Michael Burgess

Mr. BURGESS

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 3029, the PREEMIE Reauthorization Act of 2018. This bill passed the Senate with robust bipartisan support, and I expect it will do the same in this Chamber. This bill reauthorizes a program that is vital to the health and well-being of premature babies and their mothers. It is fitting that we have called this legislation to the floor following Prematurity Awareness Month, which took place the month of November. While we are taking up the Senate bill, which was led by the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Chairman Lamar Alexander and Senator Michael Bennet, I would like to thank our House champions of this legislation, Representative Anna Eshoo and Representative Leonard Lance. I am pleased that we were able to rally bicameral, bipartisan support around improving the health of premature infants. Preterm and low birth weight, combined, make up the second leading cause of infant death following birth defects. This legislation will increase research relating to preterm labor and delivery and the care, treatment, and outcomes of preterm and low birthweight infants. Preemies and low birthweight infants are at risk for various health challenges and disabilities, and we still have much to learn about factors relating to prematurity. This bill allows for continued collection of maternal-infant clinical and biomedical information in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. Such data collection and surveillance will allow the CDC, and national, State, and local health officials to have a better picture of what prematurity, including its causes and impacts, looks like in our country. This legislation also requires the Advisory Committee on Maternal and Infant Health to publicly publish and submit to Congress a report on its activities and recommendations. That advisory committee has been tasked with developing strategies to address gaps in Federal research, programs, and education efforts related to the prevention of severe maternal morbidity, maternal mortality, infant mortality, and other adverse birth outcomes. This ties nicely into H.R. 1318, the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act, which will also be on the floor of this House this afternoon. Additionally, this legislation establishes an interagency working group, directing the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to collaborate with other departments to improve coordination of programs and activities to prevent preterm birth, infant mortality, and related adverse birth outcomes. The working group is required to submit a report to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support S. 3029, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Lance), one of the authors of this legislation.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to take a second and thank Representative Davis for his kind remarks, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support S. 3029, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. BURGESS

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6615) to reauthorize the Traumatic Brain Injury program, as amended.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6615, the Traumatic Brain Injury Program Reauthorization Act, and I would like to thank Representatives Bill Pascrell and Representative Thomas Rooney for introducing this important legislation. Traumatic brain injuries impact many families each and every year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report last month that found that young children have one of the highest rates of TBI-related emergency department visits. These injuries can harm the developing brain and have the potential to impact a child's cognitive abilities in the long term. Whether the result of a hard hit during a football game as a teen, a car crash in middle age, or a fall as a senior, traumatic brain injuries pose various and serious risks to Americans. This legislation reauthorizes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traumatic brain injury initiatives at a level of $675 million per year for fiscal years 2019 through 2023. Additionally, this bill authorizes the National Concussion Surveillance System at a level of $5 million per year through fiscal year 2023. This is important in ensuring that we have adequate data regarding who is getting concussions, how they are treated, and if there are any trends. This data will help identify where individuals are seeking healthcare treatment, if they are seeking treatment at all. Additionally, we do not currently have national estimates of the number of individuals living with disabilities due to brain injury, and this system will help to establish such estimates. The Centers for Disease Control plans to conduct its data collection via telephone surveys and a pilot test to ensure that we will get the best data from a wide range of households. The bill also reauthorizes State grants for protection and advocacy services at the Administration for Community Living. These services protect individuals with disabilities by providing them with legal support, especially when it comes to their ability to make certain lifestyle choices, such as living independently. This is particularly important given that individuals who suffer from traumatic brain injury, such as concussions, may experience a disability. According to the CDC, more than 61 percent of children with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury experience a disability. We have yet to see what cost to these individuals and to society these disabilities convey in the long term. The culmination of the programs that will be reauthorized by this legislation provides hope to individuals and families that are affected by traumatic brain injury. We still have much to learn about the risks and the short- and long-term effects of traumatic brain injury, and this legislation will chip away at our goal of increasing knowledge, awareness, and treatment of traumatic brain injury. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 6615, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 6615, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1318) to support States in their work to save and sustain the health of mothers during pregnancy, childbirth, and in the postpartum period, to eliminate disparities in maternal health outcomes for pregnancy-related and pregnancy-associated deaths, to identify solutions to improve health care quality and health outcomes for mothers, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1318, the Preventing Maternal Deaths Act. I am glad that we are finally calling up this bill for a vote, as it is a truly important bill that will impact the lives of pregnant women and new mothers across this country. The media's attention to the issue of maternal morbidity and mortality has shed light on serious problems within our healthcare system in terms of pre- and postpartum care and complications in the delivery room. I thank Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler and Representative Diana DeGette for their leadership on this critical legislation. Ms. Herrera Beutler testified before the Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health this September in support of her bill, which she and her staff have been working on daily to get across the finish line. She and I have shared a goal to improve maternal outcomes, and I am grateful that we had an opportunity to continue to push this priority forward together. I also thank the committee staff, which has been working through the language with the various stakeholders over the course of the past year. Their work has been imperative in getting this bill to the floor. Having spent nearly three decades as an OB/GYN, I believe it should be a national goal to eliminate all preventable maternal deaths. A single one is too many. The alarming trend in our country's rate of maternal mortality first came to my attention in September 2016 when I was reading in my professional journal called The Green Journal, the journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. The original research found that the maternal mortality rate had increased in 48 States and Washington, D.C., from 2000 to 2014 while the international trend was moving in the opposite direction. Since reading that article, I have spoken with providers, hospital administrators, State task forces, and public health experts. The more I dove into this troubling issue, the more I realized how little we understand about how our data is lacking. The Health Subcommittee has held both a member briefing and a hearing on the issue of maternal mortality. Our hearing this past September had a varied panel of witnesses, including Charles Johnson, who lost his wife, Kira, following the birth of their second child in 2016. Mr. Johnson's wife was a healthy and energetic woman, yet he now has to explain to his two sons why their mother is never coming home. The Johnson family is not alone in living through such tragedy. However, if we pass this bill today and send it to the President's desk, we will be taking a step in the right direction toward preventing future maternal deaths. This is a problem that we cannot address without accurate data. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States' maternal mortality rate was 7.2 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1999 and increased to 18 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014. These are statistics that deserve our full attention. Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler's bill will address the complex issue of maternal mortality by enabling States to form maternal mortality review committees to evaluate, improve, and standardize their maternity death data. Once we fully understand the problem, there will be an opportunity to use the data to implement best practices. Texas is an excellent example of a State that has created and sustained a maternal mortality and morbidity task force. Texas has put time, effort, and funding into reviewing maternal deaths in order to identify trends and causes. Most of the pregnancy-related and pregnancy-associated deaths--or many, I should say--are preventable, but they are all tragic. We should not be losing women to such a fixable problem, leaving their newborn babies and their families to have to wake up each day to face the unsolved mystery of why the mother did not make it home from the hospital or died shortly thereafter. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Herrera Beutler), who is the principal author of the bill.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), who is a valuable member of the Health Subcommittee.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette).

