John Barrasso

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that with respect to the Rao nomination, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today as the pain of ObamaCare around the country continues to worsen. Healthcare prices continue to rise. ObamaCare is collapsing, basically, more and more every day. People in every State of this Union have seen their healthcare costs skyrocket. It has happened everywhere around the country. We must do something to help the American people who are suffering under the heavy weight that ObamaCare has placed on their lives. I was at a hospital this past weekend in Casper, WY, my hometown, and I talked to doctors, nurses, and patients. What I hear at home in Wyoming is that there is an urgent need to do something about the high costs and the limited choices under the Obama healthcare law. We are having discussions right now about the very best way to do that. Whatever we come up with, it is going to be a fundamental change in a direction away from ObamaCare. That is what America wants. That is what America needs. It is what the American people are asking us to do. One of the biggest steps we need to take is to get rid of the ObamaCare mandates and penalties. I hear about it day in and day out. I heard about it in my office yesterday from a woman who was in town visiting on another matter, but she talked about her experience with the ObamaCare situation where her premiums have gone way up, and the deductibles are up so high that even though they are counted under ObamaCare as having insurance, her husband would tell you that he will not go to a doctor because, with a $6,500 deductible, he feels he cannot afford to. But he is counted under ObamaCare. He wants more choices. He wants more control of his own life. And he wants to eliminate the taxes and the mandates. I am sure the Presiding Officer hears this at home: People hate the fact that there is a mandate that says they have to buy insurance that Washington says they have to buy--that the Democrats have said they have to buy--rather than what might work for them and their family and be cheaper and work better for them and be more tailored to their family's needs. There are more than 19 million people across the country who have decided that they are going to pay a penalty to the IRS or they received a waiver so they didn't have to get ObamaCare insurance-- either pay the penalty or get a waiver. These are people who made the fundamental decision that ObamaCare insurance was not a good deal for them. The second thing we need to do, I believe, is to repeal the burdensome and expensive ObamaCare taxes. Healthcare costs have been soaring under ObamaCare. One of the reasons is because the healthcare law added almost $1 trillion of additional taxes on to the backs of hard-working Americans. These are the taxes that specifically raised the cost for people needing health insurance and healthcare. They put taxes on things needed by people who are in need of medical care. Somebody who needs a pacemaker, someone who needs a walker, a wheelchair, an artificial joint--additional taxes on all of these users of medical devices, medical supplies, of over-the-counter pain medicines, over- the-counter medicine for fever, sore throat, as well as prescription medications. The taxes are on just about everything, and then, of course, the tax on health insurance itself. So if you buy health insurance, you have to pay a tax on that. What is that going to do to the cost of health insurance? It is going to raise the cost for people who have health insurance. When the Democrats were debating and voting in support of the ObamaCare law on this floor of the Senate, they conveniently failed to mention all of these new taxes to the American people. The third important thing that Republicans are committed to doing is to give much more flexibility to the States when it comes to making and developing healthcare solutions for the future. I served 5 years in the Wyoming State Senate. We always felt that we could do a lot better job if we just had a little more local control, a little less in terms of government mandates, and make that same amount of money work that much better and go that much further and take care of that many more people. Medicaid is the prime example. I had a State legislator in from Wyoming today, and in the office we were talking about Medicaid and what role the States play and what role the Federal Government plays, how to make dollars go further at home. ObamaCare increased the amount of money that Washington sends to States that chose to expand their Medicaid Programs. Of course, that is taxpayer money. Then ObamaCare paid a bonus--a bonus--to States that decided to not focus on the area where Medicaid was intended originally to be focused, which was on poor women, children, and the disabled. They didn't get a bonus--not at all. No bonus money to help those people. The bonus money went to help able- bodied, working-age adults. That is not whom Medicaid was set up to help in the first place. Why should Washington collect money from people at home and then send it back out to the States with all of these new Washington mandates and restrictions on how the money is spent? I have much more confidence in the people of my home State of Wyoming and in the people of the Presiding Officer's State of Arkansas than I do in any bureaucrat in Washington, DC. When it comes to developing good ideas about improving America's healthcare, I always believe in more flexibility and local control and patient control. The more we are working with doctors and communities, working with State legislators, the better. We need more flexibility in every State; we don't need Washington telling all of us what to do. If we give people and States more options, there will be more affordable options for insurance as well as for care. Democrats tried their goal of a one-size-fits-all, Washington- mandated approach. That is what ObamaCare was all about, and it did not work. I want to talk about one other thing Republicans are committed to doing with our healthcare reform plan, and that is stabilizing insurance markets while other reforms can take effect. The ObamaCare exchanges are completely falling apart. Week after week, there is another story, another headline about the disaster that is ObamaCare. We look at a headline in a Chicago paper: ``Another Obamacare rate shock.'' ``Another'' and ``shock'' with rates--that is what people are seeing around the country. Last week, we learned that another 77,000 people in Indiana will lose their ObamaCare plans. Two more insurance companies are leaving the market there. Across the country, there are more than 40 counties where no one will be selling ObamaCare insurance next year--no one. Premiums have already doubled because of ObamaCare in the last 4 years. Next year, people's rates may go up another 40 percent, 50 percent--well above that in other places. We cannot allow this to continue. The American people cannot afford it, it is not good for our country, and it is not good for the people living in this country. We need to make sure we help support people who do need help paying their premiums. We need to give insurance companies more flexibility to offer the kinds of plans that people actually want to buy. We need to give States the ability to support their markets in ways that make sense for people in that State. The discussion draft of our plan includes ideas to help keep the individual market going in a much stronger way than it is under ObamaCare today. It stabilizes the markets. The insurance company Anthem put out a statement on Monday. The company said that these kinds of ideas ``will markedly improve the stability of the individual market and moderate premium increases.'' Anthem has been dropping out of exchanges across the country because the markets are unsustainable under ObamaCare. That has to be one of our goals as we continue to discuss legislation--stabilizing the markets and reducing premiums. There are a lot of good ideas on ways to do it. We are committed to exploring those ideas and putting together a plan that will help give people the care they need, from a doctor they choose, at lower costs. That is what the American people want us to do. That is what we are working on. There are limits under the Senate rules that keep us from doing some things we would all like to do. If Democrats are ready to work with us and to be part of the conversation, I think we can do some things to make this bill even better. But the situation we have today in this country for healthcare is not working. ObamaCare has collapsed. Healthcare is in a state of crisis. Those who supported ObamaCare and voted for it have caused it. We are just trying to clean up the mess. