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tv   Key Capitol Hill Hearings  CSPAN  April 14, 2015 9:00pm-10:01pm EDT

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vote:
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the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to change their vote?
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the presiding officer: are there any senators wishing to change their vote? if not on this vote the yeas are 58. the nays are 42. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative the motion is not agreed to. the point of order is sustained and the amendment fails. the clerk will read the bill title for the third time. choip h.r. 2 -- the clerk: h.r. 2 -- and so forth and for other purposes. mr. sessions: mr. president? the presiding officer: there are now two minutes of debate prior to a vote on passage. mr. sessions: mr. president?
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the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. sessions: mr. president it's not -- the presiding officer: order in the senate. mr. sessions: mr. president this legislation has not gone through the regular order in the senate. iit will add $174 billion to the debt. it's subject to eight different budget points of order. we've got a series of budget point of order votes where we've affirmed the budget and the responsibility we have to adhere to it. let's do the right thing. let's tell the house who tried to send this bill over at 3:30 in the morning for us to pass right before we recessed after the budget votes that, yes, we are absolutely committed to fixing the doctors payments and in a responsible long-term way but it needs to be paid for in a responsible, long-term way. upholding the budget point of order does not kill the bill. it sends it back to a committee
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to make sure it's fully paid for. so let's don't be afraid tonight. let's just say to our house colleagues colleagues, we agree with you on -- the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. sessions: -- but we've got to pay for this bill. i would ask -- the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. sessions: mr. president i make a budget point of order. mr. president? the presiding officer: there is still time remaining in favor of the bill. mr. sessions: mr. president the pending measure h.r. 2 the reauthorization act of 2015 violates the section of the fiscal year 2009 budget resolution by cautioning a net increase in the long-term deficit in excess of $500 billion. in the ten-year period of fiscal
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years 2025 through 2034. therefore, i raise a point of order against this measure pursuant to section 311b of s. con res. 70, the concurrent resolution on the budget for fy 2009 and ask for the yeas and nays. mr. hatch: mr. president? mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. hatch: i yield back the time. mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. hatch: i move to waive all applicable sections on the budget act and i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will call the roll. vote:
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vote:
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the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to change their vote? if not on this vote the yeas are 71, the nays are 29. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to. the point of order is sustained sustained -- mr. hatch: mr. president?
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the presiding officer: on this vote the yeas are 71, the nays are 29. three-finals of the senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative the motion is agreed to. the point of order is not sustained, and the motion is agreed to. mr. hatch: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. hatch: mr. president, we will soon be voting. could i have order? a senator: could we have order, mr. president. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mr. hatch: mr. president we soon will be vote being on final passage of the h.r. 2, the medicare access and chip reauthorization act of 2015. as i mentioned earlier this bill represents more than two years of hard work ogee on both sides of the capitol and it represents a real step forward for bipartisan health care policy. i'm pleased to have been one of
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the authors of this legislation. look forward to seeing the bill pass with bipartisan spowmplet i want to commend everyone will worked 0en this lels. i want to thank senator max baucus who worked with me from the gipping on this effort here in the snavment senate, now ambassador to china. i also want to thank our colleagues in the house who also worked very hard in crafting this s.g.r. fix. as with any major legislativest there are a umin of staffers both current and former who also deserve our staff -- our thanks. from my own finance committee starvetion i want to thank dan todd kristin welsh katie simion for all of their hard work. i also want to thank my senior team jay chris and mark. on the democratic side of the committee, i want to thank karen fisher david schwartz, matt kazin, juan mashato and colin
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gold fifth. list want to commend montana kay from the republican leadership office. from the house side, i want it thank charlotte ivansich and wendell premus. we'll also gotten quite a bit of help from c.b.o., i want to thank holly herving. we put this legislation together. for that i'd like to thank jennifer druckman. we couldn't have done it without the help of gong buttress and kelly mall loan on the senate side and jessica cross over in the house. mr. president, i want to once again urge my colleagues to support this bill. it is a monumental achievement. it is something that's been long in the offing. i want to thank ive everybody on both sides for the cooperation we've h i just want to personally express my
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dprattitude for being able to pass this bill. mr. wyden: mr. president? i'll be very brief. colleagues i think tonight is a milestone for the medicare program, a lifeline for millions of older people. that's because tonight the senate is voting to retire the outdated inefficiency rewarding, commonsense-defined medicare reimbursement system. senator hatch noted it has been bipartisan. it has long been bipartisan. i think this is an important night for the senate. and it is going to be long-remembered. i yield back. mr. hatch: mr. president scwi for the yeas and nays. -- i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the questions is on passage of h.r. 2. the clerk will call the roll. vote:
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. the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to change their vote? if not the yeas are 92. the nays are 8. and the bill is passed.
