mrs. blackburn: i'll yield. mr. shadegg: costs are going up too fast, the president said it's unsustainable. in tennessee they put in a government-run plan, got the government involved, substituted the private market and costs did not go down? mrs. blackburn: costs skyrocketed, and we saw the costs go up every single year. as dr. roe can tell you, having been a physician trying to handle this issue, every single year the cost went up on the public option, the access was restricted, the quality of care was diminished, and those with private insurance saw their rates go up 10%, 15%, some companies even 100%. mr. akin: what you're depicting what sounds to me is one of the things they used to do, they charged people money -- they'd get a railroad track with two huge steam locomotives. it's a classic train wreck. what happened was a government engineered a train wreck on health insurance. dr. roe, you're a medical doctor. i assume you got into the doctoring business because you wanted to take care of people. what was it

mrs. blackburn: mr. chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: -- the clerk will read. the clerk: page 74, line 19, section 734, of the prior year unobligated balances for the proposed -- purpose of section 306-d of the consolidated farm and rural development act, $25,8,000,000 is rescinded. the chair: for what purpose does the gentlelady from tennessee rise? mrs. blackburn: i have a meving. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk:er part b, amendment number 1, printsed in house report number 111-191 , offered by mrs. blackburn of tennessee. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 609, the gentlelady from tennessee, mrs. blackburn, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlelady from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. chairman. tonight i rise in support of the american taxpayer. like a lot of my colleagues, i was home last week. i spent a lot of my time talking with constituents and listening to them and to their conc

mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. chairman. while i support the boren amendment, i do rise in opposition to the manager's amendment and some provisions that are there and it strikes me that the manager's amendment results in an earmark for the big three automakers and what it does is to stipulate that the cars, the alternative fuel cars, have to be bought from them. what it does is to ignore the many other american citizens and taxpayers that produce american made passenger vehicles in this nation. but they are manufacturers that are not the big three. i view this as something that is bad policy. it is bad environmental policy. it's bad appropriations policy. bad economic policy. there are 209 vehicles, alternative fuel vehicles, that are going to be purchased to go into these different agencies as stipulated in this bill. and the way this manager's amendment is written, it is an earmark for the big three which have already received billions of bailout money. the chair: the gentlewoman's time has expired. mr. boren: still reser

mrs. blackburn of tennessee, number two printed in part c by mr.campbell of texas, number nine printed in part d by mr. flake of arizona, number four printed in part d by mr. flake of arizona, number 12 printed in part d by mr. flake of arizona, number 7 printed in part b by mr. kingston of dwea. the chair will reduce to two minutes the time for any -- >> mr. speaker. parliamentary inquiry. the chair: the house will come to order. >> mr. speaker. the chair: the house will come to order. the gentleman will state his parliamentary inquiry. >> it's my understanding that the first amendment that will be considered is the delauro amendment which is a manager's amendment which incorporates a number of provisions, a number of provisions in fact that do legislate on an appropriations measure. is it not correct, mr. speaker, that within the rule, and the rule was h.r. -- was it 609? the rule? providing for consideration of this measure before the house, that all points were waived against any objection to legislating on an appropriations matter so in fact,

mrs. blackburn of tennessee, amendment number 6 by mr. broun of georgia, amendment number 7 by mr. flake of arizona, amendment number 8 by mr. flake of arizona, amendment number 9 by mr. flake of arizona, amendment number 10 by mr. flake of arizona, amendment number 11 by mr. flake of arizona, amendment number 12 by mr. flake of arizona, amendment number 13, 14, 15, 16 of mr. flake of arizona, amendment number 17 by mr. flake of arizona. the chair will reduce to two minutes the time for any electronic vote after the first vote in this series. the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number 3 printed in house report 111-208 offered by the gentleman from georgia, mr. price, on which further proceedings were postponed, on which the noes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 3 printed in house report 111-208 offered by mr. price of georgia. the chair: recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a r

mrs. blackburn? mrs. blackburn no? mr. gainbridge no. mr. doany? mr. doany no. mr. boucher? mr. boucher no. mr. murphy? mr. murphy no. mr. rush? mr. rush no. mr. hill? mr. hill no. mr. matheson? mr. matheson no. mr. green? mr. green no. mr. gordon? mr. gordon votes no. >> have all the members responded to the vote? >> is that everybody? >> any member wish to change? his or her vote? all right. when the clerk's ready, we'll get a report of the vote. >> mr. chairman, on that amendment, there were zero ayes and 57 nos. >> zero ayes, 57ñññññw in section-- >> without obj >> i thank the chairman for yielding. the "dallas morning news" that, highlighted the troubles that a young girl had who was covered by medicaid. she had difficulty finding a doctor to treat her stating due to the lack of medicaid doctors, medication patients often grow sicker. there are of course similar stories out there every day outlining the difficulties that patients with government health care phase on a day-by-day basis. this is not rhetoric. this is reality and it will be reality for millions more americans

mr. burgess, aye. ms. blackburn. ms. black burn votes aye. mr. gingrey? mr. gingrey, aye. mr. skully? mr. skully, aye. mr. markey? mr. markey votes no.

mrs. blackburn: mr. chairman, i ask for a recorded vote. the chair: pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from tennessee will be postponed. it is now in order to consider amendment number 6 printed in house resolution 111-208. for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia rise? mr. broun: mr. chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 6 printed in house report 111-208 offered by mr. broun of georgia. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 644, the gentleman from georgia, mr. broun, and a member opposed each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey -- georgia. mr. broun: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in support of my amendment which eliminates funding for the climate czar. their deputies and staff salaries for the council on environmental quality. for too long, the executive branch has skirted senate confirmation proceedings and congressional oversight by app

mr. burgess aye. ms. blackburn? mrs. blackburn aye. mr. beginningry aye. mr. scully? >> aye. >> mr. scully, aye. mr. voucher? mr. voucher rotes no. mr. goran? [ inaudible ] mr. goran, aye? mr. marquee? >> no. >> mr. marquee, no. mr. matheson? >> aye. >> mr. matheson, aye. mr. rush? >> no. >> mr. rush votes no. mr. ross? >> no. >> mr. ross votes no. >> all members responded to the call of the roll? any member wish to change his or her vote? now the clerk will report the te. >> mr. chairman, on that vote there were 23@dxvz2<)hoh >> he offered the amendment as a way to get members on the record on the issue of a public plan. this is 30 minutes. >> this amendment seeks to clarify one of the great mysteries in the debate about health care. that is where my republican friends stand on government-run health care. that is where my republican friends stand on the issue of government-run health care. now on one level it's very clear, quotes throughout the debate have seemed to imply that they are against it. mr. sterns of florida said if the government runs, it it will be bureaucratic ineffi

mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. chairman. i will simply point out that we have to realize this is taxpayer money, not government money. and what we are hearing from the taxpayers of this great nation is that spending is out of control. $1 trillion deficit is too much. a federal debt that is at record levels is too much spending. and taxpayers are telling us, they are tired of us spending money on programs they don't want. and as one of my constituents has said that we are spending money she hasn't made on programs that she doesn't want. and they are right to speak out to us about this. i will also point out that our states, which function under balanced budget amendments, are great labs of experiment. and experimentation in federal state budgeting. our states make across-the-board cuts. in making an across-the-board cut in appropriations in this bill you will still have 11% growth in these programs. and that is significant because in the last three years, as i said, this funding has increased 146%. you have programs in this p

mrs. blackburn of tennessee. number 2 printed in part b by mr. campbell of california. number 1 printed in part c by mr. flake of arizona. number 3 printed in part c by mr. flake of arizona. number 4 printed in part c by mr. flake of arizona. number 5 printed in part c by mr. flake of arizona. number 10 printed in part c by mr. flake of arizona. number 11 printed in part c by mr. flake of arizona. number 1 printed in part d by mr. hensarling of texas. number 2 printed in part d by mr. hensarling of texas. mr. number -- number 4 printed in part d by mr. helling sarling of texas. the -- hensarling of texas. the the unfinished business is the question on the amendment offered by mr. heinrich of amendment. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: part a, amendment number 9 print the in house report 111-209 offered by mr. heinrich of new mexico. the chair: those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a two-m

mr. burgess, aye. ms. blackburn? aye. mr. gingre sgl. >> aye. >> mr. gingrey, aye. >> mr. scalise? >> mr. scalise, aye. >> have all members responded to the call of the role? if so, the clerk will tally the vote. >> mr. chairman, there were 24 ayes and 33 nos. >> the amendment is not agreed to. we have votes now on the house floor. we will take a recess and i urge members to return to the mark-up as soon as we complete the last vote on the floor. >> mr. chairman, what time do you think we're conclude this evening? >> we'll go, i think, till 11:00 or 12:00, maybe longer if we're going to take this much time on every amendment. >> i just need to know how much coffee to drink, mr. chairman. >> stand in recess.