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I just had an opportunity to read the legislation of the Senator from New Hampshire. It appears that the legislation was just filed today. Instead of giving the American people time to read the bill, the Senate is being asked to pass the legislation now. At a minimum, shouldn't the American people have at least a day to read the proposal? Putting that aside, this bill seeks to address another major failure of ObamaCare. That is what they are trying to do here. As a doctor, I want insurance to be affordable for patients all across the country. This bill confirms what we all know--that ObamaCare is not affordable. The Senator is well aware of the large premium increases in her own State. It is not just the premiums that are skyrocketing. This week, I spoke to a woman in Wyoming. She told me that the deductible under her ObamaCare plan is so high that her husband refuses to go visit the doctor. She said that it is $6,500 for her and $6,500 for him and that he will not go to a doctor with that kind of a deductible. According to supporters of ObamaCare, this person is actually covered under ObamaCare, but as a doctor, I see things differently in that healthcare must be more affordable for everyone. The Senator's proposal seeks to throw more money at a systemic problem with ObamaCare. Instead, we should be passing bills that actually bring down the cost of care. When the Senator mentions the CSRs, I will point out that absolutely every payment has been made--every one--all the way up until today. People also talk about the sabotaging of the market. To me, the sabotaging of the insurance companies and the insurance market in this country has been because of ObamaCare's mandating that people buy insurance--buy more than they want, more than they need, and more than they can afford in so many cases, and it is insurance that provides very hollow opportunities to actually use the insurance. Again, I appreciate the acknowledgment that ObamaCare is clearly not working; however, our focus should be on policies that make healthcare more affordable to all Americans. I object.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, reserving my right to object, before coming to the Senate, I practiced medicine in Wyoming for over 20 years. That is why I am passionate about improving the quality of care and lowering the cost of healthcare. Unfortunately, we know healthcare is in a crisis. Premiums and deductibles are skyrocketing, and insurance is unaffordable. It is interesting to hear the comments when we are talking about the sabotaging of the marketplace. It is ObamaCare that has sabotaged the marketplace. The Presiding Officer knows fully well, as do I, that when you look at the co-ops that were set up all around the country under ObamaCare, one after another went bankrupt--belly-up, shut down--and left people uncovered. That was before we even knew who the Republican nominee for President was going to be in 2016. That is ObamaCare. That was at a time when all there was out there was the Obama healthcare law. One co-op after another failed, and it cost the taxpayers billions of dollars--guaranteed loans that will never be paid back. Just like the bill we just discussed, this proposal is an important acknowledgment by the Senator from Missouri. It is the acknowledgment that ObamaCare's collapsing insurance markets are affecting people all around the country. In Missouri, 18,000 people in 25 counties will have zero options on the ObamaCare exchanges--zero. They have been promised that their preexisting conditions will be covered, and no one is selling insurance in those counties in that State. They have basically been misled by ObamaCare that they will be covered for preexisting conditions. In the Republican plan, what we are doing is covering people who have preexisting conditions. Let me say again that next year thousands of people in Missouri will have no insurance company that will be willing to sell insurance in the ObamaCare exchange. It is clear that insurance markets in Missouri are collapsing, as they are all around the country. This bill is not the solution. Instead of giving people more choices in Missouri, what does the bill do? It sends people to Washington, DC, to buy their health insurance--a typical solution from the other side of the aisle. Instead of empowering States with more flexibility and the authority at the State level, they think once again that Washington knows best. They think that the people they represent would rather call a bureaucrat who is hundreds of miles away than talk with local people who live and work in their communities. The simple fact is that ObamaCare is not providing patients with the increased choices they were promised. We need to rescue people in Missouri and across the country from ObamaCare. This bill is the wrong approach. I object.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I yield back all time.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak in support of President Trump's nomination of Kristine Svinicki to continue serving as a nuclear safety regulator. Ms. Svinicki has served as a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for more than 9 years. In January, President Trump designated Ms. Svinicki as the Chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She is well qualified. In her time in office, she has proven to be knowledgeable, dedicated, and an outstanding public servant. She also has been very responsive to Congress. Since becoming a Commissioner, she has testified 18 times before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Before becoming a member of the NRC, she served as staff in the U.S. Senate, as a nuclear engineer at the Department of Energy, and as an energy engineer for the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. She has already been confirmed twice to serve on the NRC. In both 2008 and 2012, her nomination was approved by the Environment and Public Works Committee and by the full Senate, each time by voice vote. Earlier this month, the Environment and Public Works Committee approved her nomination for a third time, again by voice vote. Her nomination has garnered support from groups like Third Way, which is a think tank once labeled as ``radical centrists'' by the New York Times. Josh Freed, who is the vice president of the Clean Energy Program at Third Way, said this: ``Svinicki's work at the NRC has resulted in improved readiness to regulate small modular and advanced reactors that could provide enormous benefits for climate, American leadership, and domestic job creation.'' He went on to say that Chairman Svinicki's continued leadership at the NRC is needed now more than ever. The Senate must act quickly to confirm Ms. Svinicki. Unless she is confirmed by June 30, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will no longer have a quorum of its members. We can't let that happen. The NRC has an important mission of regulating America's nuclear industry. The Commission serves to protect public health and the environment. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission needs a quorum of its members in office to meet its mission. We need to confirm Kristine Svinicki, and I urge all Senators to vote yes on her nomination. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I have six requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They do not have the approval of the Democratic leader; therefore, they will not be permitted to meet, but I ask unanimous consent that a list of committees requesting authority to meet be printed in the Record.