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Just in addition to all the other people who have been thanked, I want to acknowledge the work of my personal staff, Mr. Ed Kim and Elizabeth Allen, who have worked so hard on this bill, as well as Dr. Kristen Shatynski on the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health staff, who really helped push this along and made sure that we got here today in a successful manner. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Chuck Carpenter for his 36 years of service and leadership with the Denton Chamber of Commerce. Chuck first arrived in Denton as a recent Baylor University graduate, and joined the Denton Chamber to launch and lead the Denton Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) as its first director. In this role, Chuck was tasked with promoting the City of Denton and bolstering tourism. In 1982, Chuck was selected to be the President of the Denton Chamber of Commerce. He has remained at the helm ever since as a steady figure for the community. During his 36 year tenure as president, Chuck has been a major player as Denton has grown to our current population of more than 137,000 citizens. This growth included the relocation of Peterbilt's Divisional Headquarters and dozens of other businesses that comprise the strong employment base of the city. Chuck established the joint Chamber-City Office of Economic Development to continue the work in drawing employers to the City and launched to first official relocation guide to assist these companies and their employees in becoming a part of the community. Chuck supported community interests and awareness by starting the Small Business Development Center, Adopt-a-School and the creation of the Discover Denton Welcome Center on the Square. He engaged the community in civic and community matters through Denton County Days in Austin, the DC Fly-In and his Chamber Action column in the Denton Record Chronicle. He also launched Leadership Denton, the Small Business Development Center and Women in Business to better engage both current and future leaders. In addition, he sought to recognize leaders and community milestones through the Volunteer of the Year Award and the celebration of both the 75th and 100th Chamber anniversaries. For more than 36 years, Chuck has been an institution to leaders representing business, industry, non-profits, and elected office. Chuck's daily community presence, his wisdom, and community knowledge will be sorely missed as he moves into retirement. On behalf of the 26th District of Texas, I extend my sincere thanks to him for the impact he has made, and wish him and his family the very best.

Mr. BURGESS

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for bringing us together for this hour to pay tribute to our American hero who served on the front lines of our Nation's history for, really, almost a century. From the skies of the Pacific to the Yale baseball diamond, to the oilfields of Texas, to the floor of the United States House of Representatives, to the streets of Beijing and the halls of the White House, President George Herbert Walker Bush led a life of humble leadership, courage, and conviction. Over five decades, he built an unmatched resume. His accomplishments, while impressive on their own, are extraordinary when bundled together. After the war, he left his New England home to move his young family to west Texas, where he pursued an oil career and later served the people of the Seventh Congressional District here in the United States House of Representatives. As a leader, President Bush faced some of the greatest challenges of his time: He worked to open new paths of diplomacy in China; he helped to restore confidence in the Central Intelligence Agency; and he worked alongside President Reagan to make America great. Though he is perhaps better known for making waves overseas, our 41st President achieved new heights at home when he opened new doors for Americans with disabilities. While President Bush had a robust resume stacked with prestigious jobs at critical times in American history, most of us will remember him from the roles he held most dear: for 73 years, President Bush was a devoted husband of Barbara Pierce, a legend in her own right, with whom he built an honorable family of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Together, President and Mrs. Bush wove their own story of the American Dream. There is no doubt that President Bush made the State of Texas, the United States of America, and the global community a better place to live. On behalf of my constituents in the 26th District of Texas, I thank him for his matchless service to our country, and I join a grateful nation to thank the Bush family for sharing him with us.

