blackburn. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and and to heir remarks include extraneous material on h.r. 3134. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. miss blark burn: -- mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. blackburn: i rise in strong support of h.r. 3134, the defund planned parenthood act of 2015. madam speaker, we all remember the images of kermit gosnell killing babies who were born alive after a botched abortion. we know that those are sickening, and we know that they have renewed the demand for accountability from the american people. that is why we come before you today with h.r. 3134, the defund planned parenthood act of 2015. new documentation of these heinous practices that we have seen in videos, videos that have come out of planned parenthood abortion clinics, of harvesting the body parts of babies, as part of the abortion pr

blackburn knows, ms. schakowsky, you've been up here plenty of times, we try to deal with difficult subjects in a plight and respectful way. we try and do that, and you will be afforded that also. and mrs. plaque burn represents thoughts and ideas that i agree with -- and mrs. blackburn represents thoughts and ideas that i agree with and even if i don't agree you will be given the assurance that will be dealt with. without objection, anything will be in the record. we have an awesome stenographer. i ask you to speak in the microphone when you are given the green light. the jom from tennessee, the wife of mr. chuck blackburn, my dear friend, is recognized. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate the opportunity to come before you on h.r. 3495. this is the women's public health and safety act. it's a bill that mr. duffy authored. and brought to us at energy and commerce committee and we have, as you see before you, an amendment that will become the bill. as you appropriately stated, this is a

blackburn knows, mrs. schakowsky, you've been up here plenty of times we try to deal with difficult subjects in a polite way. you will be afforded that also. and mrs. blackburn, represents thoughts and ideas i agree with, but even when i don't agree, you will be given the assurances that you'll be dealt with fairly up here. i want to thank both of you for being here. without objection, anything in writing will be entered into the record. we encourage you, we have an awesome stenographer, give her whatever you want and encourage also to speak into the microphone with that green light on when you're give than time. the gentle woman from tennessee, wife of mr. chuck blackburn, my dear friend, is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i appreciate the opportunity to come before you on hr 3495. this is the women's public health and safety ability. it's a bill that mr. duffy authored and brought to us at energy and commerce committee. we have, as you see before you, an amendment that will become the bill. a

blackburn: thank you, ms. slaughter. we have the requirement by house republicans let you have to state the constitutionality of the bill. vice chair foxx: did you check on it before you did that? rep. blackburn: your rules committee actually handles that check. i'm sure they can present that to you. vice chair foxx: this is a protected right under the constitution by roe v wade. to changee you try the case of how long the first trimester is, the courts all restrict them everything that time. i guess this would get another court case if it were to become? rep. blackburn: i do not think so at all. the absence of this bill is what is the court cases. i said earlier that you have four states currently in litigation right now. vice chair foxx: because they try to pass a bill like this? rep. blackburn: no, ma'am. they were trying to do some restrictions on their providers. vice chair foxx: is this a federal court? do you know about these court cases? rep. schakowsky: i want to make another, if i could. -- comment if i could.

blackburn: hello, i'm marsha blackburn. i'm speaking to you today as the representative of tennessee's 7th district. and i'm also speaking with you as a mother and as a grandmother, as someone who, like you, considers our children our nearest and dearest treasure. we have all been so shocked and outraged by the videos portraying the grisly practices of planned parenthood. these videos show abortions being altered so as to maximize the harvesting and resale of organs and body parts. it really is sickening. today i want to outline for you what we're doing to hold this organization and other abortion providers accountable, and defend our unborn children and the values that we all hold dear. first, to get answers for the american people, we are significantly ramping up our oversight and investigative practices. we will move to establish a new select subcommittee that will focus its full attention, resources, and subpoena power on getting to the bottom of these horrific practices. second, to protect unborn children, we will pass

blackburn: any access is greater. rep. hastings: you're still not getting to the root of the problem. rep. schakowsky: this is not specifically mentioning planned parenthood. there are counties and community health centers that do with their own money or private insurance money or whatever provide abortion services. this is legislation that could also take those providers out of the system. -- forals with anyone example, cook county, if the legislature decided that could county health systems, and that is clinics and also the hospitals, could not be at medicaid recipient because with it doesal money, provide a whole range of services including abortion services. , posing asegislature doctors, would decide this health service should not be available. and that would be that. it would seem theings: legislation itself is incredibly far-reaching and would essentially allow the state to exclude a provider or entity that has provided an abortion or entity of provider that has had any sort of association or involvement with aborti

