degette: mr. speaker, i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: all those in favor of taking this vote by the anne will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. . purr subject too clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in res is until approximately 6:30 -- recess until approximately 6:30

>> tomorrow, the possible consideration of repealing the health care law. coming up today on booktv.org, robert merry will look at where presidents are ranked. in his new book looks at presidents with distinction like split decision presidents, leaders of destiny, and utter failures. live from d.d. and we will have

it on booktv.org. >> i do not mean to sound like i'm going to go crazy and "regulate" the internet, but i do not think it should exist outside of the law. >> co-editor of "all things d" on the relationship between technology makers and the government tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. house minority whip steady hoyer announced a proposal here at the center for american progress here in washington which is a continuation of the make it in america plan promoting policies to help america manufacturers drive. this is 35 minutes.

>> i'm the progress. my pleasure to welcome steady we're here to leave center. it-- steny hoyer. we're honored to have him here talking about manufacturing and economic growth. since the founding we have been focused on how to ensure a strong and stable middle-class. we understand that this is central to a stronger economy. it sounds like this is a basic fact, one that should not be in dispute. as we see now in our national debate and discussion of how to foster growth, that issue is a central pillar of growth. we have seen that this question

about how to do this is central. there are two visions. there was a debate about lowering taxes and insuring what i would call trickle-down economics. that is how we foster growth. the other side is a broader agenda based on insuring that they have the income and wages they need to build demand. if we look at an economy that is growing, we see challenges are central to challenges in the economy. he has been leading an effort

on manufacturing for several years. he is focused on how we deal with manufacturing. it has been sent to our ability to create jobs. it is that engine of growth or we have middle-class jobs that create demand for more products that american company create. this is really a big challenge in our economy right now. we are particularly excited to have him here today. he will be laying out new ideas. we look forward to looking and talking to him. congressman hoyer? [applause] >> i am always pleased to be here at the center for american progress that is doing such a wonderful job. thank you for researching those issues that are important for

the american people in making decisions on where they want to go. congratulations to you on your leadership. i gave you my best to john here is out there in the netherworld. i know that tom is here, my former colleague. you are a vice president that does such a wonderful job. you are such a wonderful friend. good morning. good afternoon i guess i should say. as he prepared to take office, president kennedy spoke to a nation troubled by anxiety of america's leadership and uncertainty over whether future americans would have a strong and secure a economy. he offered a rousing appeal on the call to action. he spoke to a generation of americans and ask them not to

shrink from their responsibility, to advance across a new frontier of science and commerce. today i suggest we confront a similar anxiety with much greater global competition. it is therefore essential for us to seize the initiative and education, innovation, technology, alternative energy, and advanced manufacturing. our leaders have secured. our economy will remain the strongest on earth. americans will continue to find good jobs and have confidence that they will make it in america. the key to success i believe is a renewed dedication to the kind of individual responsibility and commitment that made this country the great

country that it is. america's history has been one of innovating and developing. better products and services. it has been a history in which manufacturing goods has played a major role. americans believe that making things in america must be an important part of our future if we're going to be successful. manufacturing has been a bright star in our current recovery. over the last three years we have seen strong gains by manufacturers. we witnessed 28 consecutive job growth months. manufacturing has added many jobs since 2010. productivity driven 6% in the

first quarter of 2012. and gesture production is driven by reserves and has surged 20% from its lowest point in june 2009. we went up 7/10 up 1% in may. manufacturing is also driving a rise in u.s. exports. in the first four months of this year, total u.s. goods and service exports were up 6% or $41.4 billion from the same time from last year. in that same time manufacturing exports were up 9.1%. after having watched four years as american manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas, where bearing witness to some of those jobs returning. companies are recognizing the rising costs of productions and are looking once again for the talent and experience of american workers.

last month google announced a media device that is being manufactured only a few miles from its headquarters in california. when asked why they decided to make it here in america, google decided among several reasons the benefit of its engineers being able to travel easily between the design lab and the production line. they have announced that it will be on construction on its first u.s. manufacturing plant last year and alabama. that facility will support 1000 new jobs. over the past two years other businesses have chosen workers to manufacture their products including caterpillar and ford. despite these recent gains, americans are still worried about our economy, and sure over whether our recovery will continue. uncertainty over consumer demand hangs like a dark cloud over the bright horizon. americans are looking at the

financial crisis that continues to plague europe and hope that it does not spread here. now is not the time to hunker down. it is most the time to go on offense. as president obama declared in january, "we have a huge opportunity at this moment to bring manufacturing back. we have to cease its. it is time to stop rewarding businesses to ship jobs overseas and reward them this right here in america. he is right. this is our moment to pursue policies that capt. lies on this. they make certain the positive trends in our recovery.

we must make a strong and serious effort to create an environment that grows this so companies can hire for jobs that will stay here. our overseas competitors are doubling down on investments in their own work forces and innovation and providing the tools that nurture manufacturing growth. not only are other countries surging ahead but they're pouring money into basic research and technology. the national science board reported that china and nine other countries have increased

their research and development spending to match our own. the wealthiest country in the world we will lose only if we fail to invest the priorities of success. we have seen the manufacturing sector gain momentum. congress must pass a comprehensive jobs plan. two years ago democrats introduced such a plan. it is called "make it in america." it can help manufacturers make it, grow it in america, it then it will help all of our people make it in america, succeed and sees opportunity. a combined business tax reforms that encourage manufacturers to bring jobs back in education, job training, innovation, green energy, and infrastructure. there would be able to base this on the best economic outcome. business judgments, not tax a judgment. our plan has recognized that

our current system of taxation is too complex. there is a consensus that we should lower rates, broaden the base, and maintain at minimum revenue levels. businesses will make things in america only if it is profitable to make things in america. we must also address regulation. in a state of the union address, president obama call for smarter regulations that will keep americans say and help business grow. he said "most new jobs are created in start-ups of small businesses. let's pass an agenda that helps them succeed, tear down

regulations that prevent aspiring entrepreneurs from getting the financing to grow." i would add needed regulations to insure regulations without impeding growth and investment. and i can and must be down. addressing taxes alone will not do it. again and again we have heard from manufacturers looking to invest that they simply cannot find enough workers with the skills and training they need in engineering and advanced machine operation. we need to ensure that americans have the skills and knowledge to perform the jobs created by advanced manufacturing enterprises. our economy will benefit from the enactment of a comprehensive immigration reform that helps attract and retain talent here and invest in the strengths of our immigrant

entrepreneurs seeking, as so many of the previous generations have done, to make it in america. rejecting the most skilled from our shores is neither consistent with our tradition of welcoming those who wish to make america great. make it in america is a comprehensive jobs plan our country needs. it takes the best ideas from both parties. we have already had some success with 10 and make it in america bill signed into law including the american compete act, the america events actis, and small business technology transfer programs. we work together to jump-start our business start-ups, a bipartisan package that included a number of proposals from our make it in american agenda. just last week the institute of supply management reported that june was the first month that the manufacturing sector

contracted since july 2009. today u.s. manufacturers are expected to announce that growth and first quarter earnings this year were the slowest since 2009. it is not time to hunker down. it is time to go on offense. we cannot let this become a trend. members must set aside their political differences and take action. this was the title of the book [inaudible] if we are going to make a national commitment to building things again, it is going to require a new approach to government. we will not succeed without a comprehensive economic strategy, one that extends across policy areas, across cabinet

departments, and congressional commitments. the government at its best creates a climate in which companies can fulfil their potential. that is what american business needs. the action. not been action. dedicated attention not indifference. this was expressed in our meeting with the national association of manufacturing which has been a strong advocate for bringing government and the private sector into agreement when it comes to boosting competitors. that is what our competitors are doing.

we should not shrink from that. we saw what things ought to be when 147 house republicans and every member of the democratic caucus joined to reauthorize the export/import bank. this was a major component. it doubles the exports by 2015. the fact of legislation that you still have nearly unanimous support of so much effort on to concern us all. i hope those who came together on bipartisanship that day will continue doing so to pass more make it in america bills in the day to come. i am introducing additional steps congress can take right away. to the crafts are putting forward several new proposals as part of our make it in -- democrats are putting forward several new proposals as part of our make it in american plan. first is the bring jobs home act sponsored by bill that would eliminate this for companies shipping jobs overseas. it would keep it for those bringing jobs on shore.

