mr. cassidy: mr. president, as we vote this evening on the pain capable child p protection act, i -- child protection act, i speak as a doctor at a hospital for the uninsured for decades. i mention this because the uninsured are vulnerable. but, mr. president, if the uninsured are vulnerable, the ununusual pregnant women is particularly vulnerable. if we say she is particularly vulnerable, then we can say that her unborn child is most vulnerable of all. so i speak to these folks with that background. our country has struggled to find a balance between those of us who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice. as a pro-life doctor, i think this legislation strikes a balance. again, as an obligation, it is a society's obligation to care for the woman who is pregnant. again, she is among the most vulnerable. her child is the future of our society. we all agree to this. you can see that we agree because the social programs provide a safety net both for her and her unborn safety. example, society pays for

mr. cassidy: mr. president, as we vote this evening on the pain capable child p protection act, i -- child protection act, i speak as a doctor at a hospital for the uninsured for decades. i mention this because the uninsured are vulnerable. but, mr. president, if the uninsured are vulnerable, the ununusual pregnant women is particularly vulnerable. if we say she is particularly vulnerable, then we can say that her unborn child is most vulnerable of all. so i speak to these folks with that background. our country has struggled to find a balance between those of us who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice. as a pro-life doctor, i think this legislation strikes a balance. again, as an obligation, it is a society's obligation to care for the woman who is pregnant. again, she is among the most vulnerable. her child is the future of our society. we all agree to this. you can see that we agree because the social programs provide a safety net both for her and her unborn safety. example, society pays for

mr. onspeaker. my name is cassidy and it's a great honor to represent west wilshire. i ask one question. why are we at present making little effort to network across the country to aid both young people and companies? with this notion, young people would be able to access applications a for work experiee easily. do unnecessary research. this also raises mutual benefits like raising businesses. interacting with professionals, and encouraging apprenticeships. we must take into account that this could offer life-changing opportunities for those who have never had the chance to develop key life skills. constituents, not just young people from the city. let us make a difference by supporting this notion and injecting a sense of energy and passion into what really matters the most. >> thank you. >> very soon, i will call the el concluding speaker from northern ireland to wind up f the debate. however, before we get to that, elija made, as i said, a superb speech, but he hadn't actually finished his speech. he's restored to full vigor. and we're delighted by that.g and elija is going to finish

mr. cochran. thank you. >> thank you very much, senator cassidy. i know you have other pressing matters. you're welcome to stay as long as you like but i appreciate you coming here today to introduce mr. cochran. i would like to call on miss julie ufner, associate legislative director for the national association of counties. welcome. >> good morning chairman barrasso, ranking member carper and members of the committee. i'm honored to testify before you on water infrastructure needs and challenges. my name is julie ufner. from the national association of counties of the we represent the nations 3069 counties. i've been asked to share with our western counties experience with the water resources development act. how we work with wirda to keep our development. these play vital roles to keep our economy safe. this especially plays out in the west where water issues can be more complex. the federal government owns vast tracks of land within counties which prevent counties from raising property taxes, yet we're still responsible for law enforcement and emergency services on these lands while a

cassidy. senator casey. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much. i do want to add my words of commendation to you and to the ranking member for the work you did to get this legislation passed. it is hard to believe that it's a year. and i know we have a ways to go with regard to implementation. but in a place and in an institution where there aren't many days where you have not just bipartisanship, but a bipartisanship that undergirds a substantial public policy of this importance, it's especially great to be able to celebrate this passage and to continue to work together. dr. gottlieb, i wanted to start with you on a question regarding 503b come pounders. while we have primarily been focused in the hearing on getting new drugs to patients, i'm also concerned about maintaining the supply of drugs already in the market. we know that since hurricane maria hit puerto rico, i've heard from pennsylvania hospitals regarding shortage of iv fluid and amino acids for injection, a critical product for patients who must receive nutrients intravenously. and wh

mr. azar: with the graham/cassidy heller legislation, the elements that are very positive are empowering states to run their budgets. right now the way we run our medicaid system, for instance, as you know is the matching system. if the state comes up with more money, things just increase from the federal government. it also means running that program, it's not all their money. they don't always exercise the createativity or fiscal fraud waste and stewardship as if they own 100% of the money so i think the incentives can be reoriented in a very positive way be more state in, as you would see in graham-cassidy-heller. heller: in your opening statement, you talked more about access and competition. and one of the proposals i have here in congress is competition and that is access across state lines. you know, you can get your car insurance, your house insurance, you can insure anything across state lines except your health care. you can even get, i guess, your car insurance from some lizard in connecticut, the way it works now. have you advocated for this? how do you feel about access acro

