[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1726-1729]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    AMERICA'S NATIONAL CONVERSATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. 
Fortenberry) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. Mr. Speaker, first, if my friend, Congressman Green, 
wouldn't mind staying a moment, I would like to offer a few comments on 
what you said. Unfortunately, I missed the larger body of your talk, 
but I would like to add a few things, if you don't mind.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. I welcome the opportunity to stand with you, 
my dear friend. Thank you.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. I think it should be acknowledged that we were 
elected at the same time.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. We are classmates.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. We are classmates. While we are on different sides 
of the political aisle, nonetheless I hope that you consider me as much 
of a friend as I consider you.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. I do. And if I may say, I rarely think of 
sides of the aisle when you and I are talking. It doesn't become a 
significant factor in our lives as we converse and we celebrate our 
friendship.

[[Page 1727]]


  Mr. FORTENBERRY. I would like to note a couple of things you pointed 
out in your speech, and then you can move on with your evening. I don't 
want you to stay through my other comments, but nonetheless, you said a 
few things. You talked about the important progress that has been made 
in this country, and I think that is notable. You talked about that 
particularly difficult period in the 1960s, and you referred to Black 
History Month as America's history month as well. I think those are all 
notable comments, and I wanted to tell you that.
  In that tough time, something happened to me that I would like to 
share with you. I was not born in the State that I represent. Nebraska 
is my home. It is where I have decided to raise my family. It has given 
me a bounty of opportunity, and I am so privileged to be a 
Representative from Nebraska. I was born in the Deep South in a State 
where segregation and racial difficulties were particularly difficult.
  When I was in third grade, it was time for my birthday, and we had a 
birthday party and I invited all of my classmates. This was basically a 
White, middle class stable school in a stable neighborhood, but there 
was one African American family, either because of the beginning of 
desegregation that was taking place at that time or because they lived 
in proximity, they were at the school. One of the young boys was named 
Philip Brown. He was not only my classmate, but my friend. So I invited 
all of the boys, including Philip, to my birthday party. Philip didn't 
come. And I saw him on the Monday afterward and I asked him, I said: 
Philip, I didn't see you at my birthday party. Why didn't you come?
  He said: I did. They wouldn't let me in.
  Now this is an 8-year-old child.
  I remember then thinking during the party, my father had come over to 
me and whispered in my ear, in terms of the time, he said: Jeffrey, is 
Philip a Black boy?
  And I said: Yes, and I didn't think any more about it.
  He had to go outside. My father had to go outside and talk to 
Philip's father because the establishment there, unbeknownst to us, but 
the establishment didn't let in African American children.
  Now, I want to fast-forward, though. I told that story to my little 
children. I have five daughters, and they are growing up now, but I 
told this to them a few years ago. To your point about progress being 
made, they were visibly upset. They said: Daddy, you have to go find 
Philip. You have to go find him.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. What a wonderful thought.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. Because they were deeply touched, wounded, if you 
will, by this story. How could this happen to a little child?
  But I think you rightfully acknowledge that those days are behind us. 
And through all of the difficulties, toils and struggles that occurred, 
thankfully they are behind us. And I think what you said is 
appropriate, that Black History Month ought to also be called America's 
History Month because these chapters are an important, essential part 
of our national fabric and our national culture.
  Again, I didn't intend to dialogue with you. But I was sitting there 
thinking of this, and I have never shared that story publicly. But I 
think the main part of the story is the painful look on my own little 
children's faces when they heard that, and I think that means good 
progress.
  I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. I appreciate you sharing that vignette with me 
because it is very much heartfelt. It is good to have a person to tell 
the actual story. If you have read it, you will know of what I speak; 
if you haven't, I commend it to you--Dr. King's ``Letter from a 
Birmingham Jail.''
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. I am very familiar with it.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. It is one of the greatest pieces of literary 
history, saving a few holy books, I would say. It is absolutely one of 
the best stories of what that time was like. Dr. King talks about how 
he had to explain to his children why they couldn't go to a certain 
theme park, and how he could see the clouds over their heads as they 
were saddened by their inability to go to the theme park because of who 
they were.
  I ask people to please read that letter because it really parallels 
what you are saying tonight here on the floor of the House of 
Representatives. You are right--we have come a long way from those 
times. These times are difficult in a different way, however. There is 
still great work to be done, and you and I can work together to get 
some of this additional great work done.
  But notwithstanding all that I have said tonight, I conclude with 
this: On a bad day, it is still good to live in the USA.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. Amen.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. On a bad day when your spouse wants to leave 
you, or on a bad day when your puppy wants to bite you, let your puppy 
bite you and let your spouse leave you, in the United States of 
America, on a bad day, it is still good to live in the USA.

