Shelley Capito

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I wish to recognize a dedicated public servant and advocate for the people of West Virginia, Michele P. Craig, on her retirement. Ms. Craig stepped down from her role as executive director of KYOVA Interstate Planning Commission and Region II Planning and Development Council on July 1. Her 30 years of service have benefited the State of West Virginia and the Huntington area. Michelle received a bachelor's degree in economics from Queens College in Charlotte before completing graduate work at West Virginia University and American University. After beginning her career in Washington, she returned home after losing her father in the Marshall University plane crash of 1970 and began working in the family business. During this time, she also served in the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1973 through 1978. In 1986, Michele went to work for Region II Planning and Development Council; within a year, she became executive director. During her tenure, Michele oversaw a staff that grew from 4 to 13 individuals, serving Cabell, Lincoln, Logan, Mason, Mingo, and Wayne Counties. I have had the pleasure of working with Michele and her staff on numerous projects benefiting the citizens of West Virginia. Her wealth of knowledge, professional expertise, and poise were integral to these accomplishments. My staff and I will miss Michele as she moves on, but she has left behind a strong foundation for the future. Aside from her role as executive director, Michele has served her community through several organizations, including the Prestera Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, and Hospice of Huntington. She is also an avid reader, gardener, and world traveler. Michele is married to Thomas L. Craig, and together, they have three children. I wish Michele all the best as she spends more time with her children and grandchildren, enjoying her favorite activities and continuing her philanthropic endeavors and service to the Huntington area. Throughout her career, she has made a positive difference in the lives of many West Virginians. It has been an honor working with her, and it is an honor to call her my friend and fellow West Virginian. I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring her service.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Armed Services be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 27, 2016, at 9:30 a.m.

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on September 27, 2016, at 10 a.m., in room SR-253 of the Russell Senate Office Building to conduct a hearing entitled ``Oversight of the Federal Trade Commission.''

