mr. burgess: mr. speaker, yesterday the administration finally began to acknowledge what many have been saying for some time. health care.gov is having major problems. the administration spent most of last week boasting about the high number of visitors to the federal site, but it conveniently left out a very important statistic. how many people actually were able to purchase insurance. unlike the initial claims that the sites were crashing because demand was so high, it is clear now that the exchanges were failing because they appear to have major structural flaws. according to technicians, the people at the "wall street journal," the site appears to be built on sloppy software foundation. to make matters worse, even the information website collected may be useless thanks to a security problem that corrupted a lot of the data. according to one estimate, 99% of the applications submitted may be facing data problems that will stop these applications. members of the administration need to come to the en

mr. burgess from texas, for two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. burgess: food and drug administration has been one of the bipartisan efforts. a little over a year ago, the food and drug user fee re-authorization act passed the house and senate and went to a conference committee and signed by the president of the united states middle of an election year when partisanship was at a fever pitch and this house came together and passed the re-authorization bill. you heard the chairman of the full appropriations committee saying he hoped this bill would pass today to allow the food and drug administration to utilize the user fees that have been remitted by the companies that are looking to have their products approved by the f.d.a. and i support him in that and i hope he's correct. one of the most important missions of the government, one of the agencies is the food and drug administration. it's job is to ensure medical drugs and devices are safe and effective. day getting ne passe

mr. burgess: i thank the speaker. consumers will be able to go online. they'll be able to get a determination of what tax subsidies they are eligible for. they'll be able to see premium net of subsidy and they will be able to sign up. those were the words spoken by the head of the office of consumer information insurance oversight three weeks ago in a committee hearing of the energy and commerce. i had asked for a yes or no answer to the question, will the exchanges be ready on october 1? you heard his answer. in "the new york times" this weekend, a very insightful article from the start, signs of trouble at the health portal. the exchanges have been called excruciatingly embarrassing by no less than the president's press secretary for his first term. he went on to say, i hope some people are fired. those people who were supposed to be able to make this work. the blame shifting between contractors and agency officials is just beginning. further quoting from the article in the "new york times" this weekend, these are not glitches, said an insurance execut

mr. burgess, mr. burgess, no. ms. slaughter, aye. ms. slaughter aye, mr. mcgovern, aye, mr. hastings, aye, hastings, eye. mr. polis, no. >> no. >> clert will record. the amendment is not agreemed to. further amendment or discussion? >> i want to say with this vote we show the shutdown is not that important to you. and i'm really dismayed by it. >> thank you very much. the gentlewoman yields back her time. the gentleman from florida, do you seek recognition? the gentleman does not seek recognition. mr. woodall will be handling -- thank you very much. those in favor we'll now have a vote in favor of the notion of the the gentlewoman from north carolina, those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the aye vs. it. the aye vs. it. roll call has been requested. >> ms. foxx. ms. foxx eye. mr. bishop, mr. bishop, eye. mr. cole, mr. cole aye. mr. woodall, aye. mr. nugen eye. mr. webster, aye, miss ros-lehtinen, ms. ros-lehtinen aye. mr. burgess, mr. burgess aye. ms. slaughter, no, ms. slaughter, no. mr. mcgovern, no, mr. mcgovern, no. mr. hastings, no. mr. polis. mr. chairman, aye. mr

mr. burgess: permission to address the house for one minute. what is going on in the house of representatives right now is actually about the debt. you could look back 17 years when speaker gingrich was speaker of this house. what was gaped by the republican majority during that time? if you look at it from a political lens, the majority was re-elected in 68 years after the last government slowdown, the last time being 1928. this house passed welfare reform and passed welfare reform and passed welfare reform until president clinton signed the bill, the largest capital gains tax reduction was passed after the last government slowdown and the first overall reduction in taxes in 17 years occurred after the last government slowdown. four consecutive balanced budgets came out of that activity. probably the only balanced budgets in my lifetime after speaker gingrich had the courage to do what he did 17 years. most telling in the state of the union address that followed the government slowdown last time, president clinton stood in this house and annou

mr. burgess is recognized. >> i thought obligated to come to the floor tonight to try and set a few thingsstraight. of the words that were spoken about the amendment from the senator from iowa that was signed by the president in 2010. like so many things that were in the bill that was signed by the president, there were errors. prime time.eady for it was pushed through the senate. and never went through a process in the house. it got signed into law. as a consequence thomas center grassley has been concerned that he spoke -- consequence, center grassley has been concerned and he spoke last week. intend for them to lose employer subsidies. he said it is frustrating. perhaps this amendment, when not have the controversy. the senator said the democratic majority leader did not properly grab the statutory language that would've allowed the staff to keep their employer contributions. despiterepeatedly -- the amendment not being kids. senator grassley went on to say he understood what we adopted the amendment, unlike other committees it is not in legal language. it went to the majority leader's

