mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. speaker. you know, a picture's worth 1,000 words, and i felt like it was appropriate today because so many of our colleagues say, why do we want to discuss obamacare when we talk about the budget or talk about the continuing resolution? and here is the reason why. it is a program that is too expensive to afford. take a look at this graph. we all know that supposedly when obama started out -- by the way, as a program, an insurance access program for the nearly 40 million that didn't have insurance, it was to be under $1 trillion. exactly $863 billion. so now we look at what has happened to the growth of this program and c.b.o. shows us, looking at this, when you address $1.4 trillion, $1.7 trillion, we are now at $2.6 trillion in costs over a 10-year period of time. so my colleagues, mr. speaker, i say this is why we have to put this program on the table and discuss it. it is now a nationalization of 17% of our nation's economy and has gone from under $1 trillion to $2.6 trillion. let's get the

mrs. blackburn from tennessee. >> thank you for your testimony. i'd like each of you to submit in writing for me how much you have been paid to date and then how much you're being paid on retainer or either to clear up and so if you'll submit that to us for the record, that would be wonderful. hipaa compliance, were you all trained in hipaa compliance prior to beginning your contract? i'll just go right down the line, ms. campbell. >> yes. >> mr. slavitt. >> yes. >> ms. spellecy. >> yes. >> mr. lau. >> yes. >> did your companies meet as a group with h.h.s. before you started the process? anyone? did your companies meet together with h.h.s. to discuss the integration? mr. lau, go ahead. >> yes, the security people from c.m.s. and others have coordinated this. >> all right. let me ask each of you a question. how many people in each of your companies have physical access to the database servers storing the enrolling information? >> we have zero access to the database. >> zero. >> i believe the also zero for our qssi. >> we have no access to c.m.s.'s

mrs. blackburn from tennessee. >> thank you for your testimony. i'd like each of you to submit in writing for me how much you have been paid to date and then how much you're being paid on retainer or either to clear up and so if you'll submit that to us for the record, that would be wonderful. hipaa compliance, were you all trained in hipaa compliance prior to beginning your contract? i'll just go right down the line, ms. campbell. >> yes. >> mr. slavitt. >> yes. >> ms. spellecy. >> yes. >> mr. lau. >> yes. >> did your companies meet as a group with h.h.s. before you started the process? anyone? did your companies meet together with h.h.s. to discuss the integration? mr. lau, go ahead. >> yes, the security people from c.m.s. and others have coordinated this. >> all right. let me ask each of you a question. how many people in each of your companies have physical access to the database servers storing the enrolling information? >> we have zero access to the database. >> zero. >> i believe the also zero for our qssi. >> we have no access to c.m.s.'s

mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. speaker.ou know, words have meaning -- pardon me -- and i find it so interesting as i come to the floor this morning that i continue to hear my colleagues talk about a clean c.r. well, for my colleagues and for my constituents, i want to explain what this means. ey want say, no attachments, no further accountabilities, no spending reductions, just give us the money. and i would remind them the levels that we're spending at are due to sequestration, it's the law. it's the law. by implication they are saying, what you all want is unclean or evil or dirty. what we are for, mr. speaker, s an accountable transparent c.r., an accountable transparent process, transparent and fair to hardworking taxpayers, fair to future generations like my grandson, my nieces, great nieces and nephews who are going to have to pay the bill. let's have an accountable spending process. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from new mexico seek recog

mrs. blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank our witnesses for being here. we are looking forward to getting your perspective of what went wrong and how itwent wrong -- and how it went wrong with the rollout. we were repeatedly told by members of the administration that everything would be working properly and it would be done on time. these false assurances seemed to sway some people on the other side of the aisle. they believed things would be done on time. yesterday, mr. waxman and i were agreeing on some things in a hearing. last month, we were disagreeing. he had said that nothing could be found from our committee's investigation of exchange implementation and readiness. we were quite concerned. the definition of nothing has turned out to be design choices in the exchanges that hide unaffordable premiums, glitches, dead ends, error messages, system breakdowns, and americans spending countless hours on a system not ready for prime time. we are going to join together for proper oversight of the health care law. this is taxpayer money on the line. we need

mrs. blackburn. mrs. blackburn. >> and i want to go back tomr. waxman's question, talking about the peering agreements. mr. may, let me come to you, and then mr. feld, i am going to want to hear from you. do you think the fcc should do a pilot project and test some of the ip networks to figure out how to make the transition easier for consumers, for businesses? where are you on a pilot project? >> i am in favor of one, but i have to say i probably don't need to be as delicate as >> mr. mr. cicconi may need to be. i think the fcc has been a little slow, i would say, in getting these trials off the ground, so i would like to see them move quickly. and i think they would yield useful information. but i don't want to see them used -- over a long time of watching the fcc, sometimes i know when you start things like this they can be used in ways that delay ultimately the ultimate decision making. that shouldn't be allowed to happen with these projects. you started out by mentioning the interconnection, i think, in the ip transition. and i just want to

mrs. blackburn, for five minutes. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate being recognized for the time, and i appreciate the attention that this chamber and my colleagues are putting on the issues before us. as we look at federal spending, what we have to do is say, what is causing us to be in the position where we are borrowing $2 billion a day, and if we're borrowing $2 billion a day, we have to ask, is that a sustainible practice and something we as a nation -- sustainable practice and something we as a nation we can continue and the answer is no. it's not sustainable. so therefore we have to look at what is causing us to spend more money that we are taking in. and one of the things that is at the top of that list that is too expensive to afford is the obamacare program, the affordable care act. what i'd like to do today is focus my comments on what we are seeing from the affordable care act and what has happened with the cost of this program and why it has become too expensive to afford and why we have to talk about it and focus on it and

mrs. blackburn, for five minutes. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate the opportunity to address my colleagues today, and indeed to being in the middle of a government shutdown is something we did not want and we do, my colleagues and i, continue on our side of the aisle, continue to invite the senate colleagues and their conferees to sit at the table while the senate negotiates. we want to make certain that we work out the issues of our nation's fiscal health. you know, we have to remember currently we're borrowing $2 billion, $3 billion a day to keep the doors open. this is something we cannot do. it is not fair. it is not fair to future generations. it is not fair to our children and grandchildren. it is not fair to the small business people who have dreams of being a business, watching that business grow, watching those dreams come true. it is not fair to the future of our families. so to our senate colleagues, we ask them to join us and to negotiate these issues. that's a lot that's been said about obamacare. some say it doesn't have a

mrs. blackburn, for five minutes. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. chairman. you know, words have meaning and we are coming to the floor regularly to talk about the fiscal issues that our great nation and talk about how we should approach these. and i appreciate that we have everyone in the body involved in this debate, mr. chairman, but i want to drill down just a little bit and take a look at what we have going on out in the media and what we continue to hear from so many who are beginning to participate in this debate. now the president and some of our friends across the aisle love using the term saying they want a clean c.r. a clean c.r. now, that sounds really nice. for them they feel as if it implies that what we want is a dirty or an unclean or an evil c.r. and i find their choice of words so very interesting, mr. chairman. what we want is an accountable c.r. because when they are saying they want a clean c.r., i would encourage my colleagues to realize what they are wanting is the no obligation loan. they want no strings attached. clean c.r. means give

