repeatedly. they were told to stand down. what more do you need? host: thank you to everyone who called the we will be back at 7:00 p.m. eastern. we go down to the floor of the house. we have have a days work of action ahead. they will deal with the health care law. the speaker: the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray. compassionate and merciful god, we give you thanks for giving us another day. give the members of this house strength, fortitude, and patience. fill their hearts with charity, their minds with understanding, their wills with courage to do the right thing for all of america. in the work to be done in the week to come, may they rise together to accomplish what is

best for our great nation. yesterday we honored and rethank you for the service rendered to all the world by the monuments men of world war ii. may we always be grateful for the genius in our midst and the efforts of those who labor to preserve the patry moany of our human civilization. may all that is done this day be for your greater honor and glory, amen. the speaker: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approved. for what purpose does the gentlelady from indiana rise? mrs. walorski: pursuant to clause 1, rule 1, i demand a vote on agreeing to the spomplee of the journal. the speaker: the question is on agreeing to the spomplee of the journal. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the journal stands approved. the gentlelady from indiana. mrs. walorski: i object to the

vote on the grounds a quorum is not present and make a point of order a quorum is not present. the speaker: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question are postponed. the pledge of allegiance today will be led by the gentleman from louisiana, mr. abraham. mr. abraham: i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker: the chair will entertain up to five requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. he speaker: without objection. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to pay tribute to the life of bill carey, a beloved central new york television and radio journalist. for over four decades, bill's familiar voice could be heard in households throughout central new york. his stories were always memorable. he poe hed a stunning ability

to transform ordinary news into a fascinating story. bill's love for his work earned him a special place in the hearts of central new yorkers. less than a year ago, i was joined here in washington by bill on the very day i was sworn in to represent central new york and congress. today i'm joined here by bill's beloved wife of more than 40 years, mary ellen, and his daughter, joe el. mr. katko: i'd like to tell him them bill is a great reporter and fwrernt and that he touched the lives of so many in our community. but they already know that. they know it from the tributes that ran on every type of media outlet in central new york upon news of his death. he made stories count. he'll be remembered as one of the best journalists the town has known. he was great guy as well. god bless you, bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. for what purpose does the gentleman from rhode island seek recognition? mr. cicilline: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. cicilline: mr. speaker, last sunday mass shootings inflicted violence on elk hart,

indiana, and fort myers, florida, there have been more than 3000 mass shootings in the united states this year. more than any other country in the world. one of the causes for this gun violence epidemic is that the background check system that we rely on is not working. over the last few years shooters in aurora, charleston, and virginia tech were able to buy guns legally despite numerous red flags. as of last year, 11 states still were not even providing information into the nics system. congress needs to do more to bring them into a system. someone who commits a violent crime, could walk into a gun shore, bring an assault rifle to the counter, and if the background check is not completed within three days there is no prohibition to selling that individual the gun. we need to extend the review period so they can be vetted properly. these are commonsense solutions and it's time for congress to act and put a stop to a epidemic that is taking the lives of thousands of americans each year. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. for what purpose does the

gentlelady from indiana seek recognition? mrs. walorski: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. mrs. walorski: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to recognize art conservation specialist george stout in honor of his granddaughter lauren parker. george stout was one of the leaders of the monuments men, a group established in 1944 of men and women who served in the monuments fine arts and archives section under the allied armies during world war ii. we cannot thank him enough in the monuments men for their heroic role in the preservation, protection, and restitution of monuments, works of art, and artifacts of cultural importance during and following world war ii. today in accordance with h.r. 3658, monuments men recognition act of 2014, a congressional gold medal was given in commemoration of the monuments men. stout is an honorary hoosier in my eyes and i'm grateful for the opportunity to meet his family as we honor him and the

other monuments men with the congressional gold medal award. mr. speaker, please join me in honoring george stout and the other monuments men for their invaluable efforts during world war ii. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? >> address the house for one minute, revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. israel: mr. speaker, yesterday the american people saw the television spectacle of benghazi hearing. and watching my republican friends on television it was like watching an "i love lucy" episode, same plot, same characters, same script, and nothing new. nothing new. here's what the american people did not see yesterday from the majority in this congress. they didn't see a hearing to create jobs. they didn't hear an idea to increase incomes. they didn't hear one single solution to reduce the cost of education. the american people want republicans to stop -- spend their time increasing incomes and less time trying to take downhillry clinton.

we are tired of this calendar of chaos, mr. speaker. it is time for action. it is time for negotiation, it is time for compromise, and it is time to stop wasting time and tax dollars. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. for what purpose does the gentleman from louisiana seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. abraham: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today in celebration of national forest products week. and would like to recognize the more than 18,000 hardworking men and women who are employed by the forest products industry in louisiana alone, including nearly 2,500 working in pulp and paper center in my district alofpblete many of america's forests exist to support a strong market forest products, markets that encourage land owneders to replant forest responsibly and manage them sustainably. in louisiana, this industry provides hardworking americans with over 1.1 billion in

compensation every year and is in the top 10 manufacturing sector in the state. i ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating national forest products week and reflect on the fact that today the u.s. has 20% more in trees than it did the first earth day in 1970. together let's ensure the sustainable and renewable products that come from these forests and endure for generations to come. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. a few weeks ago i sit in this chamber and called on congress to take action to improve our nation's background checks system for firearm purchases. despite an overwhelming amount of support across the country, for universal background checks, and bipartisan legislation to implement them, this congress has still done nothing. it's just the latest example of congress failing to do the work

of the american people, the debt ceiling, and transportation funding are two others. mr. peters: last week i joined with our former police chief and republican mayor and a group of moms and other san diegans who now imagine the possibility of sending their children to school and never seeing them again. we called on congress to take action to do something. in san diego, keeping guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them is not a partisan issue. in fact, more than 90% of americans support increasing background checks and closing loopholes. i brought the signatures of those people with me here to washington and personally delivered their requests for action to the speaker of the house. it's time to get to work. it's timeout to do something. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yield. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> address the chair for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, as commander in chief, the president of the united states is tasked with upholding the safety and security of our nation.

but yesterday president obama vetoed the annual defense bill that ensures the right policies are in place to protect us. the national defense authorization act is actually one of the few pieces of legislation up here that regularly gets voted out of the house and senate regardless of who controls the chamber. this year the ndaa passed the house of representatives by a vote of 270-156 and it passed the senate 70-27. mr. williams: it's one of the few things that gets done like it's supposed to. the ndaa has been enacted every -- into law every year since its inception in 1961. president obama vetoed this bill not because he disagreed with its substance but because he wanted to use it as a bargaining chip to force congress to increase spending for his nondefense programs. mr. speaker, the taliban is re-entering afghanistan. islamic extremists are attempting to conquer iraq. the u.s. is at odds with russia over syria's civil war. and china is expandingon its territorial claims in the pacific. mr. speaker, frankly, the world's in chaos. while he only has one more year

in office, there could not be a worse time for president obama to so selfishly, recklessly push his agenda at the cost of u.s. national security. in god we trust. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yield. props the gentlelady from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. ms. chu: i rise today to protect a national treasure. the san gabriel mountains are the crown jewel of los angeles counties, for decades they suffered from a dire lack of resources. this meant that the three million yearly visitors who flock there for the trees, trails, and streams were greeted with graffiti, trash, and safety hazards. for over 10 years i and others who love these mountains fought to get the san gabriels the resources they deserve, and just one year ago we celebrated as president obama declared them a national monument, opening the door to new funding.

today i am introducing the san gabriel mountains foothills and river protection act to expand that monument and create a new national recreation area. this bill with the support of local water conservation and recreation groups will complete the vision of a city seamlessly and sustainably connected to its countans, and countants that are accessible for all. -- mountains that are accessible for all. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields. for what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas seek recognition? >> request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise today because october is dislection kwla awareness -- dyslexia awareness month. nearly 5.le million students in the u.s. have been diagnosed with a learning disorder. up to one in five of these students suffer from dyslexia. this learning disability causes difficulty with reading comprehension, math, and a variety of other subject areas.

more research is needed to understand dyslexia so students receive research-based instruction and have the best opportunity to learn and succeed in the 21st century. mr. westerman: that is why i co-sponsored the read act of 2015. a bill that requires the national science foundation to fund dyslexia research. this bill is good for students, good for educators, and good for america. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. november 3 is when we reach our statutory budget limit. that's when we must raise our debt limit or we default on our obligations. social security payments, medicare reimbursements, and military paychecks. some critics don't want us to raise the limit. they say spending is too out of control. but, frankly, that's like going into a restaurant, eating a meal, and then skipping out on

the check because you wanted to save on calories. if that happens, you are not paying what you owe. even if you commit to spending nothing more, you are still on the hook for your financial obligations and commitments. mr. heck: i have a lot of hardworking small business owners in my district. they don't skip out on their bills, and they don't expect the government to, either. make no doubt about it, our economy will suffer. at a time when our budget deficit is at its lowest level in eight years, we should not take this stepward. let's pay our bills not torch our economy. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the entleman yields. for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia, mr. price, seek recognition? mr. price: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 483, i call up bill h.r. 3762, the restoring

americans' health care freedom reconciliation act of 2015, and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 222, h.r. 3762, a bill to provide for reconciliation pursuant to section 2002 of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2016. pursuant to house resolution 483, the bill as amended is considered read. the bill shall be debated for two hours equally divided and controlled by the ranking -- by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee, the gentleman in georgia, mr. price, and the gentleman from marylandmark van hollen, each will control 20 minutes. mr. price: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislate i days to revise

and extend their remarks on the restoring americans' health care freedom act of 2015. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. price: for the first time in over a decade, congress adopted a 10-year balanced budget amendment and agreement. the house and senate were able to agree on a plan that would reduce spending by over $5 trillion. save and strengthen important health and retirement programs, provide for a strong national defense and support a growing economy with greater opportunity for more americans to achieve their dreams. it's a bold plan. a bold plan at a time in our nation's history when we face tremendous fiscal and economic challenges. challenges that are being fuled by an ineffective, inefficient, and unaccountable government bureaucracy here in washington. and this is bureaucracy that's interfering in the daily lives and livelihood of the american people. the most prominent example of how intrusive washington has become is the president's health care law.

obamacare imposes taxes and onerous mandates on individuals and families and job creators. it undermines the sacred doctor-patient relationship. it's driving up the costs of health care with higher premiums and high edeductibles while destroying access to quality care, innovative health care choices. and it's discouraging work and making job creation and economic growth more challenging. all this, mr. speaker, at a time when we are experiencing the worst economic recovery in the modern era. now when congress passed our bicameral budget resolution earlier this year, we initiated a powerful budget process called reconciliation. under reconciliation we're able to move legislation through the house and senate in an expedited manner and put a bill on the president's desk. with the legislation before us today, the are e-- the restoring americans' health care freedom and reconciliation act, we're using this powerful tool to help end obamacare's attack on health

care and its attack on our economy. we're doing so to pave the way for a more appropriate, responsive, patient-centered health care system that puts patients and families and doctors in charge of health care. not washington, d.c. under this eguidelines of our budget and the rules governing reconciliation, three committees in the house, the education and work force committee and the ways and means committee and the energy and commerce committee produced individual pieces of legislation to repeal major components of obama care. the house budget committee then took those pieces and combined them to a single bill we've brought to the house floor today. the restoring americans' health care freedom reconciliation act repeals the individual and employer mandates. it repeals the onerous cadillac tax. it repeals the medical device tax. and it repeals an obamacare slush fund as well as undue demands on employers an employees. additionally, it provides for a one-year -- it prohibits for one

year taxpayer dollars from being used to pay abortion providers prohibited under the legislation while dedicating additional resources, that's more money, mr. speaker, to community health care centers across this country for women's health care. taken together, the congressional budget office and the joint committee on taxation estimates that this legislation will lower deficits by $130 billion over the 10-year budget window. roughly $51 billion of those will come from the positive macroeconomic effect of what we're proposing. c.b.o. and j.c.t. estimate that this bill will lead to an increase in the labor supply. an increase in economic growth. an increase in capital investment. an increase in total compensation. that's take home pay, mr. speaker. it would also eliminate work disincentives and decrease federal borrowing. the major components of obamacare repealed thunder legislation represent the core of a coercive system a coercive

nature with the president's health care law. policies that are forcing people into a health care system that washington is simultaneously making more expensive, less accessible, lower quality and with fewer choices. nothing in what we are proposing, nothing in what we are proposing would take insurance coverage away from americans or their families or preclude anyone from purchasing coverage. what we are doing is freeing americans from government coercion. provisions included in this legislation also share another important distinction. that is that they all fall within the limited scope of the reconciliation process. this is vitally important. reconciliation is not a silver bullet. there are limitations and if a piece of legislation reaches those -- breaches those limitations it runs the risk of derailing the entire process. ultimately, however, mr. speaker this discussion is not about process. it's about people. it's about the men and women,

the families that we have the privilege of representing and who know that the only folks who should be making personal health care decisions are individuals, their doctors and their families. this debate is about the millions of americans who have seen their premiums go up and deductibles go up and their out of pocket costs skyrocket after being told the law, in fact, would bring those costs down, which it has not. this is about low wage workers, mr. speaker. 2.6 million according to the hoover institution who are at risk of seing their hours cut. their working hours cut because of obamacare. this is about those americans, particularly the one in four americans living in rural parts of our country who found that in many cateses their health care coverage comes with such narrow provider networks that they have to travel long distances to find the treatment they need and run the risk of even higher costs. mr. speaker, we can do better. we can do better by these americans and all americans who long for a health care system that's responsive to their needs. that's accessible and affordable

and not contributing to the decline of the economic opportunity and job security. there are positive, patient-centered solutions that would advance the cause of quality health care in this country and none of them require handing more authority over to washington. obamacare puts washington in charge. we want to put the american people in charge of their health care decisions and an important step in that direction is this legislation that we have before us today. i urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation and i look forward to this debate and moving forward on this effort and putting a bill on the president's desk. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from maryland is recognized. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. this bill and the vote we're going to have today is, i guess, a fitting end to an unproductive and shameful week in the united states congress. yesterday, we just witnessed an incredible abuse of power where

a so-called special benghazi committee funded by taxpayer money, conducted their political witch hunt against secretary clinton. the republican majority leader in this body told the nation on television that it was about bringing downhillry clinton's polls. that dishonors the memory of the four americans who were killed in benghazi. then earlier this week, this congress passed legislation that says, you know what? the united states government doesn't have to pay all of its bills. we'll just pay some of our bills. forget about the full faith and credit of the united states. we'll decide we're going to pay some people and not others. it's as if, mr. speaker, one of us got up in the morning and said, we're just going to make our mortgage payment but forget about the car payments. we're going to pay this person but not that person. when the united states government tries to do that, the economy goes downhill fast.

but to add insult to injury, they said when we're going to pay certain people, we're going to pay the big bondholders first. government of china. wall street. they're going to get paid. veterans aren't going to get paid. our soldiers aren't going to get paid. i hope our colleagues are reading what they're passing here in the united states congress because that's what they did earlier this week system of what are we doing here today? for the 61st time, 61st time in this house of representatives, our republican colleagues are moving forward on education to dismantle the affordable care act. now, the chairman is entitled to his own opinions. he's not entitled to his own facts. all you have to do is read the report of the nonpartisan congressional budget office that analyzed this bill and here's what they say. that as a result of this

legislation, insurance coverage would decline by about 16 million people. in most years. three million of those people would be children. why in the world are we here on the floor of the house of representatives passing legislation that's going to take away affordable health care to 15 million americans including three million children? look at this chart, mr. speaker. this shows the the cline in the number of uninsured people in the united states. and as you can see, you see a rapid drop in the number of uninsured americans. as a result of the affordable care act. our republican colleagues' bill want to get rid of that progress. put all those people back in a position where they don't have affordable health care. they also want to go after

women's health programs, including planted parenthood, where the testimony from the chairman of the oversight and government reform committee, mr. chaffetz is very clear. they haven't violated any laws. he said it on national television. here's what he was asked. is there any evidence in your opinion that planned parenthood has broken any laws? no. i'm not suggesting that they broke the law. another political witch hunt. just like the benghazi hearing. and you know what? when the regular committees found there was no wrongdoing by planned parenthood, our republican colleagues created a special committee on planned parenthood as well. so mr. speaker, there's a reason that when the american people have been asked what they think of congress these days, that this is a chart of the words they come up with first. ridiculous. waste of time.

terrible. frustrating. and you're just making this chart worse by coming here to this floor for the 61st time, repealing the affordable care act, a bill that you know has no chance of becoming law, because if it gets to the president's desk, he's told this congress long ago he will vie toe it because the president doesn't want to get rid of affordable health care for 15 million americans and three million american kids. the president doesn't want to do it. i'm really, really disappointed that our republican colleagues thought this was a good way to end an unproductive week. it's a sad and shameful statement of the state of affairs in this body. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from georgia is recognized. mr. price: thank you, mr. speaker. we heard about benghazi, we heard about debt limit. sounds like a political speech,

doesn't it, mr. speaker? the gentleman knows there's nothing in this legislation to keep families from purchasing coverage for their children, nothing at all. the reconciliation package before us only provides tax relief to working families and individuals. give them freedom from government coercion in the area of health care. i'm honored now to yield two minutes to a wonderful and productive member of the budget committee, the gentlelady from missouri, mrs. hartzler. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. mrs. hartzler: thank you. thank you, mr. chairman, for the work you're doing to advance this bill and advance our budget. as a member of the budget committee i'm proid to support the restoring american's health care freedom reconciliation act which is a very, very important bill that does dismantle key provisions of obamacare that are harming people. we were sent here to fight for the american people. they do not want their health care dictated to them by washington and they don't want their tax dollars going to abortion providers.

this bill protects life by stopping the flow of taxpayer dollars to abortion providers. the people have for years begged congress to end the flow of taxpayer dollars to planned parenthood, especially in the wake of the recent horrendous videos showing planned parenthood officials exhibiting a blatant disregard for human life. this bill places a moratorium on funding for abortion providers and redirects these funds to increase funding for community health centers. these health centers serve 80 times more women patients and planned parenthood and they provide more comprehensive care to women. i'm proud to support this bill and i urge my colleagues to support it as well. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back this egentleman from georgia reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: i yield one to mr. lieu le --

of california a distinguished member of the budget committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lieu: my parents immigrated to america because hay they saw this shining city on a hill. america became exceptional because we invested in infrastructure, in social security and medicare that provided economic freedom for so many americans. but this budget bill? one of its main points is to defund planned parenthood. these are not the priorities of the american people. this is a hyper partisan document that's just talking points for extremists. it is time for the majority party to do what we were elected here to do in congress, we're elected to lead the greatest country on earth, it's time we start acting like it. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: hyper partisan, mr. speaker? hyper partisan?

let me show you a chart here. theers are four items included in this piece of legislation that are packaged in this piece of legislation. reducing, repealing the prevention and public health fund. when that bill itself came to the floor of the house, 147 democrats voted yes. 147. delay the individual mandate, when that bill came to the floor of the house, 27 democrats voted yes. delay the employer mandate, when that bill came to the floor of the house, 35 democrats voted yes. repeal the medical device tax, when that came to the floor of the house, 46 democrats voted yes. mr. speaker, these are mostly, mostly bipartisan issues. the american people are for repeal of these portions of obamacare. democrats even in this house have recognized the wisdom of it. i'm honored now to yield two minutes to the gentleman from michigan, another good member of the budget committee, mr. mole lynn nar. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for two minutes. mr. mow lynn nar: as the chairman mentioned, today we are voting to repeal some of

the burdensome taxes and mandates the obama administration has placed on hardworking americans with this health care law. today we have the opportunity to vote in a bipartisan way to end the individual mandate, ploiter mandate. the medical device tax, the cadillac tax, the slush fund, and the auto enrollment mandate. the affordable care act has proven to be unaffordable for millions of americans who lost the coverage they enjoy and must now pay higher premiums. already hardworking families in my district have been told about the rate hikes that will make the health care premiums that they pay more expensive this next year. ing today we are repealing mandates, but unfortunately we are not in this legislation able to repeal the independent payment advisory board that determines which treatments americans are allowed to have, or the health insurance tax that eliminates consumer choice and access.

but today this is a positive step toward a system of patient centered alternatives with lower premiums that allow individuals to choose the coverage they want. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from georgia reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: mr. speaker, i now yield one minute to ms. moore of wisconsin, a distinguished member of the budget committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from wisconsin is recognized for one minute. ms. moore: good morning, mr. speaker. thank you, ranking member, for the time. since we are considering this reconciliation bill, i looked up the record reconciliation because i thought maybe i don't know what the word means. and they say that reconciliation is a process of making consistent or compatible. mr. speaker, there is nothing in the bill before us that is either consistent or compassible with the woman's constitutional right to control her body. this bill is neither

consequencecies tent nor compatible with a woman's human right to reproductive freedom. this bill, the only thing this bill reconciles is the majority's machismo, mr. speaker, the stubborn resolve, to deny women, especially the poorest women in our country, access to health care. and despite the claims that you have heard here on this floor that, quote, there is nothing to stop women from accessing health care, just let me point out. mr. van hollen: i yield another 30 seconds. ms. moore: just a few facts, mr. speaker. 78% of planned parenthood patients are at or below 150% of the poverty level. 40% of low-income women consider ob-gyn their primary source of health care which planned parenthood provides. in my own state, 14,000 women each year, many of whom are low

income, do not have access to family planning services. i ask that we not pass this bill and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yield back. the gentleman from maryland reserves. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: thank you, mr. speaker. i would ask the gentlelady who just spoke to read the bill. in fact the bill increases funding for women's health care through the community health centers by $235 million in both fiscal year 2016 and fiscal year 2017. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. speaker, i now yield one minute to ms. jackson lee, distinguished member of the judiciary committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for ne minute. ms. jackson lee: let me thank the ranking member of the budget committee for his courtesies. and i don't know why we are

here this morning, mr. speaker. i guess out of desperation. after 11 hours of trying to attack the former secretary of state, now we come this morning to continue our attack on women and again to have republicans address the affordable care act that is in my state put a dent in some 25,000-plus who did not have health care. but today we stand here with a bill that repeals the individual responsibility requirements that people must have their own health care. repeal the independent payment advisory board which focuses on making medicare solvent for our seniors, and the prevention in public health fund which supports evidence-based programs designed to keep americans healthy, prevent chronic infectious diseases, and reduce future health care costs. two days ago i was standing out in front of the united states capitol calling out my state, the state of texas, that about three days ago declared war on planned parenthood, to close 39 different clinics. which would cut into the --

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. van hollen: i yield another 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for 30 second. ms. jackson lee: that would cut into the very essence of service to vulnerable women. it would cut into their mammogram services, cervical cancer examination, and the supreme court just a year -- couple months ago said this kind of pointed targeted attack was unconstitutional. and this bill just adds to it. whether or not you add other clinics, the clinics in texas, planned parenthood, have been there for years and the minorities for young people and others. so, mr. speaker, this is not a reconciliation bill, this is another attack bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. ms. jackson lee: we should be able to stand for our women and women's health care. vote against this bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yield back. the gentleman from maryland reserves. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm pleased to yield two minutes to a wonderful contributing member of the budget committee, a member of the rules committee as well, the gentleman from georgia, mr.

woodall. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for two minutes. mr. woodall: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm excited to be here today and i'm sad ynd by some of the shrillness of the conversation. this is the first reconciliation package that i have seen in the 4 1/2 years i have been elected to this body, in fact more than half the members of this institution have never seen a reconciliation bill come to the floor of this house. why? because congress hasn't functioned in a way where the house and the senate have been able to come together to do this, but that's happening this year. for the first time. we ought to be celebrating that. to hear this described as a partisan exercise, i understand folks have a lot of grievances and this may be the day folks are going to air all their grievances, but to describe this as a partisan exercise misses the point that the only bipartisanship in this entire conversation is around trying to reject the damaging provisions of the president's health care bill. after all, when this was jammed through using the

reconciliation process, it was jammed through in a partisan fashion, the bipartisan vote was a vote no. when we tried to deal with the slush fund that was going for all sorts of programs that america would reject, the bipartisan vote was the vote to abolish it, as this bill does today. the bipartisan vote was to delay the individual mandate as this bill abolishes today. the bipartisan vote was to delay the employer mandate as this bill does today. i understand there is a lot that divides us in this body and in this nation, but this is a day for celebration. i applaud the chairman for what he has been able to do. he's been able to do what no other chairman has been able to do in the 4 1/2 years i have been in this institution, that is bring the house and the senate together around a budget for the united states of america. i'm proud of what we have done. we have done together. if this has to be a day of airing of grievances, let it be

an airing of grievance, but let it not be said it is a partisan exercise. the bipartisanship exists in this reconciliation ack passenger. i hope we come together on it today. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yield back. the gentleman from georgia reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. with all respect to mr. woodall, we don't celebrate legislation that takes away affordable health care to 15 million americans, including three million american children. that's not our definition of bipartisanship. i urge all my colleagues to read the congressional budget office report. the congressional budget office is headed by someone who is chosen by our republican colleagues, and their report tells us this legislation will take away affordable health care to 15 million americans. that's nothing to celebrate. i now yield one minute to ms. delauro of connecticut, very

distinguished ranking member of the labor, health, subcommittee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. miss delauro: i rise in opposition to this bill. it is deja vu all over again. this bill represents the majority's 61st attempt to weaken, undermine, or real the affordable care act. legislation that, yes, has broad health care -- brought health care to millions of americans and significantly reduced prescription drug costs for seniors. the bill is also the latest installment of the majority's crusade against women's health. it targets planned parenthood again. an organization that provides millions of low-income americans with lifesaving services, many families cannot get anywhere else. and finally, it threatens to cut nearly $13 billion from efforts to protect people against deadly diseases. measles, listeria, ebola. this is a dangerous game. why are we wasting time on

ideological attacks such as this? there are so many real issues to deal with. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. ms. delauro: families struggling to make ends meet. sop playing games. we can start by voting against this disgraceful bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yield back. the gentleman from maryland reserves. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: mr. speaker, may i inquire as to the amount of time remaining on each side? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia has 46 1/2 minutes. the gentleman from maryland, has 48 1/2 minutes. mr. price: i'll reserve at this point. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: mr. speaker, i reserve as well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland reserves. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: mr. speaker, the understanding of the chair here was that we were going to divide the time equally between three committees at the beginning.