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today, having returned from the weekend in Wyoming, talking to people as a physician, and talking to former patients of mine. What I see is that the pain of ObamaCare is continuing to worsen around the country for men, women, families, and people who have been living under the Obama healthcare law for a number of years now. This is an important day, when insurance companies have to come up with the filings and the plans on what they plan to do for next year with regard to plans that meet the ObamaCare mandate. So very soon, millions of people will find out if they are going to be able to buy an insurance plan in their own communities, regardless of the cost. We have seen that the Blue Cross Blue Shield group in Maryland has proposed rate increases up to 58 percent for next year in the State of Maryland. This is after they went up 24 percent last year. How many families can afford such a thing? But that is what we are dealing with. That is why it is so critical that we get involved in trying to provide relief for American families at this time, with the Obama healthcare insurance market, certainly, collapsing. The head of Blue Cross Blue Shield in Maryland, which is the largest insurer in the State, has said that they see their system is in the early throes of what is known as the insurance death spiral. Prices are continuing to go up, fewer people are signing up, and, as a result, prices are going to have to be raised even more. We saw last year that they went up 24 percent, and this year the proposal, going forward to next year, is 58 percent. This is a terrifying reality for people on ObamaCare today. One of the big reasons we have been working so hard on healthcare reform is to improve access to healthcare--not empty coverage, but actual healthcare. So what we want to do as Republicans is get rid of some of the excessive mandates, the expensive mandates, things that are driving up the cost of care and certainly driving up the cost of coverage for that care. When prices come down, people are able to afford insurance and companies are ready to sell that insurance. I know we have people in Wyoming who are ready to buy it. That is how you improve access to insurance. It is how you also improve access to care. You don't do it by forcing the prices up and then requiring people to buy coverage, which is what the Democrats who voted for ObamaCare did. They said: You have to buy it, it is a mandate, whether you like it or not. We know better than you do. That is what we heard from the Democrats during the debate on President Obama's healthcare law. That is what they passed. They passed it. They voted for it. They didn't know what was in it. Actually, it was the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who said: First you have to pass it before you even get to find out what is in it. President Obama gave a big speech to a joint session of Congress and said that if people like their plans, they can keep their plans. One of the newspapers called that the ``Lie of the Year.'' So millions of Americans then got letters from insurance companies; over 5,000 in Wyoming got that letter. It said: Sorry, your insurance plan isn't good enough for government. People ought to be able to make that decision for themselves. Families ought to make that decision, not Democrats in Washington who voted for the ObamaCare law. They shouldn't have the right to tell the people of my State or any State what is best for them and their family. It is interesting because the Democrats don't seem to want to remember that anymore. They have selective amnesia. It turned out that if people liked their plan, they weren't really allowed to keep it. I heard about it again a week ago at a Wyoming stock growers meeting--farmers and ranchers from around the State of Wyoming who come together each year, an organization that has been in existence longer than the State has been a State. These are hard- working people who know what works best for them, what works best for their families. Some of these outfits have been in those families for 100 years. We have something called the Centennial Ranch program where they gather all the family members when an outfit has been in that family for 100 years, and they have been able really to survive so much over the years. Often they would say, you know, whether they deal with floods, whether they deal with fire, the biggest problem they have is often dealing with the Federal Government. We have seen it all across the board, and healthcare is just one of the last things to add to a long litany of Federal Government involvement in the lives of the people of our State of Wyoming. So here we are today with this incredible government overreach and the failure of that overreach, and even the insurance companies, some of whom supported the passage of the healthcare law, are saying that this is not working. How they reflect the fact that it is not working is they say: OK, we are not going to sell insurance anymore. You can't make them sell insurance. The prices have to go up too much, and it is just not worth the effort. One of the big insurance companies, Humana, is dropping out of the ObamaCare exchange entirely next year. They made the announcement. Aetna said that it is quitting the internal markets in Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska, and Virginia. Anthem is pulling out of Ohio. The list goes on. Now, so far, there are over 40 counties across the country that are expected to have no one selling insurance on the exchange--no one. In Wyoming, we are down to one company that sells it. We had two; one lost so much money, they were pulled off of the market. The second one, which does sell insurance in Wyoming, continues to lose money by selling on the exchange. They are committed to stay, but they just scratch their heads about what the potential future may hold. We are now seeing over 40 counties across the country where no one is selling insurance. That is the reality of ObamaCare. Remember, President Obama said: If you pass this, there will be huge competition, big marketplaces. If there is only one selling insurance, it is not a marketplace; it is a monopoly. Next year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has said that about 40 percent of all the counties in America will have just one company selling on the exchange--just one--forty percent of the counties all across America. That is a monopoly. What happens when those companies decide to drop out? Even for people who get an ObamaCare subsidy, if there is no one in that community, in that county selling ObamaCare insurance, the subsidy has no value whatsoever. It can't be used. That is another part of the story that the Democrats refuse to talk about. In fact, Democrats say a lot of things about insurance coverage that aren't really telling the whole story. They have talked about the Congressional Budget Office report; they talk about a number of things. One of the interesting things about the Congressional Budget Office report--the CBO report, kind of the scorekeepers that take a look at things--on the bill that passed the House said that there will be millions of people fewer who will have insurance if the Republican- passed bill becomes law. Well, the news headlines screamed that the House bill would mean millions of people lose their insurance. Well, that is wrong. That is not at all what will happen. According to the Congressional Budget Office, when you look at it and see why is it that there will be fewer people with insurance under ObamaCare if you eliminate the individual mandate--the part of the law that says you must buy a government-approved program--the Congressional Budget Office says that if you don't mandate it, a lot of people don't want to buy it. They don't view it as a good benefit to them. They don't view it as worth their money. If people aren't required to buy insurance, millions of them will choose not to purchase the insurance, especially when they believe it is not a good deal for them personally. I believe Americans have that right. Apparently, the Democrats don't believe that Americans have that right. They like the mandate. They like making people do things. That, to me, is the difference between a Republican approach, which provides for freedom, and a Democratic approach of government and mandates. We want to give people the right to decide what is right for them and their families. That is what I hear in Wyoming at the Wyoming Stock Growers Association and as I travel around the State. People know what is best for them and their families. Then, when all of a sudden what they had is taken off the market because the government says that you can't sell it anymore, that is an affront to their ability to choose what works for them and their family, and it is things they have had in the past. Then they got stuck buying some very expensive plan that covered a lot of things they didn't need, didn't want, and couldn't afford, but the government said: We know better than you do, the people of Wyoming, the people of America. So the Congressional Budget Office says that 8 million people who get coverage in the individual market will decide it is just not worth buying. They also said that there will be 4 million people on Medicaid next year, and if you eliminate the mandate, they aren't going to sign up for it, even when it is free, because they realize that, for many people, being on Medicaid--a failing system--isn't providing much for them at all. So insurance isn't being taken from people; these are people who are making a decision as free individuals--Americans--of how they want to spend their money and what they want to sign up for, or not. So the legislation that passed the House really makes no changes in Medicaid in 2018. Yet, the CBO says millions of people on Medicaid will drop it when the mandate goes away. The Senate is coming up with its own solution. We are looking at ways to make sure that Americans have access to insurance that works for them, not just what works for Democrats in Washington. We roll back some of the worst parts of ObamaCare. Prices for health insurance will go down. People will have better options than the one-size-fits-all plans that Washington has forced on the American people. They will have other options that will work better for them and their families. Our goal is to not do what the Democrats did. ObamaCare actually kicked people off insurance that worked for them, pulled the rug right out from under them; Republicans don't want to pull the rug out from anyone. Our goal is to reform the American healthcare system so that insurance costs less and it meets the needs of the people who buy it. Republicans' goal is to focus on care, not just useless coverage that ObamaCare had provided for many, with narrower networks so you can't keep your doctor, you can't go to the hospital in your community, you can't get the care you need, you can't see certain specialists, which is what we have seen with ObamaCare. If Democrats want to talk about people losing their insurance, they need to look at what ObamaCare is doing to people right now. They need to look at people who are losing their insurance because their insurers are walking away from them. They need to look at people who are losing their insurance because of the premium increases we are seeing requested in Maryland; 24 percent is actually how much it went up last year and 58 percent in certain areas requested for this year. Now I hear the Democrats say that they are worried about whether people with preexisting conditions get insurance. As a doctor, I will tell you, my wife is a breast cancer survivor; we are absolutely committed as Republicans to make sure that no one with a preexisting condition is left out. Democrats can't make that claim. They have made it over the years. But if there is no one selling insurance where you live, there is no exchange being offered, and you live in those 40 counties right now with no one selling--none--zero, and that number of counties is going to expand next year--if you have a preexisting condition and you are living under ObamaCare, you cannot get insurance no matter what any Democrat says, because no one is willing to sell it to you, even if you get a government subsidy--no one. You are left out. That is what the Democrats have given us in this country with their failed ObamaCare system. So ObamaCare continues collapsing. It is going to harm more Americans who have preexisting conditions. The other day, Senator Schumer admitted that ObamaCare isn't providing affordable access to care. I think it is an important admission from the minority leader. Now it is time for him and the Democrats to join with Republicans in the Senate--join us in providing Americans the care they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs. Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, in compliance with paragraph 11(a) of rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee on Environment and Public Works has obtained from the Congressional Budget Office an estimate of the costs of S. 512, the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act, as reported from the committee on May 25, 2017. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the cost estimate be printed in the Record.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, Republicans continue to come to the floor to talk about the urgent need that we have to reform America's healthcare system. The reason we continue to do this is because the pain of ObamaCare is getting worse. We are seeing it all across the country. The healthcare system in this country has been devastated by a law known as ObamaCare. Every weekend, at home, I hear, as Republicans all around the country hear, about the costs that have been spiraling out of control--double on the ObamaCare exchange, we hear across the country, but in many States even more than that. In Wyoming it has gone up 107 percent over the past 4 years. We also hear from people at home about their specific premiums on the exchange and how they are worried about them going up even higher next year. Not only have they doubled, but they are worried about them going up again. Just this past week, we have heard stories about numbers that have been requested for increases in New Hampshire, New York, and Maine. We are hearing it all across the country. I hear it every weekend in Wyoming. People are very concerned about the impact that ObamaCare has had on their lives personally. Many will tell you that they believe that the insurance they bought under ObamaCare has been of less value than they would have liked, and many people are not buying because they see that the value is not there. When we hear about these increasing rates and we hear about the fact that it is going to only get worse, people are saying: The cost has gone up; maybe we ought to try to shop around, and maybe we can find more choices. The problem is the choices are going down as well. Insurance companies are continuing to drop out of the ObamaCare plan. So people around the country are having fewer and fewer choices under ObamaCare. Last Friday, a headline in the Wall Street Journal read: ``Another Area Loses Last ACA Insurer.'' It is not just that they have fewer choices. Now we are looking at places in the country where there are no choices. In Wyoming we had two. One of the companies went out of business. We are down to one. That company has lost money. The question is, How long will they stay? How much higher will they have to raise rates under ObamaCare? Will we be at a point where the counties in our State, instead of having one, have none? This article in the Wall Street Journal last week says: ``Washington state has no insurer willing to offer Affordable Care Act plans next year,'' in some of its 39 counties. A few days earlier, we heard the news from people in a similar situation in Ohio. There are 18 counties in Ohio next year with no plans offered. So with ObamaCare you are going to get a subsidy, but there is no place to use the subsidy. You have no choices. But we warned from the beginning about the ObamaCare death spiral, and we are seeing it happen here. For those people living in those counties in Ohio and those counties in Washington, the insurance death spiral is complete. There is no insurance market. There is no one offering to sell insurance because of the damage done by ObamaCare to the insurance market in the United States. We have millions of people across the country who have been harmed by the higher costs and the fewer and fewer choices available under ObamaCare. They have lost the coverage they had. Care is not available to them in the sense that their insurance is not available to them. The options are shrinking all across the country and have completely gone away in certain places. Now, someone who is living with a preexisting condition is so much of the debate, and I hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who come to the floor, talk about preexisting conditions. If you are someone in any of these counties and you have a preexisting condition and the company you buy your insurance from goes out of business and there is no one to sell you insurance in the county in which you live and you have a preexisting condition, under ObamaCare, you are out of luck. You may get a subsidy, but you cannot buy a policy. Under ObamaCare, preexisting conditions are not covered if there is no one available to sell a policy, and we are seeing more and more counties falling into that situation. There was almost a full-page map in the New York Times earlier this week of the number of counties across the country in which there are only two insurance companies selling or one or none at all. That is the problem we have all across the country. We predicted this. This disaster of ObamaCare was entirely predictable. Republicans came to the floor as it was being debated, as it was being discussed, as Democrats were voting on it, and we continued to point out that we would be in a situation of free fall, and we are now in that situation with ObamaCare. Republicans know what we need to do. We are trying to stabilize the market. We want to protect people with preexisting conditions. We want to lower the cost of premiums. We do not want the rug to be pulled out from anyone, and we are trying to reform Medicaid in a way that provides long-term stability to that program. Finally, after all of these years of talking about the problems with ObamaCare and with so many Democrats having blinders on, wanting to just apply a blank check to the problem and say: ``More money. More ObamaCare,'' finally, now some Democrats are saying, yes, that there are problems with ObamaCare. The problem is that their solution is the wrong solution. What they want to do is make the problem even bigger, and we have seen it in California this past year. Actually, just a week ago, the California State Senate--and it is a Democratic-controlled Senate-- after calls from people throughout their political party and at their political convention a couple of weeks ago, said that we know what to do--single-payer healthcare. That is what they proposed, and it passed along party lines. Who is that single payer? It is the American taxpayer. The Democratic-controlled Senate in California passed a single-payer healthcare bill. From cradle to grave, everyone is covered. Anything you need, you have it, says California. I served in the Wyoming State Legislature--and I served at the Presiding Officer's level in the legislature--where we did something called a fiscal note. What is something like this going to cost? They did the same thing in California. The fiscal note was $400 billion a year. Put it in perspective. How does that fit into the State budget? The general fund for the State of California for a year, when they have just passed a bill for $400 billion, is only $190 billion. The total cost of what the State Senate of California passed is twice the entire general fund for the State of California. In other places, when they have said that they have needed a single-payer plan, as they have done in Canada and England, what has happened is that it has led to longer lines, waiting periods, and the rationing of care. That is not what the American people want, but it is what the Democratic Party is proposing and actually voted for in the State of California. This was a headline in the New York Times just the other day, ``The Single-Payer Party? Democrats Shift Left on Health Care.'' The article goes on to read in terms of the Democrats: Cast out of power in Washington and most State capitals, Democrats and activist leaders seeking political redemption have embraced an unlikely-seeming cause: an actual government takeover of health care. This was from the New York Times about what has passed in California and what Democrats around the country are proposing. In the U.S. House of Representatives, which is right down the hall of this building, a majority of the Democrats has cosponsored legislation to go to a single-payer healthcare plan--for the majority of the Democrats in the House, a single-payer healthcare plan. That is not what hard-working Americans want. That is not what struggling small business owners want. That is not what the people of Wyoming want. The people at home already cannot afford to pay for the insurance that has been mandated that they buy under the Obama healthcare law. They cannot afford the penalties. They cannot afford the insurance, and they want healthcare--care they need from doctors they choose at lower costs. How in the world is this country going to afford higher taxes to pay for the Democrats' single-payer fantasy? Yet that is what they are looking at in California. To double the cost of the State's general fund, you are talking about raising taxes as well as, probably, eliminating some services. Would you have to eliminate teachers, firefighters, public safety workers? Those are the things that you have to wonder about when they make such an irresponsible decision in the California State Senate. Ronald Reagan, I think, said it best when he said that you cannot be for big government and big taxes and a big bureaucracy and still be for the little guy. Ronald Reagan had it right. Now Washington Democrats want to ignore that. Small business owners know what Democrats in Washington, DC, and in California refuse to acknowledge right now. The small business owners know it, and the Democrats will not acknowledge it. People around the country realize ObamaCare is not working. It is why they elected a Republican House, a Republican Senate, a Republican President--because of the pain caused to the American people under the Obama healthcare law, which mandated that everybody buy a government-approved product. The costs have gone up, and the choices have gone down. People have been left in a state in which this is not what works for them. So here we are. We are on the cusp of coming out with a Republican plan. We are trying to do it with our legislation. We are writing a reform plan to reduce healthcare costs and improve access to insurance without the mandates and the restrictions we have seen under the Obama healthcare law. I think Democrats should join us in finding the best solutions for the American people. The time to act is now because we see that, from week to week, more of those who sell insurance are pulling out. People with preexisting conditions who lose their coverage will have nowhere to turn under ObamaCare. We continue to fight for our patients. As a doctor, I know what patients need, and it is the care they need from doctors they choose at lower costs. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, for a number of years, we have been debating healthcare in this country. Clearly, our healthcare system had problems 8 years ago when they started to do healthcare reform. I saw that as a doctor practicing in Casper, WY. Well, then Washington Democrats tried their solution. It is a solution that passed, and it is known as ObamaCare. Republicans said that it wouldn't work and have been proven right. ObamaCare is too costly. It is collapsing. It is interesting because yesterday, as we were having our policy lunch meetings--Republicans and Democrats--word came out that another one of the ObamaCare exchange companies, Anthem, this time in Ohio, was pulling out, leaving about 18 counties, if not more in Ohio, without anybody to sell insurance on the ObamaCare exchange. ObamaCare actually hasn't solved the problems of America's healthcare system. In many ways, it has made matters worse. That is why the law has never really had the support of the American people and continues to be unpopular today. It is why more than 19 million people actually chose not to sign up for ObamaCare coverage at all, even in spite of financial incentives to do so and a fine or a tax if you didn't sign up. So they either paid the fine or they got an exemption. The Democrats, when they come to the floor to talk about healthcare, refuse to talk about those 19 million people who have just said: We want nothing to do with ObamaCare. We are not going to sign up. Give us an exemption. Let us out. They want to talk about people whom they actually have covered by pushing them into a broken Medicaid system, and that is about what has happened here. This expansion through the healthcare law and expanding Medicaid put many people into a broken healthcare system called Medicaid. It wasn't working well before ObamaCare, and it has gotten worse. The numbers out there, in terms of physicians taking care of patients, are about one-third--one out of three doctors will not take new Medicaid patients, so it is not a system that is working. It is not a solution, but Democrats put more people into that. For people who didn't end up in Medicaid and who paid their premiums, those premiums have gone up significantly. They have doubled in most States, I think, across the board--up about 107 percent over the last 4 years. Thus, the statistics that have come out from the Department of Health and Human Services recently are the statistics the Obama administration, as it left office, didn't want the American people to see--that rates have doubled across the country and, in some States, much, much higher than that. In my home State of Wyoming, they were up actually higher than the national average has been. People are paying more and more. There were two companies, at one point, that were selling insurance on the ObamaCare exchange, both losing money. One lost so much that they are no longer in business. The other is still losing money and still selling on the exchange, but you wonder how long they will stay. Or will they do the sort of thing that Anthem had to do in Ohio and the sorts of things we have seen in the Presiding Officer's home State of Iowa and we have seen in Nebraska and we have seen across the board? Some Democrats say: This is a one-term correction; give it time. But it doesn't seem that it is going to be working that way. There was an article in the paper here, in Washington's Roll Call, and the headline was--this was last week--``Insurers Seek Increases for Obamacare Premiums in Early Filings.'' This is for next year. The article talks about how the insurance companies are starting to say how much they are going to need to charge people next year, which is much higher than it is this year. They are talking about an average increase of about 30 percent. The average premium in the ObamaCare market in Wyoming right now is already more than $7,000 a year for a family. So how much more can people take? That is why I continue to come to the floor and talk about what is the problem with the healthcare law--healthcare and the system. People under ObamaCare have seen their deductibles go up, their copays go up, and the choices that they have go down. This is the real problem when we talk about ObamaCare. Then, of course, the other thing is taxes. There are at least 15 new or higher taxes under ObamaCare. So people aren't just paying higher premiums; they are paying higher taxes, which were supposed to help with the premiums, but it doesn't seem to be doing so for people all across the country. The Congressional Budget Office has looked at this, and it said that Americans are going to pay more than $28 billion over the next 10 years on just one tax on prescription drugs. Well, if we are trying to lower the cost of drugs and trying to lower the cost of care, putting a tax like this, as ObamaCare did on prescription drugs, just adds to the problem. It has raised taxes all across the board. I don't want to go through each and every one of the taxes, but suffice it to say that when President Obama said he would put this program into place and it wouldn't cost a single dime, he forgot the trillion dollars in new taxes that he added onto the backs of hard-working Americans. So we have had higher taxes, we have had higher premiums, we have had higher out-of-pocket costs from people--this huge tax burden. What has happened is that we need to do a reform. The House has passed reform, and now in the Senate we are working on passing our own healthcare reform bill. We have been meeting three times a week up to over 5 hours a week for the last month and a half, going through piece by piece of all the different components of the healthcare law, trying to address the issues that are facing the American people, trying to lower the taxes that top the list of what we hear about at home in terms of trying to help people because they are paying more taxes, trying to work to deal with premiums. I am really encouraged by the debate we have been having. I think we have been taking good steps in trying to address the issues the American public is seeing in terms of higher premiums and fewer choices. I would like to work with the Democrats to solve these problems in a bipartisan way, to talk about how people can actually get healthcare in this country. But what have the Democrats done in response? Well, it is interesting because they want to go to a single-payer healthcare system. Some may deny it, but a majority of the Democrats in the House have cosponsored legislation to go to a single-payer healthcare plan. It is modeled, in some ways, after what you are seeing in California. The California State Senate last week passed a bill, which seems to be the drift and the direction and maybe even the tip of the sphere of the Democratic Party efforts. It said: We want single-payer healthcare in California. I served in the Wyoming State Senate, and I know the Presiding Officer served in the State legislative body in her home State of Iowa. We do a fiscal note. We say: What is this going to cost? Is it a good idea? Can we afford it? What are the costs going to be? And the cost for what they proposed in California is $400 billion. Can they afford it? What is the total budget of the State of California? What is their general fund for the year? It is only $190 billion. So what they are proposing for healthcare alone is over twice what the entire general fund for the entire State of California is. Yet, it passed. It was a party-line vote in the State of California in the State senate, but that is now the position that they are working to do. So it is hard to get cooperation from somebody to work on dealing with a healthcare plan when their plan is to go with more government, more spending, pledging money they don't have. When I looked at it in California, I said: If they want to do this, they will have to, No. 1, cut spending on other things. When you think about where general funding goes, it is for teachers, law enforcement, public safety, and firefighters. But they would also have to raise taxes significantly to get the money for what they want to promise everybody in this single- payer healthcare plan. I am interested in working in a bipartisan way with people, but it is hard to get cooperation from people when their solution is more government, higher taxes, and less freedom. We need a solution, and that is what we are working on. I am very happy to say that it has been discussed at length in our conference. We had another good meeting about it yesterday, along with the Vice President, focusing on eliminating taxes, getting rid of the mandate that says that people must buy a government-approved product, giving people additional choices, and giving the States flexibility to make a number of these decisions. I am from a State where agriculture plays a significant role, as is the Presiding Officer. I will be at our Wyoming stock growers' meeting on Friday when I am back home in the State. I was there a couple of years ago after ObamaCare passed, talking to people who had insurance that worked for them and worked for their families, but they lost it, not because they couldn't afford to pay for what they had but because what President Obama and the Democrats forced through in Congress said it wasn't good enough for them. Under the mandate, as to what my friends and neighbors and folks around Wyoming have been saying was good enough for them and they could afford, President Obama said it wasn't good enough for them. Who is the better judge of what is good for a family in Iowa or Wyoming--President Obama and the Democrats or the family there in Iowa or Wyoming who is making the decision about what works best for them and their families? I am sure I am going to hear more about it at the stock growers' meeting on Friday, when I hear from families who say: What we had worked, but lost it because it wasn't allowed to be sold anymore. The President said it wasn't good enough for me. One woman said to me: Tell the President that I can make the decisions for myself. I don't need his help--referring to President Obama. So we will continue to work toward the goal of making sure that we have people who can get the insurance and care they need from a doctor they choose at lower costs. That is what we needed with healthcare reform. That is what we didn't get with ObamaCare. We got higher costs and fewer choices. Across the board right now, it looks like in 7 out of 10 counties in this country, people are down to one or two choices-- hardly a market. In many places it is a monopoly now. After the news that came out yesterday from Anthem in Ohio and some of the news that we see from Iowa and neighboring Nebraska, we are going to find that many places will find themselves with no options available. Even with the subsidies that the Democrats had promised to help deal with the high premiums they have caused, there may be nobody to sell the insurance even when the subsidies are available. So I come to the floor, as I do just about every week, to talk about the situation with the Obama healthcare law, the challenges the American people face, and our commitment to help provide relief and rescue the American people from what has happened to them under President Obama's healthcare law. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I congratulate my colleague from Missouri for the excellent comments he made. I bring to the floor a report that came out last evening, which is essentially the analysis that the Obama administration never wanted the American people to see, and it has to do with ObamaCare from 2013 to 2017. This report that the Obama administration would love to hide from the American people makes the point that my colleague from Missouri just made. In those years, from 2013 to 2017, once ObamaCare came into place, premiums around the country in the States that are buying on the Federal ObamaCare exchange went up 105 percent on average--more than double. It more than doubled in 20 States, and it tripled in three States: Oklahoma, Alaska, and Alabama. In Wyoming, it went up 107 percent in just 4 years. Tell me something else that has gone up by that price in our lives anywhere over that short period of time. Those are the numbers that are out today. More than 7 years ago, the Washington Democrats wrote an enormously costly and complicated healthcare law. They forced it through the Senate, and they made lots of promises. They promised it would provide care for less money. They promised that you could keep your doctor and that you could keep your insurance. They promised that if you just allowed Washington to have more control, everything would be better for you. It hasn't worked out that way. These are the numbers we are looking at today, and it looks as if prices are going to go up again next year because of the mandates and the requirements of the Obama healthcare law. In Connecticut, insurance companies say they want an average increase of about 24 percent; in Maryland, the average is 45 percent; and in Oregon, 17 percent. Americans are again facing double-digit increases in their ObamaCare premiums next year, just like this past year. Some companies simply said: Hey, I am done. I am not going to sell anymore. It is just not worth it. That is what Aetna has done--pulled out entirely. The thing that is so interesting about Aetna's decision is that they were one of the major cheerleaders early on back in the beginning of ObamaCare. They said: Oh yeah, we want to do this. We want to sell insurance all around the country. Well, now they are pulling out of ObamaCare all across America. What that means for people at home is that they have fewer choices. People living in two-thirds of the counties in this country--and in every county in my home State of Wyoming--are down to fewer and fewer choices. We have one choice of a carrier to buy from on the exchange in Wyoming. In two-thirds of the counties, people have only one or two choices. There are now places where people have no choices. Even if they get a subsidy under ObamaCare, there is no place they can use it, so it is useless to them. The companies that remain--what are they doing to help try to control costs? Well, they are cutting back on access to doctors and to hospitals, as we just heard is the situation of the patient in Missouri. Democrats say that people have to buy the insurance anyway because they say they put a mandate on it. Americans, like it or not, you have to buy ObamaCare insurance. If you don't like it, we are going to fine you. That is what the Democrats said. Well, in spite of the mandate, 20 million Americans said ``No, thank you,'' and about 8 million paid a fine. Another 12 million got an exemption because there are actually 41 different ways you can get exempted from ObamaCare. People realize it is not a good deal for them. They know ObamaCare has made insurance so expensive that it is not a good value for their hard-earned dollars. It is astonishing to hear Democrats now say that basically the problem was that Washington didn't have enough control. We need more government control, they are saying. There are a number of Democrats who want a single-payer healthcare system. Some call it Medicare for all. They can call it what they want--it means higher costs and more Washington control over the healthcare American families need. The State of Vermont looked at this idea a couple of years ago. Even in this very small, very liberal State, they dropped the idea almost immediately. Why? Because they said it was too expensive. That didn't stop other States from looking at it. Recently, this occurred in the State of California. Democrats in California recently offered a plan to have the State take control of all healthcare for everyone who lives there. Universal healthcare for all, they call it-- doctor visits, hospitals, inpatient care, outpatient care, emergencies, dental, vision, mental health, nursing homes, everything, cradle to grave, universal health coverage. So what do the stories in the California papers say about this? Well, they did a budget analysis. The budget office of the State of California did a budget analysis and said: What would such a thing cost? They came up with a cost of $400 billion a year. That sounds like a big number, but how do you put that in perspective? What else can you do? Four hundred billion dollars. So they said: Well, let's compare it to the budget of the entire State of California. The entire budget for the State of California today is $190 billion, so the cost of universal healthcare alone is twice the budget of the whole State of California. That includes teachers, firefighters, police, everything. They are proposing to spend twice the amount that they spend on everything on universal healthcare. So what do the Democrats say? Well, we will just have to raise taxes. That is their answer to so much of everything. I guess they figure that hard-working families in California would need to pay these taxes every year--not just once but every year because that price tag is $400 billion each and every year. Democrats have no good ideas on how to deal with this collapse of ObamaCare. Republicans are offering real solutions. We are looking for ways to bring costs down, to give people more freedom, and to give people more control over their own healthcare. We are working to make sure people can get the care they need from a doctor they choose at a lower cost. We don't have that with ObamaCare. The Democrats are pushing the exact opposite approach. They are offering higher costs, higher taxes, more government control, more government say in your family's life. ObamaCare has failed. Republicans are committed to finding long-term solutions to our Nation's healthcare needs. Thank you. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, Republicans have been warning for years now about the grave damage ObamaCare has done to the American healthcare system. We have pointed out how the healthcare law's regulations are destabilizing the health insurance industry. We have warned that the ObamaCare markets are unstable. We have talked about the death spiral which has already doomed ObamaCare. It seems like every day we get more proof that the collapse is well underway. Last week, the insurance company Aetna announced it was exiting the individual ObamaCare markets entirely. CNN did a story about this last Wednesday. The headlines said: ``Aetna to ObamaCare: We're Outta Here.'' It is interesting because Aetna as a company was one of the cheerleaders for ObamaCare early on; they jumped in and said: We are very involved. We want to make this work. Here they are pulling out, saying it has failed. Humana had already said it was quitting the exchanges, not just one place but everywhere. In the past month or so, we have seen big companies drop out of the markets in Virginia and in Iowa. There is now just one company left selling in the exchanges for Nebraska and for Delaware. There is just one company selling in Alaska, in Missouri, in Alabama, in Oklahoma, in South Carolina, and in my home State of Wyoming. For people living in all of these States, there is a monopoly for whom they get to buy their insurance from under the ObamaCare markets. That is not a marketplace, it is a monopoly. The Associated Press looked at all of these companies dropping out. It now found that 40 percent of America--4 out of 10 counties in America--will have just 1 company selling insurance in the ObamaCare exchanges for next year; 4 out of every 10 counties in America. That is what you get with an ObamaCare exchange. How is that supposed to bring down prices? Other companies have been saying how much they will need to charge if they are going to stick around for 1 more year under ObamaCare. It looks like we will have another year of incredible price increases. In Maryland, insurance companies are demanding average premium increases of anywhere between 18 and 59 percent. In Connecticut, they are asking for 15 to 33 percent more next year. Democrats are desperate to blame the collapse of ObamaCare on President Trump. My question to the Democrats is this, What about all of the companies that dropped out of the marketplaces last year? What about the double-digit price increases Americans were paying year after year under ObamaCare? The premium for the average benchmark plan in the exchanges went up 25 percent at the start of this year. Are Democrats going to try to blame that on someone else? In March, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported the results of a poll on healthcare in America. In this poll, 4 out of 10 American adults with insurance under ObamaCare said they have trouble affording their deductible. They have ObamaCare insurance, but 4 out of 10 adults in America with ObamaCare insurance are having trouble affording their deductibles. Three out of every ten with insurance under ObamaCare said they have problems paying their medical bills. One in four Americans with insurance under ObamaCare said the costs have forced them to put off healthcare they needed or skip it entirely. These people are suffering because of President Obama and the Democrats and what they passed. These Americans are struggling because of the flawed policies and regulations of the ObamaCare law that Democrats in Washington wrote. Republicans are saying what we have said all along: Healthcare reform should be about helping people get the care they need, from a doctor they choose, at a lower cost. We need to do something to rescue the people who are being crushed under this collapsing ObamaCare system. That is why Republicans are the ones talking about solving the problems that have been caused by ObamaCare. The House of Representatives passed a bill that includes some important things that could help stabilize the markets. It includes things to stop these double-digit premium hikes that have been occurring every year. In the Senate, we have already started mapping out the ideas. We are going to continue offering our ideas. We are going to continue debating them. I want to invite Democrats in the Senate to come to the floor and offer their ideas as well. It doesn't have to be a partisan fight. It shouldn't be a partisan fight that drags on for months and months. We need to find solutions for the American people who are suffering under President Obama's healthcare law. For all the Democrats who are now trying to redirect the blame away from themselves, the problems they caused, trying to pass the buck, we are trying to pass a bill. I can tell from listening at home in Wyoming, where I will be again this weekend and was last weekend, people know who caused the problems of ObamaCare. The American people are looking for solutions. They don't care who offers it. They want solutions. I think if we can get a bipartisan solution, all the better. I invite the Democrats to come to the floor to give us their best ideas. Mr. President, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Donald Bellamy for his hard work as an intern in my Casper office. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Donald is a native of Casper, WY, and a graduate of Natrona County High School. He is a junior at the University of Wyoming at Casper, where he studies human communication and political science. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Donald for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Colyer Woolston for his hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC, office. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Colyer is a native of Sheridan, WY, and a graduate of Hamilton College. He studied environmental studies and geosciences, as well as comparative literature. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Colyer for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Jackson Ventrella for his hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC, office. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Jackson is a native of Mesa, AZ, and is a junior at Hillsdale College. He is studying politics. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Jackson for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Samuel Owen for his hard work as an intern in my Cheyenne office. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Samuel is a native of Columbus, OH, and is a junior at the University of Wyoming. He is studying finance and energy development and management. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Samuel for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Sean O'Brien for his hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC, office. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Sean is a native of Illinois and a graduate of American University, School of International Service. He received a degree in international studies. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Sean for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.