blackburn. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and and to heir remarks include extraneous material on h.r. 3134. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. miss blark burn: -- mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. blackburn: i rise in strong support of h.r. 3134, the defund planned parenthood act of 2015. madam speaker, we all remember the images of kermit gosnell killing babies who were born alive after a botched abortion. we know that those are sickening, and we know that they have renewed the demand for accountability from the american people. that is why we come before you today with h.r. 3134, the defund planned parenthood act of 2015. new documentation of these heinous practices that we have seen in videos, videos that have come out of planned parenthood abortion clinics, of harvesting the body parts of babies, as part of the abortion pr

blackburn knows, mrs. schakowsky, you've been up here plenty of times we try to deal with difficult subjects in a polite way. you will be afforded that also. and mrs. blackburn, represents thoughts and ideas i agree with, but even when i don't agree, you will be given the assurances that you'll be dealt with fairly up here. i want to thank both of you for being here. without objection, anything in writing will be entered into the record. we encourage you, we have an awesome stenographer, give her whatever you want and encourage also to speak into the microphone with that green light on when you're give than time. the gentle woman from tennessee, wife of mr. chuck blackburn, my dear friend, is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and i appreciate the opportunity to come before you on hr 3495. this is the women's public health and safety ability. it's a bill that mr. duffy authored and brought to us at energy and commerce committee. we have, as you see before you, an amendment that will become the bill. a

blackburn: thank you, madam speaker. and at this time i am going to close and kind of draw to an end this debate. i do want to remind all my colleagues, we're not discussing government shutdown. what we're talking about is a bill that would withhold funds from planned parenthood for a period of a year while we have an investigation. now, i know they called this a smear campaign. we are investigating the operations of planned parenthood. why are we doing this? planned parenthood is big abortion in this country. 300,000 abortions a year as opposed to 1,800 adoption services. 98 1/2% of all women who go there for a prenatal service, it is an abortion. think about that. 98.5%. there is reason to review how they use taxpayer funding, and we are justified in withholding taxpayer funds until we finish that. now, our colleagues have chosen to say we are radical, dumb, shameful, disrespectful, foolish, extremist, deniers, deprivers, mean-spirited and beating up on women. think about that. l because we stand for life, for liberty.

with the gentlewoman from tennessee, marcia blackburn and joining her is her colleague we have orange and red today. before we have the wit is is that comfortably to differ to my dear friend for the opening statement. >> i welcome you both. i want to say for the record the lot is no federal funds could be used for abortion and i want to remind my republican colleagues we're only-- away from another government shut down and the last one cost the american taxpayers 24 and a million-dollar so i have a hard time thinking preventing medicaid patients from seen their doctors is the best use of our time you are in charge and run the show saliva for word to the testimony. >> briefly i would like to address the issue that gentleman brought up. we are very concerned and recognize the constitutionality of what we are trying to do as well. vera glading at this time for the united states senate who was gaining their momentum to do decide a piece of legislation. you will find we will be asked to come back to the rules committee sometimes as quickly that the senate does their work there working on t

marcia blackburn, thank you for the time.ood to have you here. >>> when we come back, the person running the largest publicly traded real estate company in the world, john gray from blackstone, $100 billion worth of responsibilities is with me next. usaa makes me feel like i'm a car buying expert in no time at all. there was no stress. it was in and out. if i buy a car through usaa, i know i'm getting a fair price. we realized, okay, this not only could be convenient, we could save a lot of money. i was like, wow, if i could save this much, then i could actually maybe upgrade a little bit. and it was just easy. usaa, they just really make sure that you're well taken care of. usaa car buying service. powered by truecar. online and on the usaa app. . deirdre: back to business, my next guest has built the single largest real estate platform in the world. it spans five continents, crossed hotel, retail and industrial properties. blackstone is the largest home owner in the u.s., john gray, leading the global real estate division,

blackburn: thank you, madam speaker. and i thank the gentleman from pennsylvania for his diligence and his skints through the year -- consistency through the years on the energy and commerce committee, and i do rise in strong support today of the women's public health and safety act. there will be a lot said about this bill during the course of the day, but let's be certain in what the bill actually says. you've got two pages, and what this does is grant to the states flexibility. now, madam chairman, what they have asked us for is flexibility. why are they asking us for this flexibility? because we have four states currently in litigation over wanting to be able to determine who is and is not a medicaid provider in their state. so there is a premise and a basis and a reason for bringing this forward and allowing the states to have the final say in who participates in that medicaid delivery. that's what you call good government. and sending the power and the money back to the state and local level. this bill is necessary