15 minute segments. may i inquire of the gentleman from maryland if that has -- if that plan has changed? mr. van hollen: no. that's my understanding of the agreement, too. would it possible, mr. speaker, how much time in the 15 minutes remains each? the speaker pro tempore: 15-minute agreement. the gentleman from georgia has 1 1/2 minutes remaining. maryland, 2 1/2 minutes remaining. mr. van hollen: thank you. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: do you have any more speakers? mr. price: i have one more speaker from the budget committee. mr. van hollen: i'm reserving -- i'm waiting for one more speaker as well. if you have another -- mr. price: i'm pleased to yield a minute and a half to the vice chairman of the budget committee, the gentleman from indiana, mr. rokita. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from indiana is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. rokita: i thank the speaker. i thank chairman price. as well as the entire budget

committee for getting us to this point. first time in over a decade that we have been able to use the reconciliation process. just like the other gentleman from georgia, mr. woodall, stated, what a difference the way we are using it now in this bipartisan fashion. in transparent light of day. long process. not the day before christmas eve. and not in a partisan way that was used last time regarding a major health care change and policy in this country. i think all of us deserve to not only pat ourselves a little bit on the back, but also take advantage of this moment to end a lie. the lie being if you like your health care plan, you can keep it. that lie continues today and it's become a full-blown nightmare. this reconciliation package, getting it to the president's desk, is a real and real positive step in ending government-controlled health care in this country so that

patients of whatever condition in a consumer-based, consumer-centered fashion can use their own judgment, their own resources, along with the help of all of us to get the health care that they need. i doubt that 15 million people are actually covered better today than they were or could have been before. and that should be our goal. to cover every american in the fashion that they deserve and the fashion that they choose with the doctor that they choose. mr. chairman, i thank you for your leadership. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: i yield myself 2 nevada minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. this legislation, plain and simple, takes away affordable health care to 15 million americans, including three

million kids. i keep hearing about how intrusive and awful the affordable care act is. the reality is, the majority of members gathered right here in this chamber are on the affordable care act. the government is not dictating to them their health insurance. they're on it. all they're trying to do here, mr. speaker, is take away access to affordable health care for 15 million americans who would not otherwise get affordable health care. and in the process, take away funding for women's health programs and targeting planned parenthood as part of a political witch hunt, the same kind of witch hunt we saw just yesterday in the benghazi special committee hearing where the majority leader of this house told the public it was simply about bringing down secretary clinton's poll numbers. it's no wonder, mr. speaker,

that it's been so difficult for our republican colleagues to find a replacement for the speaker. you've got a faction of this house that wants no compromise, that thinks it's a celebration to get rid of health care, affordable health care, for 15 million americans. that is nothing to celebrate. and this is a terrible way to end an already unproductive week here in the house of representatives. so i urge my colleagues to vote against this legislation. it's not going anywhere because the president of the united states is not going to sign a bill that deprives 15 million americans of access to affordable health care that they didn't have before. so let's stop the games. we've got to deal with the debt ceiling. we've got to deal in a way where we actually pay all our bills,

not just some of the bill, and when we decide which ones to pay we don't say, we're going to pay china first. we've got to make sure we come together to prevent a government shutdown. and instead, for the 61st time, this house is voting to take away health care to the american public. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to vote against this legislation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. both 15-minute periods have expired. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: mr. speaker, i'm pleased to yield to the gentleman from georgia, the chairman of the health subcommittee, mr. brady, to control 15 minutes as my designee. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman from texas will control 15 minutes. mr. brady: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. brady: this legislation dismantles the twin pillars of

the controversial and unpopular affordable care act, repeals tax increases that forces american jobs overseas, and punishes american workers who have good health care insurance. it empties a multibillion dollar slush fund and ends taxpayer funding of the gruesome practices of planned parenthood and its affiliates. as a result this bill lowers taxes, lowers spending and lowers the deficit. it glows -- grows the economy, encourages work and increases incentives to invest. it also increases community health care centers to ensure access to true, high quality health care especially for women. by repealing the two critical mandates that force american families to buy goth-approved health care they don't need and forces local businesses to offer health care their workers can't fford this bill dismantles the president's health care law and frees millions of americans from an unpopular law that harms

patients, harms families, harms businesses. unlike the repeal of the affordable care act which the house approved nine months ago and still lingers in the senate this measure uses the traditional budget process to allow the senate to pass the bill with a simple majority and send it to the president's desk. the opportunity to put this bill on the president's desk is because congress is doing its job. we passed a budget that balanced. that put our entitlement programs on a strong, sustainable path that afforded three house committees, including the committee on ways and means, on which i serve, the opportunity to craft legislation to reduce the deficit and advance important policy goals. this process, called budget reconciliation, is a critical tool. not a silver bullet. it's not a cure-all. buts a -- but it is a gridlock busting practice i hope we can continue. in accordance with the provisions crafted by the committee on wavepls, targets a piece of the president's health

care law include regular peeling tax hikes totaling over $100 billion that slow our economy. mr. speaker, the president may very well veto this bill, locking millions of american intoss a health care law they don't want and giving taxpayer there ares to controversial and unethical practices at planned parenthood. but if he does, he'll have to explain to the american people his support of all this, including tax increases and mandates, in the name of a law that's increased health care costs, raided medicare, and forced millions onto an already broken medicaid system. mr. speaker, i want to hear those answers from the president and the american public wants to hear those answers. with that, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. i don't have time to respond to all of the misstatements that were made but now i'm going to turn it over to the chairman, the ranking member, excuse me,

of the ways and means committee. i ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin, be allowed to control the next 15 minutes of debate time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: thank you, mr. van hollen. well, where do we start? clearly there's a feeling this s more than an anticlimax. you know, we should have a debt ceiling bill before us. why don't we have that? we haven't acted on medicare part b premiums. they are right before us. instead we're doing this. e highway trust fund faces a deadline. where is it? where is our legislation?

x extenders actually expired much, much earlier. where is the legislation? so instead, because the republican conference is essentially mostly fighting itself, this institution is handcuffed on these issues. so the decision is, pass a reconciliation bill, get a bill to the president to veto because so far 60 or 61 efforts have never been table get to the president for veto. well, i think this is a waste of time when there are other issues because the president has also said he'll veto. so what's this really all about?

i think this is all a prelude, as was the so-called prioritization bill yesterday, and i think also the benghazi hearing yesterday, so-called hearing, this is all an effort o try to lay a foundation so that next week we will take up a debt ceiling bill and it will pass with a majority of democrats and some republicans, some of whom are made to feel better because we're going through the motions here today. i just want to conclude talking about going through the motions. all of the pious talk on the republican side about health care reform, those of us on ways and means committee who will be speaking, we go to meeting after meeting if they're called where

there's talk about health care reform and the republicans have never brought up a comprehensive health care reform that could be voted on in the committee where they have a majority. so essentially what we're now facing is the dangerous bankruptcy of the majority party in this house of representatives who now decide, let's do reconciliation so we can get a bill through the senate and the president veto it. by the way, because of the planned parenthood provision that would defund care for millions of americans, and for other reasons, it isn't even clear this will get through the senate. so where is the action on all these issues? where is it? i reserve the balance of my time.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. brady: i'm really pleased to yield two minutes to one of the key leaders on the ways and means committee, the gentleman from minnesota, mr. paulsen. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. paulsen: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i want to speak to a provision that repeals the harmful medical device tax. mr. speaker, members, this will be the fifth time the house has expressed strong support for getting rid of this harmful and illogical tax. the last time was this past june when the house voted to repeal his tax by eenrblely a veto-proof margin. we had republicans and democrats voting together to repeal this bad tax policy. that's because everyone knows basic economics. when you tax something, you get less of it. why are we adding new taxes to life-saving medical innovation? why are we adding new taxes to an industry that is 98% small business with less than 500

employees? why are we adding new taxes to an industry that has good, high-paying jobs for wage earners? and why are we adding new taxes to an industry that has a trade surplus? we should be promoting this industry as much as possible. obamacare's medical device tax makes zero sense. that's because it's not a tax on profit, it's a tax on the revenue, on sales of these innovative companies. now some small businesses have as high as over a 70% effective tax rate. it's a tax that's costing us jobs. it's a tax that's stifling innovation. it's harming patients. and it's hurting our health care system. mr. speaker, we need to repeal this destructive fax to help protect our seniors and help protect american innovation and help protect american manufacturing. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from michiganful mr. levin: i yield two minutes to the ranking member on our health subcommittee, mr. mcdermott, from seattle,

washington. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcdermott: mr. speaker, here we are again. i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record an article from the seattle times -- from the "seattle times" entitled why washington state's health reform faltered after the laws and mandates. what we're doing out here today has been done in one of the laboratories of democracy, the state of washington. the republicans did exactly the same thing. they repealed the mandates and the individual insurance market died. it was impossible to buy a policy in the state of washington. because the insurance company said, why should we insure somebody under guaranteed man tate when they can walk in here whenever -- mandate when they can walk in here whenever they

when -- whenever they get sick and get a policy and then drop it when they're well. you wipe out the mandate, you'd pe out obamacare completely, but that would be death politically. you wipe out the mandates. we know you don't care about the people. what you're saying is you don't care about the insurance industry. the insurance industry will say, if this passes you won't be able to sell individual policies. you are wasting our time on an issue that's already been nan straited does not work in the real world. and yet the ideologues in the back of the boat over there in the republican caucus have the idea that if you hit it with a bigger hammer, reconciliation, i

mean, it's not enough to just pass a bill out of here. you're going to use reconciliation, which is a sledgehammer in the house, and that will make it pass. folks this bill is dead on arrival in the senate and certainly dead on arrival in the white house. the speaker pro tempore: members are reminded to direct their comments to the chair. the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from texas. . >> i'm proud to yield to the gentleman from illinois, mr. roskam. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois is recognized for two minutes. mr. roskam: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank you, chairman brady, thank you, chairman price, for bringing this to the floor. this is a great opportunity to get some awful things off of the back of the american public. we heard the gentleman from washington admonishing the house, but i invite the house, this is an invitation.

we can get rid of the individual and employer mandates, the medical device tax, the cadillac tax, the prevention in fraud health fund which is a slush fund for the obama team, auto enrollment, and we can get planned parenthood squared away. what's not to love about that? it's a great opportunity all the way around. and i think we should invite the american public and we should invite clear thinking democrats to do the same thing. there's another opportunity as well, and i want to draw my colleagues' attention to piece of legislation that over 100 republicans have co-sponsored calling for special inspector general for monitoring the affordable care act, that is cigma, h.r. 2400. one of the criticisms that we have heard is that there is no individual inspector general that can look over the whole broad spectrum of obamacare. what we need to do is to get one entity that can look at this same thing. that can look at it all in its entirety.

this work as it relates as it relates to afghanistan reconstruction, it worked on iraq reconstruction, it worked on the toxic asset recovery program, and it is an opportunity for us to have a holistic review of all of these things and save billions of taxpayer dollars. i commend chairman price and his work and appreciate very much an aye vote on this reconciliation effort. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yield back. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i now yield two minutes to the gentleman from the great state of california, mr. thompson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. thompson: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i rise in opposition to this piece of legislation and strong opposition to the fact that we are back here again rehashing the same old issues that aren't going anyplace. it's been pointed out they are probably not going to be taken up in the senate. if by some chance they were, they are certainly not going to be signed into law by the

president. we are not going anywhere if we keep wasting the time as we are -- as we have been wasting time trying to repeal obamacare and defund planned parenthood. it's a terrible situation. we have some real important things that we need to do. next year a third of our nation's medicare beneficiaries, that's people in every one of our congressional districts, will face the steepest premium hikes in the history of the program if this congress doesn't act. we've got a transportation bill that is -- has been long due to be passed. we keep kicking the can down the road. it's a very bumpy road because we don't pass a transportation bill. if we pass that bill, we put people to work. about 14 million jobs hinge on the passage of a long-term transportation bill. this is improving roads and highways. making our overpasses and our businesses safe.

14 million jobs will help the economy. but instead we are dilly dalying on the floor today with this piece of go nowhere legislation. it's long past time that we put the american people ahead of the political gamesmanship and address the real issues facing our nation. majority party, let's get to work. let's fix the issues that are going to hurt and are hurting the american people and stop doing this partisan nonsense. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. brady: i yield one minute to the former mayor of manchester, new hampshire, who understands how badly this bill has hurt his family and the community, mr. guinta. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new hampshire is recognized for one minute. mr. guinta: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you very much, to chairman brady, and the chairman price for putting this piece of legislation together. i rise in support today of h.r. 3762, the restoring americans

health care freedom reconciliation act. which includes the repeal of components of the most harmful provisions of obamacare, at the same time sharing bipartisan support. for each component of this legislation. bipartisan support. i have worked hard with members across the aisle to make sure that provisions that are hurting families in manchester and portsmouth, conway, all parts of new hampshire to ensure their voices are heard. one of the important provisions in this bill is the full repeal of obamacare's 40% tax on health care benefits, commonly referred to as the cadillac tax. while this tax is set to take effect in 2018, employers of all sizes are already restructuring plans, cutting benefits to avoid the costly tax. this excise tax will impact an estimated 12 million middle class americans who will pay an additional 1,000 annually as a result of this tax. they work for big businesses, small businesses, nonprofits,

colleges, small municipalities, they need help. they need our support. mr. brady: i'm pleased to yield another 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for an additional 30 seconds. mr. guinta: as i introduce the repeal of the cadillac tax in its entirety, i'm pleased to see that repeal language included in the bill we are debating today. on top of all the burdens of obamacare that have already been placed on hardworking americans, and all the rules and regulations americans americans' businesses are faced with, this tax will make it that much more difficult for employers to provide affordable health care benefits to their employees. i urge my colleagues, please, join the bipartisan fight to support middle class families and support the repeal of this tax. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i yield a minute and a half to the gentleman from new jersey, a very vigorous

member of our committee, mr. pascrell. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. pascrell: i thank the ranking member. good morning, mr. chairman. mr. speaker, i have heard twice this morning that the term bipartisan -- the term bipartisan, many of my brothers and sisters on the other side wouldn't know bipartisan if it hit you in the head. i mean just throw this term out there, if you have one or two on this side of the aisle, it's bipartisan. technically you're absolutely right. we should be crafting a long-term funding measure, mr. speaker, replacing the damaging see quester cuts that have hurt our economy. -- sequester cuts that have hurt our economy. we are both responsible. both sides of the aisle for that sequester. i don't point any fingers. and we also got to raise the

debt ceiling. we talk about our budgets at home. why don't we do the same thing in the federal government. i was taught when i grew up pay your bills. pay your bills. that's as important as balancing the budget at home. this bill leaves intact automatic budget cuts which have threatened hundreds of housands of jobs and cut vital services for children, for seniors, for people with mental illness and our men and women in uniform. these harmful cuts have cut funding for thousands of first responders in our communities. mr. levin: yield an additional 30 seconds. it cut vital services for children. our first responders. they have eliminated jobs for

30,000 teachers, 30,000. cut after-school programs for nearly 1.2 million kids. eliminated more than 40 million meals for the sick and home-bound seniors. bipartisan. this is bipartisan. we should replace these harmful cuts and support vital services in our community. instead, we are talking about holding a government hostage in exchange for decimating the affordable care act. nough is enough. it that movie "network" we are not going to take it anymore. the republican budget would result in 16 million fewer americans having health insurance. 20% increase in insurance premiums. a vote for this bill is a vote against those 16 million

americans. a vote for this bill is a vote for higher premiums. on top of that, this budget doesn't balance. in 2025, it goes through the sky. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. pascrell: this isn't a balanced budget. this is a fake. why don't we sit down and come up a mutual plan inside of quote-unquote, a bipartisan fraud. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. pascrell: thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. brady: mr. speaker, i'm pleased to yield a minute and a half to the gentleman from kentucky who knows the failures of the affordable care act in his state, mr. barr. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kentucky is recognized. mr. barr: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in support of h.r. 3762, the restoring americans' health care freedom reconciliation act. too many americans across the country are victims of obamacare's many broken promises. we all remember the chaos that ensued when the law was first rolled out. $1 billion website that didn't work.

millions of americans losing their insurance and being forced to find a new plan often at higher cost. now hundreds of thousands of americans, including at least 51,000 kentuckians, are once again losing their health insurance because of the failure of obamacare health care cooperatives. n the state -- student address, president obama sited kentucky. but as we learned obamacare does not work in kentucky. in the past two weeks obamacare co-ops have failed in kentucky, tennessee, colorado, oregon, and south carolina. nevada, iowa, nebraska, and louisiana. these failures were entirely predictable because the model was not sustainable. the kentucky co-op lost nearly 60 cents for every premium dollar it collected. now hardworking taxpayers will be stuck with the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars that will never be paid back. combined with low enrollment

numbers, the result of these failures will ultimately be borne on the american people, consolidation in the health care market, fewer choices for consumers, and higher health care costs for the american people. this is not the reform we were promised. the bill we are debating today would repeal the most harmful mandates and taxes imposed by the law. it reduces the deficit by $130 billion. and it gives us an opportunity to put a bill on the president's desk that would make life easier for the american people. i encourage all my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: how much time of our 15 minutes are left? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has five minutes remaining. mr. levin: it's now my real pleasure to yield a minute and a half at least to the gentleman from new york, mr. crowley. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. crowley: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from michigan for yielding me this time. mr. speaker, i rise in opposition to this latest attempt to repeal the

affordable care act anti-benefit it has brought to millions of americans. while this is the 61st vote this house has taken to undermine health care, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim that somehow this time is different. it that's because this is dressed up in a process called reconciliation. but this isn't reconciliation. this is procrastination. this is a desperate attempt to avoid working on the real issues facing america today. i get it. governing is hard. it's difficult. but that's not an excuse for giving up on your responsibilities and instead pursuing yet another repeal bill. if that's their plan, there are only agenda for america. the country is days away from defaulting on our debt. time to repeal the affordable care act. roads and bridges are falling

apart. maybe repealing the affordable care act will help us. seniors on medicare are about to see their premiums skyrocket. forget fixing the problem, let's repeal the affordable care act. they must think it's a better strategy than the previous 60 votes if they wrap it up in a bow and slap a fancy name on it. actually it's odd they call this reconciliation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 30 seconds. mr. crowley: republicans aren't reconciling with us to work in a bipartisan way. they are not reconciling themselves to the fact that the affordable care act is the law of the land. and that it is helping people access quality, affordable health care insurance. and they are certainly not fooling anyone with their -- what their true intentions are. they are not. frankly, the only thing they

are doing is wasting time. i have had enough. and i know the american people have had enough, too. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. brady: mr. brady: i'm pleased to yield two minutes to a member of congress who is a health care provider herself a nurse, a key leader of the health care subcommittee, the gentlelady from tennessee, mrs. black. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. mrs. black: i thank the chairman and also chairman price for bringing this bill to the floor. i rise today in strong support of today's budget reconciliation to address the heinous abuse of life at planned parenthood. to date, we have seen 10 undercover videos implicating the abortion giant in the trafficking of unborn babies' tissue and organs. planned parenthood and their enablers could not defend the conversations on these tapes,

which many here in washington still have not watched. so they try to discredit the source. the house minority leader even said, and i quote, i don't stipulate that these videos are real. close quote. well, mr. speaker, that is my colleagues' prerogative but the facts and specifically this forensic report say differently. since these revelations were uncovered, the house has voted twice now to cut federal funding to planned parenthood and reallocate those dollars to other providers that better serve women and families. but senate democrats repeatedly blocked these solutions. in fact, only two senators from the minority party could muster the compassion to vote for this proposal. i refuse to let the ka louseness and obstructionism of a select few stop this worthwhile effort. that's why i'm voting today for

the reconciliation bill to freeze medicaid funding to planned parenthood. this is our best opportunity to date to put the bill on the president's desk and show the american people where his priorities lie. mr. speaker, we face many challenges in washington today. but nothing, nothing could be more important than how we treat an innocent human life. this is a fight worth having and it's a fight i will continue to have to the very end. i urge a yes vote on the budget reconciliation bill and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from texas reserves. mr. levin: i yield a minute and a half to the distinguished gentlelady from california who is a member of the budget and propeses committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for a minute and a half. ms. lee: thank you very much. i thank our ranking member for yielding and for your tremendous leadership on so many issues. i rise in opposition to h.r.

3762, the so-called restoring american's health care freedom reconciliation act this bill would attack women's health and the affordable care act once again. it would defund planned parenthood for one year leaving millions of women across the country without access to critical health care services. it would also prevent individuals or organizations that provide comprehensive reproductive health care services from treating women stripping medicaid, women of their fundamental rights to choose their own health care provider and leaving thousands out in the cold. family planning services are critical to reducing unintended pregnancies and they make economic sense also. for every $1 spent on family planning services, we save more than $7 many other costs. mr. speaker, denying access to health care providers such as planned parenthood and other safety net providers will hurt women who need these services the most.

low income women and women of color. it's pastime to stop these ideological attacks on women's rights to health care. instead of continuing with these ka louse attacks and cuts, we should work to replace the damaging sequester and get a responsible, long-term budget deal. this bill reconciles nothing. it is divisive, it's misguided, and it's dangerous. i urge a no vote. i thank you and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. brady: i'm proud to yield two minutes to the majority whip of the u.s. house a strong leader against the affordable care act and for defunding planned parenthood, the gentleman from louisiana, mr. scalise. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. scalise: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from texas for yielding. i want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from georgia, for his leadership on bringing this reconciliation bill to the floor. mr. speaker, as we fought for years to defeat the president's

health care law and the many destructive components to that law that are playing out across the country, we've got one more opportunity, mr. speaker, to send a bill to the president, but this time not just to send a bill to the senate that actually goes after and guts the president's health care law, but also a bill that now with 51 votes in the senate will have the opportunity to get to the president's desk. and the bill not only repeals the employer mandate, repeels the individual mandate, laws that are crushing jobs across the country, killing middle class jobs, the biggest reason when you talk to maul business owners why they can't hire more people, why they're forced by this law to lower the number of working hours of people across the country down below 30 hours is because of these mandates in the law that are crushing american jobs. why not put that bill on the president's desk? why not also tell these people that are taking taxpayer money and providing abortion services

that you can't do it anymore? fupt to provide women's health care, there's funding for you but you can't use taxpayer money to provide abortions. that's in this bill. to get to the president's desk. even more than that it goes further. we start cutting taxes that are killing jobs in this bill. the medical device tax that's shipping jobs to foreign countries. let's cut those taxes and if the senate wans to go further, under their arcane rules, they'll have that opportunity. we support those changes as well. but ultimately let's get this bill to the president's desk and let him make a decision. is he going to finally stand up for american workers and sign this bill? or is he going to continue to support a law that's destroying jobs and destroying health care in this country? that ought to be the president's burden. we ought to send the bill to the president. s the first step. it's a critical step to restoring jobs and good health care across this country. let's pass this bill, send it over to the senate and let them

do their work. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: how much time on each side of the 15 minutes? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan has one minute and a half, the gentleman from texas has two minutes. mr. levin: all right, we'll use our minute and a half, it's my pleasure to yield our minute and a half to mr. rangel a gentleman who has served this committee and this country so well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for a minute and a half. without objection. mr. rangel: i think this bill before us shows what's wrong with the congress. i don't challenge the corrections that people on the republican side would want to make in providing health care for our nation. it is a problem when none of them actually voted for the bill but that could have been because we didn't give them access and opportunity. but it would seem to me, especially when we're trying to find out someone who will become

speaker of the house that if you have objections to a bill that provides health services for americans, that we would try to find out before we ask for a veto what we can do to help. there cannot be my republican here that truly believes we should eliminate preventive health care. preventive health care is not only human and the right thing to do, but it saves us a lot of money. we have an advisory board that determines the amount of time that should be spent based on statistics. yes, these are life or death questions but it's also saving money as well as saving lives. there's so many objections that you may have as to how we use the tax system to encourage people and to mandate people, that people pay into the system. plus if you know that if people can have insurance and not pay for it, they want it. yes healthy people have to participate because younger people don't believe that

they'll ever get sick system of don't just say that you want to make certain that the president vetoes this for political purposes so you can go back home and say, yes, one more shot against the president, one more shot against the congress, and in some cases, one more shot against your own party. let's, for god's sake, try to work together to try to get something positively done. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from texas. mr. brady: to close, on behalf of the american people, i yield two minutes to the distinguished gentleman from louisiana, a physician, one of the leaders on health care, dr. boustany. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. boustany: i rise in support of this reconciliation package because it hits right at the financing of obamacare and as a physician i know what the impact of this health law has done. it's devastating in causing

serious disruptions in access to care, quality of care, and really eroding the doctor-patient relationship. secondly, it puts a halt to the funding of planned parenthood. we all know based on videos and other information we've had on the practices of planned parenthood, it's time to stop it. as a pro-life physician, it's time to stop it. finally this forces the president to explain the support of these horrible, failed policies. conservatives across the spectrum are standing strong in support of this package and that's because it contains important provisions like one that i authored, repealing the employer mandate which is hurting job creation in this country. an onerous provision. it's choking small business growth. i only wish we could have done more in this package. but we're limited by the senate rules and the senate parliamentarian. i would like full repeal of obamacare. i would have liked to see the

inclusion of my bill repealing the health insurance tax which has been very costly, running up premium costs. we couldn't do that because of constraints. we will continue to fight these fights but let's pass this packagele. it's really important and will get job creation going, help roll back the -- roll back obamacare. there's no question in my mind that this reconciliation package will cause an implosion of obamacare and force us to get to real health care reform with a high quality doctor-patient relationship built on trust. at the very least we'll accomplish putting this on the president's desk and have him account for his failed policies. he will have to account for the policies that killed jobs, adding mountains of debt to this country, and continuing a legacy of failed spoil. support this package, it's a very important step. with that, i yield back the balance of my time.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. levin: mr. speaker could i ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from new jersey, mr. pallone be allowed to control the next 15 minutes of debate. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. he gentleman from georgia. pleased to yield to the gentleman, mr. upton, to control 15 minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. upton: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. upton: i rise in support of this important bill, h.r. 3762 which addresses some of the most pressing an important issues to folks in michigan and around the country. the deficit and the president's health care law. rarely a day goes by when i'm back home in michigan that someone, somewhere, doesn't stop me and say, whether it be in a coffee shop, oen a plant floor

or local service club like rotary or lions club, you name it, asking what are we doing to address the broken promise the high costs, the surprises, the lack of choices associated with obamacare and what are we doing to get spending under control? there's a lot of misunderstanding on what this bill does or does not do. let's set the record straight. this bill would repeal the omost harmful, damaging and unpopular provisions of the health law. this bill would repeal the prevention and public health fund. don't let the name fool you. the administration has viewed it as a veritable petty cash fund that's been raided for paesful -- wasteful projects including support foreba macare. this bill would prohibit for one year, any funding to states for one year for entities -- prohibited entities like planned parenthood. the same time it increases

funding for family health centers, like two in my district, to help provide access to women's health care. stalwarts in the life movement including national right to life, the family research council, susan b. anthony list support that approach. the bill would repeal the unpopular individual mandate which forces americans to purchase coverage of the government's choosing, the exact opposite approach that we need to create a patient-centered health care system. the bill would also repeal the employer mandate. repealing this provision helps encourage economic growth and improves the job outlook. the bill would also as we know repeal the medical device tax. this job killing tax has hurt americans across the country including my district, certainly, kalamazoo, where folks have lost their jobs because of the harmful tax. in closing, the c.b.o. has found this bill would reduce the deficit by nearly $130 billion over the next 10 years.

