Disability in context with both the senate bill emerging and the house bill. On behalf of roan and those who have a loved one with a disability, i ask unanimous consent that no motion to proceed to calendar no. 120, h. R. 1628, the American Health care act, be in order until the bill is jointly referred to the committee on finance and the committee on health, education, labor, and pensions. The presiding officer is there objection . Objection is heard. Ms. Klobuchar madam president. The presiding officer the senator from minnesota. Ms. Klobuchar madam president , one of the things that i would most like to work on at the cost is the cost of Prescription Drugs and i think we should make sensible changes to the Affordable Care act. But the bill that came over from the house doesnt really do that at all. And whether its bringing the costs down for seniors by having negotiations under Medicare Part d, whether its allowing for less expensive drugs to come in by generic drugs or from other countries, the bill just doesnt do that and now were supposedly a bill is being considered here but its being done in secret, so i cant have my say. For any bill in the senate, committees meet, debate, and vote on amendments offered by senators on both side of the aisle. We need to hear ideas on how to fix this bill from the help committee. I ask that we agree that the bill wont come to the floor until the help committee has had an open meeting and considered amendments from both parties. I ask unanimous consent that no motion to proceed to calendar no. 120, h. R. 1628, Affordable Care act, be in order until the bill has been the subject of executive session meetings in the health, education, labor and pension during which amendments from the majority and minority receive votes and the bill has been reported favorably from the committee. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Mcconnell i object. The presiding officer objection is heard. Ms. Harris this bill will affect over 500,000 californians. It is important to have this bill go to committee so the public can understand whats in it. Any bill that is going to by pass our norm bypass our normal floor proceed yours and voted on with only one party heard should at least go through committee and have an open hearing process. The democrats introduced a bill to change our process to say exactly that. Any bill that gets expedited and gets the expedited simple majority of passing the senate has to at least go through committee and have a hearing. So im going to ask my colleagues now to agree to immediately consider that bill so we can fix this process before this Health Care Bill comes to the floor. I ask unanimous consent that the committee on budget be discharged from further consideration of s. 1376 and that the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Mcconnell i object. The presiding officer objection is heard. The senator from massachusetts. A are senator two mr. Markey last year 2,000 people in massachusetts died from Opioid Epidemic. Thank god, because of the Affordable Care act, many of those people received treatment who otherwise would have passed away last year. The number would have been a much larger number across our state and across the country, but because of the Affordable Care act, the number was low, but that number was still much too high. And i want to be able to tell the people in massachusetts what the impact of the republican Health Care Bill will be on their families in terms of getting access to the opioid Addiction Treatment which theyll need so the number doesnt continue to go up, but goes down. I want to be able to tell them what those what that coverage will be before i vote upon it, but the majority just wont let that happen. They are keeping the bill hidden. They dont plan to make it public until the very last minute with less than a day to view it before we vote upon it. That will be catastrophic for those families that need opioid Addiction Treatment absolutely catastrophic. So i have a unanimous consent request, mr. President. I ask unanimous consent that no motion to proceed to calendar no. 120, h. R. 1628, the American Health care act, be in order until the bill has been the subject of executive session meetings in the committee on finance and the committee on health, education, labor and pensions during which amendments from the majority and minority receive votes and the bill has been reported favorably from the committees. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Mcconnell i object. The presiding officer objection is heard. The senator from new york. Mrs. Gillibrand i am worried about individual that have preexisting conditions. I watched two of my best friends survive cancer this year. They had intensive treatments, surgeries, chemotherapy, and they both have young daughters. I cant imagine how worried they are right now because they dont know whats in had become bill and they dont know whether they will be able to afford Health Insurance coverage. Im worried about millions of americans who may not have access to affordable insurance under this bill because we have not read it. Therefore, i ask unanimous consent that it not be in order to proceed to calendar no. 120, otherwise known as the American Health care act, until the full text of the bill be available to the public for review and comment for a minimum of 30 days. That is the same amount of time we give every Day Regulations coming out of our agencies. Because this bill could have such a negative effect on millions of americans. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Mcconnell i object. The presiding officer objection is heard. The senator from massachusetts. Ms. Warren mr. President , i dont think we ought to vote on a bill that will touch every single human being in this country when one party is locked out of the debate, not able to read the bill and not able to discuss and it help make suggestions and changes. I think that families all across this country should be able to see this bill and should be able to evaluate the impact on themselves and on their families. Im here today, in part, because of a little boy named nicholas who was born way too early who is 2 years old and received a diagnosis of autism. He is a recipient of medicaid. I talked to his mother today. She wants to know whether or not this bill will cut nicholas care and what this means for nicholas future. I think its wrong for republicans to push through a bill when nicholas mother cant know what the impact will be on her and her child. So i believe we should post online any bill thats going to affect families like that and for that reason, i ask unanimous consent that a substitute or perfecting substitute amendment offered to calendar no. 120, h. R. 1628, not be in order if the text of the amendment has not been filed at the desk and made available on a public website for at least 72 hours, along with an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office of the bills budgetary coverage and cost implications. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Mcconnell i object. The presiding officer objection is heard. Mr. Schatz mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from hawaii. Mr. Schatz we democrats are here on the floor to take a and it against a bill thats a disaster for our Nations Health care. Medicaid patients, families with loved ones in nursing homes, people who struggle with opioid addiction, women who rely on planned parenthood, people who work in the health care industry, and so we stand with them and for them tonight. But we also stand for the American Public who is being left in the dark about what trumpcare will mean for them. This is not the normal order of senate business. The republicans are going about this in a way that is so procedurally flawed that it is an embarrassment to democracy itself. They are hiding this bill. They are hiding this bill because people will be outraged when they find out what is in it. Thats why a republican aide said they are not releasing the bill because, quote, we arent stupid. Think about what that statement means. First, it means they have a bill. Second, they think its political suicide to make the bill public. So they are bypassing the normal and necessary process needed to make good legislation. The way you make legislation is you allow the sun to shine in and that starts with hearings. Every legislative body in the country, from a school board to a county council, has hearings. Because we figured out that for all of our flaws, we figured out that over the centuries that you need hearings, not just to placate the masses, but to figure out whether your legislation is any good or not. Republicans have not held a single hearing on trumpcare. No one knows no one who knows anything about health care is allowed to say anything about this bill because they arent even allowed to see it. But anyone who has tried to understand the American Health care system knows that its complicated. The president said so himself up need expert testimony, you need public input, and you need time to talk to your home state. Thats the way you get a good product, but republicans have totally bypassed the two committees that exist to consider legislation like this. Think about it. Under normal circumstances, this legislation would be in the finance and help committee jurisdiction. There would be hearings and there would be a markup. Thats not the process being used. Theres no markup, there are no committee hearings, theres just 13 dos. They are rushing to pass pa bill without women, without democrats, and without input from the American People. Heres the order of the people who get to see the Health Care Bill, 13 men in secret, republican lobbyists, politico, republicans, democrats, and then the American People. This is shameful. This is a violation of the way that democracy itself should work. When they are done, the product will be the fruit from a poisonous tree. It cant be good because the process that processed it hasnt been good. I will highlight three groups that will stand to loose. First you will have people who will loose their insurance or loose the ability to choose their provider. Families wont be able to afford nursing home care for their loved ones or pay the hospital bills for a parent after she has a heart attack. Americans with preexisting conditions will struggle to buy insurance because Insurance Companies will be able to charge more for conditions like diabetes or cancer or asthma. Women will be blocked from getting annual checkups or screenings from planned parenthood. All of these people stand to lose if the bill moves forward. Second, you have people whose jobs will be at risk. Health care makes up onesixth of the american economy. It doesnt exist in a vacuum. You can bet those jobs will be affected by this bill. There is one estimate that the Trumpcare Bill will take away one million jobs by 2026. We are supposed to make it better for health care workers. Finally, this bill hurts the working poor. These are the people who will struggle even more under trumpcare and i dont know why we would punish them. Why would we leave them with nowhere to turn . I know that millions of americans feel the same way that i do. They care deeply about the poor, the vulnerable, and the sick among us because theyve made newsstanding up for their neighbors. One woman named jesse went to town hall to make her voice heard about trumpcare. Quote, it is my understanding that the a. C. A. Requires everyone to have insurance because the Healthy People pull up the sick people, right. And as a christian we are to help to pull up the sick people. If we take those people and put them in a highrisk