mr. burgess: mr. speaker, you have to ask yourself, most americans do understand the concept of fairness. when did fairness become a partisan issue? certainly tonight, it seems that's the case. no secret. i opposed the affordable care act as soon as i heard the first time. op on owesed it in committee, on the house floor, opposed the senate bill and opposed it every opportunity. yes, there have been multiple attempts to repeal it since the republicans took the majority in 2011. some of them got passed by the senate and signed by the president. there have been restrictions over the past three years. but honestly, the changes that have occurred to the affordable care act that have been the most dramatic and most profound are those changes brought about by the president itself, the administration itself. they are like the delayer in chief. i have had constituents email me and text me and say what blog post do i need to follow if i'm going to keep up with the changes. i have had an h.r. director say what

mr. chairman, i yield back. >> dr. burgess. >> mr. chairman, i wonder if i may make a request also. i would like to request unanimous consent that my opening statement could be made part of the record. >> no objection. >> and further i do have a number of questions, many have come from constituents. i'd like to submit those as questions for the record and ask the secretary for her attention to those so we could get answers because they, after all, are important questions. okay. thank you, mr. chairman. it just came to my attention that on cnn's website that the site was hacked just last week. and i will be happy to make this available to you. >> the cnn website? >> the cnn ran a story that the healthcare.gov was hacked last week. again, i will get this to you and would appreciate your response to that. mr. terry had asked a question about he wanted to get the information about the number of people who had signed up and you said you wouldn't provide that because it wasn't accurate. would you provide us with the number of people who have been able to enroll on the telephone. the presi

in fact, let me play the clip from congressman burgess. >> mr. chairman, it just came to my attention that on cnn, cnn's website that the site was hacked just last week. >> okay. >> and i will be happy to make had available to you. i don't think. >> the cnn website? >> the cnn ran a story that the healthcare.gov website was hacked last week. again, i will get this to you and would appreciate your response to that. >> that wasn't exactly precise. tell our viewers what we posted on our website. >> yeah, let moo he clear it up. at cnn money we put an article out that essentially said theoretically with a string of vulnerabilities available on the website, someone could theoretically get in and reset your password. let me get into the nitty gritty here. essentially if you would try to sign up and put in a user name, it would tell you if that was correct or not. if it was correct, there was code available on the website and since down. initially that would enable you to put in the code and say reset password. you you would then get a string of securit

mr. chairman. i yield back. >> dr. burgess? >> mr. chairman, i wonder if i might -- make a consent request also? >> yes. >> i would like to request unanimous consent which my opening statement which we're not allow to be given to be made part of hearing. and further, i have a number of questions and i would like to submit those -- >> without objection. >> and ask the secretary for her attention to those so we get answers. >>> it just came to my attention that on cnn, the cnn's website that the site was hacked just last week. and i will be happy to make this available to you. >> cnn website? >> the cnn ran a story that the healthcare.gov website was hacked last week. and again, i will get this to you and would appreciate your response to that. >>> mr. terry had asked a question about he wanted to get the information about the number of people who signed up and you said you wouldn't provide that because it wasn't accurate. would you provide us with the number of people who have been able to enroll on the telephone? can we get a number of people who have enrolled on the telephone? >> no, sir. we do

mr. chairman, i yield back. >> dr. burgess. >> mr. chairman, i wonder if i may make a unanimous consent request also? >> yes, go ahead. >> i would like to request unanimous consent my opening statement, which we were not allowed to be given could be made part of the record to this hearing. >> no objection. >> further, i do have a number of questions, many have come from constituents, i would also like to submit those for the record and ask the secretary for her attention to those so we can get answers, because they are, after all, important questions. okay, thank you, mr. chairman. it just came to my attention that on cnn, the cnn's website, that the site was hacked just last week, and i will be happy to make this available to you. i don't think -- >> the cnn website? >> the cnn website? >> cnn ran a story that the healthcare.gov website was hacked last week. i would appreciate your response to that. mr. terry asked a question about he wanted to get the information about the number of people that signed up. you said you wouldn't provi

burgess. >> thanks, mr. chairman. mr. slavitt, i will say my experience was similar to yours. i live in texas so i did try while we were sitting here spending time together this morning tried to sign up on the exchange for texas, and i ended up with a similar result as you did. i just have to say here we are three weeks into the open enrollment period and i can't think that anyone on this panel this morning would think that that is acceptable that the system would still work so poorly. regardless of the state involved. miss campbell, can you tell me at this point how many people have signed up through c.g.i.? >> i cannot. i need to clarify an answer i gave regarding 200 failures on the end-to-end test. it was an end-to-end test on the eidm were there were 200 failures. >> on that first morning, october 1, we were up late doing a vote, probably about 2:00 in the morning i attempted to sign in then. and met with the same response, the system asked my favorite kind of -- something along those lines, and froze up. and like mr. slavitt, i never got a confirmtory email on the many t