spur economic growth in the creation of jobs and cut taxes on literal millions of americans. today we say to folks in michigan and around the country, we hear you. yes, we do. and we're addressing what matters to you most and i would ask my colleagues to support this important bill and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from new jersey. the gentleman virginia tech. mr. pallone: thank you, mr. speaker. i have the utmost respect for the chairman of our energy and commerce committee, but i have to respectfully disagree with almost everything he said. i am glad that he is admitting that basically what this reconciliation tries to do is repeal the affordable care act. there was some question, i guess, about that by my colleagues until now. but clearly they are admitting that that's what they are trying to do. of course they don't say anything about the positive impact of the affordable care

act and how many more people have -- now have health insurance. how many people don't face discrimination. all the terrible things that existed before the affordable care act became law. what i do not appreciate, though, is my chairman saying how sweer gig trying to expand access to health care by providing more funds to community health centers. the fact of the matter is that the community health centers cannot make up for the work on women's health that planned parenthood centers take care of. and to suggest that somehow that's going to make up for what planned parenthood does is simply not the case. mr. speaker, this reconciliation legislation amounts to a futile 61st attempt at repealing the affordable care act. it also represents the republicans' continued assault on women's rights. the reconciliation instructions defund planned parenthood, and the recently enacted legislation forming a new select subcommittee will continue a fraudulent

investigation into planned parenthood. i think that's appalling. this investigation and this effort in reconciliation are nothing more than a radical assault on women's health. extremist republicans want to take away a woman's right to choose, what is best for her and her family, as well as her right to choose the health care provider that best meets her health care needs. this isn't just an attack on planned parent hoo, this is an attack on all women across the country. i'm also disappointed that the reconciliation instructions would repeal the prevention and pun lick -- public health fund which is part of the affordable care act. there is nothing more important than the prevention fund. my colleague, the chairman of our committee, suggested it was a slush fund. nothing could be further than the truth. less than four months ago the house voting overwhelmingly to support the 21st century cures act, which was one of my chairman's goals was to pass that bill. with that vote we all agreed on the importance of making investments to spur innovation to develop new treatment and

cures, investments that could address the human toll of disease and reduce the financial strain that disease faces on public and private health care players. just like we know investments in developing new cures and treatments matter, we know that investments and prevention pay off. according to the trust for america's health, every dollar spent on community-based interventions generates a return of $5.60. not only does investing in prevention have economic benefits, such investments can potentially prevent the human suffering that results from disease. i don't see how anyone can be against that goal. i would venture to say again out of respect to my chairman of my committee, if we were to get rid of the prevention fund, i don't see any point in having the 21st century cures act, because the money is similar. one goes for prevention, the other goes also for prevention. this legislation is harmful, unnecessary, and will never become law. i urge all members to reject it. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey

reserves. the gentleman from michigan. >> i yield 2 1/2 minutes to the gentlelady from tennessee, the vice chair of the energy and commerce committee, mrs. blackburn. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from tennessee is recognized for 2 1/2 minutes. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. chairman. before i begin my remarks i want to commend chairman price and chairman upton for the work that they have done. energy and commerce is an authorizing committee, and the chairman price is the budget committee. making certain that we meet the targets for reconciliation. one of the things we have heard repeatedly from our constituents is the u.s. house of representatives is responsible for this nation getting their fiscal house in order. and it is an imperative. and we know we are not going to have a silver bullet that does it overnight. those silver bullets don't exist. we do know this. that we can take the right steps at the right time and put

a bill on the president's desk. and the president has the choice to say i agree with you. let's move this nation to fiscal health. or he'll veto the bill. and of course our goal is to get it over to the senate so they can do their work and we can see that step of the process take place. there are some items in this bill for reconciliation that i do come to strongly support. i think it's imperative that the affordable care act, which has proven to be so unaffordable, too expensive to use, too expensive to purchase insurance, gets you to the queue not the doctor, we all know those stories. and what we have learned is that the administration has recently cut in half their enrollment projections for next year.

this should trouble everybody because this is something that we said. we know from history, from government-run programs, that those expectations many times are not met. so then you see a movement into damage control. so we are taking the right steps to begin to rein this in and to break this program apart. i think it's important to note as we look at the obamacare program and the steps we are taking to eliminate portions of that program, that just this week with the co-ops that were put in place, and by the way about a billion taxpayer dollars spent on those co-ops, nine, nine, nine of those co-ops have now failed. they failed. poof. gone.

and it is these findings that are making -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for an additional minute. mrs. blackburn: that are raising the questions theerks findings raise the questions that americans have --, these findings raise the questions that americans have. the program isn't working. what you need to do is stop this before it becomes too entrenched to change. because people are not getting access to care and money is being wasted on health care delivery theories that clearly do not work. this bill repeals the individual mandate, the employer mandate, the cadillac tax, the medical device tax, and auto enrollment and ends the public health trust fund, which is a slush fund. when you're paying for pet neutering and other things out of a prevention fund, yes, it is a slush fund and it needs to be clawed back.

in addition there is a one-year moratorium on the funds for planned parenthood. while congress completes its investigation into the practices that have taken place 3762 fetal tissues, h.r. is a net tax cut, a net spending cut, and reduces the deficit. i urge support and yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yield back. the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. pallone: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pallone: as i said now our vice chair of the committee also is going into all the reasons why we should repeal the affordable care act. so i think maybe at this time, mr. chairman, i'd like to read, if i could, from the statement of administration policy. this is the president's statement about why this bill should not pass. he says the administration strongly opposes house passage of h.r. 3762.

the house has attempted to repeal or undermine the affordable care act more than 50 times. by repealing numerous key elements of the law, h.r. 3762 would take away critical benefits and health care coverage from hardworking middle class families. the bill also would remove policies that are expected to help slow the growth in health care costs and that have improved the quality of care patients receive. h.r. 3762 would increase the deficit in the long term and detract from the work that congress could be doing to foster job creation and economic growth. the affordable care act is working and is fully integrated into an improved american health care system. discrimination based on pre-existing conditions is a thing of the past. under the affordable care act, we have seen the slowest growth in health care prices in nearly 50 years. benefiting all americans. repealing key elements of the affordable care act would result in millions of individuals remaining uninsured or losing the insurance they have today. an estimated 17.6 million

americans gain coverage as several. f of the affordable care act coverage provisions have taken effect. 15.3 million since the beginning of the first open enrollment in october, 2013. this legislation would roll back coverage gains and would cost millions of hardworking middle class families the security of affordable health coverage that they deserve. repealing the health care law would have implications far beyond those americans who have or would gain insurance. more than 150 million americans with employer-based insurance would be at risk of higher premiums and lower wages, or losing their coverage all together. reforms that strengthen medicare's long-term finances also would be repealed like making medicare's hospital insurance trust fund insolvent earlier. h.r. 3762 would also defund the prevention and public health fund which was created to help prevent disease detected early and manage conditions before they become severe. limit women's health care choices and disproportionately impact low-income individuals. rather than refighting old

political battles by once again voting to repeal basic protections that provide security for the middle class, members of congress should be working together to grow the economy, strengthen middle class families, and create new jobs. if the president were presented with h.r. 3762, he would veto the bill. this is an exercise in few tillity this reconciliation act. and to suggest that somehow we should repeal the affordable care act after all the good things that it's doing to help americans obtain health care, have access to health care, and lower costs, there is absolutely no justification for it. i thought the republicans would stop doing this months ago, but here they are at it again. i don't really understand it. again, mr. chairman, i yield back. this is just a total waste of time. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman reserve? the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. upton: i would yield at this point 2 1/2 minutes to the gentleman from new jersey, member of the health subcommittee, mr. lance. 2 1/2 minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for 2 1/2 minutes.

mr. lance: thank you, mr. chairman. i rise in strong support of h.r. 3762, the restoring americans' health care freedom reconciliation act. it this comprehensive package vow focuses on significant portions of obamacare. striking onerous tax and mandate provisions, and laying the groundwork for a new president, elected in 2016, to complete a full replacement plan of obamacare. not repeal, repeal and replacement. according to the congressional budget office, the package reduces the deficit by nearly $130 billion. and provides a one-year moratorium on all federal mandatory funding for planned parenthood. a moratorium to planned parenthood, but that funding is redirected elsewhere to community health organizations that do a fine job across this country. under the leadership of chairman upton, provisions

finally end the obamacare fund known as the prevention in public health fund, which gives the secretary of health and human services billions of dollars to spend each year with little accountability. and all members of congress should recognize that that responsibility belongs to us here in this branch of government and not in the executive branch. funds from this program have financed questionable programs, and there has been waste and some democrats have joined in calling for its termination. the energy and commerce committee sections also direct that the planned parenthood funding will go to other organizations, high quality access health care options, both for women and men. contributions from both the house education and work force and ways and means committees also include the repeal of a series of significant pieces of obamacare, including the repeal of the individual and employer mandates, the repeal of the 40% execs size cadillac tax, and

there is -- excise cadillac tax, and there is no one i know that favors that tax. certainly knows hardworking men and women who are in labor organizations in this country. and that forces people to accept different insurance coverage from the coverage they knew and liked. and it includes the repeal of the medical device tax, which increases the cost of care, discourages medical innovation, and harms job creation, particularly in my home state of new jersey. because of legislation was developed through the reconciliation process, it will be protected from a filibuster in the senate, it could be passed in that body by a simple majority. and i call for majority passage in the senate of the united states. reconciliation is our best chance to send meaningful legislation to the president's desk. i urge my colleagues to support this important legislation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield two minutes now to the

gentleman from new york, mr. engel. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for two minutes. mr. engel: i thank the gentleman for yielding to me. as president reagan used to say, here we go again. the 61st attempt to repeal the affordable care act. give us a break. it's a waste of everybody's time. i don't know why we are going through this exercise. i need to understand -- i do understand, mr. speaker, the need to reconcile our budget. i do not, however, understand the impulse to do so by gutting both the affordable care act and an organization that provides vital preventive services to more than two million americans. that's planned parenthood. investing in preventive care saves money in the long term and yet this shortsighted measure would abolish the affordable care act created prevention and public health fund our government sole investment in prevention. this isn't merely talking point. i have seen the ample returns on this investment in my hometown in the bronx, with the

healthier meals, anti-smoking campaigns, and increased access to vaccinations, this fund should not be gutted. this bill ignores the progress that the fund is making not only towards saving money but more importantly saving lives. and this bill again, as i said, bars funding for medicaid reimbursement to planned parenthood. again, yet another politically motivated attempt to demonize planned parenthood based on discredited allegations of wrongdoing. as i have said repeatedly, more than half of planned parenthood centers are in rural or underserved areas where health care is already hard to come by. yet some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to make it even harder to access h.i.v. and s.t.i. tests, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and other lifesaving services. i urge my colleagues to vote no on this bill and to continue to provide preventive care to our country's most underserved citizens. this is what we should be doing not taking it harder for them

to get the help they need. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from new jersey reserves. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: may i ask the gentleman, how many speakers you have remaining on your side? we're prepared to close. mr. pallone: i have no remaining speakers. could i ask the time remaining sproism the gentleman from new jersey has 6 minutes. the gentleman from michigan has 6 na minutes. mr. pallone: i'll go ahead and close. i want to talk in closing about the part of this reconciliation that eliminating funding for planned parenthood and related agencies. basically the reconciliation instructions woult prohibit federal funding under medicaid as well as schip, the children's health fund and social services block grants to prohibited

entities defined as though primarily engaged in family planning, reproductive health services and related medical care and those that provide abortions beyond limited circumstances. now the thing that is most disturbing to me here is the ideological bent. we know that the supreme court says that abortion is legal and women have a right to choose. but this goes way beyond even the abortion issue by talking about family planning and reproductive health services. my colleagues continue to say that there are alternatives to planned parenthood but the reality is there are not because they are the main provider for family planning, reproductive health services and related medical care. that's our point here. you can define this, or you try to define this as relating to abortion. but the bottom line is that planned parenthood and similar entities provide all kinds of services for women's health and even for some men and you are

denying them access and so i do kind of resent the fact that there's a suggestion that you're going to allow access to community health centers because i know from my own experience, community health centers are limited. there aren't that many. they don't have the ability to provide these services, particularly this kind of specialty care that women deserve and that women should have. once again, we're here to defend long standing freedom of choice protections that assure a woman in the medicaid program can see the qualified provider she trusts. remember, when you're talk about medicaid in particular, you're talking about poor -- poor women. you're talking about vulnerable women who will lose access to care maws medicaid is their major source of funding if they want to get care. i can never support any legislation of any kind that would leave millions of american women without key preventive health services, including birth control, life-saving cancer screenings, s.t.i. treatment,

and advice on family planning. federal rules provide the right to seek health care from the medically qualified provide over their choosing. now you're entering an ideological debate to any provider. the idea is you can decide where to go. if an saget provided the services and they're qualified, you could go there. now you're breaking that for ideological reasons. my concern is where do we go next? you can't go to a hospital because it's catholic? you can't go to a clinic because it's jew snish how do you the fine, ideologically, which provider you can go to if you put the ideological bent on it saying you can't go to a proceeder that may at one of its clinic, not even the one owe go to, provide abortion services. this is a protection that's exist forward long time and you're breaking it. this is the wrong bill.

it denies women access to important care. i yield back, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: i yield myself to the balance of the time. the time i do not use i will yield back to chairman price. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. price: i thank chairman price for the budget process that we've seen -- mr. upton: i thank chairman price for the budget process sess we have seen this year. one of the biggest problems every year for democrats or republicans is passage of the budget. far lot of years, on our side of the aisle, we complained bitterly that the senate wasn't able to pass a budget for four or five years, i want to say. didn't happen this year. we passed a responsible budget in the house. the senate passed a budget. many americans, i don't think, realize that the budget doesn't go to the president for his signature or veto tavepls road match for us and sets up the stage where we can use

reconciliation. s that process that i want to say president reagan used for the first time back in the 1980's. i worked at the white house then. and president reagan, this is a way that you don't need the 60-vote threshold that most bills require in the senate. you only need 50 votes. and so that budget process, by getting a conference agreement that was nurtured through the two bodies, house and senate, then began the process of reconciliation within the authorize committees. our committee, energy and commerce and others can come up with real savings to match that budget target we set last spring. that's what this is. it's reconciliation. the coming together based on the budget and this in fact is a bill that goes to the president, the statement of administration position, we're expecting a veto but at least we're getting the

job don. we're delivering on what we said we'd do and we're getting the bill to the president for action either way. i want to thank this time and -- i want to take this time and thank chairman price and others, my fellow committee chairs, for their hard work, because it is hard work to get a bill to the house floor, particularly one that actually does reduce the deficit, something that many of us on both sides of the aisle actually support. so with that, mr. chairman, i yield the balance of my time become to chairman price and again, thank him for his good work and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from new jersey. mr. pallone: i ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from virginia, mr. scott be allowed to control the next 10 minutes of debate time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: i'm pleased to yield to the chairman of the committee, mr. kline, to control 10 minutes as my designee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized.

mr. kline: i rise today in strong support of restoring americans' health care freedom reconciliation act and yield myself two minutes. mr. speaker, higher costs, fewer full-time jbs -- jobs, loss of insurance coverage, less access to trusted health care providers. those are just some of the harmful consequences stemming from the president's flawed health care law a law that's wreaking havoc on families and small businesses across the country. just this month, officials in clay county, tennessee, moved to close local schools due to severe budgetary challenges. according to the county director of schools, obamacare is, quote, the straw that broke the camel's back, close quote this local official said it is very difficult for the school district to, quote, meet the mandates of the law. of course that's what school leaders, college administrators, small business owners and others have been saying for years. employers, working families, teachers, and students are paying the price for the president's government takeover

of health care. we have a responsibility to use every tool we have to dismant until flawed health care scheme and the bill before us today will do just that. the education work force committee has helped play a role in this effort. the committee recently passed a proposal that would repeal a costly and unnecessary man tate in the health care law known as auto enrollment. as the name suggests this mandate requires certain employers to enroll employees in government-approved health care. it may not sound like a big deal but this one mandate will cause confusion, penalize those enrolled in coverage and take money to the paychecks of hardworking americans. it's so flex that after four years the department of labor hasn't figured out how to enforce it. the american people sent us to washington if focus on their priorities. by supporting h.r. 3762 we can reduce spend, rein in the nation's deficit and debt and send a message to the president

that will dismantle his flawed health care law. these are leading prior thousands of american people this helps to advance. i urge my colleagues to support this legislation and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: i yield myself such time as i may consume. today the house will take another vote on the affordable care act. more specifically on whether to support a budget reconciliation process that will seek to take away health insurance from millions of americans. this isn't a new exercise in the past five -- a new exercise. in the past five years, the house has voted about six ties to repeal or undermine the law. there have been multiple lawsuits filed, attacks mounted all with the same goal of turning the block backwards on the progress we've made. before congress passed the affordable care act, health care costs were skyrocketing. that's before the affordable care act.

and in the months before we passed the bill, there were months where 14,000 people a day were losing their health insurance. women were routinely charged more than men, if you had a pre-existing condition you may not get health insurance at all or if you lost your job and had a pre-existing condition you were out of look. -- out of luck. we made great progress, and as a result of a.c.a., more than 17 million uninsured americans have gained health insurance. today, young americans can stay on their parent's policies until they're 26. if you have a pre-existing condition, you can get health care insurance at the standard rate so if you want to change joshes start a business or start a family, you have health care options. even if you have a pre-existing condition. further health care -- further, health care cost growth has slowed resulting in the lowest

annual encrease in health care spending in at least 50 years. it's clear that the affordable care act is working and even clearer that we should not recrert -- revert back to the way things were before the a.c.a., when those with pre-existing conditions couldn't get health coverage, young people had fewer coverage options and costs were skyrocketing. once again, we're considering the a bill that dismantles the law without any credible alternative to ensure that millions of americans won't be left out in the cold. i urge my colleagues to protect health care insurance by opposing this bill. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from minnesota. mr. clirne: i'm pleased to yield two the gentlelady from new york, ms. stepanek. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. stepanek: i want to thank chairman kline and chairman price for their instrumental

work in putting this package together. for the past five years the president's health care law has led to higher costs, less access to doctors and fewer choices. this is why it is so important to make commonsense fixing to this law. ms. stefanik: as i travel throughout the -- my district, constituents say they want to ease the pain this law has created. bhi moving employer-sponsored health care coverage away from a voluntary and flexible model, the president's health care law has created countless penalties and mandates. including one that require certain employers to automatically enroll their full-time employees in health care coverage this auto enrollment mandate creates con fugs for my constituents and by triggering tax penalties, actually creates duplicative costs for employees who might already have health insurance. for example, if a veteran in my district who is eligible for

tricare or north country college student stays on their parent's health care plan and gets a job, they'll be automatically enrolled in an unnecessary and duplicative plan unless they know about this confusing provision and decline coverage within a set amount of time. it's redundant, it's unnecessary, and it's not in line with a patient-centered health care cent they are country deserves. the reconciliation package would eliminate this misguided mandate and does not take away an employee's ability to opt in and enroll in their employers' health care coverage. this provision accomplish this is by getting rid of the onerous and duplicative mandate known as auto enrollment. this commonsense fix will save americans hard-earned money, protect workers from a one-size-fits-all health care system and saves the federal government billions of dollars. i urge my colleagues to stand up for the american taxpayer and support this reconciliation package.

i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: i'm pleased to yield to the gentlewoman from oregon, ms. bonn meche, such time as she may consume. . ms. bonamici: i rise in opposition to this bill which with make health coverage more expensive for millions of americans. today 17 million americans who had been uninsured now have high quality affordable health coverage. we should not overlook this fact. across the country people are now able to live their lives to pursue careers, to start families, without the looming fear that any medical emergency could bankrupt them. the bill we are debating today would send our country back to a time when hardworking people couldn't access preventive services. when injuries and illnesses were not only physically debilitating but could also be physically -- financially crippling. imagine being diagnosed with cancer and fighting for your

life to beat it and then facing the prospect of losing your home because you're torn between paying a mortgage and paying for lifesaving treatment. no one should have to face that choice. and what's especially disappointing is the fact that members of both parties have ideas for improving the affordable care act. we just heard one from miss stefanic from new york. instead of coming together around common issues, the house is using its time to debate an unrealistic measure that would simply push health care beyond the reach of hardworking people in communities across this country. yet again on top of that, try to defund planned parenthood. i urge my colleagues to join me in rejecting this bill. let's get back to the table and work together. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yield back. the gentleman from minnesota. mr. klein: i would now like to yield to the chairman of the subcommittee on health, employment, labor, and pensions, the gentleman from tennessee, dr. roe, two minutes.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from tennessee is recognized for two minutes. mr. roe: i rise today in strort of restoring american's health care freedom reconciliation act. i thank the chairman, and their staffs for the work and leadership on this important bill. as a physician who spent more than 30 years caring for patients, i'm keenly aware of the negative impact the president's health care law has had on the american health care system of the the mandates, tax increases, wasteful spending, failed websites, co-ops, included in obamacare, put a strain on hardworking families and succeeded only in making our already struggling economy worse. this bill repeals the individual mandate, the employer mandate, stops the damaging and regressive cadillac and medical device tax which has strong bipartisan support, and is estimated to save about $79 billion. further it will protect workers from having to purchase insurance plans they may not want or need by excluding them -- excusing them from the auto enrollment provision. this bill does not accomplish

everything we need to to right the wrongs of obamacare, but it's a strong step in the right direction by using the reconciliation process to repeal the most damaging parts of obamacare, we are keeping our promise to the american people to protect them from this fatally flawed law. let me take you down to the ground level where i live. where i was mayor in johnson city, tennessee, i just met with the folks there. they have $185,000 they have to pay into a reinyou furens fund. they have a thousand employers, large h.r. department. they had to hire a consultant to find out whether they are complying with all of the regulations. the city manager said under no circumstances will we hire anybody to work more than 25 hours an week because we cannot afford to do that in our local situation. mr. speaker, i came to congress to help reform our nation's health care system, and there's no question it was broken before obamacare, but unfortunately this law only makes things harder and more expensive for too many americans. i hear over and over again, republicans don't have any

alternatives. here's one right here. the american health care reform act, 193-page bill, which lowers costs, increase access, and gives more freedom to patients. also h.r. 2300, dr. price's bill, does the same thing. i strongly encourage support for this bill and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: mr. speaker, i'm yield to the gentlewoman from massachusetts, ms. clark, two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. ms. clark: thank you, mr. speaker. ranking member scott. mr. speaker, here we go again. we are back here using valuable legislative time to make a doomed attempt to repeal the affordable care act. next week the highway bill will expire. the week after that we are facing the prospect of defaulting on our nation's debt. the next month we could shut down government because we don't have a long-term budget. and yet here we are again. repealing the affordable care act. defunding planned parenthood.

because maybe the 65th time it will stick. i'd like to remind my colleagues that the affordable care act has insured over 17 million americans. and that planned parenthood provides care to 2.7 million patients a year. often in underserved areas of our country. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle seem determined to replay these issues. despite the fact that we have already voted on them. mr. speaker, we have a lot of very important time sensitive issues we need to deal with. we need to fund our highway system. we need to pay our bills. we need to keep government open. these are the very basic functions we were elected to perform. these are the minimum of what families need and expect from us. but instead we are wasting precious time debating backwards ideological bills

that roll back important progress made for women and families. who are working hard to get to and stay in the middle class. i urge my colleagues to vote down this partisan attempt to repeal the affordable care act and defund planned parenthood. let's get back to solving these nation's problems. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from minnesota. mr. kline: i now would like to yield two minutes to a member of the committee, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. thompson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the chairman for affording me the opportunity to address such a critical issue. this reform package will protect taxpayer dollars, will reforming some of the most eegrogeous portions of the affordable care act. -- egregious portions of the affordable care act. as a member of the house committee on education work force, i'm proud to support language included in this bill that would repeal the harmful auto enrollment mandate of the a.c.a. this provision which would allow to companies with 200 or

more employees that would earwise -- otherwise move employees into a preapproved government managed health insurance plan. mr. speaker, creating more red tape and mandates was never the solution to curb rising health costs and to increase access to insurance markets. i was a freshman member in congress in 2009 where many of the individuals speaking today took part in a 24-hour long markup of an earlier version of the a.c.a. mr. speaker, some of these provisions lacked all common sense and that holds true today. half a decade later, the department of labor is still struggling to find a way to enforce auto enrollment. say what you want about the affordable care act, this is just plain unworkable. repealing this provision will save $1 billion and maintain flexibility for employers, struck turing health insurance benefits with their employees. mr. speaker, my democratic colleagues on the other side of the aisle are just in denial. since its passage, the a.c.a. has been amended more than 50

times. the bulk of these changes, they supported and were signed into law by the president. we should not stop there. h.r. 3762 is the next great change to the a.c.a. and the american people deserve as much. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from minnesota. mr. kline: thank you, mr. speaker. could i inquire of the gentleman from virginia how many more speakers he has? mr. scott: i'm prepared to close. mr. kline: i have one more speaker. i would like to yield right now two minutes to the gentleman from georgia, mr. allen. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for two minutes. mr. allen: thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank chairman kline and chairman price and chairman upton for their work on this -- restoring american health care freedom reconciliation act, h.r. 3762. when i go out in our dust trict

-- district, people want choice. and i think the topdown elements of the affordable care act are creating tremendous burdens on our people who demand that we give, particularly our small business community and our employees, the opportunity to have the right choice. the restoring americans health care freedom reconciliation act is important legislation that repeals many of the most harmful provisions in obamacare. obamacare's had a devastating effect since its passage. h.r. 3762 repeals the individual and employer mandates, the medical device tax, and the outrageous cadillac tax, which again, does not allow for folks to choose the plan they want. thereby unburdens our families and businesses from the harmful effects of these mandates. i came to congress to create jobs, grow the economy, and reduce the size and scope of

the federal government. and restore fiscal responsibility in washington. passing a balanced budget the repeals job killing uh-oh bama care provisions is a good start. republicans in congress are continuing to fight to rein in washington spending problem and get our economy on the right track. i stand in strong support of restoring americans' health care freedom reconciliation act and urge my colleagues to vote yes on this important legislation to give our people the opportunity to choose how they would like to have their health care rendered. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from virginia has 4 1/2 minutes remaining. the gentleman from minnesota has one half minute remaining. the gentleman from virginia. mr. scott: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. scott: would ask that -- ask unanimous consent that three letters be introduced in the record, one from the american federation of state

county and municipal employees of the afl-cio, one from the afl-cio, another from america's central hospitals. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. scott: at this point, mr. speaker, i would yield any remaining time left to the gentleman from maryland, mr. van hollen, and ask unanimous consent that he be able to control that time as well as all remaining time for debate on this side. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman from minnesota. mr. kline: thank you, mr. speaker. we have heard a good debate here today. we talked about doing some commonsense things. this bill does not repeal all of obamacare, but it certainly repeals some egliegeous aspects of it. the one -- egregious aspects of it. the one our committee worked on, in the auto enrollment, saves $7.9 billion, and removes something the administration can figure out how to implement. i urge my colleagues to support this legislation. and i yield the remainder of my

time to mr. price. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia has nine minutes remaining. the gentleman from maryland has 12 1/2 minutes remaining. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: may i inquire, mr. speaker, as to my friend from maryland how many speakers he has remaining? mr. van hollen: mr. chairman, we have more speakers, but they are not with us on the floor at the moment. i'm not sure exactly how many, either. if i could reserve the balance of my time.

