mr. pallone: mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and agree to h.r. 3663 relating to the accreditation requirements for pharmacies of supplying durable medical equipment under medicare. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 3663, a bill to amend title 18 of the association security act -- social security act to delay the act on which the accreditation requirement under the medicare program applies to suppliers of durable medical equipments at our pharmacies. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey, mr. pallone, and the gentleman from nebraska, mr. terry, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey, mr. pallone. mr. pallone: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. pallone: and, mr. speaker, i yield to myself

mr. pallone. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, secretary, to give us an update on the h1n1 situation. when the virus first hit it was devastating. it caused sickness it, generated fear it, caused panic and it caused many deaths and there were many unknowns about the virus. we did not know how the disease would present itself over time, how well it would respond to the antiviral medications on the market today or how quickly it would develop resistance to those drugs and we didn't know if and how quickly we would be able to develop and manufacture a vaccine. while we've learned more about the virus and we've made progress on a vaccine, it has spread worldwide across continents and hemispheres and now is a level 6 pandemic the highest warning level there is, it continued to spread in the summer months which is unusual to the influenza and re-enforces the fact that we still have to take it seriously. in my state 17 people have died since the outbreak and 570 have been hospitalized and we've yet to see the disease at it

mr. pallone: to address the house for one minute, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. pallone: madam speaker, health care reform in the congress took a major step forward today with the announcement of the senate finance committee proposal. there may be differences between that proposal and the bills that we passed in the house, but the bottom line is that we are moving forward in trying to pass crucial health care reform. if you look at the senate finance proposal, it basically has the health exchange in an effort to try to provide choice and competition and provide affordability for those americans who either do not have health insurance now or are afraid that they may lose their health insurance because the costs continue to go up. the kaiser foundation came out yesterday with an analysis that showed that more and more employers now are passing off the costs of health insurance to their employees, either through higher costs that they have to pay or cost sharing or deductibility or co-pays. so we need -- something has

mr. pallone: thank you, madam speaker.tching the senate finance committee yesterday and i was pleased to see that they were moving along in adopting health care reform and moving it out of committee. it is not -- it couldn't be too soon. the bottom line is that we've heard more reports about how more and more people have no insurance in this country and that insurance is increasingly becoming unaffordable. we need and i know that the democrats in both the house and senate and hopefully some republicans are moving forward with health care reform. we're trying to get it done by the end of this year, and it really is important. people need to have affordable insurance, people need to have choices. think i we need a strong public option as well because it will create competition for private insurance, bring down costs and allow more people to find affordable insurance. the problem is not getting any better. it's getting worse every day. and health insurance reform needs to be done here in the house, in the senate and sent to t