mrs. blackburn from tennessee. >> thank you for your testimony. i'd like each of you to submit in writing for me how much you have been paid to date and then how much you're being paid on retainer or either to clear up and so if you'll submit that to us for the record, that would be wonderful. hipaa compliance, were you all trained in hipaa compliance prior to beginning your contract? i'll just go right down the line, ms. campbell. >> yes. >> mr. slavitt. >> yes. >> ms. spellecy. >> yes. >> mr. lau. >> yes. >> did your companies meet as a group with h.h.s. before you started the process? anyone? did your companies meet together with h.h.s. to discuss the integration? mr. lau, go ahead. >> yes, the security people from c.m.s. and others have coordinated this. >> all right. let me ask each of you a question. how many people in each of your companies have physical access to the database servers storing the enrolling information? >> we have zero access to the database. >> zero. >> i believe the also zero for our qssi. >> we have no access to c.m.s.'s

mrs. blackburn that it was hipaa compliant and you know that it's not.u admit that you knew it was in their. it may be their decision to hide it but you're the company, not you personally but your company is to put this together. we are telling every american including all of my friends on the democratic side and they are huge privacy advocates. diane degette is chairman of the privacy caucus. you're telling every american if you sign up for this or even attempt to you have no reasonable expectation of privacy that is a direct contradiction to hipaa and you know it yes or no? >> once again cms has to comply with a set of rules and regulations they established under our contract. and that is a cms call. >> you are now saying that they made a decision to break the law. do you agree with that decision? >> i cannot speculate on cms. >> let me ask mr. slavitt. >> this is the first time and becoming familiar with that source code. >> so you were not aware of it? >> i was not aware. >> okay. but me go back to ms. campbell. she at least admitted she knew about i

mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. speaker. you know, it is so interesting to hear my colleagues talk about how they want to clean -- want a clean c.r. just so that everyone realizes, mr. speaker, what they're saying is, give us the money, no strings attached, no accountability, and what we continue to say to our colleagues is, we want an accountable c.r. accountable to the u.s. taxpayer who is footing the bill. -- bill for this federal government. it is not money that -- federal money that we appropriate or we spend. it is taxpayer money. coming out of the pockets of hardworking men and women. and as i read emails from my district in tennessee, what i hear repeatedly is, number one, we cannot afford the $17 trillion in debt. it really scares us. it frightens us. for the future of our children and grandchildren. we cannot continue to monetize $75 billion worth of debt each month. we have to get our fiscal house in order. that is what we seek to do. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman fro

mrs. blackburn from tennessee. >> thank you for your testimony. i'd like each of you to submit in writing for me how much you have been paid to date and then how much you're being paid on retainer or either to clear up and so if you'll submit that to us for the record, that would be wonderful. hipaa compliance, were you all trained in hipaa compliance prior to beginning your contract? i'll just go right down the line, ms. campbell. >> yes. >> mr. slavitt. >> yes.

mrs. blackburn. >> we are looking forward to getting your perspective of what went wrong and how itwent wrong with the rollout. we were repeatedly told by members of the administration that everything would be working properly and it would be done on time. these false assurances seem to sway some people on the other side of the aisle. they believed things would be done on time. yesterday, mr. waxman and i were agreeing on some things in a hearing. but last month, we were disagreeing. he had said that nothing could be found from our committee's investigation of exchange implementation and readiness. we were quite concerned. that definition of nothing has turned out to be design choices in the exchanges that hide unaffordable premiums, glitches, dead ends, error messages, system breakdowns, and americans spending time on a system not ready for prime time. so i hope all of our colleagues are going to work together oversight of the health care and join the efforts to do proper law. this is taxpayer money on the line. we need to be judicious. the past three weeks of exchange messiness have demonst

mrs. blackburn, for five minutes. thank you, n: madam speaker. i appreciate the time. i want to visit with my colleagues for a few minutes about the impact of our federal government and what it is doing to our country's future and to future generations and that is something that has been foremost in my mind this week. this week our family has welcomed a new baby. georgia kay graham was born in new york city at 2:25 monday morning. so as we have welcomed her, as we think about her future, one of the things that we are discussing is what kind of america will she have to grow up in? how solvent will we be? will we still be the country that celebrates the american dream? will we be the country that focuses on opportunity, that looks to entrepreneurs and innovators to create a better day? not only for america but for the entire world. this is also the time, madam chairman, as we look at what has happened with our nation's budget, with our nation's spending, that we look at the long-term effects of so many of the programs and entitlements that are placed before us. now, one