does the chairman have additional speakers? mr. price: i'm prepared to close. mr. van hollen: in that case, let me just see if there's nybody on the way. ok. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: i'm asking my colleague in the interest of time would the gentleman be interesteds, since we have nine minutes and 12 1/2 minutes left, in agreeing by unanimous consent that we'll each take five minutes to close? mr. price: i'm happy to do that, yes. mr. van hollen: i thank the gentleman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. i have been listening to the debate and i'm sorry to report that as i come here to close the debate not much has changed from when we started this

debate this morning. this is still, in my view, an unproductive end to an already unproductive and shameful week. saw in this house just yesterday the spectacle of a kangaroo court-style special benghazi hearing using taxpayers' dollars engaged in a political witch-hunt. abuse of power. . the republican majority leader, himself, told the country that was all about bringing down secretary clinton's poll numbers. then just earlier this week, we pretended in passing a piece of legislation that the united states doesn't have to pay all the bills that are due and owing. we passed a piece of legislation that says we'll only pay some of

our bills, but not ault of our bills. no -- but not all of our bills. no citizen can get up in the morning and say, i'm not going to pay my mortgage bill but car payment. when the country puts its full faith and credit at risk, it puts the entire economy at risk in the international economic order. but to add insult to injury in passing a piece of legislation saying that the united states will pay some of our bills so forget about that full faith and credit, we passed legislation that said we are going to pay the big bond holders first, china gets paid first, veterans and troops don't get paid, doctors providing medicare services, they don't get paid. 61stow here we are for the time passing a piece of

legislation to dismantle the affordable care act, according to the analysis of the congressional budget office will cost 15 million americans access to affordable health care, including three million children. i heard some of my colleagues say we want to improve the affordable care act in certain ways and we understand that the affordable care act is not perfect, but a piece of legislation that takes away affordable health care to 15 million americans, that is nothing to celebrate. that is nothing to be proud of. we shouldn't be doing that here on the floor of the house. and taking away access to health are for women in places like planned parenthood planned parenthood when the chairman has stated on national television that they didn't violate any

laws and later said they didn't engage in any inappropriate activity. so when republican colleagues got that kind of answer with respect to benghazi when the intelligence committee in the house and house armed services committee, they concluded there was nothing wrong and when you didn't get the answer you wanted on planned parenthood, a special committee on planned parenthood that is going to waste taxpayer money just as the benghazi special committee has. so i showed earlier a chart that shows how fed up the american people are with what's happening here in the house. and the problem is everything we've done this week from the benghazi hearings to pretending the united states will only pay part of its bills and when we do, we are going to pay china first and dismantle the affordable care act for the 61st

time. they want us working on important issues. few weeks from now our national transportation infrastructure system is going to run out of money. in just a few more weeks, the federal government will shut down if we can't come together and work something out. i have produced a prevent the government shutdown act. .ut the rules committee said no they are trying to dismantle the affordable care act at the cost of americans affordable health insurance. mr. speaker, let's get on with the big issues of this country and invest in our infrastructure and shut down some of the tax loopholes that incentivize and invest here at home. let's make sure we lift the unproductive the sequester caps that are slowing down economic

growth right now, according to the congressional budget office. let's invest in our kids' education. let's invest in scientific research. and let's do it while we shut down some of these ridiculous tax breaks for hedge fund managers. we should end this inversion that's going on where u.s. corporations just change their address to some tax haven overseas to escape their responsibility to the american taxpayers and their country. we have a lot of pressing issues to do. and instead, benghazi, pay china first, pass this legislation to take away health care to 15 million americans, including three million american kids. we can do better. we can do a lot better, mr. speaker. let's defeat this legislation and get on with the real work of the american people.

and i turn the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: thank you, mr. speaker. as i mentioned at the outset, we heard a lot of things talked about on the other side, many of which that doesn't have anything to do with the piece of legislation before us. what we are talking about with this legislation is the harmful effects of obamacare. what has obamacare actually done? 7.5 million americans pay the individual mandate tax, an average of 200 bucks. that's going up in terms of numbers and in terms of dollars. 67% of the american people have seen increased deduct i believe so. so much so that many individuals aren't able to pay their deductible which means they are denied care and don't have care. they have coverage, but not health care. ,375 premium increase

instead of the decrease promised by the president. $2.4 billion for the cooperative program. 420,000 americans will lose coverage from the cooperative program because it doesn't work, like the rest of this law. mr. speaker, the majority of the american people continue to oppose this law. why? let me suggest to you it's because the principals of health care have been violated. we want a system that is affordable for everybody. does that occur in obamacare? no. we want a system that's accessible for everybody. is that the case in obamacare? absolutely not. we want a system of the highest quality of care. as a former practicing physician, i can tell you my former colleagues tell me that the quality is going down. we want a system of innovation

and responsiveness to the patients and choices for patients. any of those increased in obamacare? no. no. no that's the problem, mr. speaker. that's the problem that we have and that is the principles of ealth care are violated. so what does this bill do before us today? reduces the deficit by nearly $130 billion. increases gross demresk product by over $55 billion. eliminates the work disincentives and labor supply, increases capital investment. that means more jobs. decreases federal borrowing, that means more jobs answer a healthier economy. so who's supporting the bill? all these groups are supporting the bill. we have over -- we have 42 individual groups the bill. family research council, americans for tax reform,

national taxpayers union. national right to life, national retail federation. u.s. chamber of commerce, small business and entrepreneurship council, americans united for life. on and on and on. they support this because they know this is what the american people want and it's what they deserve. mr. speaker, what the american people have heard and seen today is a real contrast and no doubt about it. on the one hand, those of us on this side of the aisle are fighting to protect the american people that obamacare is doing to our health care system and to our economy. on the other hand, most of our friends on the other side of the aisle are doing everything they can to protect a broken status quo. they are defending a law that is contributing to higher health care costs, less access to care, lower quality of care and an economy that is leaving too many americans behind. interestingly enough, many of the provisions have enjoyed bipartisan support in the past.

when our democrat colleagues say we are trying to provide folks relief from the individual mandate or employer mandate or the punitive taxes and the onerous provisions within obamacare, it rings hollow. i don't doubt sincerity, with enough engineering, they can craft a health care system that will effectively serve the american people despite the evidence that proves otherwise. we fundamentally disagree. we think a health care system that is responsive to the needs of patients, families and physicians will not come by way of washington mandates or penalties. if you want to increase quality, affordable health care and improve the responsiveness of our system, you need to trust the american people, trust them to make decisions for themselves and families, rather than trying to force them into a washington definition of care.

the legislation we have been debating today will provide strong relief from the most coercive components of the president's health care law and will pave the way for the patient-centered health care reform we ought to be implementing and in doing so it will save the american taxpayer, 130 billion by lowering the amount of deficit spending we see here in washington and will expand economic growth and opportunity. mr. speaker, i thank my colleagues very much. i want to thank the chairs of the committees. i want to thank my colleagues in this chamber for this spirited and important debate and i look forward to the american people having the opportunity to learn more about who is fighting to protect and promote the ability of patients and families and doctors to make medical decisions, not washington, d.c. i urge support and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. all time for debate has expired.

the previous question is ordered on the bill. the question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. third reading. the clerk: providing for reconciliation pursuant to section 2002 on the current resolution of the budget of 2016. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on passage of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. mr. van hollen: i ask for a recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: those in support of taking a recorded vote will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, this 15-minute vote on passage of the bill will be followed by five-minute on agreeing to the approval of the speaker's journal if ordered. this is a 15-minute vote on passage of the bill. [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 240 and the nays are 189. the bill is passed and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. pursuant to clause 8, rule 20, unfinished business is aagreeing to the speaker approval of the journal. the question is on geeg to the speaker's approval of the journal. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the yeas have it and the journal stands approved.

the speaker pro tempore: the ouse will come to order.

he house will come to order. the hoist will come to or. -- the house will come to or. we need to make our onversations from the floor. the house will come to order. remove conversations from the floor. the his will come to order. remove your conversations from the floor, please.

the house will come to order. remove your conversations from the floor, please.

the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in or. please remove your onversations from the floor. for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland wish to speak? mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for one minute. for the purpose of inquiring of the majority leader the schedule for the week to come. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. hoyer: at this time i yield to my friend, mr. mccarthy, the majority leader, for purposes of telling us what the schedule will be for next week. i yield to my friend. the speaker pro tempore: let's have some order, please. remove your conversation from the floor. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. mccarthy: i thank the gentleman for yielding. before i get into next week's schedule, i do want to thank the gentleman for joining me in the second congressional hack

athon. mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, the house is still not in order. the speaker pro tempore: please remove your conversations from the floor. let the house be in order. the gentleman is recognized. mr. mccarthy: today's hack-a-thon is an opportunity to bring people together to envision an modernized congress. even as we speak the congressional community opened government advocates, and co-developers from the technology sector are gathered to explore how we can leverage technology to improve congress and how it works for the american people. mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, i'm sorry but the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman correct. the house is not in order. please remove your onversations from the floor. mr. hoyer: i yield to my fren. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman virginia tech. mr. mccarthy: i thank the gentleman again.

it is a good reminder even as we may disagree on many policy issues, we can work together to improve the institution. i want to thank the gentleman's staff as well as the clerk's office for their work on today's hack-a-thon. mr. speaker, on monday the house will meet at noon for morning hour and 2:00 p.m. for legislative business. votes will be postponed until 67:po p.m. on tuesday -- 6:30 p.m. on tuesday and wednesday the house will meet at 10:00 a.m. for horning hour and noon on legislative business. on thursday the house will meet at 9:00 am for legislative business. last votes of the week are expected no later than 3:00 p.m. on friday, no votes are expected in the house. mr. speaker, the house will consider a number of suspensions next week, including the necessary short-term extension of the authorization under the highway trust fund. a complete list of suspensions will be announced by close of business today. in addition, the house will consider h.r. 1090, the retail

investor protection act, sponsored by representative ann wagner. this bill provides relief from the department of labor's proposed rule to redefine fiduciary. once finalized, the department's rule will shut out millions of low and middle income investors from getting retirement savings advice. instead our bill will ensure coordination between the department and the securities and exchange commission to determine whether it is even necessary to establish a uniform standard. finally, mr. speaker, the house will also need to consider legislation relating to the nation's debt limit. and i thank the gentleman. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: i thank the gentleman for that information. and i want to join him. he and i both had the opportunity to speak to participants in the hack-a-thon going on as we speak. mr. kantor and i -- cantor and i were cooperative in this effort as well, and mr. mccarthy and i have continued

this tradition. like mr. mccarthy, i believe this will be of great assistance in moving us forward with technology to make our institution more transparent, the people's business more available to them, and that we will benefit from this -- in this institution. but in addition to that, of course, we believe it will have ramifications beyond this institution as they brainstorm and come together on how technology can be used better in our democracy, both in terms of our government and politics, but also in terms of our economic and growth of jobs. i thank the gentleman and his staff. i would want to mention my own staffer, steve guyer, one of -- eal talents -- dwire dwyer, one of the real talents and in my opinion, within the house staff, republican and democrat, working together on

behalf of the better use of technology. i thank my friend for his observation. mr. speaker, this week we've had two bills that we spent significant time on that purported to deal both with debt and with debt -- deficit reduction. neither of which i think anybody in this house, republican or democrat, would place much of a bet on becoming law. they were message bills. we now dealt with legislation to repeal the affordable care act for the 61st time. and we dealt with a bill to close down planned parenthood, which clearly is not going to happen. indeed, it should not happen. 97% of what they do is providing health care to women who need health care services. o we passed also a bill that

the gentleman, majority leader, points out we need to do something to extend the debt limit. he's right on that. we do need to do it. but we spent a period of time on a bill called debt prioritization. i call that a charade, mr. speaker. i believed it was a charade. i believe that once you don't pay one of your bills, you have defaulted. whether or not you prioritize and pay 10 bills that you owe first, get those paid, if you don't pay the other 10, it is default. but we need -- do need to pass a debt limit extension. we need to pass a clean debt limit extension. we will run out of time on november 5. november 3, excuse me. mr. speaker, and my friend, the majority leader, he was just

talking to mr. ryan who possibly will be the next speaker of this institution. mr. ryan said when asked a question in 2011, shortly after the republicans took charge of this house, to be specific on january 6, 2011, will the debt limit be raised? does it have to be raised? r. ryan answered, yes. even more compellingly mr. hensarling, one of the most conservative members of this body, said this. that not raising the debt is not an option. it went on to say, what i do think is, yes, it would be catastrophic to have the nation

default upon its debt. hensarling said, to the hill, on april 10, 2011. mr. speaker, i believe if we bring a clean bill to this floor tuesday or wednesday of next week, almost every democrat will vote for it. why? because we agree with jeb hensarling not to do so would be catastrophic. it would also be irresponsible and mall feesance. -- malfeasance. and i ask the majority leader, he has said that we need to do it. we must do it. can the majority leader tell us when that bill will be brought to the floor? i yield to my friend. mr. mccarthy: i thank the gentleman for yielding.

it's one thing to pass the debt limit. it's another thing not to deal with it. the problem and not find a solution. that's why in this house we are very proud of the fact when the republicans took the majority we had always offered a budget that balances. we passed one. that balances without raising new taxes within the decade. unfortunately, the white house has never found a way to do that. as the gentleman mentioned, the secretary has moved the date from reaching the debt limit up to november 3. as i mentioned in the schedule, the house is expected to address this issue next week. there are bipartisan discussion go ongoing and advise members as soon as a path forward is determined. i'm hopeful that we stop kicking the can down the road. in our own budgets, we know the debt limit will have to be raised. that's why you quote our member

saying that. we acknowledge that it has to be solved. that's why we put a balanced budget up to pay for it going forward. that's why i'm hopeful in the bipartisan discussions that we start the downpayment where we don't have to worry about raising the debt limit and paying off the debt and not leaving it to our children and grandchildren. mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, that's a nice theory, nice rhetoric. we don't have an agreement on a number of things the gentleman has said. what we do have an agreement on and i presume the gentleman from california wants to see a solvent nation, a nation that pays its bills, a nation that does not create a lack of competence in our own country and around the world, a nation that does not take hostage either its government by shutting it down or take hostage

its credit worthyness. by bringing us to the brink time after time after time on whether or not we are going to do something that mr. hensarling and mr. ryan and mr. boehner, i didn't quote him, but i have a quote here from mr. boehner that said, if we don't do it, it will have extraordinarily adverse effects on america. and on every american. and the answer that i heard, mr. speaker, is an answer that if you don't do something we want you to do, we may not extend the debt limit. now, mr. speaker, i would ask the majority leader, is that his position, and i yield to my friend. mr. mccarthy: i thank the gentleman for yielding, i hear a lot of things on the floor, but

i never heard the words you just said about me were spoken. mr. hoyer: what's that? mr. mccarthy: that i would hold hostage. i will be very clear about it, i say we'll deal with this next week and we are having bipartisan discussions and i also said if you want to know the confidence of the world around us with how america deals with it, don't avoid the issue, don't leave this debt for a future generation. it's hard for me to believe that the entire other side of this aisle wouldn't want to do something about the debt. it's hard for me to believe that we would want to continue to build it up and that's a positive experience. so don't play one against the other. why don't we come together, find way to raise it, but find a

way that we don't continue to add to it, because i will tell you as i go across the country, it's not republicans and democrats who say that, but all americans who say that because they have to deal with it in their house. only thing i would ask is that you do the same to me. i yield back. mr. hoyer: i appreciate the majority leader's addmon is, but the government will shut down cause we wouldn't repeal the affordable care act. with 1667 close republicans to do so to shutting down the department of homeland security. mr. mccarthy voted to keep it open. speaker boehner voted to keep it open and mr. scalise voted to keep it open, but only 72

colleagues of theirs on the republican side joined them. so i do not refer to mr. mccarthy personally, but the strategy seems to be that we won't do something that everybody in this body ought to believe needs to be done and that is to ensure that america nation. credit worthy unless we do something that frankly i don't think, mr. speaker, my republican colleagues have pursued too diligently because over the last congresses that they have been in charge, they put bills on this floor that have cut receive news but over a half a trillion dollars. without paying for it. presumably, my children, my grandchildren and migrate-grandchildren will have

to pay that debt. so this is not about tradeoffs. this is about making sure that our nation remains solvent, responsible and credit worthy. and indeed because the rest of the world relies on the value and stability of the dollar to value its products, its currency , it will affect the whole world. so i'm pleased to hear that the majority tells me that it needs to be on the floor, but i will tell you mr. speaker, i have been urging to what the majority eader needs to do, get to an agreement. they passed a budget, he's correct. it implemented sequester. it. didn't follow and 102 republicans have said

they won't vote for a c.r. that follows the sequester because they want to increase defense because they think sequester will hurt defense if it's followed. in fact, when the bill came to he floor, they didn't follow quester but used o.c.o., and it exascerbates the deficit. so when you are talking about alternatives, the alternative isn't whether we invest in our national security by investing in defense, we need to do that. and for 35 years, i have been a strong supporter of that. but we need to invest in our highways. we are going to do another temporary because we have not in 90 days have been able to come to grips. we are going to do another short-term highway extension bill. why? because the majority party hasn't figured out how to pay for it. and the debt limit may be on the floor, but what i hear, mr.

speaker, it may be on the floor if something else happens. well, i hope something else happens. i hope we get a longer term funding agreement. very frankly, mr. speaker, we got six appropriation bills that haven't even been brought to this floor. and there is no constraint on the republicans. they're in charge, mr. speaker. but half of the appropriation bills that were the responsibility of this house to pass have not been brought to the floor. and they say, well, the senate hasn't been passing them. we aren't in charge of the senate. we are responsible for our actions on this floor. and one of our responsibilities is to pass a debt limit extension. and i understand, mr. majority leader, mr. speaker, that he said, that there aren't 30 votes or 40 votes on his side of the aisle to pass a clean debt limit extension. mr. speaker, i find that

ncredibly hard to believe. because as mr. hensarling said, if we don't do that, it will have a catastrophic consequence on the country and on the international community. i hope, mr. speaker, the leader's right and will bring a bill to the floor unrelated to disagreements, some legitimate, many, most legitimate, differences we have between us and we'll have to work them out. but in that process, we ought not to put the credit of the united states at risk. we ought not to put individual american consumers at risk of having their interest rates raised because we couldn't pass a debt limit extension. we ought to act responsibly and i hope the leader's right. i hope the bill comes to the floor and i hope it's clean so will not be weighted down

that is so evident to the american people. our speaker is resigning. couldn't fill the speakership. you may now fill it, maybe next week. maybe as early as next week. but this body has not been functioning effectively, but let us not risk the credit of the united states and international stability. let's bring a clean debt limit to this floor and hopefully all of us will vote for a solvent nation. no deal on that, i presume that every member of this body wants a solvent nation. let us hope, mr. speaker, that we summon our responsibility and our duty to this country and our constituents to get that done. and unless the gentleman wants to say something further, i'm prepared to yield back. mr. mccarthy: i thank the entleman for yielding to me.

154,161. , 161. that's the responsibility of every american based upon the debt we have of $18 trillion. my friend on the other side of the aisle thinks it's un-american that the only road we should do is keeping adding to it. that somehow will build confidence in this country. somehow that will give more opportunity to the future generation, somehow by bringing a debt limit bill to the floor that raises the debt limit, but starts changing the trajectory of where it's going is wrong? that's what's wrong with congress. because i will tell you, i don't hear that anywhere across america. i don't have my phones lighting

up saying keep raising the debt and do nothing about it. it's the complete opposite. and i don't think the gentleman gets any different calls than i do. words were the house is expected to address this issue next week. now we play politics with a lot of stuff in here. but i'm tired of that. i can play just the amount of game you want to play. i could sit here and quote harry reid and schumer to make sure no appropriation bill went through and then blame the republicans and they talk to the white house and it's all in the papers, it's a strategy. they have a title for it, it's the summer of destruction. but you know what? count me out of that. put me in the column that i want to us talking about ways to find a solution and i will be the

first one to come to the table knowing that i'm not going to get everything i want. but i want to lay one goal out for you, i want a debt limit that gets raised, but does something about the debt. and i don't think that's wrong. and i don't think i'm causing problems. i think i'm giving more opportunity. i don't want to be in the category that lays blame on everybody else. i haven't been here very long. but the short time i'm here, i want to make a difference. and i'm not going to blame others for the past, but the one thing i can do is change the future. so put me in that column and i will be at any table that other people across the aisle want to be with me. and i yield back to the gentleman. mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, it is hard to answer that presentation conflates my view, it

two issues and i have been on this floor willing to deal with the other side on a regular basis to bring down our debt and to apply discipline. part of the discipline is paying for what you buy. and the gentleman's right. we had pay-go, but when the republican side of the aisle took over, they negated that and negated it specifically to tax cuts, because i suppose they believe they will pay for themselves. i have been longer time than mr. mccarthy, mr. speaker. in 1981, they did that. and we increased the deficit under mr. reagan 189%. we could have dealt with it then. and then we had a commission

that was called simpson bolls that tried to deal with what the leader is talking about and all voted no. why, because it asked us to pay for what we bought. , , mr. speaker, talking about a, when you need to do b is a way of not dealing with b. . do we need to deal with the debt? we absolutely do. and the bills that are supposed to do that have not been brought to the floor. they represented sequester. the gentleman apparently is for sequester. i'm not for sequester, although the gentleman will say it's your party that instituted the equester which is not right. mr. speaker, we need to do a

debt limit extension, and we need to reduce the debt of this country. it will be hard to do the latter. it ought to be easy to do the former. it will require courage to do the latter. but when mr. camp, the former chairman of the ways and means committee, brought a tax reform bill to the floor -- didn't bring it to the floor, put it on the table, it was dismissed out of hand by his republican colleagues in the last congress. why? because he paid for it. dismissed out of hand. never brought to this floor. mr. speaker, in conclusion, i very hopeful that in fact we will do the only responsible thing to do at this late date. remember, mr. speaker, for 2 1/2 months i have been asking

hat we have a way forward. the republican party, mr. speaker, has been distracted, i understand that. hopefully we'll get a way forward. and a responsible way forward. but we only have five days to do this debt limit. and let us not take an action which is catastrophic. which is what jeb hensarling said it would be if we don't adopt it. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yield back. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? mr. mccarthy: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today it adjourn to meet on monday, october 26, 2015, when it shall convene at noon for morning hour debate and 2:00 p.m. for legislative days. -- business. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the chair will now entertain requests for one-minute votes.

one-minute speeches. pardon me. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania wish -- seek recognition? mr. thompson: mr. speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in recognition of national forest products week and in support of our nation's foresters, timber producers, researchers. the forest product industry as a whole. pennsylvania derives its name from penns woods, as history shows our forests have played a central role in the building of this contry. today the commonwealth has 16.7 million acres of forestlands, 70% of which is privately owned and managed. the forest products industry in pennsylvania employs 10% of our state's work force, and according to the pennsylvania forest products association,

generates approximately $5.5 billion annually. pennsylvania's well-known for its high quality hardwoods, forest product industry also plays a fundamental role in actively managing our forests. active management is essential in order to foster healthy lands, as well as economically healthy communities. as chairman of the house subcommittee on conservation and forestry, i'm proud to join several of my colleagues in the house to recognize national forest products week. and as a representative of pennsylvania's fifth district, i will continue to advocate for policies which maintain our forests so that they can power our economy and create family sustaining jobs for decades to come. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida seek exrecognition? >> mr. speaker, ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection.