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator warren. senator cassidy. >> thank you. i'm going to put you on the payroll will man. earlier responding to senator smith regarding a possible bill. we have that bill. public health emergency fund actually stimulated by conversations with dr. freeden and he said that in the ebola crisis there was ten different authorizations that had to be signed off on before he could get somebody to travel to africa. kind of crazy. which was cumbersome and slow without before and after katrina. before katrina fema had to come to get the additional dollars. after katrina congress recognized that's not the best way toso there's a pot of money that can be immediately be accessed, if it goes over that, they come back and get another authorization. dr. shots and i, so you can deploy people and secondly based upon and dr. kadlec this is where you nailed it, upon the previous 14 years of public health emergencies we take the average of that expenditure and we make those dollars available up front to be immediately drawn down. still accountabilit

cassidy, i know you have pressing matters. i appreciate you coming here today to introduce mr. cochran. now i'd like to call on mist julie ufner. welcome. >> good morning, chairman, ranking member, and members of the committee. i'm honored to testify before you today on water infrastructure needs and challenges. my name is julie eufner of national counts. i've been asked to share with you our western county experiences. how we use wrda to work with the army corp. to keep our communities safe. consider this, counties own 45% of the nation's road miles and close to 40% of nation's bridges, along with harbors, ports, levees, dams. these play vital roles to keep our economies safe. this especially plays out in the west where water issues can be more complex. the federal government owns vast tracks of land within counties which raise property taxes yet we are still responsibility for emergency services on these lands while also protecting our residents on nonfederal lands. the federal government owns 97% of the land in the city, borough of juno, alaska, which leaves the borough of 33,000 wit

cassidy? >> secretary shulkin, how are you? a lot of what i'm going to be asking you today references an article written in october of last year. mr. levine, i'm sure you're familiar with it in "newsweek" about how the va fueled the national opioid crisis and is killing thousands of veterans. as you might guess from the title it's critical. >> yes. >> i've heard or read that you've now published facility specific statistics as regarding the prescriptions. i've been interested in big data in terms of applying to the va, knowing facility specific. for whatever reason we've not quite got there yet. the article speaks of in huntington, west virginia, the local va prescribes take-home opiates to roughly 18% of its patients, 230% rate higher than the national average for all adult male patients. i have not looked at these statistics you released. does this va still prescribe as an outliar such as that? >> what we pressure now and senator cassidy, i hope you'll appreciate this. no other system has ever published this data. we're hope they go will join us. you'll see what our rate is now, what it was in 2012 and whether they've made impro

the honorable bill cassidy, ar senator from the state of -- a senator from the state of louisiana to perform the duties of the chair. signed orrin g. hatch, president pro tempore. mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senate majority leader. mr. mcconnell: one million americans and counting will be starting 2018 with more money in their pockets thanks to tax reform. special bonuses are on the way for employees all across a range of industries. businesses throughout america are taking advantage of more competitive tax rates and passing the savings along to their workers. as a result, employees at companies at visa and at&t to turning point brands in louisville, kentucky, are seeing results. for working parents in kentucky and all across the nation, it these bonuses and other permanent changes will make a big difference in family budgets. of course in just weeks even more families will see the benefits of tax reform hit their paychecks. lower tax rates will mean less money withheld for the i.r.s. and more take-home pay for hardworking americans. i'm proud of the way that the tax reform will benefit america's farmers and ranchers. later today presi

mr. cassidy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. cassidy: mr. president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. cassidy: i request that it be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cassidy: thank you. mr. president, republicans just passed the largest tax reform panch in 30 -- package in 30 something years. adle middle -- and middle america will go home with bigger paychecks -- i should say february. it will take that long for the i.r.s. to update their software and they will go home with more money in their pocket. if there's been a theme of the trump administration, it's that they want those working americans, those middle-class americans to do better under this president than under the previous eight years. mr. president, that tax reform package is part of that. and i'm just amazed that my democratic colleagues objected to it. they objected to middle americans having more money in their pocket, in their take-home pay for no other reason i think than to resist president trump. well, what i'm about to speak