[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9784]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  BRING BIPARTISANSHIP BACK TO BORING

  (Mr. HECK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HECK. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to tell you about a time when 
bipartisanship was alive and when Congress was, well, boring for most 
Americans. In fact, it wasn't that long ago.
  It was just in March of 2015 that Democrats and Republicans fixed the 
Medicare payment formula and funded the Children's Health Insurance 
Program. I was proud to be a Member of the body that day.
  Did our bipartisanship dominate the headlines?
  No.
  Did it get a lot of attention at townhalls?
  No, of course not. Because all of us getting along was, well, boring.
  But these recent Republican healthcare proposals, they are not 
boring. They have been developed in secrecy, they are completely 
partisan, and they take us backward.
  I challenge my friends across the aisle, the Republicans, to join us 
and fix the parts of the Affordable Care Act that need fixing because 
the Affordable Care Act has made a real difference for millions of 
Americans, a positive difference. So let's get back to bipartisanship, 
back to boring, back to basics because that is what our constituents 
want most of all.

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