>> thank you, mr. speaker. well, here we go again. at this was the republican's latest attempt to punish planned parenthood, one of the nation's premiere health care organizations only because it provides an array of services, including legal abortions. ms. frankel: mr. speaker, at some time in our lifetime, one in five american women are going to turn to planned parenthood. in fact, planned parenthood provides 400,000 pap smears, 500,000 breast examines, 4.5 million s.t.d. tests, and prevents 500,000 unwanted pregnancies each year. this chamber's latest fiasco would leave millions of women with no place to go for basic preventive health care services. mr. speaker, i am sad to say that the republicans are more obsessed with the uteruses of the american women than the

real issues facing today. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to remember a brave young airman who lost her life defending our great nation. airman first class casey rue i of mcdonough, georgia, was killed october 2 when her c-130 j crashed in afghanistan. she was only 21 years old. mr. jolly: a graduate of dutchtown high school, she had an opportunity to learn about health care sciences, her admiration of health care influenced her decision to become a nurse. her desire to serve others led her to enlist in the united states air force and after graduating basic training, she was assigneded to the 66 security forces squadron. upon her employment to afghanistan, she often spoke of how privileged and how proud she was to be doing such important work. casey rue i was a fierce

competitor. a natural leader, a beloved daughter, a courageous airman, and an incredible role model. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to join with me in remembering a true american hero, airman first class casey ruiz. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yield back. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition. >> ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> thank you, mr. speaker. folks in their rural communities of my region don't want our top export to be our kids. with that in mind, we are working to make sure that the timber industry can grow in a way that doesn't put conservation at odds with job creation. earlier this week i joined a summit on the olympic peninsula to talk about cross lam laminated timber and other products. mr. kilmer: we discussed how these mass timber product can utilize an abundant an

sustainable resource while building on a work force and infrastructure that sets our region apart and can give the nation greener buildings. construction sites around the country could soon use sturdy innovative, renewable word products grown and prfered on the olympic peninsula. as agriculture secretary tom vilsack said at a sawmill in aberdeen recently, this is how we've got to do business. working together and finding common ground is the only way forward. working together we can develop timber 2.0, innovate, and build opportunities in rural communities and make sure that washington state leads the way. with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from new hampshire seek recognition? mr. guinta: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. guinta: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to announce the interducks to honor our fallen heroes act, which came about thanks to the hard work of one

of my constituents, pam rogers, of new hampshire. pam contacted me through my, we the people initiative, a plat porm for kernt citizens to offer ideas. pam fought to bury an anors who fought in the civil war with the recognition he deserved. he died at the age of 21 in a confederate prison camp. conditions were brutal. he died of starvation. his captors buried him in a mass grave, since moved to a national cemetery in south carolina. an empty tomb near his hometown in pennsylvania memorializes him. but despite ample evidence of his service and death as a p.o.w., the veterans administration cannot award him a head zone stone at a u.s. military cementtary. -- ll clears up this tent technicality so pam can lay to russ one of their own with full honors. the bill she helped produce

will bring comfort to others like her. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, before my one-minute request, i would ask unanimous consent to withdraw my name as a sonsor of -- sponsor of h.r. 1151. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. schiff: mr. speaker, i rise today to congratulate congressman steve israel and his beloved mets as they feeted the los angeles dodgers as week, and will i have no interest in extending my remarks. i lost a bet with congressman israel so now, steve, this song is for you. ♪ meet the mets meet the mets step right up and greet the mets bring your kiddies bring your wife guaranteed to have the time of your life because the mets are really socking the ball knocking those home runs

over the wall east side he west side everyone's coming down to meet the mets -- mr. speaker, please tell me my time has expired. i don't want to give the impression i'm happy for the mets. thank god the mets are going to the world series and not the yankees. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, today i rise in remembrance of ramiro menendez who tragically passed away 15 years ago. he was an accomplished baseball player. while at westminster christian school in 1998 rgets he was a miami-dade county player of the year. he was sitting out the season as a medical redshirt at florida international university when he suddenly and heartbreakingly passed away from vie bral cardiomioppa

think, an inflammatory disease of the heart muscle. it was a tragedy that came so unexpectedly for family and friends, including me. mr. curbelo: he was just 20 years old with a bright future ahead of him. new developments in the diagnosis and treatment of patients suspected to have this condition are starting to be utilized. but early detection of cardiac issues is imperative to saving lives. earlier this week i had the honor of participating in the dedication of the cardiopulmonary diagnostic suite at florida international university. this facility will give medical students the opportunity to enhance the art of oscultation allowing for cardiac abnormalities to be detected sooner. i'm proud f.i.u. is honoring his legacy with the opening of this important facility. i also want to recognize the work of toti's mother to bring awareness to this very important issue through the establishment of a scholarship

fund and a foundation in honor of her son who was beloved by every single person who knew him. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from connecticut seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection ms. delauro: i rise in wreck nation of our nation's flagship program for young children, head start. october is national head start awareness month, and 2015 marks 50 years since the program's founding. president lyndon johnson said head start would open up, and i quote, a new war front on poverty, to make certain that poverty's children would not be forevermore poverty's captives. i have the honor of counting the father of head start among my constituents. from professor ziegler recently went for surgery at yale new haven hospital, he discovered that his anecessary at thiscies, dr. kim, was a head

start anumber must. dr. kim credited his success in life directly to head start and he is not alone. research proves that head start graduates are less likely to be held back a grade or to get into trouble with the law. and more likely to go on to college and professional careers. but our work is not yet done. head start currently only has the resources to reach four in 10 eligible students. if we are serious about helping children thrive, we must meet this demand. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i rise requesting unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to share my -- the achievements after school in my district, pine nob elementary school in clarkston, michigan. er in generations americans have held on to the long-standing belief their

children's future should be better than their own, and the key to a brighter future starts with the best education possible. pine nob elementary school embraces that vision by setting their students on a path to success early on in the educational experience. teachers and faculty are focused on emphasizing personal growth in addition to exselling in numerous subject areas, they encourage students to think outside the box and be kind to one another all along through the process. and their meptors -- their mentorship goes beyond the classroom. mr. bishop: where teachers assist with the variety of clubs and activities their students participate in after school. a addition to the student council or broadcast news, kids can join a computer coding club where they can learn to write programs, popular choice among students today and a highly sought after school in today's work force. but above all, these students love learning. the results are in, the 96% attendance rate their school has held for several years.

mr. speaker, i'm proud to see them become one of the 335 schools in the country to earn a blue ribbon award this year. high-l regarded symbol of excellence. i applaud their effort and wish their school many more years. thank you. i yield back. . >> ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jackson lee: thank you, mr. speaker. some of the good news this week is my introduction with 16 original co-sponsors of h.res. 489 congratulateic southern texas university in 88 years, a school that has graduated not ly barbara jordan and mickey leland. tonight we will honor them. i pay tribute with introducing h.res. 489. but unfortunately there are bad things. let me cite the reconciliation

bill that cuts discretionary funding that will help our children in education and environment, in health care and as well, providing the, if you will, the cuts in the affordable care act. i like the idea of the cadillac tax provision but that is not the basis of the bill. bad bill h.r. 3762. and 11 hours of testimony. what did we find in the benghazi hearing? we found that secretary clinton could present the facts to the american people and be transparent, but we found no new facts, no smoking gun. it is time to end the benghazi committee. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> permission to address the house for one minute and revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. lamalfa: after two years the full impact on obamacare on

rural area is clear. fewer options and fewer doctors. insurance premiums average 25% more than in southern california and the region will be hit with an additional 29%. 50 rural hospitals have closed and 280 more are on the brink of closures. mandates have left my constituents with one option for insurance. mr. speaker, the debate is over. obamacare is destroying rural americans to receive and afford health care. it looks like there is a war on rural america. high time we end the stale mate and focus on people with pre-existing conditions and those without health care, not increasing costs. budget reconciliation that will help y will

rural america by opening up more options for people on their health care. it will repeal individual mandates which will give more options for rural america and defund plan pln. this is a big step for responsible health care choices. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? >> permission to address the house and revise and extend my remarks. mr. engel: baseball has been called the national past time and those of us in new york have watched this past week with pride as the mets have advanced to the world series representing the national league. i have watched those players play as a team, worked really hard. perhaps we in the congress can learn from them that team work is possible and we need all of us to pull together to move ahead. i'm going to be at the world

series and going to enjoy the new york mets win and enjoy the young players. i want to congratulate the ownership and all the great players of the mets from daniel murphy to david wright and the m. at young pitching of degro and i want to sum up in three little words. let's go mets. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from nevada seek recognition? >> address the house for one minute and revise and stepped my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> an important step took place this week. the transportation and infrastructure committee marked up and passed a long-term highway bill. included in that bill was the

authorization for transportation needs. our nation is vital -- transportation needs is vital to the designation for the state of nevada. with my assistance, the highway bill contained the designation of interstate 11, which will run from the city of las vegas north along the i-95 corridor up to i-80. this designation is the next step in advancing the intermountain west corridor, which is crucial for my states. all western states and this country. as the vice president of highways and transit committee i'm proud to have worked with my colleagues to make sure the people of nevada gain this instrumental project, the future of i-11 is growing, and jobs are on the horizon. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? mr. lowenthal: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for

one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. lowenthal: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, on november 3, our treasury department has informed us that we are going to begin to begin default. so let's be clear. we are talking about obligations that this house, the president has signed that we have obligated ourselves to pay. this default would be the first time ever it's going to damage our credit, it's going to increase our borrowing costs, going to damage our economy and it's really going to damage the welfare of millions of our constituents. these are financial obligations that the congress has already entered into and agreed to pay. we put the name of the united states behind these commitments. these are our bills. we need to pay them.

we should not be playing brinksmanship of the united states economy, but this the majority in has brought us to once again. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from missouri seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to celebrate national forest products week. more products provide than 60,000 jobs and inject more than $9 million in missouri's economy. we produce everything from wood flooring, whiskey and wine barrels, railroad ties, gun stocks and much, much more. but the number one obstacle is the availability of timber. folks cannot get enough wood to take more products and employ

more people. at the same time, we have trees dying faster than the government will allow industry to cut them down. each year, 50 million board feet of timber with a value of $5 million dies in the mark twain instead of being harvested. this timber is wasted and becomes a fire hazard. we increased the amount of timber harvest to 50 million board feet recently. we can do much better. it will put people back to work. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> permission to address the house for one minute and revise and stepped. >> thank you very much, mr. speaker. did you know that a child in the united states can go to jail just for skipping school or running away from an abusive

home. did you know that the united states is the only country in the world that locks up kids for life without the possibility of parole. nearly three in 10 of those kids did not commit the crime and may not have been there at the time someone was hurt. for years we have been funding a juvenile justice system that is robbing children of their future and wasting taxpayers' dollars every year. today experts and police departments and police chefs and sheriffs agree that we must change that system. president obama designated october as youth justice awareness month bus it is time to stop wasting billions of dollars on a system that doesn't make our communities safer and is destroying a generation of our children. this week i introduced two bills to make sure kids don't get put in jail for dumb reasons and fund prevention programs. we must do better.

we must not give up on our children. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> permission to address the house for one minute and revise nd stepped my remarks. whatohrabacher: this bill, we are talking about includes millions, tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions for pakistan, pakistan. a a country that represses its people. we give pakistan military assistance to fight radical islam and they use that money to kill their own population. they use that money to destabilize afghanistan and we all remember, of course, this is the same country, pakistan, that provided safe haven to osama bin laden for years and now when he

was identified, a courageous pakistaniy. they have him in a dungeon. why are we acting so stupidly. they are giving their resources off to communist china. they are not our friends when they act like this. we need to put our foot down and saying if you are going to act in a hostile way, pakistan, you aren't going to receive one red cent of american tax dollars. the speaker pro tempore: the entleman's time has expired. the speaker pro tempore: the chair announces the speaker's appointment pursuant to section 2-a of house resolution 461 of the 114th congress and the order of the house of january 6, 2015 of the following members to

select investigative panel of the committee of energy and commerce. the clerk: mrs. blackburn of tennessee, chair. mr. pitts of pennsylvania, bls black of tennessee, mr. bucshon of indiana, mr. duffy of wisconsin, mr. harris of maryland, mrs. hartzler of missouri, mrs. love of utah. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2015, the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. gohmert, for 30 minutes. mr. gohmert: thank you, mr. speaker. interesting day, interesting week. and i was in here listening to the colloquy between our majority leader mccarthy and the

minority whip and i heard my good friend, very intelligent, clever, witty friend from maryland, mr. hoyer indicate republicans bring us to the brink time and time again talking about i guess the debt ceiling. and sometimes it's just good to stop from the rhetoric here and the lines like bringing us to the brink and really good to look at the history of the situation is. ecause you know, for 40 years, until newt gingrich led with the contract of america, republicans captured the majority in the house and senate for the first time in 40 years, the democrats kept bringing us to the brink,

didn't matter who was in the white house, the democratic congress brought us to the brink spending more and more money. it seemed so irresponsible not to be interested and trying to have a more balanced budget. there would be people like phil graham, the graham-ruddman law that tried to force a balancing. the president in weeks to come will continue the mistaken rhetoric. he's such a nice guy but so often mistaken on whoever puts those mistakes in his teleprompter. but the fact is, repeatedly, this requirement to raise the tet ceiling if more debt has

been incurred has been used as a vehicle to get laws passed that tried to rein in the irresponsible spending that's een going on for many decades. and as, i believe it was morgenthau, the franklin roosevelt secretary of treasury, wrote in 1940, after eight years we have spent more money than anyone ever in history and we have nothing to show for it but more debt. that was quite an admission that the new deal was a total failure. but it actually was. and it wasn't until world war ii actually ended the depression in america that we came out of the great depression. it was certainly none of the specialist policies that the united states began engaging in. but i know just since i've been

2006, january of 2005, as i recall, we were having debates, republicans win the majority -- were in the majority, and my friends, mr. speaker, on the democratic side of the room over here, were repeat think making the point about how irresponsible it was for republicans to be spending, i think at the time it was around $160 billion more than we were bringing in to the federal treasury. and i agreed, actually, we should have balanced the budget back in 2005 and 2006. we were only $160 billion at one point away from doing that. and i think that was part of the reason the democrats continued beating up on republicans for overspending what was coming in

and $160 billion or so. little would i have ever dream that after being pummeled verbally by my democratic friends as a republican spending $160 billion more or so than we had coming in that those same friends would do the unthinkable and increase that debt in one year more than 10 times the $160 billion. you would have thought that perhaps they would remember some of those things they used to say with such vitriol right here on the house floor about how spending more than $160 billion more than we were taking in was so irresponsible. you would have thought they might have remembered some of those. when you say one thing one year and then you get the majority and you're 10 times worst than

what you accuse the other side of, more than 10 times worse, some people feel a little sensitive for -- and we have to be careful because we certainly don't want to violate house rules about what we say here, guilty some people feel when they accuse somebody else of doing something they're 10 times more guilty of. but apparently that guilt didn't exist. if it did, it was short lived and didn't prevent even my friend from maryland from coming to the floor today and again launching the inappropriate statement that it's republicans that keep bringing us to the brink. i realize it was our own speaker who went on the jay leno show and said that republicans shut down the government but, you know, sometimes he's engaged in

activity to keep him from realizing exactly what's going on. but if you go back and look at the actual record, september 29, september 30, of 2013, the record is very clear. there was one party in congress that was trying to to be responsible, that was trying to rein in spending, that was trying not to shut the government down, was compromising against ourselves repeatedly, and it was the republican party. and we didn't get a lot of help across the aisle. in fact, what we had from the other end of the hall here, from the majority leader reed, was an all out effort to shut down the government. and that is a fact as to who

shut down the government. because if anyone bothers to go look, yes, you'll see, we had a spending bill that gave harry reid everything he and the president wanted plus some, hard for a guy like me to vote for that, but, yes, in the initial bill we defund odd ba macare. why wouldn't we? we know, we hear from constituents how bad that is. how they've lost their insurance. lost their dr. they can't get the medicine they did before. instead of paying $10, now they're paying $100 for prescriptions. we're hearing all those things. so why wouldn't we vote to do what we believe is best for our constituents? we did. voted to fund everything they wanted plus some and defund obamacare. yes, that is what we passed first. harry reid would not breng it to he floor for a vote.

so we compromised against ourselves because there was no negotiating and i believe, mr. speaker, this is just my thought, but it sure seemed there was plenty of evidence to show that harry reid believed the conventional wisdom here in washington that if there were a shutdown of the government, no matter who did it, no matter that the democrats themselves did everything they could to shut the government down, it wouldn't matter because their friends in the mainstream media would blame the republicans, who knew we'd have a republican speaker that didn't know the fact and would say, yeah, republicans shut it down. but they knew, the mainstream -- they knew the mainstream media would blame republicans and they needed a shutdown because the conventional wisdom in washington at the time, and still is, if there's a shutdown, then mainstream media blames republicans and then the democrats get the majority back

in the house or if they didn't have it, as they don't have it now they get it back in the senate. so they have been wanting a shutdown. you can go back to, i think, march of 2011. harry reid would not yield at all when we got down to a midnight deadline and our speaker came in and basically caved just a few months after we took the majority in march of 2011 and said we got to avoid a shutdown at all costs. so around 10:30, 11:00, republicans completely caved and gave harry reid what he wanted because he wanted a shutdown. you could say that's bringing us to the brink. for political purposes. and that's exactly what it is. so. we came back and we bid against ourselves. we passed a bill that gave harry reid everything he and the president wanted, plus some, but

we put in a provision, not the complete defunding of obamacare, but just suspending it for a year. and i frankly thought that because there were democrats on the ropes in the senate that if they wouldn't even vote on that, or voted against it, they would lose their seats. and i'll bet you could find some senators who lost their seats in that next election that wish they had taken that vote and voted to postpone obamacare for a year. they probably would have kept their seats. but they didn't. they didn't even get to vote on that bill on the senate floor. i thought it was unwise, having negotiated big deals back in texas, i thought it was unwise to bid against ourselves yet again when the senate would not even engage in any kind of compromise. they wanted a shutdown.

but no, we had another vote. said, ok, we'll give you, harry reid, we'll give you everything you want. president obama, everything you want. plus a little bit. but since the president suspended the employer mandate, illegally, unconstitutionally, for a year, how about if we suspend the individual mandate for a year? that was not allowed to come to the floor for a vote. even though we were doing everything we could to keep the government going. harry reid wanted a shutdown, i ld not allow a vote, and thought at 1:10 a.m., when our leadership came here to the floor on october 1, 1:10 a.m., and asked us to vote for folks to be conferees that would work all night and avoid a shutdown by 8:00 a.m., capitulate where

they have to but get a deal done, that it was really capitulation and that harry reid would be crazy not to go ahead and appoint senate conferees so they could have a deal by 8:00 a.m., the country would never realize there was an eight-hour shutdown. but harry reid would not even allow the senate to vote to have conferees to work out a deal by 8:00 a.m. he didn't. so, harry reid forced the shutdown. no doubt with encouragement of the president. sure enough, the mainstream media blamed republicans. and that cost republicans tremendously in the election the following year. oh, wait. no it didn't, actually. the american people actually, i think, ended up appreciating that republicans were standing

for the idea that we are on the brink because of all the decades of overspending, except for that little interlude in the 1990's when the republicans took the majority here in congress and part of their contract with america, they became very responsible and they pushed through budgets that bill clinton didn't want to sign but eventually took credit for that actually brought the budget into alignment. other than that, democrats have brought us to the brink repeatedly. and harry reid and president obama continue to do thatful so who would have ever dreamed in 2006 that here in 2015 we would have a -- have democrats youing over the fact that gee -- democrats crowing over the fact that gee, we may get our deficit in one year down to $400 billion, $500 billion.

wow, won't that be great? because once again their memories have not allowed them to accuse themselves back during those days when they were blaming republicans for running up $160 billion or so deficit in one year. now, my friend from maryland also pointed out that dave camp had a tax reform bill and in his words, it was dismissed out of hand because it was not paid for. and he is such -- my friend, mr. hoyer, such a smart guy. i admire him. love talking to him. he's got a great sense of humor. but he's wrong on that. it happens. he's wrong. it was not dismissed out of hand because it was paid for. it was dismissed out of hand because it was not a significant enough reform in the right direction of what we need of complete simplification of the tax code that so many of us are asking for. i like a flat tax.

others like a fair tax. i sure can see their point. got some good points. but let's have that debate. throw out the internal revenue code. throw out the tens of thousands of pages that have been added in interpretation and regulation. and let's have something that americans can simply fill out easily, not even need an accountant. something like a flat tax. the more you make, the more you pay. but dave camp's tax reform bill, i just love the guy. he's a fine american. and we were so thrilled when he was able to beat back the cancer that overtook him. so great guy. worked hard. but his problem in my estimation, his problem on his tax reform bill was, he tried to

placate too many democrats which kept it from being as good as i thought it should be and many others. so i appreciate the points being made here on the floor but i thought it called out for a little elaboration and correction. now, we also had a hearing yesterday that went on for a number of hours, it was an important hearing and i know there were people that kept talking about, gee, there have been seven hearings or eight hearings, whatever there have been. or seven or eight investigations. none of them had the documentation that is now only a ting to be obtained from state department and obama administration -- from the state department and obama administration. yeah, it's easy to get an ok when you don't turn over the documents that show lie after lie, misrepresentation.

yeah, it's easy. all you do is just don't let anybody see the documentation for the misrepresentations that came. now, my staff says you have to read this article -- says, you have to read this article. and it uses the l word a number of times, the l word being lie. uses that a number of times but i won't even come close to getting in trouble for violating any rules here on the house floor because the content is too important. so we'll just say, instead of lies, we'll just call them unfortunate wrong statements. so with that substitution, and then i found out, gee, as my friend -- my friend, ben schapiro wrote this, i hope it won't hurt ben that i mention we're friends. anyway, hillary clinton's five

biggest unfortunate mistaken representations, in her benghazi testimony. in the article it points out, hillary's always the poor put-upon victim of a vast write-wing conspiracy, mr. speaker, i know you'll remember back in the 1990's, when her husband was accused of doing things that it turned out he making id, instead of clear her husband had made mistakes and she had made it clear there would be no more, she went after the women. she had a war on women and went after any women who actually accused her husband of impropriety. and even used and coined that phrase this vast right wing conspiracy -- phrase, this vast

right wing conspiracy, during her war on women, who just tried to point out what her husband had done to them. but the article says, she set up a private email server and deleted relevant emails from it for purely political reasons. she pressed for a pointless invasion of libya, for political reasons. chortled at its conquest for political reasons. watched it descend into chaos while doing nothing for political reasons. and then allowed her ambassador to twist in the libyan tornado without proper security for political reasons. finally she covered up that the disaster -- covered up that disaster by lying about its causes for political reasons. but those who ask questions about such matters are partisan politicians. the article goes on further down, hillary kept claiming that she dared deeply about her had good friend -- cared deeply about her good friend, chris

stevens. at one point she whipped out her preplanned righteous indignation to claim, quote, i would imagine i thought more about what happened than any -- than all of you put together. i've lost more sleep than all f you put together, unquote. this was salt in the wound. the equivalent of johnny cochran lamenting his worries over the fate of nicole brown simpson. and i've got to inject at this point, i was there for a good bit of the hearing because a friend, a real patriot, she's served in the navy, it's where , e met a guy named ty woods one of the greatest american patriots this country could . er hope to have as a son

they even had a child right before -- just months before he found himself in benghazi. and another former navy seal like ty that cared more about his country and serving others than his own self-interest came and joined him. as i understand, when ty was getting ready to go to the roof , try to protect those people he knew david with the state department was forming --, state department, former army anger, and david went with him , grabbed an m-4, they went to the roof to protect the americans that were in the building beneath them.

i'll never forget reading the name of the first navy seal that this administration released and the story -- obviously this language had to come from this administration. it struck me as such a slap in the face to this former navy seal. because i've known so many navy seals and former navy seals. proud of every one i've known. well, maybe, except for former governor. who's creating chaos for chris kyle's widow. the words, ad after glen daugherty, former and it l, contractor, said, from the information released from this dministration that he died while taking cover. i didn't know anything about benghazi at that point. about the specifics.

but i knew enough navy seals to know if he died it wasn't taking cover. it was probably giving cover or maybe moving to get a better vantage from which to defend other people. that's the navy seals i know. generally speaking. and then we find out he didn't die taking cover. ty wood didn't die taking cover -- woods didn't die taking cover. i don't know if that was the state department's release, to try to minimize how heroic those people were, because they violated orders and said, we're going to help those people that are pinned down in benghazi. those are heroes. i know my friend, duncan hunter, had moved to try to get a congressional medal of honor, i think it's time we take those

back up. they deserve -- though they weren't in the military, they deserve the highest honor this body could give them. and david ubben, i never brought it up during the months that he had asked me not to, after i met him in one of my sits out to about as they da -- a about a -- bethesda. but he was up there on the roof, there were three mortars that came. in the first one missed. and having been in the army four years, i know they used to teach us, if there are three mortars or three artillery rounds coming in, then you better move before the fourth one hits because they'll use those three to triangulate your position and the fourth one will be on top of your head. when i heard david say there had been three mortars coming, i said, oh, so they bracketted you. and he said, oh, no, they -- don't want you to get the wrong

idea. we knew as soon as the first one missed, they knew exactly where our position was. it was short, but there was no question they knew exactly at what angle to put that mortar so that it would come down on our heads and that's what second and third mortar did. there was no bracketting. they knew their position, preplanned attack. they had the coordination perfectly, exactly where that mortar needed to be. the first one was short, as he said. but the second and third were right on top of their targets and that's what killed glen and ty as they were giving cover, not taking cover, giving cover and in fact i heard yesterday, it wasn't in the hearing, wasn't said in the hearing, but i heard from somebody who had talked to a delta force individual, when he heard the ame ty woods, he said, you

now, that guy -- he and glen took on a whole city. they didn't care. ey were going to protect the united states civil servants that were in the building, that they went to the roof of, and they gave their lives giving them cover. david ubben lost much of his right leg. but after many surgeries, hopefully it's near the point now of being usable. he's a hero. this administration didn't even want to give him the right credit. and then to have them -- and en schapiro points it out here and even this video, to say to any one of the survivors, as ms. clinton did, we'll get the guy that did the

video, they didn't care about the video. i've talked to many of the family members of those who were killed. they didn't care about the guy that did the video. they cared about the people that killed their loved one. dorothy woods is a hero. so for mrs. collin continue -- clinton so sit there and arrogantly, condescendingly say to the panel, i've lost more sleep than all of you put together, with dorothy wooded is -- woods sitting right there, was just another dagger to her heart. because she still loses sleep. and let's go back to that night. we still don't know what hillary clinton and our president did specifically after they found out. either the president was

preparing for his fundraiser in las vegas the next day or he just went to bed with his personal ambassador to libya missing. either they went to bed or didding is far more embarrassing -- did something far more embarrassing for them not to be willing to tell us what they did that night. i mean, i was only in the army four years but i cannot imagine what kind of mind will allow itself to go to sleep or just blow things off and move on to another project when somebody working directly for you has either been killed, you know people have been killed, and the ambassador's missing in a hostile area that turns out begged for security, additional security, 600 times.

this is disgraceful. ust disgraceful. it had nothing to do with the video, my friend, jim jordan said, you tell the american people one thing, you tell your family an entirely different story. and in fact she told the egyptian prime minister the day after the attacks, quote, we know the attack in libya had nothing to do with the film, it was a planned attack, not a protest, unquote. and as i recall, not only was that simply not true, she took state department funds, as i understand it, and spent tens of thousands of dollars on a commercial to facilitate and to perpetuate this lie and spent that in foreign muslim countries, running it on their television, to say, we had othing to do with the video.

thank you, mr. speaker. and i meant to get into the fact that i haven't changed my vote for speaker. i'm still for dan webster. but i yield back my time. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair will entertain a motion to adjourn. mr. gohmert: at this time i move we do now hereby adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly, the house stands adjourned until noon on monday next for morning hour debate.

it's reported that representative cummings leaves a

meeting with nancy pelosi saying they'll issue a statement on the benghazi hearing. first we want to show you some about the budget deficit bill that passed. host: what is reconciliation? how sit used and how are they using it this year? guest: it's an important fiscal instrument that's used to bring together broad budget goals with specific tax and spending legislation. it's a powerful instrument, it's been used periodically over the decades. often times to enact deficit reduction. president clinton in the early