mrs. blackburn. >> we are looking forward to getting your perspective of what went wrong and how went wrong with the rollout. we were repeatedly told by members of the administration that everything would be working properly and it would be done on time. assurances seem to sway some people on the other side of the aisle. they believed things would be done on time. yesterday, mr. waxman and i were agreeing on some things in a hearing. last month, we were disagreeing. he had said that nothing could be found from our committee's investigation of exchange implementation and readiness. .e were quite concerned the definition of nothing has turned out to be design choices that hide unaffordable premiums, glitches, dead ends, ara messages, system breakdowns, and sages, and-- error mes americans spending time on a system not ready for prime time. we are going to join together for proper oversight of the health care law. this is taxpayer money on the line. we need to be judicious. the past three weeks of exchange have demonstrated that nobody can be a blind cheerleader for the affordable care act whe

marsha blackburn asking mrs. sebelius about two of her constituents who were swept off the plan they liked and chose. i thought that was a very dismissive answer. >> it was very dismissive and in fact, somewhere between 15 and 19 million people in the individual market will be affected by this. you recall all the times the president said we're going to cure the preexisting condition problem, rescission problem, all of those problems affected that same very small market and suddenly they're dismissive of it. stuart: quickly. >> and quickly, madam secretary is essentially saying that youh though the health exchange websites have been crippled and marsha blackburn. >> not just the website problem. coercion, you must buy our product and pay what we say. stuart: and pay more. >> john dingell, democrat, michigan, asking questions now. >> not beating a dead horse, mr. bartan who gave us the beginning of our efforts today. madam secretary, as he reports to consumer receiving plan cancellation notices from their insurance

blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman. madam secretary, before, during, and after the law was passed, the president kept saying if you like your plan, you can keep it. is he keeping his promise? >> yes, he is. >> what do you say to the 300,000 people in florida you just mentioned or the 28,000 in tennessee that cannot get health insurance. those are terminated. is he keeping their promise to them? >> they can get health insurance. they must be offered new plans and new options in the market place and if they don't qualify for a financial subsidy. they absolutely will have new coverage. >> what are do you say to nbc new who is said millions will lose their coverage. >> with all deference to the press corps and many will be here today, it's important to be accurate and i defer to the president of the plan. they will have ongoing coverage and be offered new plans. >> madam secretary, let me tell you something. what do you say to mark and lucinda who had a plan they liked and it was affordable, but it is being terminate and no

mrs. blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman.am secretary, before, during and after the law was passed, the president kept saying, if you like your health care plan you can keep it. so is he keeping his promise? >> yes, he is. >> what do you say to the 300,000 people in florida, you just mentioned, or to the 28,000 in tennessee who cannot get health insurance, their plans are terminated, is he keeping his promise to them? >> first of all, congresswoman, they can get health insurance. they must be offered new plans, new options either inside the marketplace or if they don't qualify for a subsidy -- financial subsidy they can shop or out of the marketplace, they absolutely will have new coverage. >> what do you say to nbc news millions will lose their coverage? >> in all deference to the press corps, many of whom are here today, i think that it is important to be accurate about what is going on and i would defer, again, to the president of the -- they will be offered new plans. >> madam secretary, let me tell you something -- >> wi

blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman. madam secretary, before during and after the law was passed the president kept saying if you like your health care plan, you can keep it, so is he keeping his promise? >> yes, he is. >> okay. what do you say to the 300,000 people in florida you just mentioned or the 28,000 in tennessee that cannot get health insurance joshgs their plans are terminated. he keeping his promise to them? >> first of all they can get health insurance. they must be offered new plans, new options, either inside the marketplace or if they don't qualify for a financial subsidy, they absolutely -- >> what do you see to nbc news who says millions are going to lose their coverage. >> in all deference to the press corps i think it is important to be accurate in what is going on and i would de -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> they will be offered new plans -- >> madam secretary - secretary -secretary -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> what do you say to mark and lucinda in my district, who had a plan that they liked, but

