Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate Leaders Speak On Health C

In the meantime Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell announcing yesterday the senate will vote on a plan to repeal the Affordable Care act within two years. Instead of replacing it immediately. Now the live coverage of the u. S. Senate here on cspan2. By dr. Hance dilbeck, Senior Pastor from Quail Springs Baptist Church in oklahoma city, oklahoma. Were very happy to welcome you here. The guest chaplain let us pray. O, lord, youve made heaven and earth and all that dwells within and we praise you as our creator. You rule above men and nations as the king of glory, and we praise you as our king. Father, we bow before you humbly because we believe that you judge men and nations. And we praise you as our judge and we delight this morning that jesus teaches us to call you our father. And, father, we give you thanks for the freedom that we have in this nation. We thank you for those who fight and serve to protect those freedoms. We thank you for the men and women who serve here in this chamber. We ask that you give them wisdom, that you would guide their decisions. We pray, father, that you give us grace as a nation, that you give the men and women in this senate grace to seek justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with you. In christ name we pray. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell one of the senates very first acts this congress was to pass the legislative tools necessary to repeal obamacare. We did so because the American People who had suffered for years under the failures of obamacare were calling out for relief. Everyone knows about obamacares skyrocketing costs and its plummeting choices. Too often, however, this discussion seems to veer into the abstract. These are not just numbers on a page. These are the lives of real people. These are the men and women we represent, americans who are hurting, middleclass families who deserve better than obamacares failures. We worked hard to provide them with a better way. We did so in the knowledge that this task would not be easy. We understood it would not come quickly. But we knew that it was the right thing to do, so we pushed forward anyway. I believe we must continue to push forward now. I regret that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failures of obamacare will not be successful. That doesnt mean we should give up. We will now try a different way to bring the American People relief from obamacare. I think we owe them at least that much. In the coming days the senate will take up and vote on a repeal of obamacare combined with a stable, twoyear transition period as we work toward patientcentered health care. A majority of the senate voted to pass the same repeal legislation back in 2015. President obama vetoed it then. President trump President Trump will sign it now. I imagine Many Democrats were celebrating last night. I hope they consider what theyre celebrating. The American People are hurting. They need relief. And its regretful that our democratic colleagues decided early on that they did not want to engage with us seriously in the process to deliver that relief. But this doesnt have to be the end of the story. Passing the repeal legislation will allow us to accomplish what we need to do on behalf of our people. Our democratic friends have spoken a lot recently about wanting Bipartisan Solutions. Passing this legislation will provide the opportunity for senators of all parties to engage with a fresh start and a new beginning for the American People. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call the presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer mr. President , last night we learned that the Current Republican Health Care Bill lacks enough support to even reach the floor of the u. S. Senate. After numerous delays, false starts, false predictions and two pulled votes, it should be Crystal Clear to everyone on the other side of the aisle that the core of the bill is unworkable. Its time to move on. Its time to start over. Rather than repeating the same failed partisan process yet again, republicans should work with democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides longterm stability to the markets, and improves our Health Care System. I heard the republican leader this morning say that democrats, quote, decided early on that they did not want to engage seriously, unquote, on health care. In the same speech the republican leader also admitted that the very first thing the republican majority did this congress was to pass reconciliation so they could Pass Health Care on a partyline vote, 50 needed, no democrats needed. Early on the majority leader told democrats we dont need you. We dont want you. Respectfully, i take issue with the idea democrats didnt want to engage on health care. The majority leader admitted that he decided the matter for us when he locked democrats out of the process at the outset. At the very beginning of this congress President Trump and leader mcconnell said dont come knocking at our door on health care. We dont need you. Now that their oneparty effort has largely failed, we hope they will change their tune. It seems like Many Republicans are ready for a truly bipartisan effort on health care, indeed. My friend, senator mccain, has urged it quite strongly, saying, quote, the Congress Must now return to regular order, hold hearings, and receive input from members of both parties. And he said that while recuperating in arizona. So thats how strongly he feels about it. Other republican senators have made similar comments. But the republican leader still plans to ignore their advice and instead plans on holding a proxy vote on a straight repeal of our Health Care Law first. Make no mistake about it, passing repeal without a replacement would be a disaster. Our Health Care System would implode. Millions would lose coverage. Coverage for millions more would be diminished. Our Health Care System would be in such a deep hole that repair would be nearly impossible. In passing in fact, passing repeal and having it go into effect two years later is in many ways worse than the Republican Health care bill that was just rejected by my republican colleagues. Its like if our Health Care System was a patient who came in and needed some medicine. The republicans proposed surgery. The operation was a failure. Now republicans are proposing a second surgery that will surely kill the patient. Medicine is needed, bipartisan medicine. Not a second surgery. We urge our republican colleagues to change their tune. Passing repeal now is not a door to Bipartisan Solutions, as the majority leader suggested this morning. Rather, it is a disaster. The door to bipartisanship is open right now, not with repeal but with an effort to improve the existing system. The door is open right now. Republican leadership only needs to walk through it, as Many Republican members are urging them. The door is to accept the progress we made in our Health Care System and work to improve it. The Affordable Care act isnt perfect, but repealing all of the good things about the law will create such chaos that there will hardly be anything left to repair. Republicans dont need to wreak havoc on our Health Care System first in order to get democrats to the table. Were ready to sit down right now if republicans abandon cuts to medicaid, abban dodge huge tax abandon huge tax breaks for the wealthy and agree to go through the regular order with hearings, on to the floor with time for amendments. Thats how we perfect legislation here. Thats how its been done for 200 years. Almost inevitably, when you try to draft something behind closed doors and not vet it with the public, it becomes a failure, in this case a disaster. So again, our republican colleagues dont need to wreak havoc on our Health Care System first in order to get democrats to the table. Were ready to sit down right now, again, if republicans abandon cuts to medicaid, abandon tax breaks for the wealthy, and agree to go through the regular order. The door to bipartisanship is open right now. Republicans only need to walk through it. And i remind my republican friends that the c. B. O. Has already scored the idea of a clean repeal bill, and it would be a catastrophe. Listen to what nonpartisan c. B. O. C. B. O. Appointed the head of c. B. O. Appointed by the republican leader of the senate and the republican leader of the house. Heres what c. B. O. Said it would heres what c. B. O. Said about repeal it would cause 32 million americans to lose their insurance. Premiums would double while cutting taxes for households with incomes over 1 million by over 50,000 a year. It would end Medicaid Expansion with no grace period or option for states who like their Medicaid Expansion and want to keep it. In many ways, its just as cruel, if not crueler, to medicaid as the Trumpcare Bill in a different way. So i would expect the same senators who are concerned about Trumpcare Bills medicaid cuts will be equally concerned about what repeal and delay would do to medicaid. Many of my republican friends rejected roundly the idea of repeal and delay several months ago at the beginning of the year when President Trump first proposed it. It seems like that was what republicans would do. Here are just some of the names back then who said repeal and then replace later doesnt work. Here they were cassidy, alexander, collins, corker, cotton, hatch, isakson, moran, mccain, murkowski, paul. Well, i would tell those colleagues and all the others, the idea hasnt magically gotten better with age. It is still nothing more than a cutandrun approach to health care that will leave millions of americans out in the cold and raise costs on everyone, the young, the old, the sick, the healthy, working americans and middleclass families. Everyone will be hurt but the very, very wealthy. Mr. President , every day that republicans spend on trying to pass their nowfailed partisan Trumpcare Bill, every day they spend cooking up new tricks to bully their members to get on a Health Care Bill is another day wasted. Another day that could