it would further provide a new credit for companies moving jobs back home. congress should pass a miscellaneous term to eliminate duties on certain ones not produce in the united states, particularly raw materials and input i used by manufacturing to make it in america. this will reduce their production costs and help make these manufacturers more competitive. the third and fourth in the items being added will help us close the skills gap and connect more out of work americans with will plant manufacturing jobs. one is a reauthorization and

modernization of the work force investment act sponsored by john. the other is kathy's bill that grants $1,000 per student tax credit to employers that partner with colleges and trade schools to provide skills necessary. president obama proposed manufacturing innovation that will bring manufacturers, academia, and government together to create an infrastructure that will accelerate the development of manufacturing technologies. in a couple of weeks we will be introducing legislation to implement this proposal. as much as the ought to be addressing this we also must invest in improving the physical network of rails. we passed and of the structure bill before the july 4 break. it was the last day at the last

minute. it shall not. the confidence of long-term planning that america needs to make so that we can make it in america. the act will lead to the development of a strategic transportation plan to assess the needs of our aging networks and create a national freight in for a stretch for grant program. -- infrastructure grant program. we need support and freight facilities that can accommodate them. we must make sure that other companies -- countries are playing fair. the bill sponsored by linda sanchez and congressman billy

long will establish new procedures for investigating claims against foreign manufacturers for countervailing orders. it'll help us better enforce rules and prevent illegal imports. in addition to these measures, the committee came together in a bipartisan vote last month to send to the house floor and make it in america bill sponsored by bill of illinois. it is called the american manufacturing competitive act and calls for the development of a strategy. you cannot win the game if you do not have a playbook. you cannot win the game if you do not have a strategy to do so. the strategy will bring together public and private sectors to create a comprehensive plan of action and require that it be updated at

least at the four years. any business executive will tell you that you ought to have a carefully crafted strategy before undertaking a large project. i hope the full house will pass the bill and to so quickly. it passed on the committee overwhelmingly on a bipartisan vote. taken together with the other legislation with are introduced, these measures will help us invest in out educating, out innovating, and out-building our competitors. they all agree that manufacturing is ready to take off and carry other sectors of our economy with it. it will push our manufacturing sector appeared it is a strategy all americans can agree on. this is what we need to do if we're going to remain competitive in this century ahead. as i have said many time,

congress must work concurrently on achieving a big solution to the deficits and death that confront us. if we're going to a for the investments contained in our plan, our competitiveness is dependent on congress and our country acting with courage and determination to address our fiscal challenge, namely this one blooming at the end of the year. that is why i have called on congress to go big with a balanced solution before the year is over. we will have to address deficits to the onset of sequestration. a number of items are scheduled to expire. as well as the estate tax in the alternative minimum tax. all of these we will confront. we need to confront them with courage and will. greece does not have the resources to solve its problem. america does have the resources. all we need is the political will and courage to do so. we will have to put everything on the table to make strategic choices. if we do not address this it

will not be this. we have always been a solution driven people. common sense carried as across this fast company. they drove us forward to achieve in science and medicine. they carried us to the moon and safely back to earth. we must embrace them once more. we must strive for solutions. we must substitute confrontation with operation. if we can achieve this, and the effects will not only be felt in our time. it is up to us to some of the challenges we face. we must recommit ourself with solution driven politics, one that will enable us to achieve what americans deserve, solutions that will help more of our people make it in america. only working together, not as democrats or republicans, but as americans, can rise to meet our challenges.

i know we can do it. i hope you know we can do it. we have done it in the past. we can do so again. thank you very much. >> thank you so much. if you will identify yourself and ask your question, that would be great. >> what he mentioned about having a solution for america, made in america is very good. you need something concrete. you need a future for america. we need a future for america with 6 billion jobs immediately. they are taking this to

establishing that. >> can you get to a question? >> we need real legislation. we need glass-steagall. we need a national banking system. we need this manufacturing process. will you commit yourself to signing onto a glass-steagall legislation this week? >> it will not shock you that i will not commit to that today. we passed a major reform of banking regulation in the last congress, as you know. that was absolutely essential to put in effect the referee on the field.

we have had some major events happened since that passage. jpmorgan chase in particular, which i think will focus the congress and the american people on the necessity to ensure that the regulatory part of the banking world works and it works to the protection of the american people and the creation of solid competition. i think in that process you will see a lot of a preview of what was done previously with respect to that. what is being done to the proposals in the financial

reform at to see whether they are going to work to accomplish this. >> another question in the front row here. and by yourself. as the question. >> thank you. >> as the president [unintelligible] do you support the level the president is supporting or those making a million dollars or more of? >> i believe that what ever you figure you choose, and i do support the president, but it will be a metaphor. our republican colleagues will

not support increasing revenues on any persons in america matter how much the make. clearly we want to make sure that the working americans continue to have the ability to purchase goods. we are a consumer driven economy. we need to grow good paying jobs to make an agenda. american just a 20 to serve more than other jobs in our economy -- 22% more than other jobs in our economy. he has a initially right at 250. i would be prepared to go lower sometime in the future than that. our economy is still struggling. going lower than that would have an adverse impact. i do nothing going higher will have an adverse impact on the economy. >> thank you very much. my name is jerry.

i represent the eir magazine. the question is this. i do not know if you are aware that a leading circle in britain connected to the financial world have publicly now called for a full glass-steagall. their argument was that a volcker rule or regulation, they will say it will not work. the system is so bankrupt cannot bail it out. these are guys involved in financing. they say it is a strict glass- steagall so that credit can be made available for the kind of fdr recovery program, which i think you're talking about. there will be in national manufacturer. you have to have the credit. they're trying to bail out a system. >> we have a question about glass-steagall. >> without repeating too much to my answer before, be passed significant legislation. i understand the argument. it did not go far enough. it did not create a wall strong enough are high enough from the perspective.

i think that will be subject to further discussion. i think it is a legitimate discussion. >> nicolas with the day the caller. -- "the daily caller." i wonder if you think the health-care laws requirements and small-business is that there were 50 employees. could that affect their incentive to grow? >> i think this requires personal and corporate responsibility to provide for them. i think to growth and our health care system has helped employer based insurance. but in small and larger businesses. we have seen that eroded because the rapid escalation of health-care costs. the bill as an effort to stanch

that rapid escalation. stabilize them and give people help you need a getting insurance and spreading the risk so that everybody does have insurance. i think that is inappropriate step for us to have taken. we will look to see how that operates. i think we have to look at how it impacts small, medium, and large individuals to make sure it works as planned. doing nothing is not an option. there are substantial sums

through the legislation that has been foes. i think we will have to see whether it has adverse impacts. >> there are a number of ways. in action lowers health care costs by reforming the entire health-care system. -- it actually lowers health care costs by reforming the entire health-care system. this would actually help jump- start the hires. >> aetna let me add to what he says. obviously -- let me add to what he said. obviously you can have a race to the bottom. and then you are going to have to pass that cost along to somebody. you know the taxpayer pays the purchase of health insurance paying about $1,000 per family

for uncompensated care. we have tried to bring this down. i think this was one of the efforts. this is something they are undertaking. the 31st vote to repeal health care, after every vote over the last 31, not one alternative has been proposed. >> let me check on the initiatives. republicans this week are going to stage a vote to read bill obamacare. -- repeal obamacare. now that we have the highway bill and student loans bill done, what are the prospects of passing this before the election?