1990's pushed his budget package through congress with a reconciliation pack amming. republicans are using reconciliation this year to try once again to repeal major parts of the affordable care act and also to defund the federal portion of planned parenthood moneys. so it's controversial in that respect. i think it's likely to pass on a party line vote in the house. it faces an uncertain fate in the senate and would be vetoed by president obama if it reaches his desk. host: why are republicans choosing to use the do ciliation process to this? host: reconciliation is a fairly complex process. the critical point is it needs to pass the senate with only a majority of votes. it would be possible to pass the senate with just 51 votes so

they wouldn't have to do the 60-vote barrier that has thwarted a will the of republican attempts to pass legislation earlier. theoretically it's an easier bill to pass through congress. still, if it reaches the president's desk, he can veto it and it would require the 2/3 majorities in both chamefworse override. it's a technique that would allow them to get the legislation to the president's deve. host: but the roadblock in the senate could be conservative republican senators. a statement from senators rubio, cruz, and lee, senators rubio and cruste obviously running for president, they issue a joint statement -- and use obviously running for president, they issue a joint statement saying they're against the bill. why? guest: they're against it because it doesn't repeal the entire affordable care act. there's another school of thought, i'm surprised they haven't been more vocal which notes that the house republicans passed a budget resolution this year which calls for nearly $4 trillion in budget savings. this would be the perfect

vehicle to actually try to push some of these savings. to have some of the entitlement reforms and savings that's called for. the fact that they haven't used this instrument to enact a major fiscal policy initiative raises questions about just how serious they really are with deficit reduction. it's easy to talk about entitlement reform in the abstract but this would be a vehicle which they could try to implement it and the fact that they're not using it raises questions from among a lot of people both democrats and republicans about how serious they are about enacting some of these entitlement reforms. host: you mentioned the white house veto threat. here's the tweet from o.m.b. they say it would take away critical benefits if middle class families. poe tuss would veto the bill -- potus would veto the bill. if he does, what's the next step? guest: i think they'll attempt to continue to dismantle part of

it. candidly, i don't think they expect anything to happen while president obama is in the white house. perhaps in an election year they'll structure some other votes to keep the party united. i don't think they really believe they're going to unravel parts of the affordable care act hile mr. obama is in office. host: we'll go to more on the debt ceiling. here's the headline, all u.s. eyes shift to boehner for next debt ceiling move. what's that next move for the debt ceiling? guest: it seems like it's going to be early next week. mr. boehner's tenure ends a week from today. congress set a deadline -- the white house set a deadline for congress to act. there's some thought he would float a bill by the end of this week but he hasn't. house democrats extend the --

have said in a briefing that they're hoping mr. boehner will have something ready to go early next week. the thought is the house will pass it early in the week, and send it to the senate. it will take four or five days for it to work its way through the senate. it looks like it's going to come up close to the november 3 deadline in terms of passing the debt ceiling. host: viewers can follow that reporting on twitter. john shaw, senior congressional correspondent for market news international. thank you for being with us. guest: thank you. >> here's that democrats' briefing that john thaw was talking about from -- john shaw was talking about from earlier today on the debt ceiling and other issues.

nancy pelosi: good morning,ern. thank you for being here. i assume you're not in line to get your picture taken with the speaker. i'm going to get in that line soon. i would be honored to have a picture taken with him as someone who has worked with him in this capitol on so many issues, beyond what's happened on this floor, to what's happened in the capitol. here we are, one day, only a few legislative days, fewer than seven legislative days left until we default on the full faith and credit of the united states of america. this is a very, very serious matter. in fact, it's a serious -- it's as serious as it gets for our economy, for interest rates, for what it means to seniors.

to homeowners. mortgages. for car owners and their payments. for students and their loans. this has a direct impact on the lives of the american people and a very direct impact on our economy. a couple of years ago, even the discussion of defaulting on the full faith and credit in 2011, that discussion led to a lowering of our credit rating. low urg our credit rate -- lowering our credit rating. this is a frivolous endeavor the republicans are engaged in. but i remain confident that we'll be able to work together in a bipartisan way to honor the full faith and credit. we will be able to do so with the full support of the house democratic caucus. i want to pay special tribute to congressman peter welch of vermont who has been relentless on this issue for a number of years and persistent in gathering signatures and support

for a crowd that yesterday 100% of the democrats voted on the previous question with the idea that we need to be together to honor the full faith and credit. with that, i'd like to yield in gratitude to mr. welch for his great leadership and yield the floor. peter welch of vermont. mr. welch: thank you. thank you, leader. every democrat, ironically, agrees with president ronald reagan. america pays its bills. we would never default on our creditors and jeopardize the full faith and credit of the united states and impose unnecessary additional interest costs on american taxpayers. that's number one. number two, the debt ceiling, as we know, does not authorize a nickel in new spending. it allows america to meet the obligations that it's already committed to. in fact, the price budget, tom price's budget, supported by 228 republicans, passed on march 25

of 2015, built in it a requirement that in order to meet the budget the republicans supported and incidentally i opposed and all of us here opposed, in addition to our national debt of $2 trilli. so in march, they voted for a budget that they're now sabotaging in october. you can't have it both ways. if you vote for a budget and you make obligations and commitments, you've got to meet them. we stand with ronald reagan. america pays its bills. we would never even contemplate stiffing our creditors and doing such damage to our economy, to our reputation and to our taxpayers. i yield now to our whip, mr. hoyer. mr. hoyer: i want to thank peter we feel. of vermont for his leadership on this issue. i want to thank leader pelosi as well for her leadership which resulted in a unanimous vote esterday and democrats are

prepared to say to the american public, this is a phony issue. but unfortunately, it puts america at risk. it puts the international community at risk. no one believes that it's good policy not to make sure, as peter welch says, that america pays its bills. that's not only important because that morally is the right thing to do, intellectually it's the right thing to do, but it's also what keeps the economy of the world relatively stable. relatively stable. and if we were to default on our debt, our ranking would be lowered. the cost to the american people would escalate. not only the public debt but their cost of refrigerators and automobiles and college loans would escalate. so that it would adversely affect everybody in the united states and around the world.

so hopefully, the republicans will come to their senses and make sure in the next six legislative days that we have left, that hopefully sooner rather than later, meaning early next week that we pass over a clean extension of the debt limit which simply says, as you said, as ronald reagan said, america will pay its bills. every american thinks that's the right policy. hopefully the republican-led congress will adopt that policy and that policy i guarantee them will be overwhelmingly supported in he democratic minorities the house and senate. if we could make it happen, we would. they need to lead. we will help them do so. i now yield to the assistant leader of the democratic party from south carolina, jim

clyburn. mr. clyburn: thank you very much, mr. whip. thank you so much, mr. welch, for your tremendous leadership on this issue. thank you, madam leader. i think there are times in our political process when brinksmanship may be acceptable. i don't know how appropriate it ever is but at times, i think it's acceptable. but this ain't one of those times. i really believe that the full faith and credit of the united states of america is the most important thing going for us around the world. now, according to my research, the last time our debt was at zero was 1835. now that means that throughout democratic and republican administrations, we have created

debt. but as my dad used to tell me , the system in this country is what made this country great. me all the time you be sure and pay your debts. and keep your credit pristine. and that has been a -- has been ingrained in me. for the life of me, i cannot understand why anybody would resort to brinksmanship when the full faith and credit of the america is at stake. i would hope that before we leave here next week, that we , do what at is proper makes good sense. and that is, raise the debt limit so that we can move

forward together. now we were very close, on the road to getting to zero again at the end of the clinton administration. we were on the road to zero. but thanks to the bush draconian we aren't at any threat of doing that now. but we must pay our debts. we must maintain our faith and credit. so we must raise the debt limit. with that i yield back. ms. pelosi: since you went back in history, our constitution, any reading of the constitution will say that the full faith and credit of the united states of america shall not be in doubt. any questions? >> have you had any conversations with speaker boehner or any factions to talk about things that might be coupled with the debt limit?

make medicare premiums issue you're concerned about or the social security disability issue? ms. pelosi: i don't have any interest in any coupling. this is a nonnegotiable full faith and credit of the united states of america. we talk about keeping government open which is another challenge that we're faced with republicans 151 of whom, 2/3 of their caucus, voted to not keep government open just a few weeks ago. 1 republicans said no to the continuing resolution to keep government open. so we talk about how we deal with that issue and how we get to something before december 11. all these issues have to be resolved. instead of resolving them, what are they doing? spending taxpayer dollars on the politically oriented benghazi

hearing that went on endless will i yesterday. that's not what our focus should be. it's a matter of hours, days, weeks, months that we must do the work of the people. even paul ryan has said, here's his quote, we are not doing the work of the people. >> but we heard yesterday, do you think it makes sense for the democrats to walk away the committee going forward? ms. pelosi: it's up to the members of the committee. i've taken my lead from them on it. we had quite a back and forth in our caucus as to whether i should even appoint people. i was very proud of the members that we appointed. i think that they have been outstanding in the 17, 18 month months of this investigation, but they may decide that now in defending the truth, their job is done and they want to move

on. i have to talk to them and see what risk they see if he we would walk away. because you see the disauthorization, just the really disconnect with reality that exists on that committee. -- hillary clinton received a hero's welcome, her knowledge, her poise he stamina, her clarity was so appreciated by the american people and certainly -- >> could you clarify on this question. so you guys want just a clean bill. the credit should not be in question and there's no give in that position. steny hoyer said he thought the democrats were united. ms. pelosi: let me be clear. the full faith and credit of the united states of america is not negotiable. we want a clean bill in that

respect. coincidently, we have a deadline -- coincidentally, we have a deadline, because we haven't gotten our work done, we have october 29, the deadline for the highway trust fund to run out. that's one week from now. we hope that -- the bill passed out of committee, hopefully it can be brought to the floor in a timely fashion. november 3, the full faith and credit of the united states of america runs out. we need to address that issue. december 11, the continuing resolution runs out that's keeping government open. many other issues like ex-im bank which are long expired, 9/11 workers health benefits and compensation, long expired, but we hope we can accomplish in hours, days, weeks ahead and so there are two issues that are of paramount importance. keeping government open, full

faith and credit. we have to have them to enable us to do the other legislation i mentioned. we should be doing that instead of wasting taxpayer money on frivolous endeavors as the republicans are doing. so i see a path, i'm optimistic, and ready to cooperate, to negotiate on the -- keeping government open legislation and again we have some specific deadlines, like the medicare part b premium we have been pounding to death for a number of weeks now it needs to be address or else after the first of january, premiums will go up so we're hopeful we can find closure there. on the specifics that you mentioned, hopefully we can find ompromise there. what they -- i think we're on a path where we understand each other, at least.

we know what the decision is to be made. appropriations subcommittees have been working in a bipartisan way. all of this has been bipartisan, by the way. bipartisan way to be prepared for when we find the offset, what the timeline is for what we'll have in our bill and at the same time we'll be making sure we don't have any harmful riders in the bill system of everybody has been working in a bipartisan way to do their piece so that when the decisions are made, and that's all that's left, make some decisions, we can go forward and have some confidence for the american people that we are concerned about our economy and what our decisions mean in their lives. that's what we are here to do. to work for the american people. >> sit your opinion that the democrats should leave the benghazi committee? ms. pelosi: i'll hear what they have to say. it's a question of what endangerment of the truth that

the committee wants to pursue and so i will -- i'm so proud of each one of them. let me say, elijah cummings of maryland, spectacular. and adam schiff, the ranking on the intelligence committee, adam smith, the ranking on the armed services committee, mr. cummings, the ranking on the government and reform committee, linda sanchez, a great lawyer and demonstrated that throughout the hearings and of course tammy duckworth, we're very proud of her. i couldn't be prouder of the work they have done. i trust their judgment. they will let me know whether the up-- what are the upsides and downsides of walking away. thank you all very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015]

>> democrats from earlier today on capitol hill. the house has gaveled out, done for the week. here on c span, we'll take you live next over to the pentagon to hear from defense secretary ashton carter briefing reporters shortly. we'll have it live here on c-span. today the president has named brett mcgirk as the new official in charge of the u.s. coalition against the islamic state. retired marine general john allen stepping down from that post after 13 months on this ejoe -- on the job as the president's special envoy for the global coalition to counter isis. we also may hear more from the defense secretary about the hostage rescue effort yesterday that resulted in the deaths of one american, pentagon identifying the u.s. army soldier as master sergeant joshua wheel over oklahoma who died in that effort. about 7040's tajs were -- 70

hostages were freed. they were facing imminent demise and were rescued in the peration at an isis-controlled prison. plus news on capitol hill about the benghazi committee. there was talking from -- talk from democrats that they may leave the committee. we're waiting for word from nancy pelosi. it's been said that pelosi met with democrats on the benghazi committee and they decided it's best they still participate. a statement is expected to be released sometime this afternoon. we'll update the story as soon as we get more details.

>> on c-span, waiting to hear

from defense secretary ashton cart for the a news conference with pentagon reporters. the president the other tai vetoing the -- the president the other davie toing the defense authorization measure. julie hirsch of "the new york times" saying that president obama vetoed a $612 billion defense policy bill, rejecting a broadly supported measure that sets funding for military salaries and equipment and intensifying his struggle with the republican-led congress over federal spending. she writes that mr. obama has wieldled the veto only four other times since taking office in 2009 and his fifth one thursday signaled his determination to use the defense bill as a bargaining chip to push republicans to abandon strict spending limits on military and domestic programs enacted in the 2011 budget control act, known as the so-called sequester. that report from "the new york times." expect questions on that to secretary carter this afternoon.

>> here at the pentagon briefing room waiting for defense secretary ashton carter and a news briefing with reporters, update -- updating the story on the benghazi committee. a report says democrats won't jump ship on the benghazi committee right now. a seen yore democratic aide says democratic members of the benghazi committee made the decision to remain on the panel for now that eight-hour-plus hearing yesterday will be reaired here on c-span saturday and sunday at noon eastern.

each day we'll air the first part saturday, and the second part on sunday system of see it all this weekend. it's also available online. in its entirety or in bits and pieces at c-span.org.

>> the briefing with defense secretary ashton carter was scheduled for 1:45. running a bit late but we'll stay here live on c-span. also want to let you know to our road to the white house coverage this webbed. wicallies tonight here on c-span, 8:30 eastern, ted cruz in a town hall in council bluffs, iowa, and on c-span2 tonight at 7:00 eastern, donald trump at the dur al in miami. also on saturday, it's the jefferson jackson dinner in iowa. the democratic party in iowa, their dinner with bernie sanders, with hillary clinton and martin owe maly. they'll be at the jefferson jackson dinner in des moines, saturday night, 9:00 eastern. all of that live and all of it here on c-span.

>> this is the pentagon griefing -- briefing room. waiting to hear from defense secretary ashton carter. the story on the benghazi committee, the associated press reports that democrats on the house benghazi committee are staying now for. on the republican-led panel. a day after hillary clinton's testimony. a senior democratic aide said democrats made the decision after meeting with house minority leader nancy pelosi. and on hillary clinton news this afternoon, that she has won the endorsement of a powerful union, representing an array of government workers. the a.p. sails the 1.6 million ember announced its support of

secretary clinton today. she spoke earlier before the democratic national committee women's forum. and you can see that at c-span.org. we'll also have it later in our program schedule. and reminder too that hillary clinton will be at the jefferson jackson dinner tomorrow night in iowa. in council bluffs. in des moines, rather. 9:00 eastern, live here owe soon span. our coverage tonight, our road to the white house coverage tonight includes ted cruz here on c-span. 8:30 eastern. that will be from the -- from council bluffs, iowa. and ted -- and donald trump in miami, that will be at 7:00 eastern over on c-span2.

>> here on so he spoon at the pentagon, waiting to hear from defense secretary ashton carter. it's likely it will be the first chance we have to hear from him since the announcement today about the soldier who was killed in that raid in iraq. master sergeant joshua wheeler of oklahoma. who was part of the army's delta force. and assigned to headquarters of the u.s. army special command fort bragg. he was part of the rescue efforts to free the 70 hostages in iraq held by isis. we'll also hear from the secretary, his thoughts, on the president's veto of the defense

authorization bill the other day. scheduled to start about 20, 25 minutes ago. we're obviously running just a bit late. we'll have it live here on c-span when it gets under way.

mr. carter: hi, everybody. good afternoon. thank you. thanks all of you for being here, as always. appreciate it. it's been a productive, eventful week, including in the

campaign against isil. from the start of my tenure as secretary of defense, when i brought together generals and ambassadors in kuwait, to my frequent meetings with president obama and secretary kerry, i have ensured that this department remains laser-focused on the execution of our counter-isil strategy. we will deliver a lasting defeat to isil. doing so will require us to learn, evolve and adapt over the course of a determined campaign to carry out this strategy. earlier this week we were reminded that there will be risks to our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, that they face an iraq there and across the world. but it also reminds me of why i am so very proud of them. our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and loved ones of master sergeant joshua wheeler,

who will be welcomed home tomorrow by his family, by my ife and myself, who died after assisting our close iraqi kurdish partners in the rescue of 70 hostage -- hostages held by isil. the sacrifice and decisive action of this courageous american in support of his comrades reminds us of the dangers that the coalition forces confront in iraq, but also of the important assistance they provide local forces as they lead the fight against a bar babic doctor a barbaric enemy -- against a barbaric enemy. i made the decision to assist our kurdish partners after receiving specific actionable intelligence that a mass execution was imminent. as u.s. special operations forces provided airlift support and accompanied people, dozens of lives were saved and a significant cache of

intelligence was collected. we have now heard from rescued hostages. they expected to be executed that day. after morning prayers. their grave had already been prepared. not only did our support help provide another mass killing, we enabled those partners of ours to deliver isil a clear defeat and prevented them from broadcasting our horrific mass -- a horrific massacre to the world. meanwhile, across the border in eastern syria, coalition aircraft recently hit a key note in isil's oil enterprise, destroying a pump station and cash collection. after extensive conversations with chairman dunford, general austin, secretary kerry, and with leaders of the coalition, in recent weeks, we're ramping up our assault on this critical pillar of isil's financial

frals. we will also work -- infrastructure. we will also work to disrupt isil's distribution of oil in a lucrative marketplace, one that includes customers, by the way, from the assad regime. and we will continue to work on all of the so-called nine lines of effort of the counter-isil campaign, including counterfinance, countermessaging and interdicting foreign fighters. also in syria, we continue to target terrorist leaders. this week we dealt a significant blow to the group which continues to plot against al homeland by killing nasser. he served as a leading financial figure for the group and is the fifth highest level operative we've kivem killed in the past four months. as i review the pace of recent events and the mull approximately ways we're bringing pressure -- multiple ways we're bringing pressure

against isil, i would like to commend general sean mcfarland, a pioneer of the sunni ranging several years ago, who i recently appointed as the commander of our counter-isil efforts. rather than three generals responsible for different aspects of the campaign, as had been the case, i have empowered lieutenant general mcfarland as the single commander of counter-isil activities in both iraq and syria. his efforts will be critical in the coming months as we continue to provide support for capable partners fighting on the front lines. in iraq thousands of fighters have now passed through coalition training sites. the contributions of more than a dozen coalition nations have provided capacity to train thousands more. it is essential, it is essential that more iraqis, sunni and shi'a, arab and kurd, be recruited, trained and

equipped so that iraq's territorial integrity is restored and the country returned to the full control of its people. as i've stressed repeatedly, we're committing to -- committed to supporting these partners but cannot serve as a substitute for them. we're watching recent military advances around ramadi, which suggest that iraqi forces may be regaining the initiative. as local forces continue to prove their commitment to an inclusive future for their country, we are correspondingly committed to enhancing the support we provide. the challenges of developing capable and motivated forces in syria have been painfully clear. but here too the coalition has provided an air drop and air support for syrian arab coalition fighters as they prepare for a difficult drive towards isil's administrative

capital. this is one example of how we're adjusting our approach in syria to focus on equipping existing groups rather than , we will w recruits continue to be open to all approaches. we're strengthening our partnerships with moderate syrian forces who have fought fiercely in recent months and hope to advance the gains they've made with our help. the additional support i mentioned today does not represent a change in our strategy but it does represent a change in our approach to achieving it. i'm determined that we continue to adapt to get results. so we will continue to work closely with the prime minister and his command of the iraqi skiret forces, the department of defense will continue to support the moderate syrian opposition and we will continue to meet our commitments to friends and allies across the region. especially israel.

and that connection i look forward to consultations with israel's defense minister when he arrives in washington next week. on tuesday i will also appear before congress, alongside congressman dunford. our testimony in the senate will provide an opportunity to discuss in more detail the excuse of the counter-isil strategy -- execution of the counter-isil strategy and how to pursue the next phase of the coalition campaign. one final note, i know that each of you is waiting for the civilian casualty report from general campbell on the tragic incident. my staff and irin frequent contact with general campbell as his team completes their initial report. we want to get this done and i want him to get it done. but we wanted to get it done absolutely right. the more complete report will come from the so-called 156 which is the expanded military investigation. i want the answers to the

questions in those investigations, accountability is part of our obligation to those who died in kunduz and it must inform everything we do here at department of defense. and with that i'll take a few questions here. reporter: on your comments about the prison mission, the rescue mission, you said that the people that faced imminent mass execution, their graves had already been dug. how do you know what? and also you said there was a significant cache of intelligence gathered. can you describe that? mr. carter: on the first point, the -- first of all, we now have 70 people who were rescued who told us what they were facing. and the graves were right next door to the compound.

it happens that we had seen them beforehand. because we were watching this mpound once they informed us that they believed there were prisoners of isil there. so that was another indication to us what appeared to be basically the digging of graves. you can't be sure by just lookinging at it. but it's -- looking at it but it sure looked like that. that was another indication. then we had other indications as well i can't go into. the main thing is that our partners, they were the ones who had information that this particular location had was being used basically as a prison campaign -- camp and seemingly planned to be an xecution center. this is the stuff you get and the great value, by the way, of

raids of this kind and i expect we'll do more of this kind of thing. but one of the reasons for that is that you learn a great deal because you collect the documentation, you collect various electronic equipment and so forth, on top of which we now have 70 individuals who spent a lot of time there and who were in turn captured by isil in different ways and thereby had different perspectives. so the sum of all this will be some valuable intelligence, obviously saving the lives that were about to be brutally sacrificed is the main thing, and supporting our partners who have been wonderful fighters and everything we're looking for in iraq, which is capable, motivated fighters. but then it turns out we'll get good information as well. reporter: you just said that you expect there will be more raids like this in the future.

so, could you please explain how more raids fits with no combat troops? mr. carter: i say we'll do more raids, remember, we did -- if you remember the raid that took down saif, we have this capability. it's a great american strength. it doesn't represent us assuming a combat role. it represents a continuation of our advise and assist mission. i said right from the beginning , we mean this, when we find opportunities to do things that will effectively prosecute the campaign, we're going to do that. and this is an example of a case where we could do something we alone had the capability to do, i'm absolutely prepared to do that. raids is one of those categories. and i suspect that we'll have further opportunities in the

future and we want to aourselves of them -- to avail ourselves of them. reporter: can you clarify the rules of engagement? it's my understanding that the special operations commander on the ground made a decision when the kurdish partners came under overwhelming fire to come to their defense. entered a wall compound in the middle of a fire fight. they can do it in self-defense, they can do it when their partners come under fire. as well. if so, how is that not combat think? just wonder if you think the president, the administration's being misleading when they say u.s. forces are not in combat. mr. carter: we have -- let me tell you, explain what this -- what happened in this particular event. again, this is based upon the report that we have now. but everything i know about this incident was that as the compound was being stormed, the plan was not for the u.s. advise and assist and accompanying forces to enter

the compound or be involved in the fire fight. wever, when a fire fight ensued, this american did what i'm very proud that americans do in that situation. he ran to the sounds of the guns and he stood up and all the indications are it was his actions and that of one of his teammates that protected those who were involved in breaching the compound and made the mission a successful -- a success. so that was an inher intrissthack we ask -- inherent risk that we ask people to assume. it wasn't part of the plan but it was something that he did. i'm immensely proud that he did that. obviously we're very saddened that he lost his life. ut nobody should be in any illusions that americans are at risk. americans are flying combat missions, thousands of combat missions, over syria and iraqi

territory. there are americans involved in training and advising iraqi security forces around the country. we do not have combat formations there the way we had once upon a time in iraq or the way we have had in years past in afghanistan. but we do have people who are in harm's way and who evidently have shown a willingness to put themselves in harm's way in order to have mission success. i think that's very commendable. reporter: follow -- just for a follow up. the administration has taken great pains, the president in various ways, to say it's not ground combat, it's not a major combat role. just as you said, it's not the same size as it was during certainly the iraq invasion and occupation. but if you say there are going to be more missions like this and if commanders will be commended for making decisions to go into the breach, right, and go into the battle mr. carter: then they will be

in harm's way. there's no question about it. i don't want anybody to be under any illusions about that. but this was an opportunity in which the capabilities that we uniquely possess could have a material effect. was there risk sorked -- associated with that, there was. but all i can say from the reports i've received, i'm immensely proud of this young man. reporter: i want to ask you abouting is else. women in combat and your decision on whether to bar women from some ground combat jobs. i know general dunford is supposed to offer his recommendation by the end of the month. the marines, as you know, or many of us know, have asked , t all infantry jobs also some other jobs, combat engineers, controllers, artillery controllers, be closed to women as well. it's based on a marine report which found that mixed gender units did not do as well as all male units, they were slower, less lethal, had a lot more injuries.

that report is marked predecisional, not for release to the public. so i'm wondering, the question is, when will you release that report? after you make your decision? and what about the hill? lawmakers want that as well. will you release it to them before you make your decision? mr. carter: let me back up. first of all, i'll say i don't actually have anything new for you relative to two weeks ago when we discussed this. to take it from the beginning again, the direction to the services are now going back a couple of years was to -- that was from secretary panetta -- that they should prepare for all positions to be open to women unless they requested exceptions from the secretary of defense by january 1, 2016. so that's me, now several months from now.

that the services were to do analysis and make recommendations to the chairman and then the chairman and the deputy secretary of defense will review that, then they'll bring it to me, they've not done that yet. so that report, which you know of, but it is truly predecisional because i'm the one who's going to make the decision and it hasn't come to me, on the merits of the thing, i just go back to what i've said before. i'm going to make this decision on the basis of the facts of the analysis. if there's good nail sis in the report to which you refer -- analysis in the report to which you prefer, that will be important to me. 's much more important to me -- rather i should say it's less important to me who says something than what they say. i'm going to be analytically based and if you ask, which i think makes perfect sense, you all know this, but why are we doing this in the first place?

people say fairness and part of it's fairness. there's another part of it that i need to stress, which is that we have an all-volunteer military. which means that i'm basically in the position, we are in the position of recruiting from the pool of americans. the more americans that i can draw on, who can meet the standards, no change in standards here, but who can serve in the way that we need people to serve, the better off i am and our forces and my suck ers are. that's why we're -- successers are. that's why we're doing this in the first place. we'll see. t will be a few -- reporter: -- [inaudible] -- will you wait until -- mr. carter: i don't know. dollar number of reports going an -- there are a number of reports going around. if you have one, i can't comment on that. you say it's stamped predecisional. that i can tell you it is because the decision in question is mifpblete and it's

certainly -- it's prethat, that's for sure -- it's pre that, that's for sure. reporter: do you do you think about balancing in iraq your relationship or the u.s. military relationship with the iraqi kurds and with the central government in baghdad? there was some commentary out of baghdad from the defense ministry yesterday that they were upset that they didn't have more information about this raid which took place well outside of iraqi curd stan ahead of time -- kurd stan ahead of time. and secondly, on the kunduz report, can you tell us what is the reason for the delay? i understand that there was at least initially a delay because of ongoing combat or fighting within kunduz but now that the city is, you know -- mr. carter: on the second part, i really can't. i'm going to refer to you general campbell when he makes the report. my instructions to him were get it right. and remember, this first thing you're talking about has to do with the assessment of civilian asualties.

