[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19573]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




       THE IMPORTANCE OF PASSING COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE REFORM

  (Mr. FATTAH asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, there were those who doubted that we would 
pass children's health care or the budget or the stimulus. Well, I rise 
today to say that we are going to pass comprehensive health insurance 
reform because it's so vitally important for our Nation's economy.
  As we see the stock market rising and as we see home sales regaining, 
we see the Richmond Fed report of a very positive manufacturing uptick 
in the economy, we know with certainty that health care is important. 
Not only do we need to have a robust private-sector health insurance 
option for the public, but we need to have an option for patients if 
they're turned away, so we need a public option.
  The previous majority had 8 years to do something on health care and 
did nothing. We see a lot of energy today in their speeches, but when 
they were in charge and when they had the White House, they had no 
concern for the tens of millions of uninsured Americans and for those 
kicked off of private health insurance because of preexisting 
conditions.
  We're not going to talk about it. We're going to vote about it really 
soon on this House floor.

                          ____________________