We welcome everyone today. I recognize myself for an Opening Statement. Article one of the constitution explicitly gives congress authority for spending. Is oversight authorization central to congresss responsibility to ensure the government allocates taxpayer dollars responsibly and in line with the values and wishes of the mecca people. It has been the repeated topic of discussion and debate and calls for a forum. We can agree that abuse and a lack of transparency have often been associated with the process. This has, understandably, fueled concern among tax paying citizens. As a result, earmarking became known a process known for its secrecy and selfinterested motivations. Despite efforts to reform the earmarking process, and increase transparency, the American People and many members of congress remained unsatisfied. Highprofile cases persists. Since the enactment of this ban, members have become frustrated as federal funds have been appropriated only to be redirected via the execu
On thursday, follow the congressional debate over funding the federal government. Live coverage on cspan. The senate on cspan two. You can watch online at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Earmarks the legislative permitsn that congressional spending two states were banned in 2011. Proponents for the practice are calling for the reinstatement. A House Committee took place this morning. Men make many members of or for thee against march the marks. This is three hours. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] we welcome everyone today. I recognize myself for an Opening Statement. Article one of the constitution explicitly gives congress authority for spending. Is oversight authorization central to congresss responsibility to ensure the government allocates taxpayer dollars responsibly and in line with the values and wi
We have five state Insurance Commissioners. Thank you for coming from long distances, some of you, to be with us to give your testimony on how to help the 18 million americans in the individual Insurance Market. To give an idea of how many people are interested in this, senator murray and i invited senators who were not on our committee, which has about a quarter of the senate is on this committ committee, to come to a coffee with the five commissioners that weve just completed for an hour. We had 31 senators there. Thats a remarkable level of interest. Senator murray and i will each have an opening statement. Then well introduce our five witnesses. After their testimony, senators will have an opportunity to ask witnesses questions and well do it in fiveminute rounds. This includes 23 United States senators. Nearly onequarter of the members of the senate. It includes senators with the widest divergence of views. It has a republican majority of only one. Yet working together the last tw
The Senate Committee on health, education, labor and pensions will please come to order. This morning were holding our first hearing on stabilizing premiums and ensuring access to insurance in the individual Health Insurance market for 2018. We have five state Insurance Commissioners. Thank you for coming from long distances some of you to be with us to give your testimony on how to help the 18 million americans in the individual Insurance Market. To give an idea of how many people are interested in this, senator murray and i invited senators who were not on our committee which has about a quarter of the senate is on this committee, to come to a coffee with the five commissioners that we have just completed for an hour. We had 31 senators there. So thats remarkable level of interest. Senator murray and i will each have an Opening Statement then we will introduce our five witnesses, after their testimony senators will have an opportunity to ask witnesses questions and we will do it in f
[inaudible conversations] please come to order. We are holding the first hearing on stabilizing premiums and ensuring access to the individuals Health Insurance market for 2018. How to help the 18 million americans and the individual Insurance Market to give an idea of how many people are interested in this, we invited senators who were not on our committee, which has about a quarter of the senate on the committee. To come to. Weve got senators there so that is remarkable interest. We will each have an Opening Statement and then introduced the five witnesses. After the testimony, senators will have an opportunity to ask witnessewitnesses questions andl do it in five minute rounds. This committee includes 23 United States senator nearly one quarter of the members of the senate and that includes senators with the widest divergence of views and has a republican majority of only one. Working together the last two years, weve been able to agree on big steps, big issues about which we have b