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I would like to talk a little bit on the floor about an issue that is cascading across the country and is deeply troubling in the State of West Virginia, the region in which I live, and that is the opioid crisis we are seeing. Many of you have recently read about what has happened in the city of Huntington, WV. Huntington is a beautiful city. It sits right on the Ohio River at the corner of West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. It is the home of the Thundering Herd of Marshall University. However, 1 month ago today, on Monday, August 15, in just a 4-hour period, this small city of Huntington was the site of 28 overdoses. Responding to this mass overdose occupied all of the ambulances in the city and more than a shift's worth of the police officers in Huntington. Of the 28 people affected, 26 were revived using naloxone, a lifesaving drug that helps reverse overdoses. However, the heroin they had used was likely laced with a substance so potent that the ordinary dose of naloxone was not enough. Responders had to use two and sometimes three doses of naloxone to bring people back to life and out of the overdose. Rashes of overdoses due to particularly strong batches of heroin have been happening more and more frequently. This is heroin that is likely laced with fentanyl or a new product we have heard about--a synthetic product--called carfentanil, which is a drug used to sedate elephants and other large animals that is 100 times as potent as fentanyl. Apparently, this is happening much too frequently. Versions of this chaotic scene are happening day after day in big cities and small towns in Kentucky, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Florida. The region and area of my friend Senator Portman, the State of Ohio and Cincinnati, probably 2 or 3 days after this occurred in Huntington had the same thing occur but much larger. What makes the recent spate of overdoses in Huntington so noteworthy is that Huntington is a city that knows it has a problem and is doing all the right things to fight it. Under the mayor's guidance, they have really worked hard to put together a great consortium, which began in 2014, to fight this scourge on their town. The mayor started the office of drug control policy. They have staffed the office with people who have intimate knowledge of the problem. They are not hiding their head in the sand. They are not saying it is something else. They know what this problem is, and they are trying to hit it face on. In staffing the office, they have a former police chief, a fire department captain who is also a registered nurse and works at the hospital, and a police department criminal intelligence analyst. They have created a strategic plan which focuses on three general principles: prevention, treatment, and law enforcement. The plan embraces harm reduction strategies, including weekly training for citizens on how to use naloxone. I actually went to a naloxone training seminar myself, just to see. If you are trained on it properly, it can make the difference. It can make the difference in preventing people from inflicting irreversible damage to themselves and others. Huntington has expanded their adult drug court and recently received a grant to launch the Women's Empowerment and Addiction Recovery Program--a specialized track within the drug court that will expand services to address the needs of drug-addicted prostitutes. Even in the face of the overdose, they are making progress. In fact, the cooperation among local agencies--and the sad reality that they are well-practiced and well-trained--can also be accredited with the 26 lives they have saved. While the overdose rate in Huntington has remained steadily high, the number of deaths from overdose has fallen, and that is an encouraging sign. Jim Johnson, who is the director of the Huntington Mayor's Office of Drug Control Policy has said: What we are seeing around the country is overdose deaths going up--[especially] with the rise of fentanyl and . . . [other substances]. It's not good that our [Huntington] overdose rate is holding--but compared to others having real increases--it's encouraging. And we are happy the death rate is down. As I have heard from West Virginians and read in local and national news accounts about this rash of overdoses, I think: What have we done and what do we need to do to help cities all across this Nation? The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA, marked a big first step forward. It reflects some of the best practices we have seen in places like Huntington. It includes reforms to help law enforcement respond to this epidemic, such as the successful drug court programs that operate in West Virginia and in many other States. It expands the availability of naloxone and allows funds to be used for followup services for those who receive another chance at life. When somebody comes into the emergency room in an overdose situation, is administered naloxone, and 1 or 2 hours later gets up and just walks out the door, we haven't really followed through on our public health obligation. In this bill, we have followup services so that person can be followed by a home visit or a home phone call to see what their situation might be. I proudly voted for CARA, as most of us did, and believe it is an excellent first step, but that is exactly what it is--a first step. Now we must take a fresh look at this epidemic--an epidemic that, to me, is threatening to take an entire generation, this next generation of our best and brightest. We must look at ways to stop the drugs from getting to our communities. One solution is the Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act, or STOP Act, which was recently introduced by Senators Portman, Ayotte, and Johnson. The STOP Act, of which I recently became a cosponsor, is designed to stop dangerous synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and carfentanil from being shipped through our borders and addresses any gaps in our mail security. Earlier this year, I announced that the DEA had established a tactical diversion squad in Clarksburg, WV. It probably doesn't sound like much but it will be a big help to enhancing our law enforcement efforts to stay one step ahead of this influx of drugs. Programs like the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, known as HIDTA, are critical in helping to coordinate initiatives that reduce drug use and abuse in communities. We must embrace and intensify prevention strategies in our schools, community centers, and our afterschool programs. Our youth cannot think that this epidemic is acceptable or that it is the new normal. We must ensure that when someone decides they want treatment for their drug use, they have access to this treatment. There are no lists of people to admit into incarceration. There is no waiting list here. Yet there is a waiting list for our drug treatment and prevention centers. September is National Alcohol Addiction and Recovery Month, and today Senator Murphy of Connecticut and I are offering a resolution which honors the significant achievements of those citizens who are now in recovery. The resolution also recognizes the nationwide need for increased access to treatment. This is an area where there is so much more work to do. We must have the detox beds available and the workforce trained and ready to assist those seeking treatment. We also want to make sure we have a range of treatment options available. This is definitely not a one-size-fits-all problem. Each addict found their way to addiction in a different way, and each must figure their own path out, whether through inpatient rehab, peer-to-peer rehab, medication-assisted therapy, a 12-step program, or, most likely, a combination of these and other options. It is also essential that we remember that recovery does not end when an addict finishes treatment. Services need to be available to assist with their transition back into society. We must look at the collateral effects substance abuse has on our communities, whether it is through increased violent crime, child neglect and abuse, or disease, especially hepatitis and HIV, given the rise in heroin use. Are there immediate solutions for all of these problems? No, we have found there aren't. But, like the city of Huntington, we must continue to come to terms with the extent of the problem in order to know what solutions do make sense, and, like Huntington, progress is going to be incremental and it will take time. We can begin to tackle some of the problems through commonsense changes and policies. One example is Jesse's Law, a bill named after a West Virginian. She was a daughter, a sister, and an addict in recovery. Following surgery from a running injury, despite her best efforts and those of her family, Jesse was discharged from the hospital--she had told the hospital she had addiction issues--she was discharged from the hospital with a prescription for 50 oxycodone pills and fatally overdosed later that evening. By amending the privacy regulations for persons with substance abuse disorders, we can ensure that those individuals receive the safe, effective, and coordinated care they need to prevent other tragedies like Jesse's and her family's from occurring. I recognize that these problems are also going to take additional funding. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, along with the Presiding Officer, I will work to ensure that these resources are going to programs that best meet a State's needs, whether it is HIDTA, the DOD's counterdrug program, or substance abuse grants. In the fiscal year 2017 Labor-HHS appropriations bill, there is a $126 million increase for programs fighting opioid abuse. In bills passed by the committee, funding to address heroin opioid abuse is more than double last year's levels. However, I also know this problem cannot be solved by simply throwing money at it. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to develop additional policies to tackle these problems. We must consider all options. The outcomes are sad. I mean, I personally know families who have been affected by this. I think everybody does. If you are in a townhall meeting and you ask for a show of hands from those who have a story or know somebody from their church or their children's friends, almost every hand in the meeting will go up. We need to work with State and local officials to learn what is working and what is not. I will also keep fighting for an additional issue, a side issue that is just as important, which is veterans who rely on the VA programs to help with their opioid addiction, or that newborn who is born dependent on opioids, or the addict who is willing to seek treatment, and any other person because practically every person in this country is touched by this disease. I will keep fighting for cities like Huntington that even in their darkest hours continue to move forward and fight every day toward a brighter drug-free future. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 565, submitted earlier today.

