[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5017]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         LET'S WORK TOGETHER TO IMPROVE THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

  (Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my constituents 
and the millions of Americans who contacted their Representatives last 
week and voiced their opposition to the Republican bill to repeal the 
Affordable Care Act.
  Although TrumpCare failed, the debate on health care is far from 
over. I hope that Speaker Ryan will reach across the aisle so we can 
improve a law that works and is more popular than ever.
  Thanks to the ACA, over 20 million more Americans are insured. People 
with preexisting conditions can no longer be denied. Consumers are 
protected from the worst abuses of the insurance industry. There are 
parts of the law that can be improved, and that is what we should be 
working on.
  The Republican bill never tried; not one public hearing was held on 
that bill. Their complete lack of transparency in the Republican 
leadership tried to ram it through without public comment. We worked on 
the ACA for more than a year before there was a final vote.
  TrumpCare was voted on in only 18 days after it was introduced--18 
days--a bill that would cut 24 million Americans from health care. As 
ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, I hope 
to work with my colleagues on a bipartisan solution to improve the ACA.

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