Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy, as I appreciate his leadership on this.
Mr. Speaker, I have sat on the floor for the entire debate--of both the Commerce and Ways and Means Committees--and it is really exciting. I was one of those people who didn't vote for the balanced budget agreement back in the day, but I have been frustrated by this as much as anybody. I had legislation that would just simply reset the baseline, but, actually, this is better.
It is better because we have had Ways and Means, Commerce, and Finance Committees come together for several years and develop a reform that will strengthen opportunities for better payment. It is better because we have seen the minority leader and the Speaker of the House come together to empower the committees to do their job.
I was struck by the words of Majority Leader McCarthy when he said this was a good day, and he thinks that this will not be the last such day. I sincerely hope that that is the case, that it signals opportunities for us all to go forward.
I like the fact that we have added things in here like the SCHIP. We have even gotten Secure Rural Schools, funding extended which makes a big difference for people in the West, especially Oregon.
I am hopeful that we can step forward. We have got another cliff that is facing us in 2 months: the transportation cliff. People are talking about 17 SGR fixes here when we have had 23 short term extensions for the transportation system.
I would hope that we could take the same spirit of cooperation and bipartisanship and listen to people in the outside world--organized labor, the AFL-CIO, the U.S. chamber, contractors, local government, environmentalists--who are all speaking with one voice: Congress, get your act together; give us funding to be able to fund the transportation bill for the first time in years and rebuild and renew America, to put people to work--and to show the same sort of bipartisan cooperation that I find really invigorating today.
I hope the next thing we do is have the Ways and Means Committee, the committee of jurisdiction, step forward to solve the transportation problem. It is even easier than the SGR.
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