to see all the initiatives as being aimed at 32nd campaign ads? -- 30 second campaign adds? >> the probability of the latter is more probable than the former of dealing with the substantive issues. that is unfortunate. mr. cantor, who has my old job, that was a hostile takeover of the corporation of which i am a member, a minority stockholder. he said weeks ago that he did nothing much was going to be done between now and the election. i think that is unfortunate. people are out of jobs. people are anxious. we need to build confidence. in the long run, i think that doing a big, bold, balance a to fiscal policy, which will pace the united states on fiscally sustainable path is frankly the best thing that we could do for

the economy. it is going to be essential if when we hit all of these things sometime between now and november 6, this congress needs to take responsible action to take us on a sound path. we will also pass substances legislation to grow the jobs bill. i have urged him to bring it to the floor. i said if you do not agree with it, fine. a vote against it. mr. john boehner said the substantive issues will be put on the floor and the house would work its will. the president has offered a very substantive piece of legislation which could grow as

many as 2 million jobs. we will have that on the floor. i urge him to put that on the floor. let us vote it up or down. the answer is he is saying he does not think we will do much. we will simply be offering legislation to create what newt gingrich wanted to create, wedge issues and confrontation and division. that is unfortunate to the country. other than that i do not think much about it. >> we have time for one more. >> i have a radical idea. i wonder if the time has come that both education and health care should be considered infrastructure. roads and ports are necessary for manufacturing.

i think a healthy educated work force is equally important for capitalism. that may change the concept of how we should fund it. >> i have an alternative. you're raising a point. it ought to get funded. there are national security issues. education is a national security issue. infrastructure is a national security issue. as well as stabilizing our economy is a security issue. if we think of it in the context of our national security as well as our national future and the future of our children, i think we ought to consider both of those issues as national security issues. >> i think that is a great ending. thank you so much. >> thank you all for being here. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012]

clucks in the house will be back in for a round of votes debated earlier today. tomorrow, the house is beginning consideration on a bill to repeal the 2010 health care law. you can watch live coverage when they resume at 6:30 p.m. eastern. coming up on booktv.org, robert merry looks at how presidents are ranked. his new book, "where they stand," look that leaders of destiny and other failures. on a presidential rankings live

up from washington, d.c. my at 7:00 p.m. eastern streaming on booktv.org. >> i don't mean to sound like i want to go crazy and "really the internet." -- "regulate the internet." >> co-editor of "all things d" on the relationships between technology makers and the government tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on "the communicators" c-span2. ahead of the house taking up a repeal the health care law, a look at the supreme court ruling that was a major topic at this year's western conservative summit in denver. next, remarks by former education center -- secretary

under reagan. >> you will need more as the summit goes on. in 2010, the summit became a booster rocket that i believe significantly helped colorado do what it had never done before, turnover two congressional seats from democratic to republican in one election. [applause] we hope this has a similar booster rocket defect for a winnable congressional seats, one of which is the basic get district. -- formerly locked 2nd congressional district. it stretches north towards fort

collins. after a spirited crime rate this -- primary this tuesday between two good friends the nominee who you met last night is valuable to many other events with his efforts. former trustee to ccu and he is on duty back there right now. we will take about his operation to turn this back to the republican column. please welcome a state senator. kevin lundberg. [applause] >> thank you very much. this past week the roberts court gave congress a blank check of power over we the people in the 50 individual states.

the court may have turned this into a referendum on obamacare. or shall i call it obamatax and a referendum on every state government and the freedom of every citizen. if the court cannot follow the constitution, we need a congress that can. [applause] that is why i am running for congress. we need a congress that will repeal obamatax and hold high the limited government of life and liberty. i am challenging the second congressional district. he is a part of the big central government agenda that is dismantling our constitutionally based, limited government federalist system. i am running but it cannot do

it on my own. i am running because i believe that is my role. it cannot happen without a big army at people. he is the richest democrat in the u.s. house. that is a daunting obstacle. i look out across the people here. i of look at the several hundred people who have already stepped up. i know we can make a difference. we have this. pick up a contribution on a look.

joining the team. you can make a difference. we best make that difference this year. if we can dislodge obama's champion we will make history. this the air we must make history. -- this year, we must make history. thank you very much. [applause] >> we hope sent to be the cali of scott and mike. in an augmented colorado delegation. congratulations on your primary when. we hope to soon be calling you congressman. if you're anything like me, and i know i certainly am, you were tremendously impressed with former president senator rick santorum who was part of last year's double header on opening

night along with the governor of texas rick perry if you are anything like me and you participated in our caucuses, you were gratified to help him win a dramatic ups that and sweep those caucuses. if you're anything like me, yet also been gratified to see him strongly fall in behind the imperative to replace barack obama with a conservative minded republicans such as mitt romney. we are very pleased that he has set up the special video message to the summit since he and karen had hoped to visit in person but they are on a well aren't family vacation. let's hear from senator rick

santorum by video. >> i am sorry i cannot be with you. i certainly enjoyed my time there last year. i greatly appreciate the warm welcome. i want to thank all the folks for the wonderful surprise that we ended up winning. i do not know of any that was more of a shock. i would like to say thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to have our boys to be heard -- voice to be heard. that is one of the reasons we decided to start patriot voices, a website and an organization, to make sure your voice continues to be heard not just the route this election as the campaign for candidates to

make sure the conservatives are nominated and then elected. but also to make sure your voice on the issues that are facing three them an opportunity, making sure that we step to the traditional values of this come true. that vision continues. from a romney to house and senate candidates. we hold their feet of the fire and continued to be that voiced a strong conservatism. i wanted to to be encouraged to do your job out west, get them in gauging -- engaging primaries that i have been able to be involved in. we have picked up a few that

will be necessary for us to get the majority and lay a strong majority work with matt from me to make that happen. i want to spot -- and hopefully a strong majority work with mitt romney to make that happen. i want to thank my friends who help with this event together. this is the most important election in the history of our country. it is our watch. we saw an abuse of power recently with immigration. usurping authority trying to undermine the family with his change in position on families. this president is someone who has to be stopped from doing great harm and destruction. we need your help to get out there and make it happen. two years ago we had a great

election cycle except out west. we cannot let that happen this time around. i encourage you to join a patriot of voices to get involved in campaigns across this country and to make a difference for the conservative cause in this election. thank you very much. god bless you. [applause] >> senator rick santorum, not leaving the battlefield at all, continuing to fight under new colors for his conservative agenda that you and i largely share. i was trying to think what they called him -- the transit system, it don't they call it septa? it is what happens when you spend your campaign budget they still have good intentions. we want to thank the technical

producer for getting the sow enhanced so we could hear his support message. speaking of hearing things loud and clear, lot of us in colorado do not know what we would do with a out the radio and its sister station. 1410 colorado springs. the wholesale and radio network which will be very well represented at the summit today. we have got another salem host on tap for dinner this evening. his family rival, i am not sure whether the rivalry or the french predominate on any day. -- or the friend part predominates. we are delighted. i want to get a moment to a great friend of ccu from the

very day we began. the general manager in denver for the purposes of an introduction of bill bennett. please welcome our great friend brian taylor. [applause] >> thank you. i appreciate all the work you and the unit do. -- and the institute do. also it to senator armstrong, thank you so much. this has grown to quite a vision. we appreciate that. it is a big week in media. and not always such great news. the you combine things like fires and the president coming in to town, these are the things we live for. did he say if you're the 56 for

57 state tax -- we were the 56 or 57th state? [laughter] my mom always says say something nice. rose garden is looking good this year. the golf swing has really picked up. i like his dog a lot. bo has papers. just want to point that out to you. [applause] thank you so much. we are so proud to be a partner with this event. salem communications is a publicly owned broadcast. we are the parents company of 710 knus. we're also a christian broadcaster. locally you will fine 94.7 krks is one of our stations. we are proud of that.