have been spent working on real improvements to our Health Care System. Democrats want to work with our colleagues on the republican side to stabilize the marketplaces and improve the cost and quality of care. And we want to do it via regular order, a process this body has used time and time again to produce consensus bipartisan, historic legislation. The majority leader said in 2014 in a speech entitled restoring the senate that, quote this is Mitch Mcconnell when the senate is allowed to work, the way it was designed to, it arrives at a result acceptable to people all along the political spectrum, but if its an Assembly Line for one partys partisan legislative agenda, it creates instability and strife rather than good, stable law. I want to repeat that. These are the words of Mitch Mcconnell. I hope leader mcconnell is listening and remembers these words. He hasnt for the last six months, and its only led to trouble for him and his republican colleagues in the senate. So let me read it again. A 2014 speech, restoring the senate. Author, Mitch Mcconnell. When the senate is allowed to work the way it was designed to, it arrives at a result acceptable to people all along the political spectrum, but if its an Assembly Line of one partys partisan legislative agenda, it creates instability and strife rather than good, stable law. Leader mcconnell, i couldnt agree more. Its time to start over on health care. Abandon the idea of cutting medicaid to give a tax break to the wealthy, abandon this new repeal and run. Use the regular order to arrive at a result acceptable to people all along the political spectrum that leader mcconnell once said. I dare say it would create a much better result for the American People as well. Thank you, mr. President. And i yield the floor. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the shanahan nomination, which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, department of defense, patrick m. Shanahan of washington to be deputy secretary. Mrs. Shaheen mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from New Hampshire. Mrs. Shaheen mr. President , the majority leader says he will move forward this week with a vote on a straight repeal of the Affordable Care act in its entirety. I dont believe that a majority of senators are willing to support a reckless leap in the dark that that vote would mean. Its a vote that would end protections for people with preexisting conditions. It would take Health Coverage away from tens of millions of americans, tens of thousands in New Hampshire. It would terminate the Medicaid Expansion that has been critical to fighting the Opioid Epidemic in my state and so many states across this country. And according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, a straight repeal of the Affordable Care act would result in more than 32 Million People losing their Insurance Coverage by 2026. Premiums would roughly double in the individual marketplaces. I urge my republican friends not to go forward with this misguided approach. The idea that they can repeal the Health Care Bill now and give us a new bill in two years or whatever period of time is in the bill just doesnt pass the smell test. If we havent seen an alternative to the Affordable Care act in the last seven years, there is no reason to believe that our republican colleagues are going to be able to produce a bill in two years when there is chaos in the marketplaces. There is a better way forward for the senate and for our country. During the 4th of july recess, majority leader mcconnell said that if he cant secure the votes to repeal the Affordable Care act, hes prepared to work in a bipartisan way with democrats on legislation to repair and strengthen the law. Now, i believe that bipartisanship is the best way to get something done. Thats what i tried to do when i was governor of New Hampshire. I worked closely with our republican legislature, and we got things done. It should not be a last resort to what were doing. It should be the first resort. It should be what we do to build the foundation for policy in this country. And im hopeful that following the Floor Consideration of the whatever the majority leader decides to do on health care and hopefully its going to get defeated, that we will move forward with the majority leaders fallback plan, which i believe should be the starting position. We need to start fresh with regular order to craft Bipartisan Legislation that builds on the strengths of the Affordable Care act, that builds on whats working, and that fixes what is not working. As we have been hearing at town halls and in countless messages from our constituents, this is exactly what the American People want us to do. There is remarkable consensus in this country that the Republican Leaders bill is the wrong approach. An abc Washington Post poll on sunday found that by a more than 21 margin, americans prefer the Affordable Care act to the Republican Leaders bill. Their bill is strongly opposed by hospital associations, by health care providers, by the Health Insurance industry, by nearly every Patient Advocacy group including the Senate Majority<\/a> leader Mitch Mcconnell<\/a> announcing yesterday the senate will vote on a plan to repeal the Affordable Care<\/a> act within two years. Instead of replacing it immediately. Now the live coverage of the u. S. Senate here on cspan2. By dr. Hance dilbeck, Senior Pastor<\/a> from Quail Springs<\/a> Baptist Church<\/a> in oklahoma city, oklahoma. Were very happy to welcome you here. The guest chaplain let us pray. O, lord, youve made heaven and earth and all that dwells within and we praise you as our creator. You rule above men and nations as the king of glory, and we praise you as our king. Father, we bow before you humbly because we believe that you judge men and nations. And we praise you as our judge and we delight this morning that jesus teaches us to call you our father. And, father, we give you thanks for the freedom that we have in this nation. We thank you for those who fight and serve to protect those freedoms. We thank you for the men and women who serve here in this chamber. We ask that you give them wisdom, that you would guide their decisions. We pray, father, that you give us grace as a nation, that you give the men and women in this senate grace to seek justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with you. In christ name we pray. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States<\/a> of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell one of the senates very first acts this congress was to pass the legislative tools necessary to repeal obamacare. We did so because the American People<\/a> who had suffered for years under the failures of obamacare were calling out for relief. Everyone knows about obamacares skyrocketing costs and its plummeting choices. Too often, however, this discussion seems to veer into the abstract. These are not just numbers on a page. These are the lives of real people. These are the men and women we represent, americans who are hurting, middleclass families who deserve better than obamacares failures. We worked hard to provide them with a better way. We did so in the knowledge that this task would not be easy. We understood it would not come quickly. But we knew that it was the right thing to do, so we pushed forward anyway. I believe we must continue to push forward now. I regret that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failures of obamacare will not be successful. That doesnt mean we should give up. We will now try a different way to bring the American People<\/a> relief from obamacare. I think we owe them at least that much. In the coming days the senate will take up and vote on a repeal of obamacare combined with a stable, twoyear transition period as we work toward patientcentered health care. A majority of the senate voted to pass the same repeal legislation back in 2015. President obama vetoed it then. President trump President Trump<\/a> will sign it now. I imagine Many Democrats<\/a> were celebrating last night. I hope they consider what theyre celebrating. The American People<\/a> are hurting. They need relief. And its regretful that our democratic colleagues decided early on that they did not want to engage with us seriously in the process to deliver that relief. But this doesnt have to be the end of the story. Passing the repeal legislation will allow us to accomplish what we need to do on behalf of our people. Our democratic friends have spoken a lot recently about wanting Bipartisan Solutions<\/a>. Passing this legislation will provide the opportunity for senators of all parties to engage with a fresh start and a new beginning for the American People<\/a>. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call the presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer mr. President , last night we learned that the Current Republican Health Care Bill<\/a> lacks enough support to even reach the floor of the u. S. Senate. After numerous delays, false starts, false predictions and two pulled votes, it should be Crystal Clear<\/a> to everyone on the other side of the aisle that the core of the bill is unworkable. Its time to move on. Its time to start over. Rather than repeating the same failed partisan process yet again, republicans should work with democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides longterm stability to the markets, and improves our Health Care System<\/a>. I heard the republican leader this morning say that democrats, quote, decided early on that they did not want to engage seriously, unquote, on health care. In the same speech the republican leader also admitted that the very first thing the republican majority did this congress was to pass reconciliation so they could Pass Health Care<\/a> on a partyline vote, 50 needed, no democrats needed. Early on the majority leader told democrats we dont need you. We dont want you. Respectfully, i take issue with the idea democrats didnt want to engage on health care. The majority leader admitted that he decided the matter for us when he locked democrats out of the process at the outset. At the very beginning of this congress President Trump<\/a> and leader mcconnell said dont come knocking at our door on health care. We dont need you. Now that their oneparty effort has largely failed, we hope they will change their tune. It seems like Many Republican<\/a>s are ready for a truly bipartisan effort on health care, indeed. My friend, senator mccain, has urged it quite strongly, saying, quote, the Congress Must<\/a> now return to regular order, hold hearings, and receive input from members of both parties. And he said that while recuperating in arizona. So thats how strongly he feels about it. Other republican senators have made similar comments. But the republican leader still plans to ignore their advice and instead plans on holding a proxy vote on a straight repeal of our Health Care Law<\/a> first. Make no mistake about it, passing repeal without a replacement would be a disaster. Our Health Care System<\/a> would implode. Millions would lose coverage. Coverage for millions more would be diminished. Our Health Care System<\/a> would be in such a deep hole that repair would be nearly impossible. In passing in fact, passing repeal and having it go into effect two years later is in many ways worse than the Republican Health<\/a> care bill that was just rejected by my republican colleagues. Its like if our Health Care System<\/a> was a patient who came in and needed some medicine. The republicans proposed surgery. The operation was a failure. Now republicans are proposing a second surgery that will surely kill the patient. Medicine is needed, bipartisan medicine. Not a second surgery. We urge our republican colleagues to change their tune. Passing repeal now is not a door to Bipartisan Solutions<\/a>, as the majority leader suggested this morning. Rather, it is a disaster. The door to bipartisanship is open right now, not with repeal but with an effort to improve the existing system. The door is open right now. Republican leadership only needs to walk through it, as Many Republican<\/a> members are urging them. The door is to accept the progress we made in our Health Care System<\/a> and work to improve it. The Affordable Care<\/a> act isnt perfect, but repealing all of the good things about the law will create such chaos that there will hardly be anything left to repair. Republicans dont need to wreak havoc on our Health Care System<\/a> first in order to get democrats to the table. Were ready to sit down right now if republicans abandon cuts to medicaid, abban dodge huge tax abandon huge tax breaks for the wealthy and agree to go through the regular order with hearings, on to the floor with time for amendments. Thats how we perfect legislation here. Thats how its been done for 200 years. Almost inevitably, when you try to draft something behind closed doors and not vet it with the public, it becomes a failure, in this case a disaster. So again, our republican colleagues dont need to wreak havoc on our Health Care System<\/a> first in order to get democrats to the table. Were ready to sit down right now, again, if republicans abandon cuts to medicaid, abandon tax breaks for the wealthy, and agree to go through the regular order. The door to bipartisanship is open right now. Republicans only need to walk through it. And i remind my republican friends that the c. B. O. Has already scored the idea of a clean repeal bill, and it would be a catastrophe. Listen to what nonpartisan c. B. O. C. B. O. Appointed the head of c. B. O. Appointed by the republican leader of the senate and the republican leader of the house. Heres what c. B. O. Said it would heres what c. B. O. Said about repeal it would cause 32 million americans to lose their insurance. Premiums would double while cutting taxes for households with incomes over 1 million by over 50,000 a year. It would end Medicaid Expansion<\/a> with no grace period or option for states who like their Medicaid Expansion<\/a> and want to keep it. In many ways, its just as cruel, if not crueler, to medicaid as the Trumpcare Bill<\/a> in a different way. So i would expect the same senators who are concerned about Trumpcare Bill<\/a>s medicaid cuts will be equally concerned about what repeal and delay would do to medicaid. Many of my republican friends rejected roundly the idea of repeal and delay several months ago at the beginning of the year when President Trump<\/a> first proposed it. It seems like that was what republicans would do. Here are just some of the names back then who said repeal and then replace later doesnt work. Here they were cassidy, alexander, collins, corker, cotton, hatch, isakson, moran, mccain, murkowski, paul. Well, i would tell those colleagues and all the others, the idea hasnt magically gotten better with age. It is still nothing more than a cutandrun approach to health care that will leave millions of americans out in the cold and raise costs on everyone, the young, the old, the sick, the healthy, working americans and middleclass families. Everyone will be hurt but the very, very wealthy. Mr. President , every day that republicans spend on trying to pass their nowfailed partisan Trumpcare Bill<\/a>, every day they spend cooking up new tricks to bully their members to get on a Health Care Bill<\/a> is another day wasted. Another day that could have been spent working on real improvements to our Health Care System<\/a>. Democrats want to work with our colleagues on the republican side to stabilize the marketplaces and improve the cost and quality of care. And we want to do it via regular order, a process this body has used time and time again to produce consensus bipartisan, historic legislation. The majority leader said in 2014 in a speech entitled restoring the senate that, quote this is Mitch Mcconnell<\/a> when the senate is allowed to work, the way it was designed to, it arrives at a result acceptable to people all along the political spectrum, but if its an Assembly Line<\/a> for one partys partisan legislative agenda, it creates instability and strife rather than good, stable law. I want to repeat that. These are the words of Mitch Mcconnell<\/a>. I hope leader mcconnell is listening and remembers these words. He hasnt for the last six months, and its only led to trouble for him and his republican colleagues in the senate. So let me read it again. A 2014 speech, restoring the senate. Author, Mitch Mcconnell<\/a>. When the senate is allowed to work the way it was designed to, it arrives at a result acceptable to people all along the political spectrum, but if its an Assembly Line<\/a> of one partys partisan legislative agenda, it creates instability and strife rather than good, stable law. Leader mcconnell, i couldnt agree more. Its time to start over on health care. Abandon the idea of cutting medicaid to give a tax break to the wealthy, abandon this new repeal and run. Use the regular order to arrive at a result acceptable to people all along the political spectrum that leader mcconnell once said. I dare say it would create a much better result for the American People<\/a> as well. Thank you, mr. President. And i yield the floor. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the shanahan nomination, which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, department of defense, patrick m. Shanahan of washington to be deputy secretary. Mrs. Shaheen mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from New Hampshire<\/a>. Mrs. Shaheen mr. President , the majority leader says he will move forward this week with a vote on a straight repeal of the Affordable Care<\/a> act in its entirety. I dont believe that a majority of senators are willing to support a reckless leap in the dark that that vote would mean. Its a vote that would end protections for people with preexisting conditions. It would take Health Coverage<\/a> away from tens of millions of americans, tens of thousands in New Hampshire<\/a>. It would terminate the Medicaid Expansion<\/a> that has been critical to fighting the Opioid Epidemic<\/a> in my state and so many states across this country. And according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office<\/a>, a straight repeal of the Affordable Care<\/a> act would result in more than 32 Million People<\/a> losing their Insurance Coverage<\/a> by 2026. Premiums would roughly double in the individual marketplaces. I urge my republican friends not to go forward with this misguided approach. The idea that they can repeal the Health Care Bill<\/a> now and give us a new bill in two years or whatever period of time is in the bill just doesnt pass the smell test. If we havent seen an alternative to the Affordable Care<\/a> act in the last seven years, there is no reason to believe that our republican colleagues are going to be able to produce a bill in two years when there is chaos in the marketplaces. There is a better way forward for the senate and for our country. During the 4th of july recess, majority leader mcconnell said that if he cant secure the votes to repeal the Affordable Care<\/a> act, hes prepared to work in a bipartisan way with democrats on legislation to repair and strengthen the law. Now, i believe that bipartisanship is the best way to get something done. Thats what i tried to do when i was governor of New Hampshire<\/a>. I worked closely with our republican legislature, and we got things done. It should not be a last resort to what were doing. It should be the first resort. It should be what we do to build the foundation for policy in this country. And im hopeful that following the Floor Consideration<\/a> of the whatever the majority leader decides to do on health care and hopefully its going to get defeated, that we will move forward with the majority leaders fallback plan, which i believe should be the starting position. We need to start fresh with regular order to craft Bipartisan Legislation<\/a> that builds on the strengths of the Affordable Care<\/a> act, that builds on whats working, and that fixes what is not working. As we have been hearing at town halls and in countless messages from our constituents, this is exactly what the American People<\/a> want us to do. There is remarkable consensus in this country that the Republican Leaders<\/a> bill