[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 63 (Tuesday, April 8, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H1469]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            DEFENDING MEDICAID FOR FAMILIES LIKE THE CURRANS

  (Mr. Himes of Connecticut was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, in this Chamber, as early as today, we may be 
passing legislation that is explicitly designed to maintain 
historically low tax rates on the Nation's wealthiest people.
  The richest people in America will be served by this institution so 
that they can pay the lowest tax amounts possible. The corporations in 
this country must have their record-low tax rates maintained.
  The problem is this comes with a cost, and that cost will be paid, as 
the Republicans have laid it out for us to see, by the Medicaid program 
and by the addition of trillions of dollars to the United States debt.
  Let's talk for a second about Medicaid because it serves about 80 
million Americans. Not all Americans have experience with it, but an 
awful lot do. We are told, and the fantasy is, that the money can be 
saved by identifying waste, fraud, and abuse.
  Make no mistake, that is a fantasy. If you are rooting out waste, 
fraud, and abuse, you hire more people, investigators, and auditors to 
go after it. We are doing the exact opposite. Elon Musk and DOGE are 
firing the people who go after waste, fraud, and abuse.
  It turns out that people don't wear signs around their necks saying: 
``I am committing waste, fraud, and abuse.'' No, it is hard to identify 
this stuff. It exists, but it does not exist in any conceivable number 
that the Republicans are talking about cutting out of the Medicaid 
program.
  That number is almost $100 billion a year, $100 billion out of 
roughly $600 billion in spending. Mind you, that is not trimming. That 
is taking a wheel off the car.
  Here is what is going to happen. As I said, Medicaid covers 80 
million Americans with health insurance. It also provides the funding 
that allows grandma to stay in an assisted living facility after she 
has run out of assets.
  What I really want to do is tell you about Conner Curran. Conner is a 
14-year-old from the town of Ridgefield, which I have the honor of 
representing. His mom is a teacher. His dad works for a local 
municipality. These are wonderful, middle-class folks just like anyone 
else in this country.
  The problem is that 10 years ago, when he was 4 years old, Conner was 
diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Duchenne muscular dystrophy 
is a terrible disease. Your muscles waste away, including your heart 
and your lung muscles. As a consequence, people who have this terrible 
diagnosis tend to live between 20 and 30 years. Conner is 14.
  Lately, because of breakthrough research, some people diagnosed with 
Duchenne muscular dystrophy are living into their forties and fifties.
  You might imagine what the Curran family felt when those research 
programs were devastated by Elon Musk and DOGE. Imagine that.
  The real threat to Conner is what is going to happen in this Chamber 
this week as they find a way to slash Medicaid.
  Conner's medicines, the medicines that have kept him alive, cost 
thousands of dollars a month. A middle-class family can't pay that. 
Medicaid does.
  His lung function is compromised, so he needs a $12,000 machine to 
breathe. He needs help in school. He wants to go to college, but he 
needs a little help because he is severely handicapped by this terrible 
disease.
  Conner comes to my office almost every year to tell me about his 
aspirations and to beg that we keep funding not just the research that 
may provide him with a normal lifespan but those things that give him a 
reasonable quality of life, a shot of achieving that dream of going to 
college.
  Mr. Speaker, my colleagues are not voting on numbers this week, 
although there are billions involved. My colleagues are certainly not 
voting on waste, fraud, or abuse. Let's leave that fantasy behind. My 
colleagues are voting this week on what kind of future, if any, Conner 
can expect and what kind of future, if any, 80 million Americans who 
rely on Medicaid will have.
  My colleagues must take seriously the pain that is about to be caused 
to some of the most vulnerable Americans out there as they think about 
their vote, as they think about what they are trying to achieve, as 
they think about what they aspire this country to be.

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