                              {time}  1800

  Mr. FORTENBERRY. I thank you for listening to me and your commentary 
tonight. Let's continue our robust friendship and our collegiality as 
we work through differences and difficulties, which are inevitable in a 
body like this where there are indeed philosophical divides.
  There ought to be certain principles that unite us, and I have myself 
quoted from Dr. King's letter in the Birmingham jail in other speeches.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Thank you very much.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. POE of Texas. I thank you for yielding. I won't take all of your 
time.
  You and I, our careers have mirrored. We both became lawyers the same 
year, and we both started at the courthouse in Houston I think the same 
year--'73, '74, right in there.
  Of course, you were on one side, the defendant side, and I was on the 
prosecution side. We worked before the same judges. You and I both 
became judges about the same time and then we left the bench at the 
same time and ran for Congress and joined Mr. Fortenberry in the 
infamous class of 2004 or '5.
  I do want to make this comment that things at the courthouse during 
all that time changed a great deal as to who was at the courthouse in 
the courtroom representing either the State of Texas or the citizen 
accused, as you referred to him.
  Were you the first African American to practice in the courtroom? Or 
was it Ned Wade or Ron Mock? Which one of you was it?
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. I was not and probably someone prior to Ned 
Wade. There were other lawyers who were there long before us.
  Mr. POE of Texas. It has changed a great deal. In fact, the judge who 
took my place is an African American judge at the courthouse in 
Houston. It is hard looking back on history to realize things were not 
always that way at the courthouse and the legal profession as they were 
in many other professions.
  I think your accomplishments as an attorney and as a jurist are 
admirable. They have served the State of Texas quite well, but you 
fought a lot of battles during that time as well, and I want to thank 
you for fighting those battles.
  Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Well, thank you.
  I know that your time is of the essence, and you have been very 
generous with me, Mr. Fortenberry.
  Will the gentleman allow one additional comment? The Honorable Ted 
Poe and I have had a friendship for many, many years. He is imminently 
correct. We were on different sides of the table, literally, in the 
courtroom, but we never allowed many of the political maneuvers of the 
time, the political issues of the time, to prevent us from being 
friends, and we brought that friendship to the Congress of the United 
States of America.
  While there is still great work to be done--even in the courts, there 
is still great work to be done. There is great work to be done in the 
area of litigation that still is matriculating through

[[Page 1728]]