insurance pool, its costlier and less coverage for them. Thats the way it was in the past and thats the way it will be again. So we are effectively punishing our sickest people. And i end the quote. We may not agree on policy, but i hope we can agree on the process. What will it take . What will it take for to this process to be restored and for trumpcare to be considered the way it ought to be considered . The answer is very straightforward. We need three republicans. It only takes three republicans and you can be a person who hates the Affordable Care act or who has mixed feelings about the Affordable Care act or anywhere in between. It only takes three republicans in the United States senate to restore the United States senate itself, to restore the hearing process, to restore Public Confidence and restore bipartisanship. All we need are three republican senators to say i wont vote for anything if there hasnt been a public hearing. I wont vote for anything that has been jammed down americas throats. I wont vote for anything without being able to go back home and figure out how it will impact my states hospitals. This is not an unreasonable ask. Were just asking for three republicans to say lets be a senate again. Lets restore order and transparency and do things the right way, because thats the only way that this bill will not be a total disaster. I yield the floor. Mr. Booker mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from new jersey. Mr. Booker i am grateful for the recognition. I am grateful for my colleague from hawaii, really my colleagues from across the country who are going to be coming to the floor tonight. This is going to be a long evening because there are a lot of folks who are frustrated. Now, its not just frustration about the actual bill itself. A lot of this frustration right now is building because of the brokenness of this process. A process that is right now about secrecy, a process that has been conducted behind closed doors, in back rooms, a process thats not reflective of our hilt, our traditions or many of the calls from both sides of the aisle that in my short time in the Senate Hearing an echo, a chorus of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who talked about regular order, regular order, regular order. Several of my colleagues and i earlier were asking for unanimous consent, trying to use the process of the senate to bring about a better process, a process that would bring this legislation out into the light of day and create an opportunity reflective of the American Health care act where we would have people able to put input into this process, a debate would happen, discussion would happen, and actually we would come about with a bill that the American Public would see go through the debates. In fact, through the process, the very Constitutional Convention of this country, perhaps some of the biggest issues of humanity were debated in an open forum. We have records of those discussions, records of the deliberations, everything from the representation that each state should have to issues as profound as slavery were right there out in the open. Tonight its remarkable to me, its almost tragic to me to see a process that is so broken, a process that is so secretive, a process happening in back rooms and everything that americans dislike about politics of old. People working in secret on a bill that theyre going to try to force through congress with no public input, no hearings, no meetings, no markups, no debate, no public accountability. And so there will be a lot of voices tonight. Sure, speaking about the realities of this legislation. Im one of those folks. I came from a Childrens Hospital this afternoon, with parents, with children that suffered accidents, Car Accidents and more telling me how they were relying on medicaid. I think its one of the most terrifying things thats about to happen, because people look at the house bill, a bill that our president even called mean, and theyre fearing for their own communities, fearing for families like theirs. I understand the substance of this bill should have many people afraid about what kind of country were going to be. When you just look at the house version of the bill, it violates our common values and ideals as a nation. To give massive tax breaks worth hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to the wealthiest and at the same time cutting the social safety net at a degree that we havent seen in my lifetime. The substance of this is frightening but the process to me, it violates the values that i know so many of my colleagues hold, that any of us watching this happen in an objective way would criticize this process. So we know the starting place in the house. We know the details of that bill. 23 million americans losing Health Insurance, the cutting of medicaid by 800 billion, throwing onesixth of our economy into crisis, but its the process thats fundamentally at odds with the principles and the values, especially of this body, the senate. When i was running for this office, i had so many people to me and say this is the greatest deliberative body on the planet earth. The senate which slowed things down, the saucer that cooled the tea as our ancestors called this body. It has a history for grappling with issues. But this process is so at odds with everything that i believe about this body and how its supposed to operate. The senate is meant to be a place of careful consideration, of debate, of discussion. Now, the history of this body and its debates and discussions is really interesting. The longest consecutive session in Senate History was a debate during the First World War about whether to arm merchant ships. Thats the record. And by the way, issues of war and peace, i would hope that they would bring about substantive, deliberative debate, discussion, open air. Th