mr. pitts: mr. speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 4202, the protecting access to medicare act of 2014. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 4302, a bill to amend the social security act to extend medicare payments to physicians and other provisions of the medicare and medicaid programs, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. pitts, and the gentleman from new jersey, mr. pallone, will each control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania. mr. pitts: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and and insert remarks extraneous materials in the record on the bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. pitts: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pitts: mr. speaker, i wish i was getting ready to vote on a bill tha

mr. pitts: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pitts: mr. speaker, i wish i was getting ready to vote on a bill that would permanently repeal and reform the sustainable growth rate. in the chamber we passed a bill that would do that and that would fully offset the cost of the repeal by delaying a provision of the affordable care act that the administration just keeps delaying themselves. in fact, it was partially delayed again just yesterday. unfortunately, we have reached another doc fix deadline. i believe that we must act to protect america's seniors and ensure that they can continue to see the doctors they know and trust and that is why i have introduced legislation that represents a bipartisan, bicameral agreement that would give us additional time to work out our differences and pass permanent repeal. we are closer than ever to reaching that goal. we have an agreement on policy. we need to overcome our differences ab

mr. pitts: mr.peaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and the form lal which medicare reimburses physicians. since 2003, congress has voted 17 times for temporary patches doc fixes to avert ever larger cuts to providers. the uncertainty of the s.g.r. threatens doctor's ability to continue practicing medicine and accepting medicare patients, and endangers seniors' access to care. absent congressional action, providers face a 24% cut on april 1, 2014. to stave off this cut, we can either pass another patch and kick the can down the road again, or we can repeal this flawed formula for good. today's bill, h.r. 4015, s.g.r. ly repeals the and replaces it with payment reform policy that has been agreed upon by the bipartisan leaders of the energy and commerce, the ways and means committee and the senate financs committee. as chairman of the energy and commerce health subcommittee, i have been working for the past three years on legislation to permanently r

mr. pitts: mr. speaker, i continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania continues to reserve his time. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. pallone: mr. speaker, i yield one minute to the democratic leader, ms. pelosi. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from california is recognized for one minute. ms. pelosi: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman for yielding. i thank him for his leadership on issues that relate to the health and well-being of the american people. i also commend the leadership of the previous speaker, our ranking member on the ways and means committee, mr. levin, as well as that of mr. waxman. they have been two champions on the subject of health care in america and doing so in a fiscally sound way. and while i appreciate the concerns that they expressed here, and i share them, and i will speak to that, i do think that we have to think carefully about the decision that we make. i know that they have. this is an exa

>> i think mr. pitt yesterday, some of the quotes we read, is this an effort to spread the truth or something to actually profit off of. i think that's really the bigger question here right now. obviously we don't know enough about some of the details of the trading, when he's doing some of the trading, when he's not, and when he's releasing some of this information. obviously it's something, if the s.e.c. chair, former s.e.c. chair finds this whole thing to be sort of interesting, needs to be looked into, sure sounds like it out to be looked into. >> fumurph, you've been without question the most outspoken person on this desk regarding bill ackman. >> i still believe the activities in his herbalife position or the actions leading to this -- today's announcement from him, smell bad. as chairman pitt just said. however,y want to point out kind of taking the other side of it a bit, he's done this in the past with companies like target. you know, ackman has been out there and had big positions in target and

mr. pitts: mr. speaker, i reserve a point of order against the motion to recommit. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the. the clerk: mr. loebsack of iowa moves to recommit the bill to the committee on ways and means with ininstructions the -- to report the same back to the house forthwith, at the end of the bill add the following, section, prohibition on medicare payments or vouchers. nothing should reduce benefits under title 18 of the social security act. eliminate guaranteed health insurance benefits available to seniors or individuals with disabilities under such program or establish a medicare voucher plan that provides limited payments to medicare beneficiaries in order to purchase health care in private sector. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from iowa is recognized for five minutes in support of his motion. mr. loebsack: mr. speaker, this is the final amendment to the bill which will not kill the bill or send it back to the committee. if adopted, the

mr. pitts: thank you. mr. speaker, first i want to thank the gentlelady for hosting this special order, it's so important. because tomorrow the u.s. supreme court will hear arguments in the case of hobby lobby and conestoga wood specialties against sebelius. i have the privilege tomorrow to sit in the chambers and listen to the oral arguments. and at the heart of the argument is the question about whether you stop following your conscience when you go into business. for family businesses like conestoga woods specialties, located in my congressional district, faith and business are not separate. their business would not be the same if they did not apply the values that guide their life. i have visited this business. i've talked to their employees. i know the hahn family, they're sincere mennonites and wonderful people of faith and good business people. it is those values that prompted connest toga wood to -- conestoga wood to provide health insurance for their pleas in the first place. they supplied health insu

chairman harvey pitt on cnbc yesterday openly questioned as to whether mr.s gone too far, was really attacking the fundamentals of this company, or merely trying to push the stock price down. whatever mr. ackman's motives are and have been, he is at least on this day going to have succeeded by some measure because the ftc announcing this formal investigation is going to push those shares lower. ackman yesterday, i believe, on the webcast he was having on china's business, maybe, i don't know if ragged is the right word to use, but said they could make $2 billion from this. >> let me just go down to bob pisani. they are trying to close the book on this now because he's asking is everybody in, is everybody in. >> the procedure here is pretty simple. they are just about ready to open. the indications are pretty right, $55 to $60, those are the official indications. peter is trying to open the stock right now. remember, they couldn't give any indication until the company officially acknowledged what the news was and at that time, the company then notified the ne

mr. chairman this concludes our prepared remarks and we will be happy to answer questions. >> the chair thanks the gentlelady and recognizes dr. cosgrove for five minutes for a public statement. >> chairman pitts thank you very much. ms. king has submitted a joint statement for both of us covering gao. >> the chair recognizes mr. vito for five minutes for his opening statement. >> pull it closer. >> all right, try that. >> is that any better? thank you very much. good morning mr. chairman and members of the subcommittee. i am robert vito regional inspector general for the office of the valuation inspections at the u.s. department of health and human services office of inspector general. thank you for the opportunity to testify about cms oversight with medicare contractors. two years ago i testified before you about recurring problems that we had identified with cms integrity contractors. cms relies on contractors to administer half a trillion dollars in medicare spending every year. oig understands effective oversight of the medicare contractors is continuous, demanding and resource intensive process for cms. and for choice in the same problems we identified in the past with cms oversight of c