the courts, but we still have to acknowledge that it is a better time 
to do it now than to do it then.
  We have greater friendships and greater opportunities. On a bad day, 
it is still good to live in the USA.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. A great expression. Thank you.
  Thank you, Judge Poe.
  Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Nebraska has 20 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. FORTENBERRY. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
  Before I deviated, I had some other thoughts that I wanted to convey 
tonight. Mr. Speaker, let me start out with this thought.
  It is a high goal, a principle, that I think across this body we all 
share, and it is this: Americans deserve a smart and effective 
government. I don't think nor do I think many of us believe that 
Washington should be mired in mediocrity, nor should we be divided by 
class or income, but I do think we have to acknowledge several 
difficult truths.
  I think our national conversation should also start here. The reality 
is we have a tale of two very different economic recoveries. One 
recovery was working pretty well for transnational corporations, many 
of which are subsidized indirectly by the state, but the other recovery 
is not working quite as well for everyone else.
  Too many families are facing downward mobility, stagnant wages, and 
an increased cost of living, and many feel abandoned by a Washington 
and Wall Street axis. There is an incomplete picture being given, I 
think, in the dynamics of the statistics that are now being promulgated 
about the current economy.
  Yes, we have some good news. Energy prices have significantly fallen, 
and that is taking a lot of pressure off a lot of sectors and a lot of 
individuals. Some recovery is happening.
  But as the head of the Gallup organization points out, the recent 
reports that the unemployment rate has dropped to 5.6 percent are 
really quite misleading. The Department of Labor doesn't count those 
who are trapped in unemployment and who have stopped looking.
  In fact, the further you unpack these statistics and you look at what 
is causing the causal relationship here is, unfortunately, we are 
entering into a period of what I am calling an entrepreneurial winter, 
where there are more small businesses dying than there are being born; 
in other words, the net outcome of small business creation is in a 
negative range for the first time in the history of our country.
  The reason this is significant is this is where most jobs come from. 
Most people in America are working hard and are looking for their 
opportunity in small business. We are not talking about larger 
entities, which have an important role in not only economic recovery 
and in creating employment for many, but small businesses are where the 
majority of jobs are created.
  It is also where this dynamic of an interdependent economy, a healthy 
economy, is really born, an opportunity economy, where the benign 
forces of competition create a certain interdependency between the one 
who is making a good with their own two hands or their intellect and 
selling it to another who needs that good and, in turn, reinforcing a 
social dynamic that is essential to personal well-being and a healthy 
economy.
  Well, how did we get into this position? I think we have to analyze 
this as well.
  Mr. Speaker, I received a phone call last spring, and the gentleman 
was very, very eager to talk to me, so I called him back. In fact, he 
was so eager to talk to me that he was actually sitting at the Nebraska 
spring football game where the white team versus the red team, they 
play it out.
  This is a big deal in Nebraska. Tens of thousands of people actually 
go to this game. He was sitting in the stands, and he took his time out 
from watching the Nebraska spring game to talk to me which is a high 
honor.
  He wanted to point out that he was a small business person. He owned 
and started a heating and air-conditioning business and, until very 
recently, had five employees. Because he could see what was coming--
particularly in health care--he got rid of all of his jobs, and it is 
just him now.
  If you ask the question--and analytics are showing this--as to why 
small businesses are not taking proper risk going out into the 
marketplace to create new products and hire people, there are two 
simple--this is a bit simplistic--but two answers are what come 
forward. The first is health care, and the second is regulation.
  You see, in the name of trying to create an orderly and just and fair 
economy when Washington overreaches and creates an environment that is 
setting up the guardrails for proper economic function, if it is too 
heavyhanded and it is penalizing those who don't have an army of 
lawyers and accountants and regulatory personnel, that means that the 
playing field suddenly shifts toward much bigger entities that, in many 
ways, can become impersonal.
  The more Washington imposes regulatory burdens that are affecting the 
outlook and expectation of small business people, the more they are 
hesitating to hire.
  The second factor is health care. Now, I think we have to have this 
hard conversation. We have a broken health care law. The Affordable 
Care Act, as it is called, could be called now the ``Unaffordable Care 
Act.''
  The law was designed to fix some real cracks in our system that were 
very evident. People with preexisting conditions or people being priced 
out of the market were having a very difficult time finding health 
insurance, and that needs to be addressed, and it needs to be addressed 
through Washington policy.
  But we need a health care system that is focused on decreasing cost 
and improving health care outcomes while also helping vulnerable 
persons. What we have gotten now is higher escalating cost, fewer 
choices, and a dampening effect on the entrepreneurial small business 
economy--again, where most jobs come from. It is not me saying this. 
This is what the statistics are bearing out and the research is bearing 
out; and it is a hard, hard reality.
  Instead of just saying ``no'' to the Affordable Care Act, those of us 
who have said ``no'' many times also have a responsibility to find a 
responsible replacement in public policy for us--again, one that is 
going to increase competition, improve health care outcomes, give 
additional choice, while also decreasing cost, and protecting 
vulnerable persons.
  Mr. Speaker, I think Americans deserve the best possible health care 
outcomes in the world. The question is how do we get there?
  Well, from my perspective, a new framework, a new architecture of 
approach is needed, but it basically expands a policy that we already 
have.
  A long time ago, I had a very significant headache. I was in my 
twenties. I carried my own health care policy, and it was very 
expensive, so I had a very high deductible.
  Because the headache was particularly severe, I decided: Well, I 
assume the family physician will probably just send me on to a 
specialist.
  So I called the ear, nose, and throat specialist directly and went 
and got an appointment. She did an x-ray and said: I can't really tell 
from the x-ray, so I am going to have to do a CAT scan.
  I said: Doctor, is that really necessary? You know, I understand the 
problem of liability and the need to push the boundaries on testing. Is 
it really necessary?
  She asked me directly, almost kind of indignant, she said: Why are 
you talking to me about this? I said: Because I am paying for this. My 
deductible is very, very high. I am actually paying the cost of this 
test. I just want to know if this is absolutely necessary. Help me to 
make that decision.
  She said: Oh, yes, of course, it is necessary. But now that you said 
that, I am just looking at your sinuses, so why don't we call places in 
town that have the machine and see if they will widen the cross section 
and give you a discount? I said: Great.
  In 3 minutes, she had her assistant call. We found a place in town 
that was

