[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 108 (Tuesday, June 24, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H2892-H2893]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
    STOP THIS INSANE ATTACK ON HEALTHCARE THAT AFFECTS EVERY SINGLE 
                                AMERICAN

  (Mr. Courtney of Connecticut was recognized to address the House for 
5 minutes.)
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, today is June 24, and it is almost exactly 
a month ago that in this House, the misnamed One Big Beautiful Bill Act 
was passed in the dead of night after hours and hours of debate while 
the American people were asleep at home. With the rush of events that 
take place every single day, it sometimes gets hard to remember exactly 
where that stands and what is going on.

[[Page H2893]]

  The bill is moving in the Senate, literally as I stand here in the 
well of the House. In the light of day over the last month or so, a lot 
of the rocks have been kicked over in H.R. 1 to sort of see what is in 
there. A lot of pretty ugly things have slithered out, including a 
provision to auction off some of our precious public lands out West, 
basically robbing those treasured assets from future generations.
  There are deregulated gun silencers, which have been on the National 
Firearms Act since the 1930s. Who benefits from that? I am sure there 
are a lot of criminals that are rooting for them to be able to go out 
and buy tax-free gun silencers.
  It increases the national debt by $5 trillion, with about $3.5 
trillion in new debt with another $1.5 trillion in interest payments. 
It cuts taxes for American families with a yearly income above $500,000 
to the tune of over a trillion dollars with a pittance for middle-class 
and working families. It raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion so the 
government can sell bonds to finance debt. Again, it is a bill that 
basically benefits the Elon Musks and Jeff Bezos of the world.
  What is really at the heart of H.R. 1 that should concern every 
single American is a provision that includes the largest cut in 
healthcare spending in American history with over a trillion dollars of 
cuts in the bill as it left this floor on May 22. I have here a poster 
next to me that talks about what the real-life impact is going to be on 
hospitals all across the country. It is not coming from me as a member 
of the minority caucus. This comes from the Robert Wood Johnson 
Foundation, which has been around for 50 years and is a completely 
nonpartisan analyst in terms of healthcare spending and healthcare 
financing throughout the country.
  What it did was break down State by State what the impact of this 
bill will be. For the State of Connecticut, where I am from, it is 
actually about a $9 billion cut over the next 10 years in terms of the 
Medicaid program, as well as eliminating the premium tax subsidies for 
people who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. 
That is about 15 million Americans. The hospitals, in particular, are 
going to take the biggest hit. As this headline says in the Connecticut 
press, it is about $4 billion over the next 10 years.
  All of my colleagues that are here today, I encourage them to look at 
this analysis which shows State by State, sector by sector within 
healthcare spending, hospitals, physicians, and prescription drugs, in 
terms of the impact that this bill will have. There was a lot of hope 
that maybe in the Senate this bill might be fixed and addressed, 
particularly because it hits rural hospitals so hard. There are so many 
Republicans in the majority caucus in the Senate that obviously are 
going to feel the pain if this provision goes through.
  Unfortunately, what we saw come out of the Senate Finance Committee 
is even worse in terms of what came through from the House. Don't take 
my word for it. Listen to the Catholic Hospital Association, who issued 
a statement just a few days ago after this provision came out. They had 
warned them before of the devastating impact it would have, 
particularly on safety net hospitals which Catholics are definitely a 
part of all across the country. It fell on deaf ears.
  Children's hospitals rely on Medicaid to a greater proportion than 
other hospitals because they don't have elderly patients, obviously. 
They are children's hospitals, and Medicare pays for a lot of those 
patients. Children's hospitals have no place to cost-shift, so they 
have uncompensated care with this devastating Medicaid cut that is 
going to hit every State in terms of its Federal matching funds. This 
is going to land on the most vulnerable in our society and the people 
who are delivering the care. They are not partisans. They are not 
approaching Congress as Democrats or Republicans. They are there as 
people who are doing their job day in and day out.
  I visited one of those hospitals last week, Lawrence Memorial 
Hospital in New London, Connecticut. Over 40 percent of their patient 
census is on Medicaid. It is in the heart of New London, a wonderful, 
historic community, but it has a high Medicaid population.
  Mr. Speaker, we have to stop this insane attack on healthcare that 
affects every single American. We have got to block H.R. 1. We got to 
go back and do a better job for the American people.

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