>> is anyone signed up for hotair.com? also publications like town hall magazine, part of the salem communications family. i would like to take a moment, if i could, to throw out a little commercial for the fire victims. one thing that is so tragic to have to see what is going on.

if you are a business owner or business decision maker, if you would like to donate $1,000 to the red cross, i will match with advertising on our radio stations. [applause] thank you. my staff and i will produce commercials for use to you can get a thank-you. i just what you'd have some encouragement to we can help some victims through this fire situation. one of the exciting parts then i get is to be able to interact with the host you here every day. one of our newest programs is steve kelly, a longtime denver broadcaster who has joined us on the air. i think he will be up later. kip hewitt will be speaking later, and today's speaker, our friend bill bennett.

he's quite a guy. i really appreciate the presence that he brings to our staff. he is a very conscientious man. it's funny when you put them all in a room together, everybody gets along. when the bill comes in the room, everybody stand at attention. he's a man's man. when he came in to do is broadcast, they were all ready to serve in their suits and ties. i thought maybe he was going to hit them on the head like moe and larry. he loves colorado. he has done, i think, 14 here. he keeps attacking that part of the challenge. we appreciate the values he communicate through his books and his commentary.

i just want to take this time to, again, have devalued opportunity to introduce a premier storyteller, a statesman, and author, a historian, a servant, a mountain climber, a family man, and a friend. dr. bill bennett. [applause] >> thank you. thank you. [applause] i was trying not to be impolite. i'm just trying to move along. i just have some things i want to say. good afternoon, western conservatives. good afternoon. i was the secretary of education. i said no.

knus has treated me really well. i am so glad bryan introduced me. he is a proper sized man. andros will criticize me in a few minutes. that is fine, too. i will do it before andrews does. for those of you who do not know, there are 54 peaks in colorado. i have climbed 33 of them. [applause] most of them were in the earlier days. i was at mount, the yesterday. -- mount columbia yesterday. when i climbed the mountain, it knows. [applause]

dejon and donna andrews have been great teachers of mine and france -- friends. bill armstrong one of the first people we looked up to and wanted to be with in washington. there are good men and women in washington. they are not in oversupply. we do not have too many of them. but they are there. the armstrongs are two of them. i am grateful to see my great friend, a patriot, a brilliant teacher. they're about 100 commentary's after john roberts decision on thursday. i read them all. hughs' was the best. he is a brilliant man. a friend. a rival. the party dominates is friend. aristotle says there are three kinds of french ships.

fred you have because they give you pleasure. friends you have because they are useful to you. in france you have because they encourage excellence in you. as a friend, they encourage you to be a better human being. for you come a desultory. most of all the third. i am happy and proud to call you a friend. i want to talk to about what happened on thursday and what it means to all of us. i am talking about the supreme court decision. i hope you do not mind if i do this. we have to talk about it. we have to get through this. we have to realize what the challenge is. i put myself through a fair number of arduous activities in addition to going up 14ers. i worked for cnn. maybe brian's mother could double the viewership for cnn.

[applause] bill o'reilly was at my house for dinner the other night with a group of people. i was not there. [applause] no, it's fine. there were lots of people there. i told bill reilly that i love fox. i love watching fox. in the conservatives can be on fox. i said, i am on cnn. i parachute in behind enemy lines. twice a week. i sit there on a panel 14 people. john kennedy says very courageous of you, bill. very anonymous said he. very courageous of you. no one is watching. what happened thursday in washington was a travesty. i cannot tell you how disappointed i am in john

roberts. i cannot tell you how disappointed i am -- [applause] i will tell you why. i will tell you why because i know him. a lot of friends of his our friends of mine. i have a dinner with him. talks with him. i had some doubts when he came in. and i have expressed them to people who were in the business of setting because in 1990, i heard the name david souter. i was the drugs are at the time. i called my friend bill kristol, my chief of staff for the department of education. i said, what you think of this david souter appointment? i said, let us go see sununu. i had a cabinet level position. bill was t steff today coil. we went to see john sununu. he said, what is the problem? we are worried about david souter. i said, i am worried about a guy who lives at home with his

mother all his life. i am worried about that. it is not that he needs to live at home with his mother all his life. the interests, the opinions are not those of a conservative. john sununu said i am not revealing anything i have not talked about before. he said he is that for. -- vouched for. we were worried about david souter . we were right to be worried. it turned out to be one of the most liberal justices in the supreme court. now, i told you about cnn. i watch cnn this morning. they have two financial people on. two economics people saying conservatives have it all wrong about obamacare. it will put money into people's pockets. i do not know whose pockets it will put money into.

who will get money out of this. this challenge has to be taken up. along with a host of other challenges. i then watched -- be ready for this. you heard it from me first. i heard a panel on msnbc. i am willing to do all sorts of things for you out. i am willing to go there so you don't have to go. you're welcome. [laughter] [applause] that is what offensive tackles are made for. [applause] i was the major problem in my job, chairman of the national endowment for humanities and secretary of education for reagan. in the drug czar for bush. they thought i was my security. they said, you look like a big irish cop. i said, that is agreed to look especially in washington because people need to be arrested. on msnbc this morning, he was what was said. this is what happens. this is an example of how republicans and democrats can work together.

ok? we have been hearing how bad gridlock and what a terrible thing it is. and how great it would be if we could work together. we just had working together, john roberts blessing the decision of the obama administration. there were two defense is in the first hour of this by two of my friends, good friends and neighbors. i have already written this down. they will hear from me. they said roberts maybe was doing something honorable, defending the institutional integrity of the court.

he has two jobs. the constitution and the institution. i do not see anything in the constitution or the federalist papers about an institutional responsibility. [applause] the their columns. they are good men. they are smart. they are wrong on this. all lacy is fidelity of the constitution. -- all i see is fidelity of the constitution. they say he was being tough on the commerce clause and the necessary and proper clause so he cannot use them to make government bigger. if you can do it all through taxation, you do not need the necessary and proper clause and the other clauses. if the man gets reelected, he appoints another justice or two, it does not matter what justice roberts believes. here's the really galling part. the notion that some sense of the institutional integrity of the court requires him to find a way contrary to his reading of the constitution -- madison would have been appalled.

the argument here is political. the worry would be if he found against the president that it would be seen as a politically motivated decision and people would regard it as political. the chief justice of the supreme court and the other justices are to have no regard for politics whatsoever. [applause] it is not good to antagonize people. you mean it is not good to antagonize liberals. you sure antagonized a lot of conservatives with that decision. [applause] if the issue is the credibility of the court, it took a beating yesterday with a lot of americans. [applause] the on the responsibility that

justice of the supreme court has is to render an opinion with intellectual integrity. based on the constitution and the reading of the constitution. that is it. i was just looking at my iphone. politico -- we may never know the answer to this question. a lot of people think reading the language very closely that john roberts originally was speaking for the majority and it was a majority composed of roberts and scalia. why my forbidding kennedy? he did so well this time. that was a five-cluster majority. then he switched. i am not saying he did. if you read the opinions, that is the suggestion. one has to know why it he

switched. no one has yet mustered a good constitutional argument. the only arguments mustard are political. that should not be the case. that should not be the case. as he said, roberts, the mandate is unconstitutional so we read it as a tax. it was not written as a tax. they denied it was a tax. nowhere in the language does it say it is a tax. the dissenting opinions of the minority say of course great differences to be given to the legislature and the executive in applying the constitution to legislation. if a constitutional way can be

found to approve it, so be it. the judges may be creative. they may be sympathetic. they may be inclined to regard and a voice and language in the direction of the legislature -- ambiguous language in the direction of the legislature. the court cannot rewrite the statute. that is exactly what happened yesterday. it was a blow to the american republic. it was a blow to the body of politics. let me just say a couple of more things. a bit of history. then, i will stop for questions. on the political basis, one of the really disappointing things here is that barack obama has been in a downward spiral.

almost everything he has done has been perceived to be wrong by the american people. robert saved him from then on thursday. -- roberts saved him from then on thursday. it does not make any sense. now, you will hear the vulgarity and profanity about what they have achieved. we will see another step forward for these obamacare legislations. i have gotten a lot of angry e- mails from members of my listening audience. they are mad as hell. ok. so am i. it is time to channel it into action because we now have such

a clear direction. chief justice roberts said the court is not here to insulate the american people from the consequences of its political decisions. that is correct. the american people made terrible mistake in electing barack obama. let us hope they have seen that and they will correct that. [applause] one might also say if the court is not there to help the american people, they are not there to calculate political consideration in rendering a decision based on the constitution. it should do its solemn duty. while we are mad, let us channel it. let us channel in a positive direction for this fall. this is a bad thing that

happened. there is no white washing. it is not the worst moment in american history. it is not the worst place we have ever been. i do not like it. i did not like it friday. i said to my audience -- people were saying, this is really bad. i said, is due on it for a day. -- stew on it. then sunday, put your shoes on and go to work. this country has survived a civil war. this country has survived a great depression. this country has survived the eve of world war ii. military historians know we were already. this country has survived 1968 -- a horrible year of death and despair. the first two years of the obama administration were worse than today. that is when this monstrosity was passed and he had a majority.