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mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: what is the pending business? the presiding officer: the clerk will report the pending business. the clerk: calendar number 26, s. 178, a bill to provide justice for the victims of trafficking. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: mr. president, in the interest of moving the human trafficking bill forward with the understanding these amendments could be offered later in the prods, i -- process i would like to withdraw my amendment number 271. the presiding officer: the amendment is withdrawn. mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: mr. president additionally i'd like to withdraw my amendment number 270. the presiding officer: the amendment is withdrawn. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i call up amendment number 1120.
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which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the amendment. the clerk: the senator from kentucky mr. mcconnell for mr. cornyn proposes an amendment numbered 1120. strike section 101 and insert the following. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rule of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the cornyn amendment numbered 1120 to s. 178 a bill to provide justice for the victims of trafficking. signed by 17 senators. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent the reading of the names be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president like every member of this body, i'm
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frustrated we haven't been able to reach an agreement to pass the bipartisan justice for victims of trafficking act. so today just now we've offered a compromise amendment that provides a path forward on this the important legislation. i want to express my gratitude to the majority leader for teeing up this amendment and this vote and helping us move forward to resolve this problem. but briefly this proposal would completely strike a provision in the underlying bill that members on the other side have objected to regarding the application of the hyde amendment. the proposal would replace this language with a provision negotiated by leader pelosi from h.r. 2 the so-called doc fix bill that we just passed overwhelmingly and that passed the house last month -- or a few weeks ago at 392-37.
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180 house democrats supported this language in the house bill. the pelosi language in this bill is similar to my proposal and it simply says that any funds used to provide services to human trafficking victims would be subject to the same requirements as funds under the public health services act. this would clarify that all money in the domestic trafficking victims' fund must be derived from the general treasury the routine and ordinary source of all federal funding. in other words the requirements placed upon funds under my bill would not be placed on money derived from criminal fees or penalties, something that our democratic friends seem to have some objection to. but they'd only be placed upon money drawn from the general treasury. this is exactly what members on the other side have asked for.
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finally, as an additional measure of good faith my proposal would also include an amendment drafted by senator leahy, the ranking member of the senate judiciary committee that has been supported by every democratic member of that committee. this amendment would authorize the appropriation of additional funds in the domestic trafficking victims fund. some members on the other side of the aisle have filibustered this important legislation because they say they objected to language i included that references the hyde amendment. i have now agreed to strike that language. they are also filibustering because they objected to attaching routine hyde restrictions that have been the law of the land for 40 years the money outside the general treasury process. now i've agreed to change the language of my bill so that the domestic trafficking victims fund only includes money drawn
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from the general treasury. and i've also agreed to accept an amendment from senator leahy that i had previously opposed in the interest of trying to get to "yes." mr. president, i plan to speak more on this tomorrow, but i'm hopeful that by finally making these changes, we could be met at least halfway by our friends across the aisle. i feel like we've continued to try to make changes in this legislation, and in interest of giving them an opportunity to vote for a bill they said they all support but which they ultimately filibustered because of the objections that i just addressed. and both of the major objections are addressed by this amendment and this legislation. so mr. president i hope we can get to a resolution on this bill. the victims of human trafficking are typically young girls
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between the age of 12 and 14 years old. this is justly called modern-day slavery because these victims of human trafficking are literally enslaved and sold for sex or held for involuntary servitude against their will. many of them come from other countries, but the vast majority of them come from right here in the united states of america. we need to do something about this. this legislation does that something, and i think we more than demonstrated good faith in trying to meet our colleagues' objections across the aisle by proposing language that works that accomplishes the result but removes the objectionable language that our colleagues across the aisle have seen fit to filibuster on. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president while my colleague is on the floor, i want to commend senator
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cantwell for her superb work on this legislation. senator cantwell has really been the leader in the effort to get the secretary of health and human services to look at alternative payment models in the medicare advantage program. this is a hugely important program for us in the northwest. it also, by the way is very extensively used in minnesota. and i think my colleague from washington state has done particularly important work in also looking as part of this discussion at what's called a value-based modifier. so i would like to ask unanimous consent, mr. president and i have some thank yous to make and i'll be brief but i'd like to ask unanimous consent that a colloquy between senator cantwell and i be entered into the record at this time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: mr. president just a couple of quick thank you's and then i want to let my colleague wrap up for our side. it's pretty clear mr. president, that a bill of this magnitude does not happen