is the wrong approach. An abc Washington Post<\/a> poll on sunday found that by a more than 21 margin, americans prefer the Affordable Care<\/a> act to the Republican Leaders<\/a> bill. Their bill is strongly opposed by hospital associations, by health care providers, by the Health Insurance<\/a> industry, by nearly every Patient Advocacy<\/a> group including the American Cancer Society<\/a> and the american heart association, and there is no reason to think that just repealing the Affordable Care<\/a> act is going to make them any better. On saturday, the New Hampshire<\/a> hospital association, the New Hampshire<\/a> medical society, our physicians, the New Hampshire<\/a> aarp joined together in opposition to the bill. They noted that more than 118,000 granite staters, nearly one in ten people in New Hampshire<\/a>, would lose Health Coverage<\/a> under the republican bill, and that number is even greater if we just repeal the Affordable Care<\/a> act. Their joint statement urges senators to start over to create a new version of legislation that protects coverage for those who have it and provides coverage for those who need it. Mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the joint statement by these groups be included in the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mrs. Shaheen thank you. I strongly agree with these New Hampshire<\/a> groups. After spending six months trying to pass a deeply unpopular, deeply flawed bill to repeal the law, shouldnt we welcome a bipartisan effort to improve the law . I believe the answer to that is yes, and that the place to begin is by taking urgent action on a matter where most of us agree, and that is providing certainty to Health Insurance<\/a> markets in order to hold down premium increases. In their 2018 rate request filings, insurers say that large increases are necessary because of the uncertainty surrounding the repeal of the Affordable Care<\/a> act and because the Trump Administration<\/a> refuses to commit to making costsharing reduction payments. Those payments that go to Insurance Companies<\/a> so they can help their consumers with the cost of Health Insurance<\/a> and make sure that more people can get Health Insurance<\/a>. Well, we now have an opportunity to end this uncertainty by putting the repeal effort behind us and passing a simple bill to authorize regular appropriations for the costsharing reduction payments. The current instability in the a. C. A. Marketplaces is a manufactured crisis, and congress can put a stop to it very quickly. Thats why ive introduced the marketplace certainty act, which is a bill to permanently appropriate funds to expand the funds for and to expand the costsharing reduction payments so it does two things. It guarantees that these payments are coming and its going to cover more people to get help. Im pleased to be joined by 26 senators who have already cosponsored this bill. We can end this artificial crisis. We can immediately restore certainty and stability to the Health Insurance<\/a> markets, and in turn we could get the time that we need in order to come together in a bipartisan way to improve this law, to build on whats working, to fix whats not. We have a number of these commonsense measures, and this is one that has been embraced not just by democrats but by key Republican Leaders<\/a>. Chairman lamar alexander, house ways and means chairman kevin brady, they have urged that these payments be continued. As chairman brady put it, the payments are needed, quoteunquote, quote, to stable identifies to stabilize the Health Insurance<\/a> market and help lower premiums for americans. He added, and i quote, insurers have made clear the lack of certainty is causing 2018 proposed premiums to rise significantly. Now, we have heard from our constituents at home, weve heard from doctors, nurses, hospitals, particularly rural hospitals, Nursing Homes<\/a>, patient advocates, insurers, those constituents who are in the letter that i ask to be the statement that i ask to be included in the record. They are pleading with us to set aside our partisan differences and Work Together<\/a> to repair the Affordable Care<\/a> act. And, again, we know what we can do. Its not just the marketplace certainty act. There are another there are other bills that have been introduced that can fix the uncertainty in the market and allow us to address other issues with the law. Bipartisanship should be the senates first resort, not the last resort. An excellent place to start is by coming together right now to permanently appropriate funds for the costsharing reduction payments that keep Health Coverage<\/a> affordable and to look at some of the other commonsense measures that are going to be talked about by my colleagues, like senator klobuchar, who are going to be coming to the floor. She has legislation that would help us deal with the high costs of Prescription Drug<\/a>s, which is one of the things thats driving the increasing costs of health care. We need to pass these commonsense measures, and we need to do it now. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. Ms. Klobuchar mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from minnesota. Ms. Klobuchar i want to thank senator shaheen for her leadership. Im proud to be one of the cosponsors of her bill and her commonsense approach here which i believe is the one that will win the day in the end, which is to Work Together<\/a> on changes to the Affordable Care<\/a> act that will help the American People<\/a>. I join my colleagues on the floor in sharing the concerns that i have heard from so many people in my state and across the country about the bill that have been introduced by our colleague, but also the other issue that ive heard from them is their desire to have us Work Together<\/a> to bring down the costs of health care and to make fixes to the Affordable Care<\/a> act. Health care leaders in my state had come out strongly against the bill released last week because it would be devastating to the people of our state, especially in our rural areas, with our rural hospitals, especially for people, so many of our seniors who rely on medicaid funding for Nursing Homes<\/a> and assisted living. Last night, we heard that we will not be proceeding to that bill, and instead the majority leader wants to bring up repeal of big parts of the Affordable Care<\/a> act without a replacement. Well, i just want to remind my colleagues that the Congressional Budget Office<\/a> has already looked at this repeal without a replacement, and its just as bad. Instead of 22 Million People<\/a> losing their insurance by 2026, the c. B. O. Estimated that 32 million would lose insurance under the repeal approach, and premiums would double. So this repeal effort doesnt help the health of minnesotans who, according to the minnesota medical association, would be harmed by what they call draconian medicaid cuts. It doesnt help our childrens hospitals. I met with several last week, and they were very concerned that medicaid cuts would hurt their ability to provide health care to our kids. Something, by the way, i heard repeatedly on 4th of july in the parades when people would come up just out of the blue, out of the sides of the street mixed in with the hot dogs and the american flags would be families predominantly families with kids with disabilities, and they would bring children over to me to meet and would say how important this medicaid funding is for their entire family. And i remember once when a mom brought over her child with down syndrome, all the people on the parade route in that block cheered p for that family, and that is because we know were all in this together, we know that what happens to one family could next year happen to another family. You could have a child with a disability, you could have a disease that could be debilitating to your familys finances, and that basically we never know whats going to happen to the health of ourselves or our family members and thats why we have Health Insurance<\/a> and we must make sure that it is affordable. In addition to that, weve had our c. E. O. s of our Health Care System<\/a> stand up and say these approaches would lead to major job losses in our state. As i mentioned before for our seniors, aarp said that nearly half of all adults in my state who receive tax credits under the Affordable Care<\/a> act are 50 to 64yearolds and these subsidies would be eliminated under the repeal bill. This could make health care unaffordable, especially for the more than 350,000 people in my state aged 50 to 64 who have a preexisting condition. It doesnt have to be this way, as senator shaheen has so articulately pointed out. I know that several of my republican colleagues have said that they cant support legislation that would take away this insurance for tens of millions of americans. I agree. Instead of making these kind of draconian cuts and moving backwards, i think that we have to move forward to help forward to help make health care in america better and more affordable. We can and should make changes to the Affordable Care<\/a> act. The day it passed, i said this is a beginning and not an end. You cannot have a piece of legislation like that and go for years without any significant changes. Thats just now how it has worked not how it has worked with legislation in the past. Every time we have tried to make changes, we have heard that we have to repeal it. Maybe the result of all of this chaos is that they have come to realize what the American People<\/a> want, as senator shaheen has pointed out, and that is to make changes. I support senator shaheens certainty act because it would expand a Vital Program<\/a> that reduces out of pocketer Health Care Costs<\/a> for consumers. I support senator kaine, who is also here with us, senator kaine of virginia and senator carpers bill to reestablish a federal Reinsurance Program<\/a>. This idea of reinsurance is something that our republican legislator in mrn passed on a state in minnesota passed on a state basis. I see this not just as a pie in the sky, i see it as something we can work on across the aisle. I would like to talk about