John Conyers

Mr. CONYERS

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, before I yield to Sheila Jackson Lee, I yield myself 1 minute because my dear friend, the ranking member, asked, What is the point of this legislation? We have made a long list of points of this legislation. To begin with, it is to increase competition in the health care industry. It also is to shine a light on industry practices that are currently unavailable and undetectable because of the exemption. That's why we are on the floor today. I yield 3 minutes to a distinguished member of the committee, the gentlewoman from Houston, Texas, Sheila Jackson Lee.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, the former chairman emeritus has raised a number of points that amount to verbal jujitsu that I will be addressing very shortly, but for now I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Antitrusts, a former magistrate in the courts of Georgia himself, Subcommittee Chair Hank Johnson.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes. I want to respond to the senior member of the Judiciary Committee, a former attorney general of California and a friend of all of us on the committee, an effective member, and all I want him to know is that we approved his provision in the Judiciary Committee because we thought it was a good provision. It was unanimous. I don't recall that anyone voted against it or spoke against it. The problem, though, is that when we got to the Rules Committee, our leadership on both sides of the aisle, I hope, had come up with another bill and that bill omitted it. We were not able to get that put back in. We think that their reasoning is not altogether strange or out of order or violating any procedure, but here's what it was. This is what they told me: They said, if there are no antitrust exemptions in this measure, then you don't need to specifically retain a part of the antitrust exemption relating to the safe harbors provision, because if it isn't an antitrust provision, they aren't going to be affected anyway. So it's in that spirit that I appreciate the comments of the gentleman from California, and I hope that we can continue to work together as much as we can, and perhaps the final vote here will be more bipartisan than many thought that it would. Madam Speaker, I now would like to yield 2 minutes to a senior member of the Congress from Iowa (Mr. Boswell). (Mr. BOSWELL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, no one has worked harder on this measure that is not a member of the Judiciary Committee than Peter DeFazio of Oregon. And I yield to him 3 minutes.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I am inclined to yield to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) 1\1/2\ minutes.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to recognize a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee from Los Angeles, Ms. Maxine Waters, for 3 minutes.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, no one comes before the Judiciary Committee that I can think of offhand more frequently than Bill Pascrell of New Jersey. He's worked with us on a number of other issues besides this one, and we welcome his counsel. We yield him 2 minutes.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield the gentleman another 30 seconds.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased now to recognize David Scott, the gentleman from Georgia, who has been waiting patiently to get time here on this. I yield him 2 minutes at the point.

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased now to recognize the gentleman from Rhode Island, Jim Langevin, a former Secretary of State, for 2 minutes. (Mr. LANGEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to recognize the most experienced member of the civil rights struggle in the 20th century, the gentleman from Georgia, John Lewis, a strong advocate of universal health care, and I yield him 2 minutes.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased now to recognize the distinguished Member of the House who has had insurance experience as a State commissioner, Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota, for 2 minutes.

Mr. CONYERS. If the gentleman will yield, I want to commend him for clearing up something that perhaps in more reasonable circumstances should not need to be cleared up. I still have confidence in the courts that they can read the simple understanding that when we say ``health insurance,'' we don't mean life insurance. I mean, this is getting pretty fundamental here. But, of course, you are correct, Mr. Pomeroy. It's health insurance only; no disability income insurance, no long-term care insurance, no property insurance.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. CONYERS. No casualty insurance, no other kind of insurance but the one plainly listed in a two-page bill. So my confidence in the courts is unrestricted that they can get this right. The lack of a statutory definition is intended solely to give the courts the ability to ensure that all forms of health insurance are appropriately included so that unreasonable and artificial distinctions do not arise between two essentially equivalent kinds of insurance products and how they are treated under antitrust laws. I am glad that the gentleman raised this issue in the hearings.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia who has done so much in working with the committee on this bill, Mr. Perriello, who has been great.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania for a unanimous consent request. (Mr. KANJORSKI asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I recognize the distinguished Member who allowed us to testify in his subcommittee on universal single-payer legislation, Rob Andrews of New Jersey, and I yield him 2 minutes. (Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I am now pleased to recognize Betsy Markey of Colorado. She has done yeoman's work on this measure in her first term, and I will yield her 3 minutes.

Mr. CONYERS. I yield the gentlewoman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, Mary Jo Kilroy of Ohio has worked hard on this legislation, and I would like to recognize her for 2 minutes.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the leader of the Progressive Caucus in the House for so many years, the gentlewoman from California, Lynn Woolsey.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi).

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to a former member of the House Judiciary Committee, the gentlewoman from Ohio, Betty Sutton.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Canton, Ohio, John Boccieri.