mr. pitts: mr. speaker, i rise today in support of h.r. 596, sponsored by bradley byrne ofalabama. obamacare. millions of americans continue to feel the harmful effects of the president's health care law in almost every corner of their life. recently, i heard from a president school teacher who told me that many of our local schools are having trouble finding long-term substitutes for specialty classes, such as art music and physical education. under obamacare's new definition of full-time work, substitute teachers are strictly limited to 3 1/2 days a week. children are simply missing out on these important classes or being pushed into packed combined classes. many of our local schools had to outsource cafeteria workers and other part-time positions. school districts are spending too much time worrying about federal mandates rather than the best way to teach children. republicans have no shortage of good ideas to replace the president's health care law. last session there were hundreds of bills intr

mr. pitts: mr. speaker, i want to thank speaker boehner for appointing me to serve as the republican co-chair of the tom lantos human rights commission. it's a great honor to serve as a voice defending the rights of people worldwide, to live free of repression and violence. i've served as a member of the commission since its establishment following the passing of our dear colleague, congressman lantos. a holocaust survivor, he understood what it was like to live under the thumb of brutal and oppressive regimes. and while we vowed never again, today hundreds of millions of people worldwide live under governments that restrict the rights of free speech and religious freedom. regimes that persecute minorities, women and children. we're blessed to live in a country where individual rights are protected and cherished and despite our differences democrats and republicans work hands in hand to protect these rights at home and expand them worldwide. i'm particularly honored to share the leadership of the co

mr. pitts: mr. speaker, i rise today in support of h.r. 596 sponsored by bradley byrne of alabama. today the house acts once again to repeal obamacare. millions of americans continue to feel the harmful effects of the president's health care law in almost every corner of their life. recently, i heard from a president school teacher who told me that many of our local schools are having trouble finding long-term substitutes for specialty classes, such as art music and physical education. under obamacare's new definition of full-time work, substitute teachers are strictly limited to 3 1/2 days a week. children are simply missing out on these important classes or being pushed into packed combined classes. many of our local schools had to outsource cafeteria workers and other part-time positions. school districts are spending too much time worrying about federal mandates rather than the best way to teach children. republicans have no shortage of good ideas to replace the president's health care law. last

mr. pitts: mr. speaker at this time i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from georgia, mr. heist. the speaker pro tempore: -- mr. pitts: the gentleman from georgia mr. hice. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. hice: since passage in 2010, obamacare has a full takeover of the health care industry and they were sold by false promises that obamacare would lower the costs and increase access to care. the first most egregious promise when the president himself said if you like your health care plan you'll be able to keep it, period. no one will take it away no matter what. in reality some five million americans have lost their plans since that time and have suffered needlessly. furthermore mr. speaker, we were promised that premiums would go down. instead premiums in the individual marketplace have increased by an average of 49% across the country. this is one of the main reasons that only 7% of americans believe that obamacare will actually reduce the cost of care. oba

you're really tuned in to the budget responding to mr. pitts responding to mr. green about the community health centers. i was at a rotary club meeting recently, and i was asked the question, they said congressman can you tell us what dollar amount has been incurred by the federal government as a result of state expansion of medicaid programs pursuant to the affordable care act? because we picked up the larger percentage of the normal cost. and i would ask you that question. i didn't know the answer, but could you tell me what is the total dollar amount incurred by the federal government by the expansion of the state medicaid programs as a result of the affordable care act? >> that, in terms of the federal dollars versus the state dollars? >> yeah. just the addition at dollar amount incurred by us. >> let me go back and look because the question of being able to disaggregate whether a person came in because of expansion or were under the old rules, i want to make sure that we can understand -- >> but you don't have a dollar amount for that? >> i will check with

mr. pitts, always a pleasure. good to have you with us tonight., but is it really important for us to monitor the sun's activity that would affect our climate? your thoughts. >> it absolutely is important for us to monitor the sun in this way. this is the first time that noaa has had an operational space weather satellite in orbit and the information that will be gathered by this will be extremely important to helping us protect satellites in orbit around earth and even to help us protect power transmission systems here on earth in case there's a very very intense solar storm. so the information gathered along with the images of the earth and the monitoring the weather systems are always vital and always helpful. >> why are we doing it now? why wasn't it done previously? >> well, it wasn't done previously because there have been ways for us to make these observations from earth before but it turns out that there was this satellite left over from about a decade ago that happened to have the architecture that would work really well for this particul

now we like to talk to mr. pitts for five minutes at. >> that an administrator, when the epa wrote the rules, it acknowledged that the reasons for placing the compliance obligation on those who do not blend renewable fuel instead of on those who do was an outdated holdover from the 2007 rules. changing the definition of obligated party could help to advance the goals of the program and correct some of the problems that we are seeing with the current program. the epa did a significant amount of work on this issue in 2009 and 2010. my question is do you agree that it would be timely and useful to include an accept public comment on a proposal to shift the compliance obligation as part of the current 2142,016 rule makings? >> i know that that's a comment that we have received on the 2014th proposal that we put out last year. it is my interest to make sure that we move forward with the 2014 rule as quickly as we can and i think it is important for the stability of the renewable fuel industry and i am sure that we will be

mr. pitts: mr. speaker, last week more than 80 million americans lost personal information when health insure anthem was hacked. anthem customers started to receive suspicious email customers trying to con them. anthem home depot the hacks go on and on. those that had their information stolen did not receive notice of the compromise promptly. the best way for them to protect themselves. because of obamacare, the federal and state governments now host a massive trove of private information. in hearing after hearing last year, we heard about the vulnerabilities of these systems. in order to protect consumers the house passed my health exchange and transparency act which would require the federal government of inform consumers of a breach within two weeks. this went nowhere in harry reid's senate. i know reintroduced a bill, a commonsense measure to protect consumers if obamacare has a hack. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman rise? >> to ad

mr. pitts: this is why it is more criltcal than ever that we support our moderate allies in the region and praise their efforts to protect religious minorities. in egypt, the president recently became the first modern leader in the country's history to visit a coptic christian church on christmas eve. the cathedral he visited had been attacked just two years earlier by islamic extremists. by contrast, in regions controlled by isil, groups that have lived in the same community for more than 1,000 years have been killed or fled for their lives. we must never forget that the mission of the extremists is not regional but global dominance and it's aimed at all who refuse to submit to their harsh interpretation of their religion. we must stand together with leaders like the king of jordan and the president of egypt who speak up and act to defeat islamic extremism and give them our strong support. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpos