mr. waxman. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. my colleague, miss blackburn, suggested that the fcc needs to act more like the federal trade commission, ftc. consumer protection work. i believe we need an agency like the fcc that can write forward-looking rules of the road for industry and consumers. chairman hundt and copps, do you agree with that? >> absolutely, mr. waxman. forward-looking is -- here is the best example of a useful forward-looking law. it's in the incentive auction legislation that you passed where this congress said we want the fcc to establish before the auction a generally applicable rule about how much spectrum anybody can buy. that has to be forward looking. you don't want to go into the auction with your money and not know whether or not you're going to be permitted to win -- keep the license that you thought you were the high bidder on. that has to be forward looking. that's a great example of you all asking for a forward-looking rule and really deserving a forward-looking rule. >> we all talk about how r

mr. waxman. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. my colleague, miss blackburn, suggested that the fcc needs to act more like the federal trade commission, ftc. consumer protection work. i believe we need an agency like the fcc that can write forward-looking rules of the road for industry and consumers. chairman hundt and copps, do you agree with that? >> absolutely, mr. waxman. forward-looking is -- here is the best example of a useful forward-looking law. it's in the incentive auction legislation that you passed where this congress said we want the fcc to establish before the auction a generally applicable rule about how much spectrum anybody can buy. that has to be forward looking. you don't want to go into the auction with your money and not know whether or not you're going to be permitted to win -- keep the license that you thought you were the high bidder on. that has to be forward looking. that's a great example of you all asking for a forward-looking rule and really deserving a forward-looking rule. >> we all talk about how r

mr. waxman and miss eshoo. this is a good thing to be doing and we're going to get some good information from your gentlemen and we appreciate you being here. >> gentleman's time's expired. we'll now go to the former chairman of the committee, mr. waxman, for opening comments. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i appreciate your convening this morning's hearing, and launching the subcommittee's examination of potential updates to the communications act. and i want to thank our distinguished panel for being here to help us think through these ideas, and i think i've been in congress during the time that all of you have been the heads of the fcc. technology has changed at a blistering pace since the enactment of the 1996 telecommunications act 18 years ago. the communications and technology industries are a thriving sector of our economy. as broadband plays an increasingly central role in the daily life of our nation, having a strong federal communications commission to oversee its successful growth is more cr

mr. waxman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. waxman: thank you very much, mr. speaker. the previous speaker in this debate said we don't know how many times there was a breach of security on the health care website. well, we do know how many breaches of security there were, how many successful attacks there were. zero. there have been no successful breaches of healthcare.gov. mr. speaker, since october 1, more than six million americans signed up for health insurance. six million. four million are enrolled in medicaid, two million in private coverage. anyway you look at it, that's good news. now, republicans seem eager to find some bad news. they want to keep talking about website problems and stir up phony fears that personal information is not secure on this site. they're looking for the bad news because the facts are against them. republicans said the affordable care act would kill jobs. we hear it over and over again.

mr. waxman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized for as much time as he may consume. mr. waxman: thank you very much, mr. speaker. the previous speaker in this debate said we don't know how many times there was a breach of security on the health care website. well, we do know how many breaches of security there were, how many successful attacks there were. zero. there have been no successful breaches of healthcare.gov. mr. speaker, since october 1, more than six million americans signed up for health insurance. six million. four million are enrolled in medicaid, two million in private coverage. anyway you look at it, that's good news. now, republicans seem eager to find some bad news. they want to keep talking about website problems and stir up phony fears that personal information is not secure on this site. they're looking for the bad news because the facts are against them. republicans said the affordable care act would kill jobs. we hear it over and over again.

mr. waxman's misleading. as regards the fully integrated -- you make the recommendation that we continue all the programs. is that a fair statement? >> no. we recommend continuation of the fully integrated. those a that assume clinical and financial responsibility. >> so there are two-rided risk they would be allowed to continue? >> well, all medicare advantage plans -- are two sided. tell me when you say fully financially integrated. what do you mean? >> they assume under a global payment responsibility for providing all the covered services. >> that would be from what we said it would be all of those plans; correct? >> -- in the medicare advantage? >> yes. by definition assuming financial risk. the issue on it is to the assume responsibility for both medicare and medicaid benefits. >> correct. and what we see is evidence that organizations that assume responsibility for both types of benefits actually can improve care and costs. if those two are separate -- >> i see. when you say integration you mean betwee