thank you so much. >>> thank you congress woman blackburn.we have president of act for america, bridget gabriel. >> thank you patriots for coming to d.c. and standing with us to stop this iran deal. our founding fathers worked tirelessly and set the foundation for the great nation we have today. they gave us our constitution, the declaration of in dependence and the bill of rights. many of them died broke in the process. and many of our ancestors died on the battlefield as they fought to preserve that which these bold and visionary men created. as a result of their wisdom, bravery and leadership, america became the greatest country on earth. later on, brave americans defeated naziism and then communism. now is our time to stand up and stop the islamic fascist regime of iran. today in the spirit of our founding fathers we are summoned to hold our elected officials feet to the fire, to vote for what is right for america, for what is right for what is safe for america and for what is best for america. we believe it is the primary responsibility

tennessee marcia blackburn is "on the record." good evening, is being a woman an outsider? >> hillary is the ultimate inside are if you will. greta, we're talking about a woman that hasn't driven a car are in over 26 years because someone, that's on the government payroll has been doing that for her. she is an insider and there is no way she can say outsider enough times to make people believe that. they know better than that it's really kind of silly for her to say it. >> is carlie you fiorina a feminist? >> is she a feminist? i don't know if i would say she is a feminist. >> she is an individualist. i think she is an individualist. and, you know, feminists want to focus on gender and carlie doesn't focus on gender. i don't focus on gender. he you think that there are ways for women to excel without that you know, you are the best person for the job. and that's something i try to communicate. i you know carlie is out there trying to communicate that same thing. >> you know, it's interesting. i finally looked up the word feminist in the dictionary today because it's been so

. >> reporter: marsha blackburn is vice chair of the house energy and commerce committee, one of the investigating panels. >> and when you talk about a less crunchy way of performing an abortion or manipulating that abortion to preserve parts, that is something that we want to delve into. >> reporter: planned parenthood has fought back, insisting the american public has been hood winked by anti-abortion radic s radicals. these group of emtrextremists engaged in a three-year fraud. >> there's enough evidence in the videos to merit, even for the most skeptical, let's look into this. are they breaking laws? are they changing the abortion procedure for their benefit? are they profiting from the sale of body parts? are they committing live birth abortions? >> reporter: the house judiciary committee is scheduled for wednesday. as for the accusation that the videos were doctored, the center for medical progress has released its videos for investigation. >>> now some fresh pickings from the political grapevine on this labor day. too little labor and way too many perks for a department of com

next from tennessee we have congressman marsha blackburn. >> hi there, thank you so much for being out here today. everythingppreciate you are doing to take time off and work to come to d.c. stand with conservative members the iranuse who oppose nuclear deal. thank you for being here and doing that. we think it is so significant that the people who know iran the best are their neighbors in the middle east. they oppose this deal. we think that this administration should be listening to them. we also think the american people deserve the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth when it comes to the iran nuclear deal. we want to know every side deal and secret deal that has been negotiated in this. the reason we want to know this is because the security and sovereignty of our nation, the of our children and grandchildren depends on knowing really what this administration is giving to iran. earned the right to be trusted? no, not at all. should we be listening to their neighbors in the middle east? yes, we should. they are telling us this will lead to a nuclear arms race in the mi

joining me now congresswoman marcia blackburn.s thing, getting ugly, worse over week, john boehner, a guess going away observations as his fellow republicans. how is that going to play out? >> i think that is going to play out with a new group of leaders. but charles, right now, if we don't straighten out our messaging and communications, there is not going to be a successful leadership for anybody or a successful speaker ship for anybody. the american people lightly -- rightly deserve act, they want to know what we're doing, what we're doing it, that i want to see bills get to the president's desk. they are right. charles: i think that no matter what side you are on, that is a great point, labeled a do-nothing congress, a lot of times boehner would just assume, not working out almost like why go through the process, that angered a lot of peak, particularly after midterm elections. >> i said when we started the new session, boehner should put things through the house, and send them to senate, and mitch hopefully would send to the

i've got a blackburn republican. they are in charge of both the house and the senate. do? do you i don't know. it just is frustrating to me. i'm retired now. when i worked, i worked 40 hours a week. and over time. it wasn't unusual for me to work six days a week. i'd be happy if they worked five days a week. host: that's larry from tennessee talking about the length that congress is in, and their workload. that may be an issue for you. you for it some mention the iran deal, some mention the government shutdown, some mention immigration. those could be top concerns for you as congress returns. if you want to give us your thoughts, democrats, call (202) 748-8000. republicans, call (202) 748-8001 . independents, call (202) 748-8002. chris from twitter says wednesday speaker boehner says that will not be a government shutdown, you can be assured there will be a government shutdown. new bethlehem, pennsylvania. republican, this is james. james, you are on. why thei'm wondering republicans are standing around, not doing anything on benghazi, where hillary clinton and the hussein