he had the house. he had everything. the senate. the presidentcy. -- presidency. there is work to do. plenty of it. think of the spirit of 1976. i will do it on tuesday. the boys have to be back in quantico on wednesday saw our second lieutenant is bringing up the whole squad to have a barbecue at our house on tuesday. [applause] i said on the radio the whole squadron -- your kid is a marine. he is not in the air force. ok. sorry.

i am learning. the spirit of 1976 will govern next tuesday and wednesday. let the spirit of november 20 can govern, as well. remember what happened in november of 2010? you are part of it. let us do it again. look, a couple on the considerations. we have they couldn't -- a good and very aggressive candidate for president of the united states on the republican ticket. a perfectly good and decent man. my wife knows ann romney and swears by her and his boys. i asked rick santorum if he was with him. he said 102%. someone said i am so sorry you dropped out. he said if i can come to romney, you can come to romney. [applause]

tonight think about the future? i know the best way you are encouraged to think about the future is to think about your children and grandchildren. think about some of our other progeny's out there. think of chris christie. mark rubio. nikki haley. i think of paul ryan who used to carry my books. [applause] it is all true. now i say, i know paul ryan. i know paul ryan. [laughter] we hiked last year in colorado. i think i was that close to getting him to run.

i ran out of steam and he went ahead and that was it. i lost the argument. we have a great bench. i only mention the third of them. we have a lot of people coming along in the conservative movement. i am very optimistic. the other thing is one of the great blessings of my life. i have had the opportunity to write a three volume history of america. i wrote it because our major problem -- remember i am the secretary of education so i am biased. people do not know what america is. our young people do not know what this country is. [applause] they do not know that in the long story of misery and inhumanity, the american achievement is unique and is high. like no other. they did not know that. i am not sure they know what to say in all this debate.

the other thing i learned is about the american capacity for self renewal. we sometimes have to be pushed right to the edge, but we come back. you know what i see? i see the anybody's kicking in. i see the reform kicking in. -- the entire body is kicking in. i see the reform kicking in. we're going to get people to wake up by asking them to join us for the things we care about. and to link arms with us, as you heard this morning. the governor of arizona -- my gosh, what the past we have come to when the president of the united states meets with the president of mexico three times

before he meets with the governor of one of his own sovereign states. [applause] i said on the radio and people check it out. i said i challenge you to compare what lincoln said about south carolina on the eve of secession with what barack obama has said about arizona lincoln was not as hard on south carolina as barack obama was on arizona. if you want to put yourself in that mold, act in that mold. if you want to be that person come to imitate. when he goes back to america. -- let me close by to america. 1862 after the bloodiest day in american history come abraham lincoln addressed congress. he said we shall nobly save or meanly lose this last and best hope of earth. when i became secretary of education, my wife was an

elementary schoolteacher. she said, you are a teacher. you are a good teacher. go teach. i said i am the secretary of education of the united states. i do not do retell. i do also. [laughter] -- i do not do retell. i do wholesaled. she said do good retail and he will do better also. she said going into the schools, you might consider homework. why don't you do your homework before you make a pronouncement? i said, none of the other guys do. she was right. i went to 130 schools around the country. i had a great time. one story was in san diego. a young woman said, you really love america. i said you know, it is hard for me not to.

i grew up in new york. my mother was married five times. my brother and i had scholarships. i made it to the cabinet of the u.s. warehouses that happen? i will give that to buraku san obama. -- barack obama. he said no or else could that happen. he is absolutely else. -- absolutely right. before his election, there was press all of the world saying america will never do this. it will never elect a black man. baloney. you know that is true. i know that is true. i think we got the wrong one. [applause] but the notion of race does not matter. colin powell would have been a very great canada. everybody knows that. he is more liberal than i am. she said, you really love this country.

i said yes. she said why? i told her about my life story. she said, i do nothing that happens everywhere. i said i have a test. every country has case. one test is when you raise the gates, which we did people run? in or out? i have been to germany. i said we raise our kids and everybody runs in. we all raise our gates and everybody runs in. what is it they want? are they irrational? they are not irrational. something good is going on here. that is the gates test. she promised she would think about it. overtime and as i have reflected on my son's service and other things, there is another test. at the time we went into iraq during the stories -- hearing these stories, a radians were saying, u.s. air force come here next. if you are in some horrible, terrible poor place -- with a dictator's boot on your neck and you see a group of men coming over a hill in uniform and they are carrying a flag, you hope and pray is the flight of the united states of america.

[applause] that is the lesson our kids need to learn. that is the lesson chief justice roberts need to learn. i do not think a lot of the u.n. -- redecoration of human rights and all of the other documents that they use to issue their populations and --

proclamations. the language is where the echo is. they are the most imitated political documents on the face of the earth. the most imitated political documents on the face of the earth. my final comment is to chief justice roberts. you should stop to it. thank you very much. i welcome your questions. [applause] >> how right. bill bennett. when he climbs a mountain summit, he knows it has declined. you have experienced when he browses a political summit, it knows we have been aroused. we have our marching orders. we bring the lights up and there are some standing microphones on each side of the hall. come to the microphone to put your question so that our c- span audience and our lives

audience watching us can be in on the discussion. please identify yourself so that dr. bennett knows who's question he is taking. i do not see the first question. we will go immediately to the second question here all right. here we are. thank you. >> thank you, dr. bennett, for being with us today. my question for you is, we can overcome obamacare by turning around the president of the united states and the senate. how can we overcome the precedent that was set for us by the court when they set a

precedent saying that we have taxing authority over behavior? >> great question. i do not think people have questioned the taxation power that the government has. congress has the power to tax. we settled this when week that a constitutional amendment about taxation. i wish into rush limbaugh the other day. he was out -- i listen to rush limbaugh the of the day. he said do not worry about interstate commerce. all liberals need to do is use taxation. there is one good thing about using the taxation power over and over again. the people are remarkably sensitive to it. they do not like it. they did not like it the first tea party are round and they do not like it in the occasion of this tea party.

if you think i am wrong, tell me why for so many years the obama administration said it is not a tax. it is not the tax. it is not a tax. if they had confidence that calling it a tax was a winning position, why didn't they do that? you know why? if they did so, it would not have passed. it would not have passed. they backed off from calling it a tax because they knew that would not pass. the only guy who really called a tax made a difference -- that was the chief justice. that is a crying shame. they did not have the guts to do it. they did not have the candor to do it. the chief justice did not have the constitutional authority to do it. that is one power that congress has to which the people react. they do not like texas. -- taxes. >> am i next? [laughter] >> you are too far along to stop. >> all right. the thing that upsets me the very most is that we as

conservatives seem too willing to let the liberals have the moral high ground. for instance, someone will say well, we as liberals want to help the poor. that makes us more moral. i would love to hear conservatives come back and say, that depends on how you get the money to help the poor. accede to watch the west of this as the taking for a round of votes on bills debated earlier today. h.r. 4155, h.r. 4367, h.r. 5892, and -- in each case by the yeas and nays. the first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five-minute votes. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from utah, mr. echaffetz to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4155 as amended

on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar, h.r. 4155, to direct the head of the federal department and agency to treat military training as sufficient training for federal licenses. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill as amended? members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 369, the nays are zero. 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the the gentleman from missouri, mr. luke mire to pass h.r. 4367 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 416, h.r. 4367 a bill to amend the electronic fund transfer act to limit the fee disclosure

requirement for an automatic teller machine to the screen of that machine. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 371, the nays are zero. 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from washington, the gentlewoman from washington, mrs. mcmorris rodgers, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 5892 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 404, h.r. 5892, a bill to improve hydropower and for

other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill? members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 372,

the nays are zero. 2/3 being in the affirmative, the rules are uhsen -- the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to remove myself as co-sponsor of h.r. 3798, the product inspections act. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> thank you, i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. smith: i move that the house pass h.r. 61. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: senate 2061, an act to provide for exchange of land between the department of homeland security and the south carolina state courts authority. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas and the gentlewoman from california will be recognized for 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include

