mr. whitfield, for his kind remarks. madam speaker, i stand here in support of my legislation, h.r. 3993, the calling card consumer protection act. i want to thank my good friends chairman waxman, chairman of our energy and commerce committee, bobby rush, the chairman of the consumer protection subcommittee, as well as joe barton the ranking member of the full committee. as my colleagues have fence mentioned calling cards are an invaluable resource for a number of people who make frequent long distance or overseas calls. students, members of the armed forces, and those whose family is outside of the country regularly use these cards to call home. the cards are also popular among people who choose not to subscribe to long distance telephone service or can't afford it. they are a necessaryity, they are a necessary tool for keeping in touch with friends and family members. calling cards that provide the services the company advertise can save consumers a great deal% of money when they call home. unfortunately, my colleagues

mr. whitfield, who has eight minutes. >> thank you very much for being with us today. we appreciate your presence. i want to revisit this one issue that there burgess mentioned, and that's medicare advantage. i want to do so because there are 13,000 seniors on medicare advantage in my congressional district. and my understanding is that there will be $200 billion taken out of the medicare advantage program. you talked about the need for a robust medicare advantage program. it seems to me that taking $200 billion away is the exact opposite thing we would need to do in order to have a robust medicare advantage program. and, i would just like your comments on that. i have not had the opportunity to read all the brochure, but what do you say about that in this report, if anything? >> for many years now, going back to 2001, medpack had recommended reducing the medicare advantage rates. we believed that reducing them would steel leave arm resources for a well-run, high value plan to do very well in serving the medicare population. i've been senior executive in such a plan. i