mrs. blackburn. mrs. blackburn, aye. mrs. scolise, aye. mrs. christianson votes no. mr. rusch, no. mr. stupack, no. mr. doyle, mr. doyle, no. mr. marqui, no. mr. mathison. mr. mathison votes n@@@@@@@ @ @ cracks mr. ross folks know. >> have all members responded to the call of the role? this is an opportunity if anyone wishes to change his or her vote. the clerk will report the vote. vote. >> clerk will vote report the votes. >> 22 ayes, 32 noes. the amendment is not agreed to. you have an amendment at the desk. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i have an amendment at the desk. 06 069. >> may we get the decision on that amendment? it's either "a" or "b." it's to "b." >> to "b"? thank you. >> clerk will report the amendment. >> young lady is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. my colleague is a clarification of medicaid coverage for citizens of freely associated states. which most of you may not be familiar with. i'll just spend about a minute. over the years the federal government has made treaty agreements with the islands and to allow citizens to enter the united states

mrs. blackburn: to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. blackburn: tomorrow, the president will be on a stone's throw fre the tennessee border when he's out talking to people, i have no doubt he'll have something to pay for -- to say about health care. i think most people agree we need reforms on cost, access, insurance liability and insurance accountability. i would also say that we need to heed the warnings that will come from some of the public option ex-prerments that have -- experiments that have taken place in our states. my home state of tennessee is home to one of the public option experiments. our governor a democrat, has called this a disaster. now, 15 years after that experiment being put in place, our state is still digging out from a system that went horribly wrong and it is a system that rationed care and cost billions more each year than anticipated. i've asked the administration repeat think for assurances that they understand what went wrong. i'm still waiting. let's learn t

mrs. blackburn: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i say thank you to our colleagues across the aisleor bringing forward a pay-go statute. it is of concern to me, though, that the statute, the way this is written, the way they are approaching pay-go could lead to tax increases, because what we are not seeing from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle is a willingness to reduce spending. and we know that you are going to have an effective pay-go policy, that you have to be able to reduce what you're spending. that is a requirement. and every appropriations bill that we have, i filed 5% across-the-board reduction amendment for a spending cut. and the reason i do that is what we have learned from our states, what i learned from being a state senator is that across-the-board spending reductions work. they work. they reduce what you are going to lay out the amount of money that you are going to spend. so let's do this in a bipartisan way. let's agree that we are actually going to reduce spending. let's agree that we're going to have pay-go enforcement, that we're not going to cry e

mrs. blackburn, submitted an amendment to the committee on rules to h.r. 3288, the transportation and housing and urban development appropriations act. whereas the gentleman's amendment would have encouraged the development and use of alternative fuels by the federal government from resources found abundantly in the united states and canada such as oil sands and oil shale, furthering our ability to become more energy independent, reducing the federal government's energy cost borne by the american taxpayer. whereas this is especially important at a time of record deficit that has reached $1 trillion for the first time in america's history. and a record debt that will be tripled in 10 years. whereas the said amendment could help in the creation of desperately needed jobs in an economy where the unemployment rate is now 9.5%, the highest unemployment rate in 26 years and climbing. and 2.6 million people have lost their jobs since february, 2009. whereas when campaigning for the presidency, then senator obama said that, quote, under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would neces

mr. bernlgess aye. ms. blackburn. ms. blackburn votes aye. mr. gingrey, aye. mr. skulley. aye. ms.ttz. degettz votes no. mr. gonzalez. no. mr. mattheyson, no. mr. rush. mr. rush votes no. mr. shaddik. mr. shaddik, aye. >> have all members responded at the call of the roll? >> mr. gordon. >> any member wish to change his -- >> mr. gordon. mr. gordon votes no. >> the clerk will tally the votes and report. yes? >> on that vote,]b >> a texas congressman who was a doctor offered an amendment that would cap a non economic damages to no more than 250 thousand dollars b this is about 25 minutes. -- no more than 250 thousand dollars. this is about 25 minutes. >> this was an amendment that would affect liability in the practice of medicine, and that amendment was ruled not germain e, and we were allowed to report it to achieve terminus -- that. the protections provided each of the subsections shall apply in the case of a health-care provider with respect to items, services, treatments, for which a provider seeks reimbursement under medicare, under title 18 of the social security act. t under

mrs. blackburn: the health care proposals before us have been tried before. public option was tried in my home state of tennessee under a plan called tenncare for more than 10 year the legislature and three governors tried to make it work. it has been less than successful, but what has happened is that a program that was supposed to have savered millions, tens of millions of dollarsing has never saved one -- dollars, has never saved one nickel. it has restricted access, driven up the cost of private health insurance and it has nearly bankrupted the state. tennesseans know that rushing to reform health care and doing that wrong is a very expensive process. we all know that costs and access of health care needs to be addressed, no one seriously believe this is a any of these plans before this house right now are going to do that. tennesseans know the cost of rushing and getting it wrong and the american people are figuring it out because they have seen the majority rush a stimulus, an omnibus, a housingous, a porkulous that left the american people saying, wher