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I know of no further debate on the resolution.

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the preamble be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask for a division vote on the resolutions of ratification en bloc.

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following treaties on today's Executive Calendar en bloc: Nos. 13, 14, 15; I further ask unanimous consent that the treaties be considered as having passed through their various parliamentary stages up to and including the presentation of the resolutions of ratification; that any committee conditions, declarations, or reservations be agreed to as applicable; that any statements be printed in the Record; further, that each treaty be voted on en bloc but considered voted on individually; that the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table; and that the President be notified of the Senate's action.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 471, S. 2754.

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendments be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mrs. CAPITO

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

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc.

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following Senate resolutions, which were submitted earlier today: S. Res. 566, S. Res. 567, S. Res. 568, and S. Res. 569.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I now ask for its second reading and object to my own request.

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I understand that S. 3348, introduced earlier today by Senator Wyden, is at the desk, and I ask for its first reading.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 3 p.m., Monday, September 19; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; further, that following leader remarks, the Senate resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 5325.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of Calendar Nos. 700 through 715 and all nominations on the Secretary's desk; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order; that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I wish to thank my fellow Senator from the State of West Virginia for his lead on this, and I am happy to be his primary cosponsor. I wish to thank Senator Brown as well. He brings a lot of passion. I got to follow him the other day at the rally. He is a hard act to follow. Senator Warner, certainly your State of Virginia and the southwest portion right there--you are lucky enough to be really close to West Virginia--are going to feel a lot of this. I think Senator Brown really stated it when he spoke about the rally that we saw last week. It was a very hot day. There were thousands of miners and families there, and we all went for the show of hands. Senator Portman is here now. Let's have a show of hands from those from Ohio and from West Virginia. It was really spread throughout the eastern part of the country. It wasn't just one State or the other. Everyone that I shook hands with I asked: Is this personally affecting you? It was amazing to me that most of the people I talked to, it personally affected them. Many of them are retired. They are not spring chickens, as a lot of us are not. They were willing to weather a really long bus ride, a really hot day to stand arm in arm in brotherhood and sisterhood for something that we all believe in and on which we are approaching a critical deadline. So as I said before, these are the workers who power our Nation and who work hard. My kids have gone to school with their grandchildren. We go to church with many of them. In a small State like ours, Senator Manchin and I certainly know many of the folks and the faces that we saw that day and the ones that are affected by this. We can't leave them in the lurch. This is where we are. We hear the statistics--22,000. Some of the statistics are a little bit different, but they could be losing their health care here in the next three months. The pension plan that provides benefits to over 90,000 current retirees could become insolvent. We have a fix. Senator Portman and I have talked a lot about this because we have those adjoining parts of our States that are very much affected, and we have worked hard to bring this fix and get it to the point where we think we are assured that the vote will come through the Finance Committee, on which Senator Portman serves. So I look forward to that. Even though it disappointingly was pushed back a week, we still are fighting the fight. The war on coal in our State has resulted in thousands of lost jobs. Six of our counties are in a deep depression. We were at a local hearing in Morgantown where our State economist said that six of our counties are in a very severe depression. A lot of these counties are where a lot of these folks live. For these counties and communities across our State, the situation, if we don't do something, is going to get even worse. This is not a partisan issue. We have Republicans and Democrats here. I would say it is more of a regional issue than a partisan issue. We are working with Chairman Hatch to get this bill marked up in the Finance Committee, and, hopefully, that will get us the next step that we need, which is the big step and which is to get it across the floor here in the halls of the Senate. So with the hard-working men and women of Appalachia, with the leadership that Senator Manchin has shown on this, and with many of us here working together in the many different ways that we can affect the votes of our colleagues--somebody said to me: What is going to make the difference? You are on that side of the aisle where maybe there are a lot of folks that can't see why we should vote for this. What I would implore them to do is to look at the human faces of the people who are affected here. These are people, most of whom have worked hard their whole lives. Many of them have health issues--severe health issues. Many of them are living on limited resources. This really just kind of kicks the stool out from under their entire family. So I join with everybody here today to make that real difference that we need to make, and we will keep the fight going here as we move through the next several weeks and months. Thank you.