what i await later is the u.s. military investigation which will include an veffings possible wrong doing. which is important -- an investigation of possible wrong doing which is important to me. i think in both of these cases, what's important is that we get it right. i'm sorry, your first question -- reporter: how do you balance the operational relationship between the iraqi kurds and that with the baghdad government? mr. carter: this question goes back to the -- our fundamental strategy in iraq. which is to pursue a multisectarian approach in which we work through baghdad, but we work with local forces. prime minister abadi himself has spoken of what he calls -- i forgot his phrase. t essentially the -- a de-centralized but single -- decentralized but single iraq.

remember, sectarianism got us to this point in the first place. and that was the kind of government that prime minister maliki was associated with. and prime minister abadi is determined to behave in a multisectarian way. we support that and that is why, for example, when it comes peshmirga, with which we do and a number of other coalition countries do, we do that by and through the central government of iraq. we consult with them on operations when we train sunnis, another important roup, sunni tribes, we do that in consultation and through the iraqi government. now, we're determined to do it because the kurds are effective fighters and we need effective fighters to combat isil. and we're determined to do that in the case of the sunnis as well. hold re trying to both up

the principle of multisectarianism and ensure that capability and motivated local fighters, who will have a sectarian ting to them, that's the nature of that country, are able to be armed and trained and fight. so that's kind of the nature of our strategy. and the nature of iraq itself. reporter: is the standard of practice to inform the iraqi defense ministry of operations that u.s. military conducts -- mr. carter: as a general matter, absolutely can. obviously time and circumstance is -- absolutely. and it is -- by the way, i should say that the k.r.g. government doesn't have any problem with that. we always inform -- they know that we inform baghdad of things that we do with them. and they accept that as part of the game, to their great credit. reporter: to what extent are you concerned that north korea

is preparing either a nuclear test or a space launch? and more specifically, a few years ago, a while back, when you weren't in public office, you wrote a rather compelling op ed with secretary perry advocating that the north korean missile be taken out on a launch pad before they can test it. has your think being that changed? and if so why? -- has your thinking about that changed? and if so why? mr. carter: i don't have anything new for you. on, that we're always concerned about north korean behavior and provocations of all kinds. i think you mentioned missile launches. there are nuclear activities. by the way, there are other activities. naval activities, activities along the d.m.z. and so forth, so there's a constant potential for provocations. and one of the things that we were discussing with president park during her visit here last week, and then i'll have the

opportunity to discuss also in korea next week, where i'll be, including the d.m.z., by the y, is the ability of our collective defense to respond to those kind of north korean provocations. incredibly important. because that places -- place isn't in the headlines every day. but we don't forget here every day that fight tonight, which is the slogan of usfk and their korean partners, is a very real possibility -- reporter: what about your argument it the preemptive strike you? argued very convincingly. reporter: he do not want to interrupt. but you didn't mention the veto this week in your rundown of events. what happens next? there's about 40 different authorities and pay benefits that expire at the end of the year. what are you going to tell the treels -- troops if the veto is sustained? are they going to be stiffed?

mr. carter: here's what i hope happens next. the upper most consideration in my mind, since i first testified about this question of the whole budget gridlock in washington back in march, is precisely that the troops are upper most in our mind. they look at gridlock now extending over seven years. including to beginning yet another fiscal year under a continuing resolution. and for many of them, and i talk to them, as do you, this is a source of uncertainty for them and their families that i think is unworthy of them. and what they're doing for the country. and while i'm talking about others affected by this gridlock, and then i'll get to that is e happens,

true also for the people who serve this department, uniformed and civilian, it's true for our industry partners whom you know very well and upon whom we depend for equipment and services. it's true of our friended and allies -- friends and allies. and i see them all the time. and they ask me and it's embarrassing to have to explain why it is that we're embarking on a seventh year without a clear budget in this country, so you ask, what do i hope happens? i'll tell you the same thing i said before and that i tell them, including the troops, all the time. i hope that it is possible for everybody to come together here at long last in washington, address all of the parts of the budget, not piece by piece, but all of the parts of the budget, and by the way, there are other parts of the budget that are not the defense budget that do contribute to national security. i'm very mindful of that. that's the kind of world in which we live. law enforcement, diplomacy,

intelligence, homeland security. so forth. all of that is protecting our people and i very much hope, i'm not the expert on this, and you could get better sources of information than the secretary of defense on this, because we're by and large an observer, but i very much hope that it's possible for everybody to come a ether here and put us on budgeting year horizon that doesn't -- isn't -- doesn't have the managerial inefficiencies and the uncertainty to our operations and our people that is represented by this. reporter: one other event from this week is the decon fliction agreement that was signed. senator mccain said it was immoral, basically. we're going to be asking u.s. pilots to steer clear of

russian pilots who are bombing opponents of assad. i wonder why you say he's wrong about that and give us a sense of what russia is doing there. mr. carter: the agreement is a very specific one that is aimed at safety of flight for -- that's what it covers. and we concluded that our interest in it was safety of flight for our own pilots. you ask what are the russians doing? what the russians are actually doing is buttressing the assad regime, which is, as i have said, will have the effect of fanning the flames of the civil war, and very few of their strikes have been directed toward isil, which is the reason why they said initially they were getting into the fight. so the russians are on the wrong side of this. in every way. and they're going to contribute o the violence and the tragedy

of the civil war that's been going on now for all these years. listen, y'all, it's been a very long week. i look forward to seeing you -- reporter: reporter: [inaudible] would you take a question? mr. carter: sure. reporter: you applied -- you alluded twice to his actions. his actions and the actions of a fellow operations soldier. could you provide us some of that detail? mr. carter: i can't. reporter: you're very impressed by what happened. mr. carter: i am. i tell you, that's on the basis of the reports i've gotten. so i want to be careful about that. this is combat, things are complicated. but the sorry is, as i related it already, this is someone who saw the team that he was advising and assisting coming under attack. and he rushed to their -- to help them and made it possible

for them to be effective. and in doing that lost his own life. that's why i'm proud of him. but pride doesn't -- proud of him doesn't make it any easier to welcome him home to the united states fallen. but on the basis of what i what gain, now, this is is so consistent but also so amazing about the american soldier. he ran to the sound of the gun. that's what i know. that's why i'm proud of what i know. reporter: thank you. mr. carter: thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] >> also word today from washington the president has named brett mcgerk as the new official in charge of the u.s. coalition against isis. retired marine general john allen stepping down after 13 months on the job. and we're just a -- word just a

short while ago from capitol hill, from the democrats on the benghazi committee, releasing a statement that says in part, after yesterday's 11-hour hearing -- >> we'll tell miles an hour about the benghazi coverage this weekend momentarily. now to our road to the white house coverage. ted cruz will be holding a town hall meeting in council bluffs, iowa, this evening. we'll have it live at 8:0 eastern and we'll follow that with senator crus taking some of your calls following that town hall meeting. all of that beginning at 8:30 here on c-span. meanwhile, on see pan 2, it's dobbled -- c-span 2 it's donald trump at miami live tonight at 7:00 eastern. >> c-span provides the best access for coverage of former

secretary of state hillary clinton testifying before the house select committee on benghazi. >> there was no credible, actionable threat known to our intelligence community against our compound. >> our hearing coverage without commercials or commentary will air in its entirety saturday and sunday at noon eastern on -span. >> the house earlier today passed a budget deficit reduction bill that would cut the deficit by nearly $80 billion over the next 10 years. it repeals some of the provisions in the health care law, including the individual and employer mandates, the tax on medical device manufacturers and the 40% tax on high cost insurance programs. the bill would also defund planned parenthood for one year. it will be a busy week in the house next week as current funding for federal highway programs expires thursday. so the house and senate are expected to take up legislation to extend that funding prior to the deadline. also floor action expected

monday on a bill to re-authorize the export-import bank through a rarely used congressional procedure called a discharge petition. it's a way to bring legislation directly to the floor by pass -- bypassing the committee process. off the floor will the house will elect a new speaker. that will be on the floor actually on thursday of next week. off the floor wednesday republicans, the conference, will meet to select their candidate. look for coverage here on c-span and here's that floor debate from earlier on the budget deficit reduction bill. for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia, mr. price, seek recognition? mr. price: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 483, i call up bill h.r. 3762, the restoring americans' health care freedom reconciliation act of 2015, and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 222, h.r. 3762, a bill to provide for reconciliation pursuant to section 2002 of the

concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2016. pursuant to house resolution 483, the bill as amended is considered read. the bill shall be debated for two hours equally divided and controlled by the ranking -- by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee, the gentleman in georgia, mr. price, and the gentleman from marylandmark van hollen, each will control 20 minutes. mr. price: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislate i days to revise and extend their remarks on the restoring americans' health care freedom act of 2015. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. price: for the first time in over a decade, congress adopted a 10-year balanced budget amendment and agreement.

the house and senate were able to agree on a plan that would reduce spending by over $5 trillion. save and strengthen important health and retirement programs, provide for a strong national defense and support a growing economy with greater opportunity for more americans to achieve their dreams. it's a bold plan. a bold plan at a time in our nation's history when we face tremendous fiscal and economic challenges. challenges that are being fuled by an ineffective, inefficient, and unaccountable government bureaucracy here in washington. and this is bureaucracy that's interfering in the daily lives and livelihood of the american people. the most prominent example of how intrusive washington has become is the president's health care law. obamacare imposes taxes and onerous mandates on individuals and families and job creators. it undermines the sacred doctor-patient relationship. it's driving up the costs of health care with higher premiums and high edeductibles while destroying access to quality

care, innovative health care choices. and it's discouraging work and making job creation and economic growth more challenging. all this, mr. speaker, at a time when we are experiencing the worst economic recovery in the modern era. now when congress passed our bicameral budget resolution earlier this year, we initiated a powerful budget process called reconciliation. under reconciliation we're able to move legislation through the house and senate in an expedited manner and put a bill on the president's desk. with the legislation before us today, the are e-- the restoring americans' health care freedom and reconciliation act, we're using this powerful tool to help end obamacare's attack on health care and its attack on our economy. we're doing so to pave the way for a more appropriate, responsive, patient-centered health care system that puts patients and families and doctors in charge of health care. not washington, d.c. under this eguidelines of our

budget and the rules governing reconciliation, three committees in the house, the education and work force committee and the ways and means committee and the energy and commerce committee produced individual pieces of legislation to repeal major components of obama care. the house budget committee then took those pieces and combined them to a single bill we've brought to the house floor today. the restoring americans' health care freedom reconciliation act repeals the individual and employer mandates. it repeals the onerous cadillac tax. it repeals the medical device tax. and it repeals an obamacare slush fund as well as undue demands on employers an employees. additionally, it provides for a one-year -- it prohibits for one year taxpayer dollars from being used to pay abortion providers prohibited under the legislation while dedicating additional resources, that's more money, mr. speaker, to community health care centers across this country for women's health care.

taken together, the congressional budget office and the joint committee on taxation estimates that this legislation will lower deficits by $130 billion over the 10-year budget window. roughly $51 billion of those will come from the positive macroeconomic effect of what we're proposing. c.b.o. and j.c.t. estimate that this bill will lead to an increase in the labor supply. an increase in economic growth. an increase in capital investment. an increase in total compensation. that's take home pay, mr. speaker. it would also eliminate work disincentives and decrease federal borrowing. the major components of obamacare repealed thunder legislation represent the core of a coercive system a coercive nature with the president's health care law. policies that are forcing people into a health care system that washington is simultaneously making more expensive, less accessible, lower quality and with fewer choices. nothing in what we are proposing, nothing in what we

are proposing would take insurance coverage away from americans or their families or preclude anyone from purchasing coverage. what we are doing is freeing americans from government coercion. provisions included in this legislation also share another important distinction. that is that they all fall within the limited scope of the reconciliation process. this is vitally important. reconciliation is not a silver bullet. there are limitations and if a piece of legislation reaches those -- breaches those limitations it runs the risk of derailing the entire process. ultimately, however, mr. speaker this discussion is not about process. it's about people. it's about the men and women, the families that we have the privilege of representing and who know that the only folks who should be making personal health care decisions are individuals, their doctors and their families. this debate is about the millions of americans who have seen their premiums go up and deductibles go up and their out

of pocket costs skyrocket after being told the law, in fact, would bring those costs down, which it has not. this is about low wage workers, mr. speaker. 2.6 million according to the hoover institution who are at risk of seing their hours cut. their working hours cut because of obamacare. this is about those americans, particularly the one in four americans living in rural parts of our country who found that in many cateses their health care coverage comes with such narrow provider networks that they have to travel long distances to find the treatment they need and run the risk of even higher costs. mr. speaker, we can do better. we can do better by these americans and all americans who long for a health care system that's responsive to their needs. that's accessible and affordable and not contributing to the decline of the economic opportunity and job security. there are positive, patient-centered solutions that would advance the cause of quality health care in this country and none of them require handing more authority over to washington.

obamacare puts washington in charge. we want to put the american people in charge of their health care decisions and an important step in that direction is this legislation that we have before us today. i urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation and i look forward to this debate and moving forward on this effort and putting a bill on the president's desk. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from maryland is recognized. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. this bill and the vote we're going to have today is, i guess, a fitting end to an unproductive and shameful week in the united states congress. yesterday, we just witnessed an incredible abuse of power where a so-called special benghazi committee funded by taxpayer money, conducted their political witch hunt against secretary clinton. the republican majority leader in this body told the nation on

television that it was about bringing downhillry clinton's polls. that dishonors the memory of the four americans who were killed in benghazi. then earlier this week, this congress passed legislation that says, you know what? the united states government doesn't have to pay all of its bills. we'll just pay some of our bills. forget about the full faith and credit of the united states. we'll decide we're going to pay some people and not others. it's as if, mr. speaker, one of us got up in the morning and said, we're just going to make our mortgage payment but forget about the car payments. we're going to pay this person but not that person. when the united states government tries to do that, the economy goes downhill fast. but to add insult to injury, they said when we're going to pay certain people, we're going to pay the big bondholders first. government of china. wall street. they're going to get paid. veterans aren't going to get

paid. our soldiers aren't going to get paid. i hope our colleagues are reading what they're passing here in the united states congress because that's what they did earlier this week system of what are we doing here today? for the 61st time, 61st time in this house of representatives, our republican colleagues are moving forward on education to dismantle the affordable care act. now, the chairman is entitled to his own opinions. he's not entitled to his own facts. all you have to do is read the report of the nonpartisan congressional budget office that analyzed this bill and here's what they say. that as a result of this legislation, insurance coverage would decline by about 16 million people. in most years. three million of those people would be children. why in the world are we here on

the floor of the house of representatives passing legislation that's going to take away affordable health care to 15 million americans including three million children? look at this chart, mr. speaker. this shows the the cline in the number of uninsured people in the united states. and as you can see, you see a rapid drop in the number of uninsured americans. as a result of the affordable care act. our republican colleagues' bill want to get rid of that progress. put all those people back in a position where they don't have affordable health care. they also want to go after women's health programs, including planted parenthood, where the testimony from the chairman of the oversight and government reform committee, mr. chaffetz is very clear. they haven't violated any laws. he said it on national television.

here's what he was asked. is there any evidence in your opinion that planned parenthood has broken any laws? no. i'm not suggesting that they broke the law. another political witch hunt. just like the benghazi hearing. and you know what? when the regular committees found there was no wrongdoing by planned parenthood, our republican colleagues created a special committee on planned parenthood as well. so mr. speaker, there's a reason that when the american people have been asked what they think of congress these days, that this is a chart of the words they come up with first. ridiculous. waste of time. terrible. frustrating. and you're just making this chart worse by coming here to this floor for the 61st time, repealing the affordable care act, a bill that you know has no

chance of becoming law, because if it gets to the president's desk, he's told this congress long ago he will vie toe it because the president doesn't want to get rid of affordable health care for 15 million americans and three million american kids. the president doesn't want to do it. i'm really, really disappointed that our republican colleagues thought this was a good way to end an unproductive week. it's a sad and shameful statement of the state of affairs in this body. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from georgia is recognized. mr. price: thank you, mr. speaker. we heard about benghazi, we heard about debt limit. sounds like a political speech, doesn't it, mr. speaker? the gentleman knows there's nothing in this legislation to keep families from purchasing coverage for their children, nothing at all. the reconciliation package before us only provides tax relief to working families and individuals. give them freedom from

government coercion in the area of health care. i'm honored now to yield two minutes to a wonderful and productive member of the budget committee, the gentlelady from missouri, mrs. hartzler. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. mrs. hartzler: thank you. thank you, mr. chairman, for the work you're doing to advance this bill and advance our budget. as a member of the budget committee i'm proid to support the restoring american's health care freedom reconciliation act which is a very, very important bill that does dismantle key provisions of obamacare that are harming people. we were sent here to fight for the american people. they do not want their health care dictated to them by washington and they don't want their tax dollars going to abortion providers. this bill protects life by stopping the flow of taxpayer dollars to abortion providers. the people have for years begged congress to end the flow of taxpayer dollars to planned parenthood, especially in the wake of the recent horrendous

videos showing planned parenthood officials exhibiting a blatant disregard for human life. this bill places a moratorium on funding for abortion providers and redirects these funds to increase funding for community health centers. these health centers serve 80 times more women patients and planned parenthood and they provide more comprehensive care to women. i'm proud to support this bill and i urge my colleagues to support it as well. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back this egentleman from georgia reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: i yield one to mr. lieu le -- of california a distinguished member of the budget committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lieu: my parents immigrated to america because hay they saw this shining city on a hill. america became exceptional

because we invested in infrastructure, in social security and medicare that provided economic freedom for so many americans. but this budget bill? one of its main points is to defund planned parenthood. these are not the priorities of the american people. this is a hyper partisan document that's just talking points for extremists. it is time for the majority party to do what we were elected here to do in congress, we're elected to lead the greatest country on earth, it's time we start acting like it. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: hyper partisan, mr. speaker? hyper partisan? let me show you a chart here. theers are four items included in this piece of legislation that are packaged in this piece of legislation. reducing, repealing the prevention and public health fund. when that bill itself came to the floor of the house, 147 democrats voted yes. 147.

delay the individual mandate, when that bill came to the floor of the house, 27 democrats voted yes. delay the employer mandate, when that bill came to the floor of the house, 35 democrats voted yes. repeal the medical device tax, when that came to the floor of the house, 46 democrats voted yes. mr. speaker, these are mostly, mostly bipartisan issues. the american people are for repeal of these portions of obamacare. democrats even in this house have recognized the wisdom of it. i'm honored now to yield two minutes to the gentleman from michigan, another good member of the budget committee, mr. mole lynn nar. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for two minutes. mr. mow lynn nar: as the chairman mentioned, today we are voting to repeal some of the burdensome taxes and mandates the obama administration has placed on hardworking americans with this health care law. today we have the opportunity to vote in a bipartisan way to end the individual mandate, ploiter mandate.

the medical device tax, the cadillac tax, the slush fund, and the auto enrollment mandate. the affordable care act has proven to be unaffordable for millions of americans who lost the coverage they enjoy and must now pay higher premiums. already hardworking families in my district have been told about the rate hikes that will make the health care premiums that they pay more expensive this next year. ing today we are repealing mandates, but unfortunately we are not in this legislation able to repeal the independent payment advisory board that determines which treatments americans are allowed to have, or the health insurance tax that eliminates consumer choice and access. but today this is a positive step toward a system of patient centered alternatives with lower premiums that allow individuals to choose the coverage they want. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from georgia

reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: mr. speaker, i now yield one minute to ms. moore of wisconsin, a distinguished member of the budget committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from wisconsin is recognized for one minute. ms. moore: good morning, mr. speaker. thank you, ranking member, for the time. since we are considering this reconciliation bill, i looked up the record reconciliation because i thought maybe i don't know what the word means. and they say that reconciliation is a process of making consistent or compatible. mr. speaker, there is nothing in the bill before us that is either consistent or compassible with the woman's constitutional right to control her body. this bill is neither consequencecies tent nor compatible with a woman's human right to reproductive freedom. this bill, the only thing this bill reconciles is the majority's machismo, mr.

speaker, the stubborn resolve, to deny women, especially the poorest women in our country, access to health care. and despite the claims that you have heard here on this floor that, quote, there is nothing to stop women from accessing health care, just let me point out. mr. van hollen: i yield another 30 seconds. ms. moore: just a few facts, mr. speaker. 78% of planned parenthood patients are at or below 150% of the poverty level. 40% of low-income women consider ob-gyn their primary source of health care which planned parenthood provides. in my own state, 14,000 women each year, many of whom are low income, do not have access to family planning services. i ask that we not pass this bill and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yield back. the gentleman from maryland reserves. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: thank you, mr. speaker. i would ask the gentlelady who just spoke to read the bill.

in fact the bill increases funding for women's health care through the community health centers by $235 million in both fiscal year 2016 and fiscal year 2017. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. speaker, i now yield one minute to ms. jackson lee, distinguished member of the judiciary committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for ne minute. ms. jackson lee: let me thank the ranking member of the budget committee for his courtesies. and i don't know why we are here this morning, mr. speaker. i guess out of desperation. after 11 hours of trying to attack the former secretary of state, now we come this morning to continue our attack on women and again to have republicans address the affordable care act that is in my state put a dent

in some 25,000-plus who did not have health care. but today we stand here with a bill that repeals the individual responsibility requirements that people must have their own health care. repeal the independent payment advisory board which focuses on making medicare solvent for our seniors, and the prevention in public health fund which supports evidence-based programs designed to keep americans healthy, prevent chronic infectious diseases, and reduce future health care costs. two days ago i was standing out in front of the united states capitol calling out my state, the state of texas, that about three days ago declared war on planned parenthood, to close 39 different clinics. which would cut into the -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. van hollen: i yield another 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for 30 second. ms. jackson lee: that would cut into the very essence of service to vulnerable women. it would cut into their mammogram services, cervical cancer examination, and the

supreme court just a year -- couple months ago said this kind of pointed targeted attack was unconstitutional. and this bill just adds to it. whether or not you add other clinics, the clinics in texas, planned parenthood, have been there for years and the minorities for young people and others. so, mr. speaker, this is not a reconciliation bill, this is another attack bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. ms. jackson lee: we should be able to stand for our women and women's health care. vote against this bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yield back. the gentleman from maryland reserves. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm pleased to yield two minutes to a wonderful contributing member of the budget committee, a member of the rules committee as well, the gentleman from georgia, mr. woodall. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for two minutes. mr. woodall: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm excited to be here today and i'm sad ynd by some of the shrillness of the conversation. this is the first reconciliation package that i have seen in the 4 1/2 years i

have been elected to this body, in fact more than half the members of this institution have never seen a reconciliation bill come to the floor of this house. why? because congress hasn't functioned in a way where the house and the senate have been able to come together to do this, but that's happening this year. for the first time. we ought to be celebrating that. to hear this described as a partisan exercise, i understand folks have a lot of grievances and this may be the day folks are going to air all their grievances, but to describe this as a partisan exercise misses the point that the only bipartisanship in this entire conversation is around trying to reject the damaging provisions of the president's health care bill. after all, when this was jammed through using the reconciliation process, it was jammed through in a partisan fashion, the bipartisan vote was a vote no. when we tried to deal with the slush fund that was going for all sorts of programs that america would reject, the bipartisan vote was the vote to abolish it, as this bill does

today. the bipartisan vote was to delay the individual mandate as this bill abolishes today. the bipartisan vote was to delay the employer mandate as this bill does today. i understand there is a lot that divides us in this body and in this nation, but this is a day for celebration. i applaud the chairman for what he has been able to do. he's been able to do what no other chairman has been able to do in the 4 1/2 years i have been in this institution, that is bring the house and the senate together around a budget for the united states of america. i'm proud of what we have done. we have done together. if this has to be a day of airing of grievances, let it be an airing of grievance, but let it not be said it is a partisan exercise. the bipartisanship exists in this reconciliation ack passenger. i hope we come together on it today. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yield back. the gentleman from georgia reserves. the gentleman from maryland.

mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. with all respect to mr. woodall, we don't celebrate legislation that takes away affordable health care to 15 million americans, including three million american children. that's not our definition of bipartisanship. i urge all my colleagues to read the congressional budget office report. the congressional budget office is headed by someone who is chosen by our republican colleagues, and their report tells us this legislation will take away affordable health care to 15 million americans. that's nothing to celebrate. i now yield one minute to ms. delauro of connecticut, very distinguished ranking member of the labor, health, subcommittee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. miss delauro: i rise in opposition to this bill. it is deja vu all over again. this bill represents the majority's 61st attempt to

weaken, undermine, or real the affordable care act. legislation that, yes, has broad health care -- brought health care to millions of americans and significantly reduced prescription drug costs for seniors. the bill is also the latest installment of the majority's crusade against women's health. it targets planned parenthood again. an organization that provides millions of low-income americans with lifesaving services, many families cannot get anywhere else. and finally, it threatens to cut nearly $13 billion from efforts to protect people against deadly diseases. measles, listeria, ebola. this is a dangerous game. why are we wasting time on ideological attacks such as this? there are so many real issues to deal with. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. ms. delauro: families struggling to make ends meet. sop playing games. we can start by voting against

this disgraceful bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yield back. the gentleman from maryland reserves. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: mr. speaker, may i inquire as to the amount of time remaining on each side? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia has 46 1/2 minutes. the gentleman from maryland, has 48 1/2 minutes. mr. price: i'll reserve at this point. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: mr. speaker, i reserve as well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland reserves. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: mr. speaker, the understanding of the chair here was that we were going to divide the time equally between three committees at the beginning. 15 minute segments. may i inquire of the gentleman from maryland if that has -- if that plan has changed? mr. van hollen: no. that's my understanding of the agreement, too. would it possible, mr. speaker, how much time in the 15 minutes

remains each? the speaker pro tempore: 15-minute agreement. the gentleman from georgia has 1 1/2 minutes remaining. maryland, 2 1/2 minutes remaining. mr. van hollen: thank you. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: do you have any more speakers? mr. price: i have one more speaker from the budget committee. mr. van hollen: i'm reserving -- i'm waiting for one more speaker as well. if you have another -- mr. price: i'm pleased to yield a minute and a half to the vice chairman of the budget committee, the gentleman from indiana, mr. rokita. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from indiana is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. rokita: i thank the speaker. i thank chairman price. as well as the entire budget committee for getting us to this point. first time in over a decade that we have been able to use the reconciliation process. just like the other gentleman from georgia, mr. woodall, stated, what a difference the way we are using it now in this bipartisan fashion. in transparent light of day.