mr. waxman. mr. waxman: i thank you for yielding to me. existing law very clearly states no taxpayer's money can fund abortions. that's already the law, with the exception of rape, incest or disabled woman's life. so the republicans are coming and saying, we got to make sure that no taxpayer's money is going to be used for any insurance that might provide abortions. well, the law, the affordable care act provides that if you get an insurance policy in the exchange, you can choose a policy that does not provide abortion coverage. but if you choose a policy that has abortion coverage, that portion of the policy must be paid by the purchaser, not the government. so this is all, like so much -- in fact, all we do around here is propaganda. it's politics. the republicans try to make people believe that their taxpayers' dollars are being used to pay for abortions. it's not true. this bill is bad in substance. it's an unfortunate bill that tries to interfere with the ability of people to buy their own money to purchase insurance policies that hav

mr. waxman mr. waxman, going back a decade there is financial neutrality between medicare advantage than traditional medicare. we continue to believe that is the wise course. the affordable care act to moves in that direction we would encourage congress to stick with that course. we expected with fiscal pressure from the reduction of the benchmarks that they would respond in part by lowering their cost, it did have fallen concurrent with a tightening of the benchmark suez is evolving as we expected and we urge you to continue on this path >> there were recommendations for changes but this deals without medicare vintage plans offered by employers are priced. could you describe this recommendation and? >> we have not yet made the recommendation but it is up for consideration next week but we will vote on recommendations for the march report to congress. the issue here is the bidding system used for employer sponsored plans is different than there is basically no incentive for plans to bid low in the em

mr. waxman: as we begin the second session of the 113th congress, americans all over this country are coming up with their new year's resolutions for 2014. in congress, i propose we make this the year we stop ignoring climate change. last year, co2 concentrations reached dangerous new heights in our atmosphere. we suffered through and paid for record breaking extreme weather events and we received dire new projections from international scientific organizations on the threat posed by climate change. and what did the republican-led house do? it continued its anti-environment voting record. voting 109 times in 2013 to weaken environmental protections. this behavior is reckless and irrespvensable. despite the gridlock in congress, the obama administration has been making progress. under the president's leadership the nation has doubled the production of renewable energy like wind and solar. vehicles are more fuel efficient. and toxic air pollution for power plants has been cut dramatically. let's work with the president this year to build off these successes so that december 31, we can look wit

mr. waxman and miss eshoo. this is a good thing to be doing and we're going to get some good information from your gentlemen and we appreciate you being here. >> gentleman's time's expired. we'll now go to the former chairman of the committee, mr. waxman, for opening comments. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i appreciate your convening this morning's hearing, and launching the subcommittee's examination of potential updates to the communications act. and i want to thank our distinguished panel for being here to help us think through these ideas, and i think i've been in congress during the time that all of you have been the heads of the fcc. technology has changed at a blistering pace since the enactment of the 1996 telecommunications act 18 years ago. the communications and technology industries are a thriving sector of our economy. as broadband plays an increasingly central role in the daily life of our nation, having a strong federal communications commission to oversee its successful growth is more cr

mr. waxman? do you need a minute or two?>> i am happy to answer any questions that the court has otherwise i am happy to waiver bottle. -- waive rebuttle. >> thank you, the case is submitted. >> today, "q and a" with jehane noujaim, director of "the square." followed by "washington journal ." later, the house of representatives gavels back into session. congress gavels back into session later today, the house is in at noon eastern. on the agenda, a bill that would ban federal funding for abortion. roll call votes are scheduled after 6:30 eastern. the senate returns to consider consideration of flood insurance legislation, a vote is scheduled for 5:30. watch the senate on c-span2. >> we bring public affairs and events from washington directly to you, putting in -- putting you in the room at briefings and conferences and offering complete coverage of the u.s. house, all as a public service of credit industry. c-span, created 35 years ago and found the by your local cable or satellite provider. follow us on twitter and like us

mr. waxman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized for four minutes. mr. waxman: mr. speaker and my colleagues, the supporters of this legislation claim that it's simply an effort to get more information about how the affordable care act is being implemented. but it's not really that. it's an effort to slow down implementation of the new law by drowning the department of health and human services in red tape. they want enrollment information, but this week they got enrollment information from the administration. that enrollment information showed that 2.2 million americans have signed up for private coverage. they want demographic information. well, h.h.s. has given them demographic information. h.h.s. is going to release all the information that they're asking for every month, but the republicans are saying, oh, that's not good enough. we want it every week. but they want more than what otherwise might be available because they want some things i can't understand why they would want to know them. they want the zip codes of everyone who signed up. they want