Mr. BURGESS

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a trailblazer and dedicated public servant. Judge Mary Horn has served our North Texas community for decades. Although she was born and raised in Minnesota, Judge Horn has deep roots in the Lone Star State. After a successful business career, she won her 1992 bid for Denton County Tax Assessor-Collector, becoming the first woman to serve in the position. After nearly a decade, she once again set out on the path to blaze a new trial. In 2002, Judge Horn made history as the first woman to serve as a Denton County Judge. Over the last 16 years, Judge Horn has helped to lead our county through unprecedented growth. During her tenure as the longest serving Denton County Judge, she has shown great wisdom, compassion, and dedication. It has been a great joy to count Judge Horn as a friend and fellow public servant. Her achievements are numerous, her contributions are significant, and her accolades are well-deserved. On behalf of the 26th District of Texas, I extend my sincere thanks to Judge Horn upon her retirement, and I wish her and her family well as they enter this new season together.

Mr. BURGESS

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6753) to amend title XI of the Social Security Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a public- private partnership for purposes of identifying health care waste, fraud, and abuse, as amended.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material in the Record on the bill.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of H.R. 6753, the Strengthening the Health Care Fraud Prevention Task Force Act of 2018, authored by Chairman Greg Walden and Ranking Member Frank Pallone of the Energy and Commerce Committee. H.R. 6753 seeks to codify the Health Care Fraud Prevention Partnership, which would better equip public and private organizations to combat and prevent fraud and abuse in our healthcare system. Tens of billions of dollars are lost to healthcare fraud in the United States every year, and much of this fraud is preventable or, at the very least, detectable. Fraud and abuse within our healthcare system comes in various forms, ranging from telephone or email scams to obtain patient information to fraudulent billing practices. Healthcare fraud is not only costly to the Federal and State governments and an avoidable waste of taxpayer dollars. Fraud and abuse is costly for, and often hurtful to, American patients. For example, in May of this year, a doctor in Texas was indicted in a fraud case involving $240 million worth of claims. A Department of Justice investigation found that the rheumatologist had given patients false diagnoses, followed by chemotherapy and other treatments that they did not need. Americans should feel confident in and be able to trust their doctors. The unfortunate reality is that there are bad actors who make decisions based solely on financial interests and not on what is best for the patient or for their fellow citizens. Another Texas case was settled just last month as a hospital administrator in Houston was convicted for his involvement in a $16 million fraud scheme. In this particular case, the hospital administrator had orchestrated a system of kickbacks with various individuals in return for sending Medicare patients to certain partial hospitalization program services. Thanks to various investigative bodies bridging the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, this fraud was uncovered and investigated in an effort to protect both patients and taxpayer dollars from exploitation. Lastly, near my district in north Texas, there was a scheme in which a semiretired doctor signed off on fraudulent paperwork, including payments for fake patients. What started as a retirement gig rubber- stamping documents ended in his conviction, due to his involvement in a $13 million home healthcare scam. The scam in its entirety stole $373 million from Medicare and Medicaid. I could go on with stories of healthcare fraud just in Texas, because these three examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, rampant healthcare fraud is not a Texas-specific issue. It is prevalent across our Nation. This is why we need to pass H.R. 6753 and codify the Health Care Fraud Prevention Partnership. The partnership was established by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and the United States Attorney General in September 2012 through the signing of a charter. It is currently operated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and has allowed for increased coordination in addressing healthcare fraud, waste, and abuse, but has not been codified in statute. This partnership is voluntary among both private and public entities to reduce fraud in our healthcare system. Participants in this critical partnership include the Federal Government, State agencies, law enforcement, private health insurance plans, employer organizations, and other associations. The partnership allows for robust analyses of healthcare across different players, including Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers. While these partners have access to their own data, cross-payer analyses are crucial in identifying savings and increasing detection of fraud, waste, and abuse. Collaborating through data sharing and other methods, the partners can paint a broad picture of the fraud networks and cast a wide net, increasing the ability to intervene and stop payments, and establish new and effective fraud prevention techniques. It is worth noting that, in addition to codifying and formalizing the Health Care Fraud Prevention Task Force, the bill requires the task force to perform an analysis of abnormal or fraudulent billing patterns and trends by providers and suppliers of substance use disorder treatments. This effort fits nicely into what Congress has accomplished this year with the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act being signed into law. H.R. 6753 will make a difference in cutting waste, fraud, and abuse in our healthcare system. I support this legislation and urge fellow Members to do the same. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.