mr. barton, who will speak. we also have marsha blackburn. we have trent franks of arizona, phil gingrey of arizona. i believe we'll be joined by rob bishop and perhaps others. we are today announcing the introduction of the improving healthcare for all americans act. the improving healthcare for all americans act takes a radically different approach than the bill that you have heard about and seen discussion drafts of from the majority party. this bill reforms healthcare from the bottom up. it reforms healthcare by empowering individuals and putting them in control of their own healthcare. now, there's some key elements to this legislation that i will highlight very quickly. then i'll let the others speak and then i'll be happy to take your questions. but the bottom line is, this reforms healthcare from the bottom up, it does so by empowering individuals. it puts patients first. this legislation is patient-focused. i would begin by asking you, when was the last time that putting the government in control of something resulted in it costing l

miss blackburn can ask, but i don't want her to feel she has to mitt. >> point of order, mr. chairman. >> i think we're on my point of order. >> when she's done we're going to have to ask the secretary to leave because she has to leave. so i'll go back to miss blackburn. we'll start the clock again. it's the gentlewoman's time. >> thank you, mr. chairman and madame secretary. i hope we'll be able to resolve this. when my constituents talk about the issue they are fearful of what may be included in this plan. and coming from tennessee and you having been a governor, i think you can understand that. and when they hear remarks about it being deficit neutral or -- yes, deficit neutral, not increasing the debt, you've made statements that it would be paid for, you've talked about reducing the itemized deduction. my constituents are very, very concerned about how this would be paid for. the other members of this committee have constituents who are equally concerned about this. of course, our concern in tennessee is in the problem that existed with care. i know governors have many ti

posey, blackburn, culberson, poe, burton, goodlatte, and neugebauer. what do you make of the fact that there's a conflict there, mrced to vote on the record said, yes, he's a citizen. then they play this game by sponsoring a resolution that says you have to show your birth certificate. by the way, the secretary of health in hawaii again yesterday said the birth certificate is on file. i don't know -- what more information people want, i don't know. go ahead. >> i think it's just absurd. people are fanning this misconception, and then when they have to call the shots and vote, they vote the right way. these guys need to knock this off. let's talk about jobs and health care and things that matter to the people of the country. >> mr. flake? >> i agree. it's time to lay it to rest and go on. some of us, like i said, never had that question at all. it's unfortunate that some did, but now i think it is laid to rest and we can address health care and the other issues. i'm glad that we passed this resolution. i hope we can go ahead. >> do you think the republican leadership, people like john boehner who are level-headed,

blackburn, opening statement please. >> thank you mr. chairman and i do want to welcome the witnesses and thank them for being with us today. as you have heard we all are concerned about bottled water, the product that is there. we are also concerned about tap water and the work the epa does and i will submit a written statement. mr. chairman i want to take my time to say i would prefer that we be spending this time to look at other issues important to our constituents that the fda and epa deal with. there are other committee issues we can be looking at such as the options for reducing health care costs for constituents and looking at how you do that through patient driven consumer driven patient centered health care. we should be looking at the medicare trust fund and pressures on that trust fund. the ballooning cost of medicaid if we move to a public auction as we move into health care reform or even from my state the lessons that should have been learned from care which was the test case for hillary clinton health care back in '94. my

mr. barton here who will speak. we also have marcia blackburn, phil from georgia, and i believe we will be joined by robb bishop of utah. we are announcing the introduction of the improving health care for all americans act. the improving health care for all americans act takes a radically different approach than the bill that you have heard about and is seen in discussion drafts of from the majority party. this bill reforms health care from the bottom up. it reforms health care by empower individuals and putting them under control of their own health care. there is some key legislation i will highlight very quickly. i will then be happy to take any questions. the bottom line is, this reformer's health care from the bottom up, it does so by empower individuals and puts the patients first. this legislation is patient focused. i would begin asking you, when was the last time that when putting the government in control of something resulted in net costing less? the think the answer is, when you put the government in control of something, it always

mrs. blackburn, the gentleman from missouri, mr. blunt, the gentleman from georgia, mr. broun, the gentlewoman from florida, ms. brown-waite, the gentleman from indiana, mr. burton, the gentleman from delaware, mr. castle, the gentleman from texas, mr. conaway, the gentleman from oregon, mr. defazio, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. dent, the gentleman from nebraska, mr. for thenenberry, the gentleman from new jersey, mr. garrett, the gentleman from georgia, mr. gingrey, the gentleman from virginia, mr. goodlatte, the gentleman from arizona, mr. grijalva, the gentleman from nevada, mr. heller, the gentleman from texas, mr. hensarling, the gentlewoman from south dakota, ms. herseth sandlin, the gentleman from new hampshire, mr. hodes, the gentleman from ohio, mr. jordan, the gentleman from iowa, mr. king. the gentleman from missouri -- mrs. lowey: mr. speaker. the clerk: the gentleman from florida, mr. mack, the gentleman from georgia, mr. marshall. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york rise? mrs. lowey: i wish to insist on a poi