blackburn: thank you, madam speaker. as you know so well, one of the top issues that people in our districts are discussing is national security. the reason for that is because they are seeing the issues of national security, domestic security played out on their streets. i want to stand with my colleagues who are going to do a special order in just a few minutes to honor the work that our first responders, that our men and women in uniform, are doing every single day to keep our communities safe. a police officer is tasked with not just enforcing the law, which they do, they are also tasked with protecting the community. and often they find themselves with the duty to protect the community from itself. whether that is to stop the motorist who is driving wrecklessly in a school zone, or having to thrust themselves into the middle of a domestic dispute and to restore order. i will tell you, so many times as i talked to first responders, as i was in my district in the month of august, they said, there is no such thing as a

it was on the floor yesterday that republican representative marsha blackburn talk specifically abouthe planned whatthood bill, specifically does, and why, in her words, it does not limit health services for women. here is her on the house floor yesterday. [video clip] have found it so interesting that they continue to say that this will cut access to women's health care. no will not. you know that planned parenthood sees less than 2% of all american women in a given year? there is an amendment on this legislation by mrs. elmers. theedirects $235 million to federally qualified health centers. it will increase access because we have more of those centers and more under -- in more underserved areas. they are required to provide services. land parenthood has cut those screeningsand cancer in half over the last few years while they have increased their abortions to 300,000 per year. host: again, the numbers. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. .202) 745-8002 for independents we start on the independent line joining from new york us. what do you think about the vo

. >> republican congress woman marsha blackburn is vice chairman of the house energy and commerce committeeestigating bodies. >> when you talk about a less crunchy way of forming -- performing an abortion or manipulating that abortion to preserve parts, that is something that we want to delve into. >> on august 7th her committee sent letters to planned parenthood and to biotech companies requesting information regarding fetal tissue collection. a week later, august 14th, stemexpress terminated its relationship with planned parenthood. in a statement the company said, while we value our relationship with planned parenthood, that work represents a small percentage of our overall business activity and we must focus our limited resources on resolving these inquiries. on august 27th they provided to us a further statement. they said stemexpress has not been found to have broken any laws, that the company is corporating with investigators and that, quote, approximately 1% of the company's business involves unaltered fetal tissue and that part of the business operates at a financial loss. while th

blackburn, is recognized for one minute. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. speaker. it is a distinct honor to introduce to this body and to honor our guest chaplain, rob michaels from brentwood, tennessee. as is the tradition of this governing body, we begin each day with a prayer, and i am so pleased that chaplain michaels is offering that prayer today. he's the c.e.o. and founder for serve and protect, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to comprehensive and confidential trauma care and therapy for police officers, firefighters, rescue workers, dispatchers and other emergency workers. chaplain michaels served in law enforcement with the 229th military police battalion of the virginia army national guard as well as the norfolk, virginia, police department. he serves as chaplain for the f.b.i. memphis division, the nashville r.a., state chaplain for tennessee f.o.p. and is a chaplain and second vice resident for morris-hheatt cob f.o.p. lodge in williams, tennessee, where he is an active member and leads a bible study group for american responders. he's

blackburn: thank you, madam speaker. and i thank the gentleman from pennsylvania for his diligence and his skints through the year -- consistency through the years on the energy and commerce committee, and i do rise in strong support today of the women's public health and safety act. there will be a lot said about this bill during the course of the day, but let's be certain in what the bill actually says. you've got two pages, and what this does is grant to the states flexibility. now, madam chairman, what they have asked us for is flexibility. why are they asking us for this flexibility? because we have four states currently in litigation over wanting to be able to determine who is and is not a medicaid provider in their state. so there is a premise and a basis and a reason for bringing this forward and allowing the states to have the final say in who participates in that medicaid delivery. that's what you call good government. and sending the power and the money back to the state and local level. this bill is necessary

blackburn, for five minutes. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. chairman. i am here this morning to speak about the investigations into planned parenthood and to the sale of fetal tissues. we are beginning this process in our energy and commerce committee, and we are approaching this in a thoughtful manner beginning these investigations as we look at life rights. and focus on the lives of these unborn children and the mothers who have gone through this process. you know, it is so interesting to me as we have this discussion of fetal tissue sales and what all has transpired in the selling of these tissues that we look to science. what science has shown us is that these are not blobs of tissue. these are babies. and this weekend i had the opportunity to go to a baby shower and a very excited grandmother showed me the sonogram, the picture of her unborn granddaughter. all right named -- already named, being celebrated. as we looked at it we could distinguish these features of this child yet unborn, but this child, fully formed, and developing. and sleeping in