[[Page 1729]]

about $75 cheaper than normal. The doctor got the test that she needed. 
Perhaps most importantly, in the aggregate, the resource was more 
properly allocated, all because I had the incentive to ask a simple 
question because I was actually paying for the test.
  Now, we have a policy that encourages health savings accounts. Some 
Americans have them; some Americans don't. They are not appropriate for 
every American, particularly Americans who are getting older and at the 
ending point of their professional careers, because health savings 
accounts coupled with catastrophic insurance are a very, very proper 
way, I think, to manage health care when you are younger and in middle 
life. We ought to be expanding this.
  The second point is: How do we get there? Guaranteed access to 
affordable, quality catastrophic health insurance with health savings 
accounts.
  What you get for that is you are protected. If something really goes 
wrong, if you are in the hospital in the emergency, you shouldn't be 
put in the position of asking: Who is the chief anesthesiologist around 
here? I need to compare prices.
  No, in those scenarios, you are protected. But in ordinary health 
care decisions, in partnership with your doctor--health care provider--
making prudential decisions about what is really necessary and what is 
not, I think this is a mechanism by which we can again significantly 
empower families to save money, control their first health care dollar 
cost, and be protected at the same time.
  The health savings account is a tax-preferred vehicle whereby money 
is set aside on a tax-preferred basis and accumulates over time. Now, 
most people in their lifetimes don't get significantly sick, so there 
is the opportunity here again for young people to begin to set aside 
money in this tax-deferred account that actually helps them pay for 
when ordinary medical expenses arise. Then again, if something really 
goes wrong, you have catastrophic insurance.
  Over time, these accounts would become larger and larger and help 
supplement retirement, help supplement the Medicare system, 
strengthening those important retirement security programs.

                              {time}  1815

  I think this is a key to reworking our current health care model, not 
for everyone, but an expansion of this opportunity, I think, is the 
right architecture in moving forward for the next generation, 
particularly, so that we guarantee access to affordable, quality health 
care.
  I think we carry forward some important provisions in that no one 
with a preexisting condition can be denied. I think the provision 
whereby children can stay on their parents' health care longer, now 
until age 26--I actually supported that before the new health care 
law--is smart policy. We remove caps on insurance, but that doesn't 
save any money. It just penalizes those who get really sick. We carry 
those provisions forward, again, to protect persons in a vulnerable 
circumstance, but we give everyone the access to affordable, quality 
health insurance.
  There is a lot of detail that would go into how you would make that 
happen--whether or not you would spread that cost over the entire 
market through regulation or whether you would subsidize it like the 
government does in other insurance markets, like flood insurance and 
crop insurance. Nonetheless, I think that is the right framework and 
architecture for a robust, competitive health insurance marketplace 
that is going to improve health outcomes, reduce costs, and protect 
vulnerable persons.
  What will we get if we do this? What will we get if we are courageous 
enough as a body to step forward and say, ``Do you know what? We can do 
better. Americans deserve better than the current arrangement''?
  We will get peace of mind for ourselves and for our doctors. I think 
this would go a long way toward helping resolve the underlying problem 
here of stagnation in the economy, particularly among those who want to 
be entrepreneurs--small business persons who are creating jobs, those 
who have a gift or an idea and who want to take a little risk but who 
now aren't empowered to do so because of the environment that has been 
created that has dampened their ability to seize this opportunity. This 
would be the key to unlocking a healthy economy, one that is focused on 
opportunity for all.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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