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. I thank Senator Daines for calling us together for what I think is a good reminder to those who are watching and in the Gallery that we are deeply committed to seeing a Senate that functions and a Senate that exercises opinions and has full and open debate on this revered Senate floor. I thank Senator Daines for putting together the freshmen colloquy. I thank Senator Rounds. We are seatmates, sitting next to one another in this great and beautiful Hall. It is interesting to hear everybody's different perspectives on why this bill is so important. Let's just recall how we got here. I am a member of the Appropriations Committee with Senator Daines, and the Presiding Officer is as well. We debated this bill in the committee room. We did several amendment votes. In the subcommittee, many thoughtful decisions were made, and discussions were had as to the priorities of our defense capabilities. In the end, we joined together, Republicans and Democrats, and passed this out of the full committee 30 to 0--no opposition. For those of you who are watching and even for me, a freshman in our freshman class, we would think, well, this is a layup. This is about our men and women in uniform. This has overwhelmingly come out in a bipartisan fashion. All 14 Democrats on the committee supported this. What has changed here? What has changed? Why are the Democrats now filibustering to keep the Senate from even considering this legislation that was unanimous out of committee and well discussed? Let's have the discussion on the floor. Yet, six times, as Senator Rounds said, they have refused to let us consider this bill. Why is there a strategy being put forth to keep Congress from working by blocking this and all of the other appropriations bills? Why are they blocking the bill that will equip our troops--the ones who are fighting overseas, training at home and recruiting, and those who are caring for our military families here at home? Why? I don't have the answer to that question. I think the answer lies on the other side of the aisle, but I haven't heard an answer that sufficiently satisfies my curiosity nor the curiosity of the American people. Senator Daines mentioned the McLaughlin Air Guard. We have over 6,000 members from West Virginia in our National Guard. They serve in all reaches of this world, they serve on the border, and they serve for flood relief all around this country. Whenever there is an emergency, the West Virginia National Guard is one of the first ones called up. Thousands are now on Active Duty around the globe, and we have over 100,000 veterans in our State. What kind of message does this send to them? What are they thinking? Why? Why is this being blocked? We all know we live in a dangerous world. We can listen to the radio, we can listen to the discussions, and we can read the news. We know how dangerous this world is. If we consider the state of that this administration's failed policies have created, I think that is the reason why. Why is this being blocked? In Eastern Europe, the Russian military continues its military buildup. I just returned from a trip over Memorial Day to the South China Sea, and we learned there about China constructing military facilities on manmade islands. Just last week, North Korea conducted its latest and largest nuclear test. If it didn't send chills down your body thinking about that, it should, because they want to get the capabilities to reach our western coast. In the Persian Gulf, Iran continues to harass U.S. naval ships and threaten to shoot down surveillance aircraft. Just yesterday a ceasefire in Syria didn't last hours before the Assad regime dropped more barrel bombs on the rebels. The instability is remarkable. Too much is at stake for us to continue to play politics that trumps our defense policy, and all of the threats that we face still persist. The Senate has a tradition--and I was in the House for 14 years. We had a tradition. This was one of the easy bills. The DOD appropriations bill is something--we can do this because as a country we know how important our military is, our men and women in uniform. This time around should be no different. I strongly urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to work with us, to show that unified support that we saw in the committee. We need to show that support to our men and women in uniform, their families, and our veterans. I yield back to Senator Daines, but I wish to welcome Senator Gardner to the discussion. He is an esteemed member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In the Senate, he also has led us in a bipartisan way in passing important sanctions against the North Korean regime. I am also pleased to be on the floor with Senator Sullivan, my colleague from Alaska, who is a loud and clear voice in support of our military, not just from his experience but from his very enriched background in this area. I go back to my original question. Why? Why are you blocking this? Why can't we give the certainty that our men and women in uniform, our moms and dads, and our husbands and wives need. Why? Let's have an answer to that question. Let's do our job. Let's pass this bill. Senator Daines, thank you again for your leadership.