burgess. >> thanks, mr. chairman. mr. slavitt, i will say my experience was similar to yours. i live in texas so i did try while we were sitting here spending time together this morning tried to sign up on the exchange for texas, and i ended up with a similar result as you did. i just have to say here we are three weeks into the open enrollment period and i can't think that anyone on this panel this morning would think that that is acceptable that the system would still work so poorly. regardless of the state involved. miss campbell, can you tell me at this point how many people have signed up through c.g.i.? >> i cannot. i need to clarify an answer i gave regarding 200 failures on the end-to-end test. it was an end-to-end test on the eidm were there were 200 failures. >> on that first morning, october 1, we were up late doing a vote, probably about 2:00 in the morning i attempted to sign in then. and met with the same response, the system asked my favorite kind of -- something along those lines, and froze up. and like mr. slavitt, i never got a confirmtory email on the many t

mr. chairman. i need back. >> dr. burgessd like to request that my opening statement be made part of the record for the hearing. and i also would like to submit my constituents' statements. it just came to my attention on the cnn web site that the site was hacked just last week. and i will be happy to make this available to you. i don't think -- >> the cnn web site? >> the cnn ran a story healthcare.gov was hacked last week. again, i will get this to you and i would appreciate your response to that. mr. terry had asked a question about, he wanted to give the information about the number of people who signed up. you said you wouldn't provide that, because it wasn't accurate. would you provide us with the number of people who have been able to enroll on the telephone? the president gave an 800 number during his speech. could we get a number of people who have enrolled on the telephone. >> no, sir. we do not have reliable enrollment data. we'll have that to you by the middle of november, as we committed to. we are collecting sta

burgess. >> thanks, mr. chairman. mr. slavitt, i will say my experience was similar to yours. i live in texas so i did try while we were sitting here spending time together this morning tried to sign up on the exchange for texas, and i ended up with a similar result as you did. i just have to say here we are three weeks into the open enrollment period and i can't think that anyone on this panel this morning would think that that is acceptable that the system would still work so poorly. regardless of the state involved. miss campbell, can you tell me at this point how many people have signed up through c.g.i.? >> i cannot. i need to clarify an answer i gave regarding 200 failures on the end-to-end test. it was an end-to-end test on the eidm were there were 200 failures. >> on that first morning, october 1, we were up late doing a vote, probably about 2:00 in the morning i attempted to sign in then. and met with the same response, the system asked my favorite kind of -- something along those lines, and froze up. and like mr. slavitt, i never got a confirmtory email on the many t

mr. speaker. and this is not a small or marginal issue. the principle behind the origination clause was the moral justification for our entire war of independence. its importance was expressed through the virginia house of burgesses, the stamp act congress and the first continental congress, all of whom petitioned the crowd -- crown and parliament in english for redress of their tax grievances. it was with these realities in mind that the origination clause of our constitution was written. and without it at the core of the great compromise of 1787, the 13 original states would never have agreed to ratify the constitution of the united states. it is not a small issue, mr. speaker. and when our founding fathers wrote the constitution, they knew it was vital for the power to raise and levy taxes to originate in the people's house. whose members are closest to the elect rat, with two-year -- electorate, two-year terms, rather than the senate whose members sit unchallenged for six-year terms and who do not proportionally represent the american population and who already enjoy their own unique and separate senate powers intentionally divided by the pramers -- framers between the two chambers. if we as members of the ho

mr. speaker, this is not a small or marginal issue. the principle behind the origination clause was the moral justification for our entire war of independence. its importance was expressed through the virginia house of burgesses, the stamp act, congress and the first continental congress, all of whom petitioned the crown and parliament in england for redress of their tax grievances. it was with these realities in mind that the origination clause of our constitution was written. and without it at its core of the great compromise of 1787, the 13 original states would have never agreed to ratify the constitution. mr. speaker, when our founding fathers wrote the constitution, they knew it was vital for the power to raise and levy taxes to originate in the people's house, whose members are closest to the electorate with two-year terms, rather than in the senate whose members sit unchallenged for six-year term, who do not proprorgsally represent the american population and who already enjoy their own unique and separate senate powers, divide by the framers between the two chambers. if we as members of the house of representatives who took a solemn oath to support and defend the constitution including its originatio