mr. waxman's retirement. you made my day. for the postal-- service. i love how these numbers change. how did we get to 11 million? it was 12 million just a few years ago. that mantra was spoken for many years. i guess they did self to port during the let -- self-deport during the recession. areink the republicans shooting themselves in the foot. if they gain anything, it will be negated from their base. one last thing, if anything, if you listen to all of the calls over the years from c-span -- into c-span, this unites everybody. blacks, whites, hispanics that are here legally and have been for years, paying their taxes -- nobody wants this to go through who is here legally. all of you here is the special interest groups, the special left-wing groups for the hispanic community -- but if you listen to who calls into your station, if there is one thing that unites us together as a country it is this illegal immigration that we want stopped. thank you. losi says,e my work is not finished. her future is a perennial topic of discussion in washington. i am running, i have already started t

mr. waxman: i thank you for yielding so i could correct the record. my staff on our committee met with the department of justice and department of defense to hear a long list of objections they had to the bill. that was before the markup in committee. when we went into the markup in committee, i personally asked in the public session if chairman shimkus, the chairman of the subcommittee, would meet personally with the department of justice and department of defense because they had great concerns about the bill. he said at that markup that he would. we checked with the department of defense, we checked with the department of justice and there has been no such meeting. there has been some change but they have not addressed all the issues that i think members should have been taking into consideration. there was really not an attempt, if the gentleman would permit, to work this out on a bipartisan basis to hear what other people had to say about it. this bill was driven through and being written whether we had a hearing, written after the hearings, whet

change, which i lead with congressman waxman, welcomed less lessans from the town of shish fhneraf on alaska to hear from them how climate change is affecting their home. mr. president, their houses are literally falling into the sea thanks to sea level rise and coastal erosion. their centuries-old cull stiewr crumbling away with each wave -- centuries-old culture is crumbling away with each wave. this is a house in shishmaref. this is a house at roy carpenter's beach in rhode island. you can see how we can sympathize with the town of shishmaref. in alaska, shishmaref is not alone. a recent g.a.o. report shows that 31 alaskan villages are at risk. the 12 red dots shown here are village as that are now considering relocating completely. according to the u.s. army corps of engineers, relocation costs are estimated at $100 million to $200 million for shishmaref and other villages could face similar costs. stanley stocktu is the to rememberetois the formermayor. he came to our hearing and said, "no matter your politics, you can't ignore the facts. the facts are that our village is being impacted by climate change on a daily basis and we need you to do somethi

mr. menendez: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate recess until 1:50:00 p.m. today. the presiding officer: without objection. objection. >> california congressman henry waxman who once chaired the house energy and commerce committee saying he will leave congress after having served 40 years. a close ally of leader nancy pelosi. another close friend of the minority leader, george miller said he will be stepping down. that brings the current total to 32, 20 republicans and 12 democrats who have announced they will not run again in 2014. house republicans are meeting this week for their annual retreat being held this year in cambridge, maryland, to a live picture right now, over 190 of the 230 members are attending this retreat which comes to close tomorrow. earlier republican leaders held a briefing with reporters to discuss agenda items including immigration and outreach to new voters. there will be a news conference coming up at 3 p.m. eastern. c-span will have a life. >> also, president obama is wrapping up his two-day state of the union trip with a speech in nashville, tennessee. while the president's remarks will focus mostly on education he will likely

mr. terry, i would also again like to thank chairman upton for his leadership on this issue as well as ranking member waxman, chairman pits -- pitts, and ranking member pallone for their assistance in bringing this bill first before the energy and commerce committee and to the floor today. as the lead democrat on this bipartisan legislation, i urge my colleagues to support this legislation and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york reserves his time. the gentleman from pennsylvania. mr. pitts: at this time i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from michigan, the distinguished chairman of the energy and commerce committee, mr. upton. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for two minutes. mr. upton: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank my friends, mr. engel, the lead democratic co-sponsor of this bipartisan legislation, as well as mr. terry who has helped champion this not only in this congress, but for the last number of years as well. this bill needs to get done. h.r. 3527 is really good legislation, and it's biparti