long process. not the day before christmas eve. and not in a partisan way that was used last time regarding a major health care change and policy in this country. i think all of us deserve to not only pat ourselves a little bit on the back, but also take advantage of this moment to end a lie. the lie being if you like your health care plan, you can keep it. that lie continues today and it's become a full-blown nightmare. this reconciliation package, getting it to the president's desk, is a real and real positive step in ending government-controlled health care in this country so that patients of whatever condition in a consumer-based, consumer-centered fashion can use their own judgment, their own resources, along with the help of all of us to get the health care that they need. i doubt that 15 million people

are actually covered better today than they were or could have been before. and that should be our goal. to cover every american in the fashion that they deserve and the fashion that they choose with the doctor that they choose. mr. chairman, i thank you for your leadership. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: i yield myself 2 nevada minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. this legislation, plain and simple, takes away affordable health care to 15 million americans, including three million kids. i keep hearing about how intrusive and awful the affordable care act is. the reality is, the majority of members gathered right here in this chamber are on the affordable care act. the government is not dictating

to them their health insurance. they're on it. all they're trying to do here, mr. speaker, is take away access to affordable health care for 15 million americans who would not otherwise get affordable health care. and in the process, take away funding for women's health programs and targeting planned parenthood as part of a political witch hunt, the same kind of witch hunt we saw just yesterday in the benghazi special committee hearing where the majority leader of this house told the public it was simply about bringing down secretary clinton's poll numbers. it's no wonder, mr. speaker, that it's been so difficult for our republican colleagues to find a replacement for the speaker. you've got a faction of this house that wants no compromise, that thinks it's a celebration

to get rid of health care, affordable health care, for 15 million americans. that is nothing to celebrate. and this is a terrible way to end an already unproductive week here in the house of representatives. so i urge my colleagues to vote against this legislation. it's not going anywhere because the president of the united states is not going to sign a bill that deprives 15 million americans of access to affordable health care that they didn't have before. so let's stop the games. we've got to deal with the debt ceiling. we've got to deal in a way where we actually pay all our bills, not just some of the bill, and when we decide which ones to pay we don't say, we're going to pay china first. we've got to make sure we come together to prevent a government shutdown. and instead, for the 61st time, this house is voting to take

away health care to the american public. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to vote against this legislation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. both 15-minute periods have expired. the gentleman from georgia. mr. price: mr. speaker, i'm pleased to yield to the gentleman from georgia, the chairman of the health subcommittee, mr. brady, to control 15 minutes as my designee. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman from texas will control 15 minutes. mr. brady: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. brady: this legislation dismantles the twin pillars of the controversial and unpopular affordable care act, repeals tax increases that forces american jobs overseas, and punishes american workers who have good health care insurance. it empties a multibillion dollar slush fund and ends taxpayer

funding of the gruesome practices of planned parenthood and its affiliates. as a result this bill lowers taxes, lowers spending and lowers the deficit. it glows -- grows the economy, encourages work and increases incentives to invest. it also increases community health care centers to ensure access to true, high quality health care especially for women. by repealing the two critical mandates that force american families to buy goth-approved health care they don't need and forces local businesses to offer health care their workers can't fford this bill dismantles the president's health care law and frees millions of americans from an unpopular law that harms patients, harms families, harms businesses. unlike the repeal of the affordable care act which the house approved nine months ago and still lingers in the senate this measure uses the traditional budget process to allow the senate to pass the bill with a simple majority and

send it to the president's desk. the opportunity to put this bill on the president's desk is because congress is doing its job. we passed a budget that balanced. that put our entitlement programs on a strong, sustainable path that afforded three house committees, including the committee on ways and means, on which i serve, the opportunity to craft legislation to reduce the deficit and advance important policy goals. this process, called budget reconciliation, is a critical tool. not a silver bullet. it's not a cure-all. buts a -- but it is a gridlock busting practice i hope we can continue. in accordance with the provisions crafted by the committee on wavepls, targets a piece of the president's health care law include regular peeling tax hikes totaling over $100 billion that slow our economy. mr. speaker, the president may very well veto this bill, locking millions of american intoss a health care law they don't want and giving taxpayer

there ares to controversial and unethical practices at planned parenthood. but if he does, he'll have to explain to the american people his support of all this, including tax increases and mandates, in the name of a law that's increased health care costs, raided medicare, and forced millions onto an already broken medicaid system. mr. speaker, i want to hear those answers from the president and the american public wants to hear those answers. with that, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. speaker. i don't have time to respond to all of the misstatements that were made but now i'm going to turn it over to the chairman, the ranking member, excuse me, of the ways and means committee. i ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from michigan, mr. levin, be allowed to control the next 15 minutes of debate time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: thank you, mr. van

hollen. well, where do we start? clearly there's a feeling this s more than an anticlimax. you know, we should have a debt ceiling bill before us. why don't we have that? we haven't acted on medicare part b premiums. they are right before us. instead we're doing this. e highway trust fund faces a deadline. where is it? where is our legislation? x extenders actually expired much, much earlier. where is the legislation? so instead, because the republican conference is essentially mostly fighting

itself, this institution is handcuffed on these issues. so the decision is, pass a reconciliation bill, get a bill to the president to veto because so far 60 or 61 efforts have never been table get to the president for veto. well, i think this is a waste of time when there are other issues because the president has also said he'll veto. so what's this really all about? i think this is all a prelude, as was the so-called prioritization bill yesterday, and i think also the benghazi hearing yesterday, so-called hearing, this is all an effort

o try to lay a foundation so that next week we will take up a debt ceiling bill and it will pass with a majority of democrats and some republicans, some of whom are made to feel better because we're going through the motions here today. i just want to conclude talking about going through the motions. all of the pious talk on the republican side about health care reform, those of us on ways and means committee who will be speaking, we go to meeting after meeting if they're called where there's talk about health care reform and the republicans have never brought up a comprehensive health care reform that could be voted on in the committee where they have a majority. so essentially what we're now

facing is the dangerous bankruptcy of the majority party in this house of representatives who now decide, let's do reconciliation so we can get a bill through the senate and the president veto it. by the way, because of the planned parenthood provision that would defund care for millions of americans, and for other reasons, it isn't even clear this will get through the senate. so where is the action on all these issues? where is it? i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. brady: i'm really pleased to yield two minutes to one of the key leaders on the ways and means committee, the gentleman from minnesota, mr. paulsen. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two

minutes. mr. paulsen: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i want to speak to a provision that repeals the harmful medical device tax. mr. speaker, members, this will be the fifth time the house has expressed strong support for getting rid of this harmful and illogical tax. the last time was this past june when the house voted to repeal his tax by eenrblely a veto-proof margin. we had republicans and democrats voting together to repeal this bad tax policy. that's because everyone knows basic economics. when you tax something, you get less of it. why are we adding new taxes to life-saving medical innovation? why are we adding new taxes to an industry that is 98% small business with less than 500 employees? why are we adding new taxes to an industry that has good, high-paying jobs for wage earners? and why are we adding new taxes to an industry that has a trade surplus? we should be promoting this industry as much as possible. obamacare's medical device tax

makes zero sense. that's because it's not a tax on profit, it's a tax on the revenue, on sales of these innovative companies. now some small businesses have as high as over a 70% effective tax rate. it's a tax that's costing us jobs. it's a tax that's stifling innovation. it's harming patients. and it's hurting our health care system. mr. speaker, we need to repeal this destructive fax to help protect our seniors and help protect american innovation and help protect american manufacturing. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from michiganful mr. levin: i yield two minutes to the ranking member on our health subcommittee, mr. mcdermott, from seattle, washington. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcdermott: mr. speaker, here we are again. i ask unanimous consent to enter

into the record an article from the seattle times -- from the "seattle times" entitled why washington state's health reform faltered after the laws and mandates. what we're doing out here today has been done in one of the laboratories of democracy, the state of washington. the republicans did exactly the same thing. they repealed the mandates and the individual insurance market died. it was impossible to buy a policy in the state of washington. because the insurance company said, why should we insure somebody under guaranteed man tate when they can walk in here whenever -- mandate when they can walk in here whenever they when -- whenever they get sick and get a policy and then drop it when they're well. you wipe out the mandate, you'd

pe out obamacare completely, but that would be death politically. you wipe out the mandates. we know you don't care about the people. what you're saying is you don't care about the insurance industry. the insurance industry will say, if this passes you won't be able to sell individual policies. you are wasting our time on an issue that's already been nan straited does not work in the real world. and yet the ideologues in the back of the boat over there in the republican caucus have the idea that if you hit it with a bigger hammer, reconciliation, i mean, it's not enough to just pass a bill out of here. you're going to use reconciliation, which is a sledgehammer in the house, and that will make it pass. folks this bill is dead on arrival in the senate and certainly dead on arrival in the

white house. the speaker pro tempore: members are reminded to direct their comments to the chair. the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from texas. . >> i'm proud to yield to the gentleman from illinois, mr. roskam. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois is recognized for two minutes. mr. roskam: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank you, chairman brady, thank you, chairman price, for bringing this to the floor. this is a great opportunity to get some awful things off of the back of the american public. we heard the gentleman from washington admonishing the house, but i invite the house, this is an invitation. we can get rid of the individual and employer mandates, the medical device tax, the cadillac tax, the prevention in fraud health fund which is a slush fund for the obama team, auto enrollment, and we can get planned parenthood squared away. what's not to love about that?

it's a great opportunity all the way around. and i think we should invite the american public and we should invite clear thinking democrats to do the same thing. there's another opportunity as well, and i want to draw my colleagues' attention to piece of legislation that over 100 republicans have co-sponsored calling for special inspector general for monitoring the affordable care act, that is cigma, h.r. 2400. one of the criticisms that we have heard is that there is no individual inspector general that can look over the whole broad spectrum of obamacare. what we need to do is to get one entity that can look at this same thing. that can look at it all in its entirety. this work as it relates as it relates to afghanistan reconstruction, it worked on iraq reconstruction, it worked on the toxic asset recovery program, and it is an opportunity for us to have a holistic review of all of these things and save billions of taxpayer dollars.

i commend chairman price and his work and appreciate very much an aye vote on this reconciliation effort. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yield back. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i now yield two minutes to the gentleman from the great state of california, mr. thompson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. thompson: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i rise in opposition to this piece of legislation and strong opposition to the fact that we are back here again rehashing the same old issues that aren't going anyplace. it's been pointed out they are probably not going to be taken up in the senate. if by some chance they were, they are certainly not going to be signed into law by the president. we are not going anywhere if we keep wasting the time as we are -- as we have been wasting time trying to repeal obamacare and defund planned parenthood. it's a terrible situation. we have some real important things that we need to do.

next year a third of our nation's medicare beneficiaries, that's people in every one of our congressional districts, will face the steepest premium hikes in the history of the program if this congress doesn't act. we've got a transportation bill that is -- has been long due to be passed. we keep kicking the can down the road. it's a very bumpy road because we don't pass a transportation bill. if we pass that bill, we put people to work. about 14 million jobs hinge on the passage of a long-term transportation bill. this is improving roads and highways. making our overpasses and our businesses safe. 14 million jobs will help the economy. but instead we are dilly dalying on the floor today with this piece of go nowhere legislation. it's long past time that we put the american people ahead of the political gamesmanship and address the real issues facing

our nation. majority party, let's get to work. let's fix the issues that are going to hurt and are hurting the american people and stop doing this partisan nonsense. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. brady: i yield one minute to the former mayor of manchester, new hampshire, who understands how badly this bill has hurt his family and the community, mr. guinta. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new hampshire is recognized for one minute. mr. guinta: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you very much, to chairman brady, and the chairman price for putting this piece of legislation together. i rise in support today of h.r. 3762, the restoring americans health care freedom reconciliation act. which includes the repeal of components of the most harmful provisions of obamacare, at the same time sharing bipartisan support. for each component of this legislation. bipartisan support. i have worked hard with members

across the aisle to make sure that provisions that are hurting families in manchester and portsmouth, conway, all parts of new hampshire to ensure their voices are heard. one of the important provisions in this bill is the full repeal of obamacare's 40% tax on health care benefits, commonly referred to as the cadillac tax. while this tax is set to take effect in 2018, employers of all sizes are already restructuring plans, cutting benefits to avoid the costly tax. this excise tax will impact an estimated 12 million middle class americans who will pay an additional 1,000 annually as a result of this tax. they work for big businesses, small businesses, nonprofits, colleges, small municipalities, they need help. they need our support. mr. brady: i'm pleased to yield another 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for an additional 30 seconds. mr. guinta: as i introduce the repeal of the cadillac tax in

its entirety, i'm pleased to see that repeal language included in the bill we are debating today. on top of all the burdens of obamacare that have already been placed on hardworking americans, and all the rules and regulations americans americans' businesses are faced with, this tax will make it that much more difficult for employers to provide affordable health care benefits to their employees. i urge my colleagues, please, join the bipartisan fight to support middle class families and support the repeal of this tax. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: i yield a minute and a half to the gentleman from new jersey, a very vigorous member of our committee, mr. pascrell. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. pascrell: i thank the ranking member. good morning, mr. chairman. mr. speaker, i have heard twice

this morning that the term bipartisan -- the term bipartisan, many of my brothers and sisters on the other side wouldn't know bipartisan if it hit you in the head. i mean just throw this term out there, if you have one or two on this side of the aisle, it's bipartisan. technically you're absolutely right. we should be crafting a long-term funding measure, mr. speaker, replacing the damaging see quester cuts that have hurt our economy. -- sequester cuts that have hurt our economy. we are both responsible. both sides of the aisle for that sequester. i don't point any fingers. and we also got to raise the debt ceiling. we talk about our budgets at home. why don't we do the same thing in the federal government. i was taught when i grew up pay your bills. pay your bills. that's as important as balancing the budget at home.

this bill leaves intact automatic budget cuts which have threatened hundreds of housands of jobs and cut vital services for children, for seniors, for people with mental illness and our men and women in uniform. these harmful cuts have cut funding for thousands of first responders in our communities. mr. levin: yield an additional 30 seconds. it cut vital services for children. our first responders. they have eliminated jobs for 30,000 teachers, 30,000. cut after-school programs for nearly 1.2 million kids. eliminated more than 40 million meals for the sick and home-bound seniors. bipartisan.

this is bipartisan. we should replace these harmful cuts and support vital services in our community. instead, we are talking about holding a government hostage in exchange for decimating the affordable care act. nough is enough. it that movie "network" we are not going to take it anymore. the republican budget would result in 16 million fewer americans having health insurance. 20% increase in insurance premiums. a vote for this bill is a vote against those 16 million americans. a vote for this bill is a vote for higher premiums. on top of that, this budget doesn't balance. in 2025, it goes through the sky. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. pascrell: this isn't a balanced budget. this is a fake.

why don't we sit down and come up a mutual plan inside of quote-unquote, a bipartisan fraud. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. pascrell: thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. brady: mr. speaker, i'm pleased to yield a minute and a half to the gentleman from kentucky who knows the failures of the affordable care act in his state, mr. barr. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kentucky is recognized. mr. barr: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in support of h.r. 3762, the restoring americans' health care freedom reconciliation act. too many americans across the country are victims of obamacare's many broken promises. we all remember the chaos that ensued when the law was first rolled out. $1 billion website that didn't work. millions of americans losing their insurance and being forced to find a new plan often at higher cost. now hundreds of thousands of americans, including at least 51,000 kentuckians, are once again losing their health insurance because of the failure of obamacare health

care cooperatives. n the state -- student address, president obama sited kentucky. but as we learned obamacare does not work in kentucky. in the past two weeks obamacare co-ops have failed in kentucky, tennessee, colorado, oregon, and south carolina. nevada, iowa, nebraska, and louisiana. these failures were entirely predictable because the model was not sustainable. the kentucky co-op lost nearly 60 cents for every premium dollar it collected. now hardworking taxpayers will be stuck with the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars that will never be paid back. combined with low enrollment numbers, the result of these failures will ultimately be borne on the american people, consolidation in the health care market, fewer choices for consumers, and higher health care costs for the american people. this is not the reform we were promised. the bill we are debating today would repeal the most harmful

mandates and taxes imposed by the law. it reduces the deficit by $130 billion. and it gives us an opportunity to put a bill on the president's desk that would make life easier for the american people. i encourage all my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: how much time of our 15 minutes are left? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has five minutes remaining. mr. levin: it's now my real pleasure to yield a minute and a half at least to the gentleman from new york, mr. crowley. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. crowley: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from michigan for yielding me this time. mr. speaker, i rise in opposition to this latest attempt to repeal the affordable care act anti-benefit it has brought to millions of americans. while this is the 61st vote this house has taken to undermine health care, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim that somehow this time is different. it that's because this is

dressed up in a process called reconciliation. but this isn't reconciliation. this is procrastination. this is a desperate attempt to avoid working on the real issues facing america today. i get it. governing is hard. it's difficult. but that's not an excuse for giving up on your responsibilities and instead pursuing yet another repeal bill. if that's their plan, there are only agenda for america. the country is days away from defaulting on our debt. time to repeal the affordable care act. roads and bridges are falling apart. maybe repealing the affordable care act will help us. seniors on medicare are about to see their premiums skyrocket. forget fixing the problem, let's repeal the affordable care act.

they must think it's a better strategy than the previous 60 votes if they wrap it up in a bow and slap a fancy name on it. actually it's odd they call this reconciliation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for 30 seconds. mr. crowley: republicans aren't reconciling with us to work in a bipartisan way. they are not reconciling themselves to the fact that the affordable care act is the law of the land. and that it is helping people access quality, affordable health care insurance. and they are certainly not fooling anyone with their -- what their true intentions are. they are not. frankly, the only thing they are doing is wasting time. i have had enough. and i know the american people have had enough, too. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. brady:

mr. brady: i'm pleased to yield two minutes to a member of congress who is a health care provider herself a nurse, a key leader of the health care subcommittee, the gentlelady from tennessee, mrs. black. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for two minutes. mrs. black: i thank the chairman and also chairman price for bringing this bill to the floor. i rise today in strong support of today's budget reconciliation to address the heinous abuse of life at planned parenthood. to date, we have seen 10 undercover videos implicating the abortion giant in the trafficking of unborn babies' tissue and organs. planned parenthood and their enablers could not defend the conversations on these tapes, which many here in washington still have not watched. so they try to discredit the source. the house minority leader even said, and i quote, i don't stipulate that these videos are real.

close quote. well, mr. speaker, that is my colleagues' prerogative but the facts and specifically this forensic report say differently. since these revelations were uncovered, the house has voted twice now to cut federal funding to planned parenthood and reallocate those dollars to other providers that better serve women and families. but senate democrats repeatedly blocked these solutions. in fact, only two senators from the minority party could muster the compassion to vote for this proposal. i refuse to let the ka louseness and obstructionism of a select few stop this worthwhile effort. that's why i'm voting today for the reconciliation bill to freeze medicaid funding to planned parenthood. this is our best opportunity to date to put the bill on the president's desk and show the american people where his priorities lie. mr. speaker, we face many

challenges in washington today. but nothing, nothing could be more important than how we treat an innocent human life. this is a fight worth having and it's a fight i will continue to have to the very end. i urge a yes vote on the budget reconciliation bill and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from texas reserves. mr. levin: i yield a minute and a half to the distinguished gentlelady from california who is a member of the budget and propeses committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for a minute and a half. ms. lee: thank you very much. i thank our ranking member for yielding and for your tremendous leadership on so many issues. i rise in opposition to h.r. 3762, the so-called restoring american's health care freedom reconciliation act this bill would attack women's health and the affordable care act once again. it would defund planned parenthood for one year leaving millions of women across the

country without access to critical health care services. it would also prevent individuals or organizations that provide comprehensive reproductive health care services from treating women stripping medicaid, women of their fundamental rights to choose their own health care provider and leaving thousands out in the cold. family planning services are critical to reducing unintended pregnancies and they make economic sense also. for every $1 spent on family planning services, we save more than $7 many other costs. mr. speaker, denying access to health care providers such as planned parenthood and other safety net providers will hurt women who need these services the most. low income women and women of color. it's pastime to stop these ideological attacks on women's rights to health care. instead of continuing with these ka louse attacks and cuts, we should work to replace the damaging sequester and get a

responsible, long-term budget deal. this bill reconciles nothing. it is divisive, it's misguided, and it's dangerous. i urge a no vote. i thank you and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from michigan reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. brady: i'm proud to yield two minutes to the majority whip of the u.s. house a strong leader against the affordable care act and for defunding planned parenthood, the gentleman from louisiana, mr. scalise. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. scalise: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from texas for yielding. i want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from georgia, for his leadership on bringing this reconciliation bill to the floor. mr. speaker, as we fought for years to defeat the president's health care law and the many destructive components to that law that are playing out across the country, we've got one more opportunity, mr. speaker, to send a bill to the president, but this time not just to send a bill to the senate that actually

goes after and guts the president's health care law, but also a bill that now with 51 votes in the senate will have the opportunity to get to the president's desk. and the bill not only repeals the employer mandate, repeels the individual mandate, laws that are crushing jobs across the country, killing middle class jobs, the biggest reason when you talk to maul business owners why they can't hire more people, why they're forced by this law to lower the number of working hours of people across the country down below 30 hours is because of these mandates in the law that are crushing american jobs. why not put that bill on the president's desk? why not also tell these people that are taking taxpayer money and providing abortion services that you can't do it anymore? fupt to provide women's health care, there's funding for you but you can't use taxpayer money to provide abortions. that's in this bill. to get to the president's desk. even more than that it goes further. we start cutting taxes that are

killing jobs in this bill. the medical device tax that's shipping jobs to foreign countries. let's cut those taxes and if the senate wans to go further, under their arcane rules, they'll have that opportunity. we support those changes as well. but ultimately let's get this bill to the president's desk and let him make a decision. is he going to finally stand up for american workers and sign this bill? or is he going to continue to support a law that's destroying jobs and destroying health care in this country? that ought to be the president's burden. we ought to send the bill to the president. s the first step. it's a critical step to restoring jobs and good health care across this country. let's pass this bill, send it over to the senate and let them do their work. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from texas reserves. the gentleman from michigan. mr. levin: how much time on each side of the 15 minutes? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan has one minute and a half, the gentleman from texas has two minutes. mr. levin: all right, we'll use

our minute and a half, it's my pleasure to yield our minute and a half to mr. rangel a gentleman who has served this committee and this country so well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized for a minute and a half. without objection. mr. rangel: i think this bill before us shows what's wrong with the congress. i don't challenge the corrections that people on the republican side would want to make in providing health care for our nation. it is a problem when none of them actually voted for the bill but that could have been because we didn't give them access and opportunity. but it would seem to me, especially when we're trying to find out someone who will become speaker of the house that if you have objections to a bill that provides health services for americans, that we would try to find out before we ask for a veto what we can do to help. there cannot be my republican

here that truly believes we should eliminate preventive health care. preventive health care is not only human and the right thing to do, but it saves us a lot of money. we have an advisory board that determines the amount of time that should be spent based on statistics. yes, these are life or death questions but it's also saving money as well as saving lives. there's so many objections that you may have as to how we use the tax system to encourage people and to mandate people, that people pay into the system. plus if you know that if people can have insurance and not pay for it, they want it. yes healthy people have to participate because younger people don't believe that they'll ever get sick system of don't just say that you want to make certain that the president vetoes this for political purposes so you can go back home and say, yes, one more shot against the president, one more shot against the congress, and in some cases, one more shot

against your own party. let's, for god's sake, try to work together to try to get something positively done. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from texas. mr. brady: to close, on behalf of the american people, i yield two minutes to the distinguished gentleman from louisiana, a physician, one of the leaders on health care, dr. boustany. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. boustany: i rise in support of this reconciliation package because it hits right at the financing of obamacare and as a physician i know what the impact of this health law has done. it's devastating in causing serious disruptions in access to care, quality of care, and really eroding the doctor-patient relationship. secondly, it puts a halt to the funding of planned parenthood. we all know based on videos and

other information we've had on the practices of planned parenthood, it's time to stop it. as a pro-life physician, it's time to stop it. finally this forces the president to explain the support of these horrible, failed policies. conservatives across the spectrum are standing strong in support of this package and that's because it contains important provisions like one that i authored, repealing the employer mandate which is hurting job creation in this country. an onerous provision. it's choking small business growth. i only wish we could have done more in this package. but we're limited by the senate rules and the senate parliamentarian. i would like full repeal of obamacare. i would have liked to see the inclusion of my bill repealing the health insurance tax which has been very costly, running up premium costs. we couldn't do that because of constraints. we will continue to fight these fights but let's pass this packagele. it's really important and will

get job creation going, help roll back the -- roll back obamacare. there's no question in my mind that this reconciliation package will cause an implosion of obamacare and force us to get to real health care reform with a high quality doctor-patient relationship built on trust. at the very least we'll accomplish putting this on the president's desk and have him account for his failed policies. he will have to account for the policies that killed jobs, adding mountains of debt to this country, and continuing a legacy of failed spoil. support this package, it's a very important step. with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. levin: mr. speaker could i ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from new jersey, mr. pallone be allowed to control the next 15 minutes of debate. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. he gentleman from georgia.

pleased to yield to the gentleman, mr. upton, to control 15 minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. upton: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. upton: i rise in support of this important bill, h.r. 3762 which addresses some of the most pressing an important issues to folks in michigan and around the country. the deficit and the president's health care law. rarely a day goes by when i'm back home in michigan that someone, somewhere, doesn't stop me and say, whether it be in a coffee shop, oen a plant floor or local service club like rotary or lions club, you name it, asking what are we doing to address the broken promise the high costs, the surprises, the lack of choices associated with obamacare and what are we doing to get spending under control? there's a lot of

misunderstanding on what this bill does or does not do. let's set the record straight. this bill would repeal the omost harmful, damaging and unpopular provisions of the health law. this bill would repeal the prevention and public health fund. don't let the name fool you. the administration has viewed it as a veritable petty cash fund that's been raided for paesful -- wasteful projects including support foreba macare. this bill would prohibit for one year, any funding to states for one year for entities -- prohibited entities like planned parenthood. the same time it increases funding for family health centers, like two in my district, to help provide access to women's health care. stalwarts in the life movement including national right to life, the family research council, susan b. anthony list

support that approach. the bill would repeal the unpopular individual mandate which forces americans to purchase coverage of the government's choosing, the exact opposite approach that we need to create a patient-centered health care system. the bill would also repeal the employer mandate. repealing this provision helps encourage economic growth and improves the job outlook. the bill would also as we know repeal the medical device tax. this job killing tax has hurt americans across the country including my district, certainly, kalamazoo, where folks have lost their jobs because of the harmful tax. in closing, the c.b.o. has found this bill would reduce the deficit by nearly $130 billion over the next 10 years. spur economic growth in the creation of jobs and cut taxes on literal millions of americans. today we say to folks in michigan and around the country, we hear you. yes, we do. and we're addressing what matters to you most and i would ask my colleagues to support

this important bill and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from new jersey. the gentleman virginia tech. mr. pallone: thank you, mr. speaker. i have the utmost respect for the chairman of our energy and commerce committee, but i have to respectfully disagree with almost everything he said. i am glad that he is admitting that basically what this reconciliation tries to do is repeal the affordable care act. there was some question, i guess, about that by my colleagues until now. but clearly they are admitting that that's what they are trying to do. of course they don't say anything about the positive impact of the affordable care act and how many more people have -- now have health insurance. how many people don't face discrimination. all the terrible things that existed before the affordable care act became law. what i do not appreciate, though, is my chairman saying