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by osmosis. it comes about because of scores of hearings and round tables and briefings, countless hours of staff time. i'm going to take a couple of minutes to thank some people who did so much to make this possible. first i want to thank leader reid and his very capable health care staffer kate leon. when there is a big health care issue before the senate, kate leon is the person you want to have in the trenches with you. and i want to thank leader reid because during the short tenure in which i was chair of the senate finance committee we started working very closely together on froarnlg the medicare -- reforming the medicare reimbursement system and his leadership is very much a part of this. second staff of the congressional support agencies who provided technical assistance. we're talking about c.m.s., the congressional budget office, the
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congressional research service legislative counsel and the medicare payment advisory committee. i'd also like to note the efforts made by ira burny and scott and jennifer druckman of the c.m.s. office of legislation and tom bradley and laurie houseman of the congressional budget office. i'd also like to recognize chairman hatch and his very capable and dedicated staff. they worked many, many months on this issue constantly reaching across the aisle and former hatch staffer dan todd, current staffer christian welsh and erin dempsey particularly deserve recognition. i want to close by thanking my finance staff personal staff affectionately known as the health team. some like karen fisher, matt caseman, juan macado and former staffer david schwartz survived
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two democratic chairmen and more doc fixes than they could possibly wish to remember so this is an especially significant moment for them. others like hannah hawker and jan phillips provided insight and counsel along the way. one last point if i might mr. president, having tried for years to specialize in health care, going back to the days when i was codirector of the oregon gray panthers, i thought that over the years i had picked up a little bit with respect to health care policy and came to really understand the issues. not so much, particularly when i think about the extraordinary work of two very talented individuals in our office who have really been the leaders in my view, on this s.g.r. reform cause. one of them is our health chief liz durink. she deserves notice for her
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leadership creativity and focus and second joycelyn moore who we have the good fortune who came to us from senator rockefeller. she brings great expertise and years of experience to the field. and certainly what i have learned from them after a career of trying to specialize in these issues has done so much to assist the committee assist me. and i want to express my gratitude to them. the work of the bipartisan finance committee staff through all its fits and starts is what got us here today. i want to thank all of them. and i think it's very appropriate that my colleague from washington state senator cantwell who has done so much good work on these issues, is going to close us today. ms. cantwell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell: mr. president, i want to thank the senator from oregon for his leadership on this legislation and on health care in general. i will always think of him as
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the senator who has been an advocate for reforming our health care system and oftentimes wanting to move faster than everybody here. i'm with him in -- and the northwest is with him and that is why tonight is a proud moment for him as the ranking member of this committee to see through monumental shift in the way we've been dealing with the payment system and the medicare access system and the children's health care program. tonight hopefully we'll put behind us a long debated issue of how physicians are paid but it will also start us on a new path to make sure that people in america are guaranteed better outcomes and a process by which we will help reduce the cost of health care by focusing on both the cost of health care and the outcomes. so my colleague entered into the
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record tonight -- and i want to thank him for that -- a colloquy that addresses the issue of how those who are part of accountable care organizations will be given the resources to focus on high-performing health care systems will be able to under the study equate exactly how well they can do and how well they should be rewarded in reducing costs and giving better outcomes. my colleague from oregon speaks of this because he and i come from the part of the country that literally deliver better outcomes in health care at lower costs than many other states in the united states of america. our residents want to know why the rest of the country can't practice medicine the same way. we want those savings that you get from the health care system to be plugged in or used for other things. they could be part of tax reform
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even. but we also want the citizens of our state to get better health care. we want them to have better outcomes. and we think that moving off of fee-for-service and on to a system that focused on the outcome of patients is the best way for our country to move forward. so this legislation before us today builds on that process that we started in the affordable care act something called the value-based modifier that basically takes the fee-for-service systems that -- if you think about it fee for service is about volume, about ordering more tests. we're saying we want physicians to be rewarded for the outcome and the good performance and the focus on whether the patient actually gets well or given the best health care delivery. so in essence the value modifier seeks to emulate the success that washington and oregon have had and that give us better healthy outcomes for
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patients and lower costs. this year the value-based modifier is the beginning of when physicians for the first time will see an adjustment and building on the process sylvia burwell, the secretary of health and human services, recently announced that medicare would aim to tie 90% of their medicare fee for service payments to quality or value initiatives by 2018. so this is tying half of all medicare fee-for-service payments to an although payment model and helping us move -- alternative payment molt and helping us move forward and once again help us focus. so i want to thank my colleagues for participating in the colloquy, the ongoing analysis that we need to continue to do in our health care system and congratulate him on the significant success of getting this bill done, it means that we can spend more time really focusing on efficiency, on quality, on the best way to

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