blackburn. >> recognize for two minutes. >> thank you, mr. speaker. as we heard, we received this news yesterday that our priests and ministers could end up facing government arrest if they attempt you celebrate mass or openly practice their faith on a military base during this government shutdown. a shutdown we did not want. a shutdown that could have been avoided had the president and senator reid agreed to negotiate with us. this is so unfortunate. no mass, no communion, no confession, no faith, no religion. religious beliefs predate government. government should not be able to tell those who are religious whether they can practice their , regardless of our government funding situation. what we are seeking is accountability, transparency, and reducing what the federal government spends. government funding is irrelevant to the religious rights and freedoms that are enshrined in the first amendment of our constitution. you do not get to throw away the constitution just because they are unwilling to sit down and negotiate and work with us through this

blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to go back to mr. waxman's question, talking about the agreements. mr. may, let me come to you, and in mr. feld, i'm going to want to hear from you. do you think the fcc should do a pilot project? and test some of the ip networks to figure out how to make the transition easier for consumers, for businesses? where are you on the pilot project? >> i'm in favor of one but i have to say i probably don't need to be as delicate as mr. cicconi may need to be. i think the fcc has been a little slow i would say in getting these trials off the ground. so i would like to see them move quickly. and i think they would yield useful information. but i don't want to see them used over a long time of watching the fcc. sometimes i know when you start things like this they can be used in ways that delay ultimately the ultimate decision-making. that shouldn't be allowed to happen with these projects. you started out by mentioning the interconnection in the ip transition, and i just -- i said this in my testimony with rega

mr. roberts interviewed republican congresswoman marsha blackburn on tuesday. >> when it comes to obama care, do you hate obama care more than you love your country? >> i've got to tell you something, i think that comments like that, that you are making are just incredibly inappropriate. what we have to realize is -- >> you don't think it's incredibly inappropriate to shut down our government -- you've taken the government hostage to a shutdown and now the american people you are walking to them a cliff, the economy, and you're going to push them over one by one based on the fact that you don't like the aca. that's all it is. >> listen to yourself. we didn't want a government shutdown. just listen to the way you're sounding. my goodness. >> but why is congresswoman blackburn surprised? did she really believe she'd get a fair shake in those precincts? really? the facts are clear, both republicans and democrats try to drive agendas in the federal funding debate. that's usually what happens in washington. and so ties are responsible for is president obama. but when you devote your life to ideol

blackburn. >> thank you, mr. chairman. madam secretary, before, during and after the law was passed the president kept saying if you like your health care plan you can keep it. so is keeping his promise? >> yes, he is. >> okay. what do you say to the 300,000 people in florida you just mentioned or to the 28,000 in tennessee that can not get health insurance? their plans are terminated. is keeping his promise to them? >> first of all, congresswoman, they can get health insurance. they must be offered new plans, new options, either inside the marketplace or if they don't qualify for a financial subsidy they can shop, they absolutely will have new coverage. >> what do you say to nbc news who says millions will lose their coverage? >> in all deference to the press corps, many of whom are here today, i think that it's important to be accurate about what is going on and i would defer again to the president of the blues plan. >> reclaiming time. >> they will be offered new plans. >> madam secretary, let me tell youing. >> -- whil

blackburn. >> thank you mr. chairman and i want to thank you for holding this hearing. it is important and it's in timely and i want to welcome our witnesses. thank you for being here. competition and looking at how that has changed and the communications marketplace and today we have that intermodal competition among the ilx, clecs cable network and others but these competitive services are subject to different rules based on outdated assumptions and i think it's not easy for regulators in the federal government and here in d.c. to change how they think about the treatment toward communications in today's marketplace. and i do feel that it is our responsibility to look at how we create the appropriate environment for some regulatory certainty in place and then encourage that private capital and investment and focus on creating jobs. there are three things that i want to drill down on a little bit today with you all. number one is it fair to tell someone who wants to invest in tomorrow's technology they need to slow down in order to maintain an old network that they don

