaways to industry without sufficient benefit for everyday 
Americans. Moreover, I am extremely disappointed that the tax extenders 
package did not include tax measures for energy storage, solar energy, 
offshore wind, and electric vehicles. This represents a lost 
opportunity to take even small steps to address the climate crisis, and 
I urge my colleagues to address these clean energy tax measures early 
next year.
  I am disappointed that the bill drops House language preventing the 
Department of Agriculture from physically relocating the Economic 
Research Service, ERS, and National Institute of Food & Agriculture, 
NIFA, outside of the National Capital Region. The relocation and 
reorganization will impact the quality and breadth of the work these 
agencies support and perform--work that is critical to informing and 
supporting U.S. agriculture, food security, and rural development. I 
appreciate that the bill includes no additional funding for the move, 
and I hope that the Secretary of Agriculture will with us in Congress 
to repair the damage that this relocation scheme has done.
  While I do have concerns about aspects of this bill, I believe it 
supports critical health, education, and infrastructure needs. I 
appreciate the hard work of Senators Shelby and Leahy and their staffs 
in crafting the bill and their support for many priorities I have 
pushed for on behalf of my constituents in Maryland. It is an honor to 
serve on the Appropriations Committee, and I look forward to continuing 
our work to responsibly fund the government and its services for the 
American people in the coming fiscal year.

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