extraneous materials on s. 2061 currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: mr. speaker, this legislation authorizes the secretary of the department of homeland security to transfer a property located in south carolina and owned by the united states in exchange for property owned by the south carolina state ports authority. the department will acquire land that is important to the continued operation and development of the federal law enforcement training centers maritime academy. the state of south carolina will acquire land that will allow the south carolina state ports authority to develop an access road to interstate 26. this exchange would have already occurred but the department of homeland security secretary lacked the authority to engage in the transfer of real property. this bill gives the secretary the necessary authority to facilitate this transaction. this is a commonsense solution that will benefit both the state

of south carolina and the united states. this bill and the underlying land exchange is supported by the governor of south carolina, the south carolina state ports authority and the secretary of the u.s. department of homeland security. the senate passed this bill by unanimous consent last month. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation and i'll reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlelady from california is recognized. ms. chu: mr. speaker, i rise in support of senate bill 2061, the former charleston naval base land exchange act of 2012. this bill authorizes the secretary of homeland security to convey a parcel of federal land in north charleston, south carolina, to the south carolina state ports authority in exchange for specified lands owned by the ports authority. the land to be transferred by the department of homeland security formally -- form early comprised a portion of the charleston naval base but is now

vacant. d.h.s. currently leases the land it plans to acquire in this transfer and uses it to house some of the operations of the federal law enforcement training center also known fletc. it contains a shipping port in the united states with one passenger and four container port terminals as well as numerous privately held terminals. the waterways in this area contain shipping channels, rivers, bays, creeks, streams, the intracoastal waterway and the atlantic ocean. these waterways provide a realistic training environment for the maritime law enforcement and port security students. specifically the charleston facility is one of the three residential training centers and includes a variety of specialized capabilities for maritime law enforcement and port security training. the facilities include four

deepwater peers for large commercial or military vessels and three sets of floating docks for smaller vessels. students at the charleston facility engage in programs such as commercial vessel boarding, training, maritime tactical operations training and seaport security anti-terrorism training. all of these programs are critical to protecting our nation from the potential of a variety of criminal and terrorist threats. by allowing the mutually beneficial transfer of the lands between the port authority and d.h.s. we are advancing the important mission. i urge my colleagues to support senate bill 2061 which the senate has already adopted so that it may become law. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i have no further speakers on this side and am prepared to yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlelady from california. ms. chu: mr. speaker, i yield

back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass senate bill 2061. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended and the bill is passed. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the chair will entertain

requests for one-minute speeches. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from the district of columbia seek recognition? ms. norton: one minute to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. norton: mr. speaker, the house just won't let up on american women. tomorrow features a committee markup to deprive women of their constitutional rights to an abortion. the bill picks on d.c. women because republicans don't have the nerve to introduce this frontal attack on row vs. wade as a nationwide bill. but they make no secret of their purpose. they have already gotten several conservative states to pass similar laws and they seek a federal precedent but they can't get a legitimate one. women will easily see a house-only bill based on bogus science and limited for what it

is. the latest in a series of attacks on women's reproductive health this term. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. are there further requests for one-minute speeches? the chair lays before the house the following personal request. the clerk: leaves of absence requested for mr. coble of north carolina for today, mr. culberson of texas for today and mr. desjarlais of tennessee for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the requests are granted. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from the virgin islands, mrs. christensen, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mrs. christensen: thank you, mr.

speaker. and i ask unanimous consent that all speakers may have -- i ask unanimous consent for them to be able to revise and extend their remarks in accordance with the subject of the special order this evening. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. christensen: and i'd like to enter into the record a statement from congresswoman eddie bernice johnson. the speaker pro tempore: it will be covered by general leave. mrs. christensen: thank you. i want to again begin by thanking the democratic leader forgiving the congressional black caucus this time, to focus on health care reform specifically. specialy -- especially as the house is preparing to continue their attempts to repeal what we know is a good bill and a needed bill in this country. i just want, before i begin to yield time, to just recognize the 103rd anniversary of the naacp. they have long been champions,

premier champions of health care , fought for health care, the right, they are committed to eliminating the racial and ethnic disparities in our health care system that plague people of color in the united states. they have focused on eliminating disparities through their 880 campaign which is a campaign that is based on the fact that over the past decade, because we have not -- mr. speaker, the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. mrs. christensen: thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. christensen: the 880 campaign is based on the fact that over a decade, because we have not eliminated health disparities, over 880,000 african-americans and other people of color have died premature deaths and preventive causes. that did not need to happen. so we continue that fight in

health care reform. we have made great strides in it. and we look forward to implementing that law, despite the attempts to repeal today. so i want to congratulate the naacp on their 103rd anniversary this evening. and i'd like to yield -- are you going to speak? i'd like to yield such time as she might consume to the gentlelady from texas, congresswoman eddie bernice johnson. ms. johnson: thank you very much. and thank you, mr. speaker. two weeks ago the united states supreme court justly and commendabley upheld the affordable care act, ensuring that millions of americans will continue to have access to quality, affordable health care. despite this monumental victory for our country, for the 31st time since the enactment republicans are attempting to repeal the health care law. treating it as if this is just

some kind of political game played between the two parties. while the affordable care act will expand coverage for millions of americans, many texans will be denied access by their governor. and i'm a texan. yesterday the texas governor, rick pery, announced his decision not to expand medicaid, implementing state health exchange under the affordable care act. nothing more than politics. however, during this announcement, governor perry failed to provide an alternative plan to address the growing numbers of uninsured texans. texas has the highest percentage of adults without health care insurance and rejecting federal medicaid funds would only worsen this predicament for texans. without the affordable care act millions of uninsured americans will continue to seek primary

care in our nation's overcrowded emergency rooms. leaving taxpayers to pay the tab, if they own property. as a nonpracticing registered nurse, i am all too familiar with this scenario which has placed a huge burden on our nation's hospital systems. mr. speaker, this week's g.o.p. messaging vote to repeal is nothing more than a political warfare on an election year. instead of bringing job-creating bills to the floor our leadership insists on wasting taxpayers' dollars by debating a law which has been firmly upheld by the nation's highest courts. while the republicans have introduced numerous measures to undermine and repeal the affordable care act. they have repeatedly failed to introduce one piece of legislation which could serve as a viable alternative to the health care law. i urge my colleagues to reject

this effort and take away patient protection for americans , instead for once let partisan politics come in second and let the american people win this one. thank you and i yield back. mrs. christensen: thank you, congresswoman johnson, and thank you for beginning to lay out the issue before us this evening as we know that we've done landmark legislation in passing the affordable care act. it is now settled law. the supreme court has ruled. and we have a lot of other work that the american people need us to do. at this time i'd like to yield such time as she might consume to the gentlelady from florida, congresswoman brown. ms. brown: mr. speaker, thank you very much for leading this discussion on health care. you know, you can fool some of the people some of the time but

you can't fool all of the people all of the time. and as we begin to discuss repealing of the health care law tomorrow, i would like to discuss just how exactly the affordable care act benefits all americans. although not a perfect bill, and i have been elected in congress for 20 years and i've never seen a perfect bill, but a perfect beginning, and the reason why it's not perfect is because you make compromises throughout the process. this is a perfect start and a tipping to obtain universal health care has been a primary goal of every single president and congress since the days of president franklin dell nor roosevelt. who -- delano roosevelt, who fought for quality health care and health reform for all

americans and now, 75 years later, after the supreme court ruling just over a week ago, our nation has finally attained that goal. did you hear me? after 75 years, every single president has tried to implement some form of universal health care. in fact, millions of americans have already come to rely on the wide ranges and life-saving benefits of the affordable care act. and let me say that as far as obama health care is concerned, let me clear something up. it's president barack obama and let me be clear, he does care. . let me say again, president barack obama does care he cares deeply about the health and well being of every american.