mr. chairman. madame secretary, i think congresswoman blackburn asked you about how much they spent today and they're spending some money as we speak, aren't they? it's down right now, isn't it? you projected ongoing problems? >> i'm sorry, sir, i'm having a hard time hearing. what was the -- >> she asked you how much you have spent today and i'm asking you what you expect to pay niche to that on the repairs that the website will require and they're requiring them as we speak here. so those are things you project, you knew they would happen and they will happen. which you surely looked ahead and you have some estimate of what is going to happen. >> yes, sir. >> going to on. >> for our two major contractors who are qssi, subsidiary of united and for cgi, there are obligated amounts. for cgi who is in charge of the entire application, there has been $197 million obligated. and that is to last through march of 2014. as i said before, about $104 million has been expended in that only gate eobligated amoun. >> i'll try to be here in 2014 to make sure that your testimony is correct. i'm just joking with yo

mr. chairman. madame secretary, i think congresswoman blackburn asked you about the federal government and how much they spent today and they're spending some money as we speak, aren't they? it's down right now, isn't it? you project ongoing problems? >> i'm sorry, sir. i'm having a hard time hearing. >> she asked you how much it had spent today and i'm asking what you expect to pay in addition to that on the repairs that the website is going to require and they require them as we speak here. so those are things you projected and you knew they would happen and they will happen. but you looked ahead and you have some estimate of what is going to happen. >> yes, sir. >> and going to cost. >> for our two major contractors who are ussi, subsidiary of united and for cgi, there are obligated amounts. for cgi who is in charge of the entire application, there has been $197 million obligated and that is to last through march of 2014 and as i said before about $104 million has been expended in that obligated amount. >> i'm going to try to be here in 2014 to make sure your testimony is correct, okay. i'm just

listen to what marsha blackburn had to say about the house's approach to the government spending crisis, listen to her. >> what you all want is ugly or evil or dirty. what we are for, mr. speaker, is an accountable transparent cr. an accountable transparent process. transparent and fair to hard working taxpayers. fair to future generations, like my grandsons, my nieces, great nieces and nephews who are going to have to pay the bill. let's have an accountable spending process. >> and so representative blackburn is talking about this continuing resolution. the bill that would reopen the doors of the government. she argues that the democrats want the republicans in the house to call a voe on the spending bill funding the whole government. they believe it will pass. and representative blackburn was arguing the case to house republicans they want to fund the parts of the government that they want to fund and they say everyone agrees on. one major thing everyone doesn't agree on is continued funding for obama care. >> all right, a trkright, thank. >>> president obama is calling out republicans over the government shutdown. this morning he demanded that republicans stop the

blackburn who smoked out secretary sebelius. >> joining us now pennsylvania congressman tim murphy he was part of the hearing and he heads the subcommittee investigations and oversight. welcome back, mrrphy, we appreciate it. let me ask you this. you had this big hearing with sebelius and you heard the president up in boston or got wind of it up in boston. they are to coin a phrase, stonewalling. in other words, they don't want to change anything and the reason i'm asking you this, sir, is there's some talk about a delay about the individual mandated parts of it, and i would positive you that they would not want to delay anything. what's your take? >> well, i hear rumblings of that particularly from some members who with want to push bills like that, but i certainly don't hear the secretary or the president saying that, and i'm not sure they do. i mean, they are saying that this is a glitch, these are some problem, bumps in the road. this is a serious problem what's happening. people are scared to death because they're getting letters saying your insurance is being discontinued. they're finding more expensive options. yes, there are some less expensive options available and some peop