joining me, republican congresswoman marsha blackburn of tennessee. thank you for joining me. i want to get your take on what you're looking for in tomorrow night's big debate, but first off, what do you make of donald trump's remarks to "rolling stone" there about carly fiorina? >> kate, i got to tell you, women like carly and like me who have been in the corporate world, in the small business world f we had let comments get under our skin or derail us or take our attention off of what was important, then we probably would have been in a heap somewhere and never accomplished anything. you just roll on. you just shake it off. you just move on. and i think that's what people to want see women do. and to get out there and lead this fight. this is now a movement. people are sick and tired of this. they are tired of the establishment washington. they want to see something done. like one of my constituents said, i'm tired of being broke. you need to do some things to get the economy moving. i think a lot of people are like that. jobs and economy, number one issue with women and the

blackburn mentioned that the agency released this morning. the fps uses predictive and analytics to detect billing problems and provide the program and after three years of operations cms today reported the system identified or prevented $820 million in inappropriate payments in the program's first three years. commend you on your work. in its third year how has the program changed and matured? what additional plans does the agency have to expand to additional fraud detection activities? >> thank you. what we have seen in the last three years in terms of evolution of the program is more sophisticated models being implemented that look at outlier behavior and the investigative input of law enforcement both aig and doj based on prior patterns of fraud and abuse that they have noted. so that's one really big change on the technology side and just improving the modeling. the second is making sure that these leads are actually being followed and this is just a cultural change or a contractor accountability change to make sure these contractors too

blackburn mentioned that the agency released this morning. the fps uses predictive and analytics to detect billing problems with providers in the program and cms reported today the system identified or prevented $820 million inappropriate payments in the program's first three years. so first of all i want to commend would to comment you on the fps and in the third year how has the program changed and matured and let me throw in the second question, too, because of time. does cms plan to expand the program in part c or d in the near future and what additional plans does the agency have to expand the fps to the fraud detection activities. >> sure. thank you for the question. currently, the fps streams all medicare claims and 4.5 million claims per day. i think what we have seen over the last three years in terms of evolution of the program is more models being implemented and more sophisticated models being immrplemented that include outlr behaviors and the investigative input of law enforcement both aig and doj based on prior patterns of fraud

blackburn: i thank the chairman for the work that he has done on this issue and the awareness that he has helped to raise, not only with members of this body with the american people. and the american people are speaking up. they do not want this iran deal to be on the books. and there are good reasons why. as i was home in talking to my constituents, many are like me. there are moms, there are grandmothers and they fear what this will do to our country. they fear what it will do to the safety of our children and future generations. they're asking the right questions. has iran deserved the right to be trusted? absolutely not. when their neighbors don't trust them, should we trust them? the answer is of course not. is this a transparent agreement? of course not, the secret side deals that have been made. why would we do that and incentivize and create a pathway for iran to have a nuclear weapon? i think what we should do is require the president to come forward with every component to expose this so we know what kind of future this creates for our children and our grandchildren. i yiel

>> so from what i've heard, it seems like marsha blackburn would be chairing it. but as far as when this will come about, it's kind of anybody's guess. if i had to guess, i know speaker boehner -- he's been really adamant about seeing this through the committee investigation process. so i would imagine he would want to get that going before he leaves in a month or so. but like i said, it's really anyone's guess. >> kaitlin owens, you can keep following her on twitter. and also her writing at nation l nationaljournal.com. >>> also, taking phone calls while they're in a break on that committee, talking about planned parenthood. helen on the line. what are your thoughts? >> caller: my thoughts are the following. first of all, it is embarrassing. what i want to mention is that -- and of course, i am totally for the funding of planned parenthood. but what i want to do is to give a testimony of how important in my life planned parenthood has been. although i work for six years at planned parenthood in the '70s, i also learned there how to do a breast exam. and in that t

blackburn: i thank the chairman for the work that he has done on this issue and the awareness that he has helped to raise, not only with members of this body with the american people. and the american people are speaking up. they do not want this iran deal to be on the books. and there are good reasons why. as i was home in talking to my constituents, many are like me. there are moms, there are grandmothers and they fear what this will do to our country. they fear what it will do to the safety of our children and future generations. they're asking the right questions. has iran deserved the right to be trusted? absolutely not. when their neighbors don't trust them, should we trust them? the answer is of course not. is this a transparent agreement? of course not, the secret side deals that have been made. why would we do that and incentivize and create a pathway for iran to have a nuclear weapon? i think what we should do is require the president to come forward with every component to expose this so we know what kind of future this creates for our children and our grandchildren. i yiel