before congress passed the affordable care act, nearly one in five citizens in the wealthiest country on earth had little or no hope of affordable insurance or getting access to regular health care. and when fully implemented, the affordable care act will cover an adecisional 30 million americans and 3.8 million african-americans who otherwise would remain uninsured. already under the affordable care act, 17 million children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied coverage. 105 million americans no longer have a lifetime limit on their coverage. 32 million seniors receive free preventive care in 2011. 54 million americans in private plans have received free preventive services. 6.6 million young adults up to

the age of 26 have obtained insurance through their parents' plan. 5.2 million seniors andties abling people saved $404 each on scription drugs. 306 million small businesses have received tax credits to help them obtain insurance for workers. rebates have arnolded $51 -- $152 in 2012. and six million young adults in my district will receive health insurance and thousands of seniors will receive coverage and 20,000 children and 80,000

adults now have health care insurance that covers preventive service without co-pay, co-insurance or deductible. every american has a benefit from this need and let their local representative, every american who has benefited from this needs to let their local representative, their senator and their governor know, we all have a dog in this fight. the republican party is constantly complaining about a tax and how this law will raise taxes but i like to reply to them, the american taxpayers is already paying a hidden tax right now. every single time one of the millions of our citizens who lack health care insurance receives emergency care, that cost is passed on to paying customers throughout high -- through our higher fees and freem yums. so the question is, how can we begin to bring our country's health care costs down?

and this law is the first step in achieving this. in closing, as i always say, you can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all the time and i yield back the balance of my time. mrs. christensen: i thank you for pointing out the benefits and the number of americans enjoying those benefits already over the last two years and those benefits extend to all americans, whether they live in democratic or republican districts. we want to make sure that people are able to continue to insure their people with pre-existing diseases and get that important prevent i care without a co-pay and begin to -- continue to strengthen the medicare program as we have in the affordable care act. ms. brown: i have one question before i leave. the question of tax or penalty,

very debatable question, but my concern is, anyone that has insurance, they're not affected . and if you will not pay that -- and if you will not pay that penalty unless -- if you can afford it and you don't have it, then you're going to pay some minimum amount. would you explain to people who are watching? because basically, it is just for those small, less than 1% who do not try to get coverage. >> that's correct. like you saiding there's a hardship provision, if people just cannot afford it and fall in the crack between the medicaid expansion and the exchange, they will not have to pay. it will be a very small percentage. 1% or %, the c.b.o. says, will end up paying the penalty and it's a small penalty. yes, for administrative purposes, it's collected

through the i.r.s. but it's a penalty and very few people would have to pay it. as you said also in your statement, we pay anyway and we may more on the other end for not having everyone insured. ms. brown: the question is, i guess, if you go to the hospital, and i was on the plane with one of the businesspersons and he was talking about it, i said you know you're already paying if someone on this plane, passes out, they're going to the hospital, they're going to service them and it's called cost shifting, so you're already paying the cost at the most expensive way to provide health care and many people do it they wait until friday, 5:00, and go to the emergency room. the most expensive way to provide it. mrs. christensen: and people who are not insured or who have insurance with a high co-pay don't go for preventive care. now they can get it without a

co-pay, without having that preventive care, they end up in the emergency room or in our hospitals at the worst, the illness has worsened and the cost is more. we can prevent that by having everyone insured, having everyone have preventive care. i know people are saying, we're not recusing --you rucing n't first couple of years but over that 10-year period and the 10 years past that, you will see in many ways that the costs will be reduced. ms. brun: last question. the governors, texas, you mentioned, florida, these governors say, we're not going to take advantage of the expansion, i, as a private citizen, what can i do, because the president just like the governor, they can only propose but the legislators are the ones that dispose. the president brought his proposal to congress, but we had the ultimate decision as to what the final bill would look like. and that is the truth in the

state houses also. mrs. christensen: that's true. we'll be working with our state legislatures to make sure they understand what's at stake and the voters in their district who are enjoying those benefits and looking forward to finally having insurance they can afford for the first time will be talking to them about what they feel is important. ms. brown: where are the health care providers and the people who provide additional services, how should they weigh in? mrs. christensen: i'm going to read some statements from primary care physicians at the end of this special order but they're beginning to weigh in and based on what i was reading today, they're weighing in favorably and they will benefit as well. it's going to change, change is difficult, no matter what, but they'll benefit as well and they're beginning to speak up. ms. brown: i want to thank you

for your leadership on this matter. you worked throughout the process, keep us informed, i think you're the only female physician -- mrs. christensen: i am the first female physician and the only physician in the c.b.c. ms. brown: thank you. mrs. christensen: one thing we don't talk about is the job crease ated through the affordable care act. we just finally passed the transportation bill and that will begin to create some jobs and save some job bus the health care reforl bill is also a job-creating bill, it's projected it will create about four million jobs other the 10-year period, of all tinds system of we've been creating jobs as well in the affordable care act. i'd like to yield such time as she may consume to the

gentlelady from ohio, congresswoman fudge. ms. fudge: thank you so much. i thank you for yielding and i thank the gentlelady for all her work on the affordable care act. people seem to believe that this is something done in haste. they don't understand that for almost a year or more, people like you, people like members of the c.b.c., worked very, very hard to make sure we could come up with legislation that would be not only a good piece of legislation for the people of this country, something that would be for this congress. i thank you for your leadership, you have been our leader on this and i thank you for that. mr. speaker, i join my colleague to express my strong support of the affordable health care for all americans. the supreme court has spoken. upholding landmark legislation that ensures all americans have

access to affordable quality health care. millions of americans across the country are realizing the benefits of the affordable care act. the numbers are impressive. 6 million americans have received free preventive care, free exams, mammograms and other screenings. 17 million children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be edenied coverage. 6 ppt 6 million young adults remain under their parents' insurance plan until they're age 26. 17,000 previously uninsured americans with pre-existing conditions now have the security of coverage through the pre-existing condition insurance program. the act pays for actual care. this is something that people don't understand. the act pays for actual care, not the over-inflated salary of the c.e.o.'s and executives. as a result, 12. million americans will receive more

than 1.-- more than $1.1 billion in rebates because their insurance company spent too much of their dollars on administrative costs or c.e.o. bonuses. let me repeat that another way. they are required to spend the bulk of your money, at least 80%, on actual care. if they don't spend it on actual care, you are reimbursed. that's what is happening. we will be rebated more than $1 billion. further, the law makes enormous headway toward closing the gap on health disparities, on which my colleague knows so much. it includes increased funding for community health centers, which are so often a critical part of the health safety net in underserved communities. we should be focusing on creating jobs, rather than voting to repeal a law that's estimated to provide health care coverage to up to 32 million americans. the highest court in the land

has ruled and the american people won. let's stop this foolishness and focus on jobs. i yield back. mrs. christensen: thank you. thank you, congresswoman fudge, you're right. this is not a win for democrats, this is not a win for democrats, this is a win for the american people. thank you for bringing up the rebates, the $1.1 billion in rebates. in addition to the rebates, because some insurance companies have spent over the 80% that had to be provided in service, the secretary has been able, in at least states already, to be able to keep the increases in premiums at 10% or less. and that's another function of the affordable care act. our constituents have been crying out for the increases in premiums that they've been experiencing every year. now the affordable care act has given the secretary the authority to keep those premiums within a not more than 10% increase.

ms. fudge: thank you and thank you again for your service. ms. kristen spen -- mrs. christensen: thank you. as my colleagues have said, the supreme court settled this law, this is landmark legislation, like social security, medicare, medicaid and schip. we have a lot more work the american people need us to do. we need to continue the middle income tax cut, we need to pass the american jobs act, we need to continue to address the issue of the mortgages that are causing people to lose their homes. i was reading today in one of the papers that african-americans are expected to be able to bear the burden of the mortgage fallout for many years to come. longer than everyone else. we also have to implement the affordable care act. we have the exchanges. and i know a lot of talk about the exchanges and whether we'll be able to provide subsidies but what we ought to be doing is working together to make sure that that very important

part of this law can be fully implemented. we're talking about the working poor. people who are doing the right thing, being responsible, working and trying to cake tear -- to take care of their families. it would be so unfair to them, now that they see within their reach affordable health care, to take that away. we're going to pay for it even now, or we're going to pay for it later, as congresswoman brown was saying. let's pay on this side and ensure that everyone has access to the services they need to keep them healthy and keep them from developping catastrophic illnesses. i want to talk about what the congressional black caw ka cus, the congressional hispanic caucus and the congressional asian american caucus has done in crafting this bill. we didn't start just before the bill was passed, we started before the debate began in congress. we developed benchmarks and decided early, we call