some of my ideas, some of which have bipartisan support. Again, i throw them in a package that we could be working on. I have a bill that would negotiate the power of 41 million seniors on medicare to bring Prescription Drug<\/a> prices now. Medicare is banned with negotiating with all of those seniors. Think of the Better Bargain<\/a> those seniors could get if their Bargaining Power<\/a> was unleashed. Senator kaine and i have a bill to allow americans to bring in less expensive drugs from canada, which is, by the way, similar to the american market. As i noted, we can see canada from our porch in minnesota. We see across the border the kind of prices they are able to get, and we think we should senator mccain and i and several republicans voted for a similar measure to bring in Prescription Drug<\/a>s from canada. You could tie it to a trigger if prices rise like they have. Senator lee and i have a bill that would allow importation of safe drugs from other countries when there isnt healthy competition. Senator grassley and i have a bill called payfordelay where Big Pharmaceutical Companies<\/a> are paying to keep some of their drugs off the market. Last, the creates act, senator grassley, leahy, feinstein, lee, and i have that bill and that makes sure that we get the samples so we can get generics on the market and create more competition and bring prices down. So i will end with this. This debate is about the patients of a Nurse Practitioner<\/a> who provides Psychiatric Care<\/a> in my state. Is she wrote to me to say, please, please do all you can to help these people from losing Mental Health<\/a> care they need. Onethird of the funding in our state comes from medicaid. Medicaid has helped 1. 3 Million People<\/a> to receive treatment for Mental Health<\/a> and Substance Abuse<\/a> issues. This debate is about the mom in minnesota with private insurance who has colon cancer. Shes working full time raising two schoolaged boys and going to chemo every single week. She says she will not be able to afford the care she needs to stay life alive. This debate is about the constituents that i noted came up to me in parades, fourth of july telling me their stories of how they are concerned about their kids with disabilities and how they are concerned about rural hospitals. We have things that we can do to make this better and now is the time where we must get them done. So lets come up and we have bipartisan support for these changes to the Affordable Care<\/a> act. Lets Work Together<\/a> on them across the aisle and lets remember that this is about one team, one country, and we can get this done. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. Mr. Kaine mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from virginia. Mr. Kaine mr. President , thank you. I take the floor to talk about health care. We are here to be about a process where democrats and republicans, the Committee Process<\/a> that we have in the senate, does the work were supposed to, listening to the American Public<\/a> and improving our Health Care System<\/a>. Let heel tell you about let me tell you about my first meeting of the day, it was an amazing. I had a mom rebecca and 5yearold charlie in my office and they were there to talk about health care. Heres their story. Charlie is just about 5, she starts kindergarten in Public School<\/a> in september. She was 15 weeks early. She went through the nico, had great care, when she went home, the doctors thought she would be fine but it was clear that she would have significant challenges. She has cerebral palsy, these family has beeny neadz. Charlie, from a cognitive standpoint is sharp and excited about starting school but has significant needs. The roar, rebecca the mother, rebecca said, that charlie is a case study of why the a. C. A. Would be a disaster. Charlie has a preexisting condition. Charlie has hit all of the lifetime caps that would render her to get insurance prea. C. A. Charlie, in the hospital because of her dramaticallily low birth weight, was the recipient of medicaid funds that would be cut under the bill. Charlie is the recipient of a medicaid wave waiver to supply the feeding tube. Charlie will be given an individualized Education Plan<\/a> under and some of those expenses are compensated by medicaid. So preexisting condition, lifetime caps, medicaid cuts, they all affect this dynamic young 5yearold who is as entitled as any of us to try to be all she can be. If we persist on the path that we are on now that is trying to be proposed, we would hurt families like these. Before passage of the Affordable Care<\/a> act, we knew that americans with preexisting conditions faced unfair barriers to accessing Health Coverage<\/a> since 2010. The rate of uninsured americans has declined. More than 20 Million People<\/a> had access and health care coverage, many for the first time in their lives. Another statistic, the number of bankruptcies has dropped because the a. C. A. Has brought the bankruptcy rate down. We have to move forward to make health care stronger, not destroy. It the republican bill that is being discussed right now, because of its reductions of coverage slashing medicaid increases for seniors would make matters worse. The proposed amendment by the senator in texas utah has led some to say that it will be a twotier system. The latest plan discussed this morning by the majority leader that would be a straight repeal of the Affordable Care<\/a> act with a promise that weed fix it in a that we would fix it in a couple of years, that has been scored by the c. B. O. , and they said it would cause 32 million americans to lose coverage and dramatically increase premiums. We need improvements. There have been actions by this administration that have compounded challenges. In january the president signed an executive order directing not to enforce key elements of the Affordable Care<\/a> act. They terminated components of outreach and enrollment statement, they will threatened to end costsharing payments. This has caused such uncertainty in the individual marketplace, that rates have been unstable, and in some areas, companies are not writing individual policies. The amendment that i discussed earlier from the senators from texas and utah would make these problems even worse. But there is a better way. There is a way forward, and im here to just briefly reference a bill that senator carper and i put on the table that we think would do a good job and should have strong bipartisan support, the individual insurance, marketplace act. This is to establish to establish a permanent Reinsurance Program<\/a> that will stabilize premiums and give Insurance Companies<\/a> stability to stay in markets and ensure them to write them at an average level. We think it would reduce premiums dramatically all over the country. The idea of reinsurance shouldnt be controversial. We use it in other programs, flood insurance, crop insurance, Medicare Part<\/a> d, a key part of medicare achieved under the Bush Administration<\/a> includes this. The Affordable Care<\/a> act had that in the first three years that inspired the reinsurance that helped to maintain stable premiums. This is an idea that this is not a democratic idea. It is an idea that has been test offed tested. Senator carper and i have tested it and we are waiting for the opportunity to present it and get a hearing for it. We ought to be able to Work Together<\/a> on reinsurance, on costsharing guarantees that senator shaheen has proposed, on a variety of other ideas. Senators cassidy and collins has have a bill that uses automatic enrollment. As i conclude, mr. President , let me tell you how naive i am. I am just going to conclude and tell you how naive i am. I was a mayor and governor before i came to the senate. When you know as a result is education and health care. We have a governor here and a governor here and a governor here. We have four former governors sitting on the floor. What you know is education, which is the biggest line item and the second is health care. I tried to get on the committee when i got to the senate. I was not on it, and i was disappointed. I tried for four years to get on the help committee. I finally got on, within four hours of being on the committee, i wrote a letter to the Committee Chair<\/a> and to senator hatch. If you want to Fix Health Care<\/a>, we are here to sit down with you right now and fibs it fix it. I was naive enough to think that because i was on the help committee i would be included in a discussion about health care. We had many hearings in our committee on nominees, on pensions on higher ed, but there is one taboo topic, we are not allowed to have a hearing about health care. We havent had a health care about the house bill, we havent had a hearing about the senate proposals. Were going told that were not going to have a hearing. Were going to rush whatever we do to the floor either on a house proposal, a senate proposal, or a senate repeal. We are going to skip the committee. Mr. President , you know a little bit about this committee. We have a doctor on the committee, senator cassidy from louisiana. Our chair of the committee senator alexander, he was a governor, he had a medicaid program. He was the president of the university of tennessee, he had physician practice groups. There are people on the help committee who know something about health care. There are people on the finance committee who know about health care, but we have not been able to have a hearing about this. When you have a hearing you bring people up to the witness table, patients like charlie, who was in my office this morning, doctors, hospitals. You ask them what works, what doesnt work, what can be fixed. We havent had the opportunity to hear from folks. Why wouldnt we do exactly what senator mccain said yesterday . Senator mccain said, weve gone about this wrong way. We should be the earns senate. We should take advantage of the Senate Procedures<\/a> and the expertise on the senate committees, including staff expertise. And we should assign these various bills to the relevant committees and have hearings and then come forward with a proposal that