ourselves the tricaucus and decided that insurance would never be enough for our communities that had been left out of the health care mainstream for so long and health equity had to be a goal of any bill we passed. . we met with the white house several times to ensure that the benchmarks that we set for our communities were going to be met. so that really this bill would provide access to quality health care for all americans, not just a few, but for all americans. and we hear a lot about the consumer protections, the fact that children cannot be denied insurance if they have a pre-existing disease. that's important to us. the fact that our young people can stay on our insurance until 26 years old, the fact that there are no lifetime and annual limits. and all of those important provisions that we hear about all of the time. but i want to talk a little bit about some of the health equity provisions. because this bill prevents discrimination. it define what is a health

disparity is and a health disparity population. and it makes sure that all of the research in the bill, all of the task forces, all of the institutes, the comparative effectiveness research, all of those include monitoring and having a goal of eliminating health disparities in their mandate. their incentive payments to providers, if they can demonstrate that they've eliminated health disparities. and health disparities actually cost this nation. in a study done by the joint center for political and economic studies, they showed we're just -- where just over a threen this year period 1.-- $1.24 trillion was lost in direct and indirect costs just because of health disparities. we expanded of course the coverage and the consumer protections, medicaid expansion which we really urge aum all of the states to provide for their citizens who are at 133% or

under the federal poverty level. the territories, despite the vote to repeal our funding, that funding still stands. my territory's enjoying a great increation in funding. we have not lifted a cap. we're not getting state life treatment but for the first time many of the territories may be able to cover at least up to 100% of the federal poverty level with a substantial increase that the affordable care act provided. we also have limited funding to set up exchanges and the consumer protections and capacity building grants apply to the territories which really need them. we included the indian health improvement act. we expanded community health centers and school-based health centers within the bill. we provided -- we provide for community health worker grants and communities that have not had the benefit of robust health care services, it's important that people that they trust in the community can help them to understand this law and help to

make that connection to the health services that will be provided. and that's what the community health worker grants would do. they have community transformation grants. we tried to include a program that we've been working on-called health empowerment zones. we didn't quite get that but we have funding for communities that -- where those health services have not been available to be able to prepare that community and to begin to build some infrastructure so that they -- so that every community can have the benefits of this bill. we mandated that not-for profit hospitals create a community health needs assessment every three years and we created a task force. having community -- focus community -- community-driven and community-implemented programs is where we're going to see the biggest improvement in health care, especially in communities of color and communities that are poor and communities -- our rural communities and our territories. it ensures -- the bill ensures

that federal health care programs collect and report data on race ethnicity, sex, primary language and disability status. we address health care disparities in medicaid and schip by data collection requirements. again in comparative effectiveness we were able to make sure that it included, that that research will include racial and ethnic subgroups, women and people with morbidities. we established a national health carework force commission that requires reporting for the very first time in this country we have a national strategy at prevention and we have a national strategy to eliminate health disparities, for the very first time, all from the affordable care act. we increased the national health service corps and loan repayment program, expanded centers of excellence and we made sure to invest in historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions. we're going to have to greatly expand our health care work force on all levels to take care

of this 30-plus million new people who will be coming into the system. and we want to make sure that that work force reflects the diversity of our country and that the now under-represented minorities have a chance to get some of those jobs and be able to provide some of those services for the community that they -- communities that they come from. we provide support for cultural competence, training for health care professionals, grants to health care work force to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services. we require the dissemination of information adapted to a variety of cultural linguistic and educational backgrounds so that everyone can understand what it is we're trying to do and be able to access the services. mental health and substance abuse parity was included. we included dental services and the basic package for children, we would have wished that it could be in the basic package for all people, but we were able to get it in children. we established a prevention in

public health fund and i know the republican leadership has been trying to repeal that fund, to deplete that fund. but this is an attempt to change the paradigm of how we deal with health care in this country. not to just be dealing with the acute, expensive, long-term care, but to focus on prevention. an ounce of prevention is still worth a pound of cure. we strengthen and expanded the office of women's health, we elevated the office of minority health, the office of secretary, we created new offices of minority health including -- in food and drug administration, centers for medicare and medicaid service, and others of the agencies where it's really critical that we have that input that really zeros in on the health care of the minorities who are really -- who are the people who are really underserved and creates some of the costs that we're trying to reduce.

if we can take care of all of the people in this country, the costs will go down. we elevated the minority and health disparities at n.i.h. and they're doing great work with all of our universities across the country. and, you know, what we've come to understand is that when you're dealing with the health, especially when you're looking from a community level, you can't just focus on disease. you have to look at the environment that people live in. and for the very first time we have a national prevention, health promotion and public health council headed by our surgeon general. and that council brings about 17 agencies of government together to plan and to look at the impact of the programs, policies, initiatives on health and to really plan how we can create an environment in our communities and in our country that supports wellness and supports prevention and supports good health, so that people can walk in their neighborhoods, so that they can have fresh fruit

and vegetables in their neighborhoods. and other things like that. so that we can deal with the obesity problem. so we can deal with smoking cessation. and all of the things that contribute to poor health and really increase the costs. when we look at communities and focus on community prevention, that's where we're going to reduce the cost of health care. so, i wanted to just say a word about medicare because i am so tired of hearing about $500 billion taken out of -- cut from medicare. now, that does not -- that's a misinterpretation of what really happened. that $500 billion comes from cutting waste, fraud and abuse in part. i was reading in an article in a paper just today that medicare could probably save $70 billion

just in one year, in 2010, really zeroing in on waste, fraud and abuse and implementing some of the recommendations of the general accountability office. they could save $70 billion in one year. multiply that by 10, i think it comes out to $700 billion. which is more than the $500 billion that we talk -- that the republicans keep saying we took out of medicare. we didn't. we made payments fairer. by reducing -- by making the payment it's more equitable across the board. so we may have lowered some of the reimbursement rates for medicare advantage, but we were able to still keep some of the better, more effective medicare advantage programs in place. we began to close the doughnut hole. we took some of that money to close the doughnut hole. so that over the 10-year period there will be no time that a senior or people with disability will have to pay the full cost of their medication. we are providing preventive care

with no co-payments and an annual physical exam with no co-payments and in addition to all of that, with that $500 billion we extended the life of medicare by eight years. , so i just want to clear that up. we did not take $500 billion out of medicare. we used it to reinvest into medicare, to make it stronger, to provide more services and more benefits for the beneficiary. of course health care reform will take an investment but it will reduce costs over time. it will reduce disparities, we'll have better end of life care by planning, by individuals and their families. we have that community-based prevention, obesity prevention, smoking cessation, health policy and every policy that i talked about and all of that will reduce the cost of health care. i just want to close by just reading a few statements from some physicians. i'm a primary care physician, a family physician myself. and medescapes today published

an article from a round table. i know the doctors who spoke here said many, many things. i just want to quote a sentence or two from several of them. at the end of his statement he says, the supreme court decision breeds life into the health care reform movement at a critical time and we need to take advantage of this fortune. not only to implement the most important parts of the affordable care act but also to start building towards a next logical step in health care reform, beginning with an efficient public option that exercises smart, quality care. and dr. robert w. moreau says, and now we're in a regulatory space where the health of the public could take precedence over the profits of the commercial health plans and why

not? he says? and why not? >> we're probably unbalanced, somewhat better off with some health care insurance reform than none. however we're still a long way from meaningfully addressing abusive power in health care. there will be no rest. another doctor says, my plan is that the plan is not as good as what's being out toed by the left but it's no better. . clearly upholding the individual mandate allows the u.s. to approach universal health care. universal health care is such a worthy goal that we must applaud this victory. dr. mark williams says, for me

the supreme court ruling on the a.c.a. implies at least a period of relative clarity and less uncertainty, despite much political rhetoric. in short, we now have some time for planning and innovation. and he also says, health care is too precious to be considered a business or a marketplace commodity. whatever system we choose must commit itself to the needs of the population and the global community, not simply to our own personal needs. it must be based on needs and not simply on service expansion. and lastly from my own american academy of family practice, they say, having the mandate upheld is consistent with what has been aafp policy for over 20 years. we have advocated for health care coverage for everyone and access to at least basic health services including good primary services including good primary care