will actually improve health care for this country. I am completely confident that if we let the committees do the work that they are supposed to do, we will find improvements that can get bipartisan support and will help virginians and help americans. That doesnt seem too much to sc. I hope my colleagues will consider that and i hope we will be engaged in those discussions soon. With that, mr. President , i yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from delaware. Mr. Carper i want to preface my remarks today by asking that you convey to your wing man, senator john mccain, our colleague, our best wishes and our hope that hes on his way to a speedy recovery and will be back here because we need him. We need his wisdom. I want to thank tim kaine for the leadership that he and senator shaheen are showing in an effort to try and help us stabilize the marketplaces. I believe senator hassan over the weekend, we talked a lot about this. What do we do now . I think this is an opportunity. This is an opportunity here. And i realize theres a fair amount of confusion as to which path to take and which way to go. And i just hope that we dont waste this opportunity. And i sent a message to the new chairman of the National Governors<\/a> association, to the new vice chairman of the National Governors<\/a> association, brian standoval of nevada, the new chair, the governor from nevada, previously the vice chair. And Steve Bullock<\/a> from montana is the new vice chair. One is republican, one a democrat. But i sent him a message this morning saying that it would really be good to hear from the governors. Theyve been working on a bipartisan theyve been working on it for a while. This is a time it may make a real positive impact. We have three people, four of us literally lined up that used to be part of the National Governors<\/a> association. I loved it. Im sure senator shaheen and senator hassan did as well. Heres what i suggested that the governors may want to consider in their message. Number one, urge us to hit the pause button. Hit the pause button. Lets just stop in place for a moment. And pivot soon, like not in september, not in august, but like now, like this week. Pivot to stabilizing the exchanges. Number three, return to regular order. Senator kaine already mentioned this. When i talked with senator mccain last week a couple of times briefly, we both talked about the need for regular order. People have good ideas on how to introduce them. Committees of jurisdiction, hold hearings. Witnesses, including governors, come before the committees of jurisdiction, a couple of committees in the house, a couple committees in the senate. Lets hear from the experts and hear from the governors who have to run these Medicaid Programs<\/a> and have a lot of expertise in this area to offer us. And then i would say after the august recess, if we can actually do Something Real<\/a> and stabilizing the exchanges, what a confidence builder that would be among us. And i think around the country. It would be just a great confidence builder. The other thing i would mention, when we come back after the august recess, dont just try to muck around and wonder what were going to do. We should pull together in a bipartisan way something that we talked a lot about doing. We dont often do it but to really do maybe a up come of things. Maybe a couple of things. Lets figure out what we need to fix in the Affordable Care<\/a> act. Republicans believe the democrats feel its perfect and nothing should be changed. Well, i dont feel that way. My guess is most of our democrats dont either. Every bill i ever worked on was not perfect. It can always be done better. The same is true with big programs like medicare, social security, veterans programs, civil rights. They can all be done better. This is certainly the case as well. Lets fix the parts of the a. C. A. That need to be fixed. Lets preserve the parts that ought to be preserved. And i would say again to reiterate, speaking on behalf of some recovering governors, including the governor the governors need to be heavily involved in this. I suspect that each of the governors, former governors on the floor with me here today, when were when we were part of the nga, i was on the floor a number of times because governors had access to the floor but we had many opportunities, many invitations to testify before senate committees, house committees on a wide range of issues. And i think we brought value and we need to hear from them today. I want to go back and talk about how we go about stabilizing exchanges. The first thing that would help would be for the administration stop destabilizing them. That would be a big help. And senator kaine has led on legislation. Hes mentioned, i want to drill down just a little bit, that would provide reinsurance much as we do in other ways in terms of Medicare Part<\/a>d drug program. But use reinsurance as a very common tool but use it to help stabilize the exchange. How would we use it in our proposal . If the lady standing in front of me was Getting Health Care<\/a> and she was expensive in her health care needs, the underwriting sthurns plan starting in 2019, first 50,000 she used in year one, 2018, that the federal government the Insurance Companies<\/a> themselves would be on the hook for the first 50,000 of care that she would get. Between 50,000 and 500,000 under our proposal, the federal government would pay for 80 of that cost. 80 of that cost between 50,000 and 500,000 would be on the federal government. Anything above 500,000 would be on the Insurance Company<\/a>. Thats what we do in the next three years. Starting in 2021 going forward, the first 100,000 would be on the Insurance Company<\/a> for the cost created by an individual. Between 100,000 and 500,000, 80 of that would be on the federal government. And after that its back again on the rest the rest of it is on the Insurance Company<\/a> to pay for it. That is his proposal. Thats our proposal. We have a bunch of cosponsors on it. We need some republican cosponsors as well. Its not a democratic idea. Its not a republican idea. Its just a good idea and its one that deserves bipartisan support. The second thing that we ought to do to stabilize the exchanges is what senator shaheen has proposed. And that is, we have these c. S. R. s, costsharing i think of them as subsidies, to subsidize peoples income under a certain level. For folks in the exchanges, Getting Health Care<\/a> coverage, their income is under 250 of poverty, they would they currently receive some subsidies to help buy down, reduce the cost of their copays and their deductibles. And its not really clear whether thats authorized, not really clear whether thats being funded, but its just been done for a number of years. And the Current Administration<\/a> has been saying, well, we dont know if were going to continue to do that. And theres some folks that want to go some states that want to go to court and say you cant do that. Well, we need to pass a law and say were going to have these costsharing reductions and these subsidies will continue to be offered. The last thing, third thing that we need to do is to make clear the individual mandate or something as good as, at least as effective as the individual mandate is going to be around. For the administration to say, well, we dont know if were going to enforce the individual mandate just encourages young, Healthy People<\/a> not to get courage. And weve got to make it clear that that coverage the individual mandate or something as good as, it could be a proxy for it or maybe several things could Work Together<\/a> that could be as effective as the individual mandate. If they dont work maybe we could have the default position would be the individual mandate again. We ought to have hearings on this kind of thing and discuss it and hear from all kinds of folks. The other thing i want to mention is just i go around my state. My lord, ive never heard people so interested in encouraging us. I think i think were regarded as bipartisan people. Were democrats, were proud to be democrats. We like to work with republicans, too. I think thats part of being a recovering governor. But the people in my state dont want on this subject, on Health Care Reform<\/a> going forward, they dont want a democratic victory. They dont want a republican victory. Frankly, they dont want a trump victory. They want a victory for our country. Thats what they want. They want a victory for our country. And you know what . So do i. I think some democrats in this chamber and most of the republicans. Let me just again, if i could make the suggestion, lets hit the pause button. Lets stop in place for right now. Lets pivot and figure out how we can stabilize the exchanges. I laid out several ways to do that. Lets return to regular order. Hold hearings. Bipartisan hearings. Have expert witnesses, including folks from all walks of life who know a lot about health care coverage, know a lot about health care. After the august recess we come back here. Lets launch a real bipartisan effort to fix the things in the a. C. A. That need to be fixed and retain, preserve those aspects that should be retained. And as i said before, we need governors at the table, not just recovering governors. We need governors at the table and a bunch the other folks as well who have a lot to contribute. If we do those things, we will in the words im going to paraphrase mark twain. Mark twain used to say when in doubt, tell the truth. Youll confound your enemies and delight your friends. I think thats what he used to say. In this case i would say, paraphrasing mark twain, when in doubt do whats right. When in doubt, do whats right. Well confound our enemies and delight our friends. With that i yield the floor. Thank you, mr. President. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from New Hampshire<\/a>. Ms. Hassan thank you, mr. President. And, mr. President , i am honored to join my colleagues here today. I thank senator carper for his excellent suggestions and leadership in terms of reaching out to both current and former governors as we proceed on this issue. Im very grateful to my colleague, senator kaine, for his leadership on the help committee and what he brings as a former mayor and governor. And i rise today to join my colleague from New Hampshire<\/a> in supporting her efforts to help Lower Health Care<\/a> premiums for middle class americans and to stabilize the insurance marketplace. The Trump Administration<\/a> has been working to sta sabotage the individual market by playing games with costsharing reductions. Those costsharing reductions help lower outofpocket expense, such as deductibles and copays for individuals with Health Insurance<\/a> plans in the marketplace. This legislation from senator shaheen is a commonsense measure which would work to prevent the instability and chaos being pushed by the administration. I also join my colleagues in making clear that we are ready and willing to work across the aisle on priorities that will improve and build on the Affordable Care<\/a> act and bring down costs for people in New Hampshire<\/a> and across the country. Mr. President , over the course of the last several months, weve seen that the partisan process Republican Leaders<\/a>hip has pushed with trumpcare simply wont work. Its going to take bipartisan a bipartisan approach in order to make progress, not a senseless repeal bill that would pull the rug out from millions of americans. Ive seen firsthand that its possible for democrats and republicans to come together in order to improve our Health Care System<\/a>. As governor of New Hampshire<\/a> i worked across party lines to pass a bipartisan Medicaid Expansion<\/a> plan that delivered quality, affordable insurance to over 50,000 hardworking granite staters. And expansion has truly made a difference for communities across my state, particularly for people impacted by the heroin, fentanyl, and opioid crisis. Just last week i visited Goodwin Community<\/a> health in summer someh and heard from a woman named elizabeth. At one point in her life as a result of Substance Abuse<\/a> disorder, elizabeth was homeless and she lost the custody of her son. But elizabeth is now in recovery and she works at the s. O. S. Recovery Community Organization<\/a> in rochester, helping others get the support that they need. She said she owes her recovery to the insurance shes received through Medicaid Expansion<\/a> and the Affordable Care<\/a> act. Elizabeths story is a great example of the power of whats possible when we come together on Bipartisan Solutions<\/a> to help improve the health of our peop people. This is the same approach that we need to take in the senate, and i believe that there are areas for bipartisan cooperation that we should be working on in order to improve the Affordable Care<\/a> act. In addition to senator shaheens legislation to stabilize the individual market, in addition to the legislation you heard discussed by senator kaine and senator carper. There are other things we can do. I believe its critical that we take on big pharma and bring down the cost of Prescription Drug<\/a> price, including allowing and importing safe and Affordable Drugs<\/a> and allowing medicare to negotiate drug prices. And i believed we should eliminate the existing income cliff in the Affordable Care<\/a> act that blocks many middleclass individuals from receiving premium assistance. Mr. President , these are commonsense measures that we should be taking now. People across our nation have made clear that they dont Want Congress<\/a> to do a wholesale repeal of the Affordable Care<\/a> act because it would have devastating impacts for them and their families. I urge my colleagues to put the partisan gamesmanship aside. I join senator kaine as a member of the help committee in asking for a hearing at the very committee that is supposed to set Health Care Policy<\/a> in this body so that we can listen to the voices of constituents, to providers, to other stakeholders. We need to come to the table ready to work on Bipartisan Solutions<\/a> in order to improve our Health Care System<\/a>. All of our people deserve to have access to quality, Affordable Care<\/a> so they can be healthy. That makes our country healthy, productive, and strong, too. Thank you, mr. President. Mrs. Shaheen mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from New Hampshire<\/a>. Mrs. Shaheen im really pleased to have been joininged by joined by my colleagues to talk about the importance of addressing health care for all americans, and especially my colleague from New Hampshire<\/a>. She and i have been touring the state for months now talking with people people in hospitals, people who are patients, with physicians, with providers for people with Substance Use<\/a> disorders, with who are providing treatment for people with Substance Use<\/a> disorders, with people all over New Hampshire<\/a> about what we can do to make sure that people can get health care when they need it. That should be the goal of this body. It should not be throwing people off of their health care, which a repeal of the Affordable Care<\/a> act would do. It would throw 32 Million People<\/a> off their health care. You know, we can address the instability in the marketplaces. We can do that pretty quickly. Senators kaine and carper talked about reinsurance, something that has worked very well for the first three years of the Affordable Care<\/a> act. And the reason it doesnt work now is because theyve stopped. So thats why were seeing some of these rate increases. We can address the uncertainty by being clear that were not going to repeal the Affordable Care<\/a> act, by addressing those costsharing reduction payments. And, in fact, the a. C. A. Already stipulates that c. S. R. Those payments which reduce the payments of copays and deductibles are to be made pursuant to 3u. S. C. 31 u. S. C. 1384. M the marketplace certainty act removes all basis for any further questions about what is already clear from a fair reading of the Affordable Care<\/a> act as a whole that both those c. S. R. Payments and the advanced premium tax credit subsidies are to be funded from the same permanent appropriation. Now, i see my colleague from texas here on the floor, and im sure isagoge object and im sure, hes going to object to the request which im going ton proposing which im going to be proposing in a couple of minutes. He objected last thursday when i asked for unanimous consent to pass the marketplace certainty act, and justified that objection by asserting that the costsharing reduction payments are i he called it a i think he called it a bailout of the Insurance Companies<\/a>. Thats an inflammatory term. I think we ought to be careful with how we use it because the truth is that costsharing reduction payments are in no way, shape, or form a bailout. Their orderly payments built into the law to go directly to keep premiums, copays and deductibles affordable for lowerincome americans. In fact, those same payments were included in the bill that senator mcconnell majority leader mcconnell just said hes not going to go forward with the republican bill. It included those very same costsharing reduction payments. I think they were included because there was a recognition that these are important to help address the costs of health care for all americans. And, as i said earlier, weve had statements by the chairman of the health, education, labor, and pensions committee, lamar alexander, talking about these payments should be continued. Weve heard from house ways and means chairman kevin brady who said that we need to continue these payments to help stabilize the insurance market. Its the uncertainty thats causing the current problem. And we could address that today. This week, if people were willing to Work Together<\/a>. Now, as democrats weve come to the floor to say, we want to Work Together<\/a>. We think we can address the challenges that we face with the Affordable Care<\/a> act. We can do it in a bipartisan way. I know we can because tim scott and i have done it. We passed a bill several years ago by unanimous consent that basically gave states the ability to control group size for people for companies in the marketplaces. So i know it can be done, and you know we could and i know we could do it today if there were a willingness on the part of all of our colleagues to Work Together<\/a>. Thats what the American People<\/a> want. They dont want 32 Million People<\/a> thrown off their Health Insurance<\/a>. We dont want hospitals, rural hospitals to close in New Hampshire<\/a>. We dont want Nursing Homes<\/a> to close. We dont want people to be thrown out of their Nursing Homes<\/a>. I was up in northern New Hampshire<\/a> at a nursing home over the weekend where i talked to a group of women in their 80s and older, and one woman said to me she said, you know, i worked my whole life. I pay my taxes, i did everything i was supposed to do. I sold my house so i could get into this nursing home so i could qualify under medicaid. I got rid of all my assets. And now theyre teling me that im going to get thrown out . She said, what would i do . I have no place to go. I have no family to help me. Well, people dont want that. What they want is for us to Work Together<\/a>, to help Fix Health Care<\/a> so that people can get what they need when they need it. So, mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the committee on health, education, labor, and pensions be discharged from further consideration of s. 1462, that the senate proceed to its immediate consideration, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Cornyn mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from texas. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , the senator from New Hampshire<\/a> reserving the right to object, the from New Hampshire<\/a> the senator from New Hampshire<\/a> has acknowledged that she made this previous request last week. The Kaiser Family<\/a> foundation, among other publications, has clearly stated that the costsharing reductions that she is asking for are paid directly by the federal government to Insurance Companies<\/a>. Thus, when i call this an Insurance Company<\/a> bailout, i believe that is literally true. The Congressional Budget Office<\/a> estimates the cost of these payments at 7 billion in 2017, 10 billion in 2018, and 16 billion by 2027. So what my friend, the senator from New Hampshire<\/a>, is proposing here is an Insurance Company<\/a> bailout in the tens of billions of dollars with no reform. Throwing more money at a broken Affordable Care<\/a> act, which has been in existence seven years now. I know theyd like to blame this on President Trump<\/a>, whos been in office just a short time, about a half a year. But this is built into the very structure of the Affordable Care<\/a> act, and it isnt working. I personally will not be part of any bailout of Insurance Companies<\/a> without reforms. Thats why we were trying to structure something under the better care act, which, unfortunately, we havent been successful with so far. But were going to keep on trying. But this is not the answer, and i object. The presiding officer objection is heard. Mrs. Shaheen mr. President , i am disappointed but not surprised that my colleague has objected. And i dont believe he objected because of the effort to help pay these subsidies, which are passthroughs to Insurance Companies<\/a>. I think reforming how we do those, im open to sitting down to talk about how we do that. But thats not the issue right now. The issue is that this is the way we could address the current uncertainty in the marketplaces in a way that will be good for maintaining stability of health care for all americans, and im disappointed that there isnt a willingness to Work Together<\/a> to do that. And i hope, as this debate continues, we will finally see people come together to get something done to address not Just Health Care<\/a> for americans but to address the onesixth of the economy that depends on the health care industry. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. Mr. Reed mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Reed thank you very much, mr. President. I rise today to discuss the nomination of mr. Patrick shanahan to serve as the deputy secretary of defense. The Senate Armed Services<\/a> Committee Held<\/a> a hearing on his nomination on june 20. He was voted out of committee by a voice vote. Mr. Shanahan was born an raised in the state of washington. He received his undergraduate degree from the university of washington and then a masters degree and an m. B. A. From the Massachusetts Institute<\/a> of technology. He then embarked on a 30year career at the boeing corporation where he rose to the most senior echelons of management work being both the companys defense and commercial programs. Most recently he served as a Senior Vice President<\/a> for supply chain and operations. The deputy secretary of defense is one of the most important positions within the entire National Security<\/a> system. He served as the numbertwo official at the department of defense as well as the chief management officer. As the second in command, he requires strong management skills. The Department Faces<\/a> problems on multiple fronts. More for more than 16 years, our military has faced two long wars. As a result, the military has faced a generational fight that has sapped readiness and precluded our military personnel from performing fullspectrum operations. The past several years have seen the rise of nearpeer competitors, most notely russia and china. Russia has been a resurgent force bent on disrupting europe and undercutting our own nation and our president ial election process. China continues its saber rattling in the Asia Pacific Region<\/a> by undermining the freedom of navigation and using economic coercion of its smaller, more julynerable neighbors. When you more vulnerable neighbors. When you factor in the destabilizing actions of north korea and the long shadow of iran, it becomes clear that we need strong leadership at the department of defense. If mr. Shanahan is confidence, he will need to contend with all of these challenges. It wont be easy and hard decisions will immediate to be made. Perhaps one of the hardest decisions is the allocation of budget resources. In an ideal world, a cogent Defense Strategy<\/a> that takes into consideration the multitude of concerns facing our nation would inform how the department invests resources in weapons platforms and advanced technologies to confront these challenges. However, the reality is that the spending caps imposed by the budget control act determine the level of funding for most of these budget decisions. The current budgetary crisis is compounded by the fact that the president s most recent budget requested as muchneeded funding to Defense Activities<\/a> but it shortchanges nondefense spending accounts in order to increase spending for our military. Furthermore, the budget request fails to recognize that the b. C. A. Budget Companies Budget<\/a> caps are lower. The president s budget request would trigger conservation, wiping out increasing defense spending with mandatory acrosstheboard cuts. This would be the worst of all worlds. We would be giving the money on one hand, taking it back on the other hand but not in any in any systematic way. We would be making cuts that are much more valuable than some programs that would receive an additional cut. Unless we resolve ourselves to correct, we can effectively fund the department of defense. That is one of the greatest challenges mr. Shanahan will face. Indeed, these multiple challenges require strong leadership and the ability to take tough decisions. Mr. Shanahan has developed a strong reputation as someone capable of taking on problems, fixing problems and turning neem successes. When i met with him to discuss his nomination, he emphasized that the Public Sector<\/a> needed to work closer with the private sector to get more costeffective results while ensuring our war fighters have the best equipment at their disposal. It is that kind of leadership that the department of defense needs if our nation faces a diverse array of threats and challenges to our National Security<\/a> as at any point in our history. Based on mr. Shanahans qualifications and experience, as well as his testimony before the Senate Arms Services<\/a> committee, i believe hes fully qualified for the job. Therefore,ly vote in favor of his nomination to be the next deputy of defense and i trust he will do his best to lead the men and women who ably serve this nation and courageously serve this nation. On a final note, if confirmed, mr. Shanahan will be relieving bob work who has served this nation ably and selflessly for most of his life. Bob work served in the United States<\/a> marine corps for 27 years rising to the rank of colonel. In 2009 he was confirmed as under secretary of the navy where he shepherded the service through many challenges the next four years. I tried to return to private service but at the private sector but in 2014 he was then nominated and confirmed as deputy secretary of defense. Bob was the continuity in the Defense Department<\/a> through three secretaries of defense. He stayed more than six months into the new administration in order to aid secretary mattis. There is no task no matter how difficult or how big or small that bob work would not devote all of his energy until it was resolved. Bob work personifies his name. He works tirelessly. Our nation owes him a great debt of gratitude and i hope he takes some well deserved Vacation Time<\/a> and enjoys the company of his wife and daughter. With that, mr. President , i would thank you and yield the floor. I would also notice the absence of a quorum, mr. President. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call a senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from tennessee. Mr. Cornyn i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , i have nine requests for committees to meet during todays session of the senate. They have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. The presiding officer duly noted. Mr. Alexander the presiding officer under the previous order, all time has expired. The question is on the nomination. Is there a sufficient second . There appears to be. The clerk will call the roll. Vote vote vote the presiding officer are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote . If not, the yeas are 92, the nays are 7. The nomination is confirmed. Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senates action. Under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the bush nomination, which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, the judiciary, John Kenneth Bush<\/a> of kentucky to be United States<\/a> circuit judge for the sixth circuit. The presiding officer under the previous order, the senate the previous order, the senate you will find video and information about changes to the Health Care Debate<\/a> as they occur. Again at our website cspan. Org. Sunday night on after words journalist Cheryl Atkinson<\/a> reports on house of representatives tactics are used to influence Public Opinion<\/a> in her book the smear. So you dont stick up for mccain. You handle the Washington Post<\/a> or you feel is not properly reported on this incident as opposed to why are you smearing john mccain . Number one, no offense to you, since it was a Washington Post<\/a> about about, but number two on literature on and defend john mccain or donald trump. I think the media behavior and people do mistake when you criticize media behavior are when i do criticize me media behavior, that doesnt mean a supporting or and cheering them on. I can see this as separate things but it is misread often as you must be supporting it we must not like x or y because he said this. That has nothing to do with that. Its look at what i see as fair or accurate Media Coverage<\/a> about the candidate and i spoken out pretty frequently about that including some of the Washington Post<\/a> coverage. Watch after words sunday night at nine eastern on cspan2s booktv. Today house budget Committee Chair<\/a> diane black talked about the gop 2018 budget plan. She called proposal and action plan that reduces pentago been e spurs Economic Growth<\/a> and returns power to the states. 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