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I am here today to speak in support of the Water Resources Development Act, or what we call WRDA. I thank Chairman Inhofe and Ranking Member Boxer for the way they have worked very well together to get this very important piece of legislation across the finish line, as they did with the Transportation bill. This piece of legislation has broad bipartisan support. As we know, West Virginia suffered historic flooding this summer. We can see this in Greenbrier County, WV, on June 25, 2016. This shows how swollen and filled all the waterways were. We lost 23 West Virginians from the storms, and tens of thousands suffered catastrophic damages to their homes and to their livelihoods. WRDA contains a number of provisions that will help prevent this kind of devastation in the future. We can no longer wait until it fails to fix our Nation's infrastructure. In addition to a major loss of life, communities across West Virginia are dealing with significant economic losses that will take years to recover. Our friends in Louisiana are going through the same, very difficult building back. Let me touch on some of the highlights of the WRDA bill. I sponsored a provision in WRDA with my fellow Senator from West Virginia, Mr. Manchin, to study the feasibility of implementing projects for flood risk management within West Virginia's Kanawha River Basin--something such as this--to prevent this. This bill also addresses dam safety and includes a provision I have been working on with Senator Jack Reed. I thank him for his hard work in this area. According to the Army Corps of Engineers' ``National Inventory of Dams,'' there are more than 14,000 high-hazard potential dams in the United States. As we know, the State of West Virginia has a lot of mountains, a lot of valleys, a lot of water, and a lot of dams. Some 422 of those dams are located in my small State of West Virginia. Put simply, when a dam has high-hazard potential, it means that if the dam fails, people will lose their lives and their property. This provision allows for $530 million over 10 years for a FEMA program to fix those dams. I know that States across the Nation would welcome this provision. Flood prevention and mitigation is only one of the important parts of this WRDA bill. WRDA also has drinking water infrastructure--an issue, again, that is very important to all of us. In my State of West Virginia, we dealt with this firsthand, in 2014, following the Freedom Industries spill into the Elk River. As we may recall, that caused 600,000 people to lose their water for a large period of time--several weeks in some cases. WRDA provides assistance to small, disadvantaged, and underserved communities. It will replace lead service lines in these communities and address sewer overflows. We have so much aging infrastructure in this country. It includes $170 million to address lead emergencies-- like those in Flint, MI--and other public health consequences. It provides $70 million to capitalize the new Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, better known as WIFIA. That program provides loans for water and wastewater infrastructure anywhere in the country. This program is modeled after a similar and highly successful program that supports our highways. Maximizing the use of our waterways is another important part of WRDA. In my State, our rivers not only provide commercial transport but also vital recreational opportunities. I have submitted a bipartisan amendment, which I hope will be accepted into the final bill, that emphasizes the increasing use of locks along the Monongahela River for recreational use. Finally, WRDA includes consensus legislation to allow EPA to review and approve State permitting programs for coal ash disposal. The EPA's coal ash rule went into effect last October, but EPA does not currently have the authority to approve our State permitting programs. This bill fills that gap, benefiting utilities, States, and the environment by authorizing State oversight of coal ash disposal. There is no other environmental regulation solely enforced simply through private lawsuits, which is what we are seeing. So this bill fixes that by giving States the authority, and it empowers local entities to help keep their infrastructure strong and functioning. Lastly, the bill gets us back to a regular schedule of passing WRDA every 2 years. Doing so will allow us to continue to modernize our water transportation infrastructure and keep up with flood protection and environmental restoration needs across the country. So let's seize this opportunity. This is a significant bill with a number of benefits for a lot of States all across the country. This legislation proactively addresses a number of concerns. It will bring short-term and long-term gains to our economy, and it will show the American people that Congress can come together in a bipartisan way to fix problems, to support needed improvements to our infrastructure, and to make the right investments in our communities. Lastly, I wish to add that the devastating floods we had in West Virginia took 23 lives, but what it showed us as West Virginians is what a great Nation we live in. I want to take the time to thank people from across this country who drove to West Virginia, who sent money to West Virginia, who raised money for West Virginians, who sent supplies, and who said prayers for all the many families who were devastated and still suffer the devastation from a flood such as this throughout our State. I think we do sometimes focus a little bit too much on what is going wrong in this country. For me, one of the things that is going right is the volunteerism, the benevolence, the loving embrace that we felt in West Virginia from the rest of the country when we went through such a devastating flood but that other areas of the country feel when they suffer like consequences. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I wish to congratulate the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics on their 15th anniversary and to recognize the outstanding work of our Nation's 1,200 free and charitable clinics in providing vital medical services to low- income, uninsured residents, including the eight clinics in my home State of West Virginia. West Virginia's free and charitable clinics, with the assistance of their more than 1,000 dedicated volunteer professionals, provide health care for over 42,000 working poor of West Virginia. These clinics focus on the overall needs of patients by providing medical, dental, pharmaceutical, behavior health, vision, and health education services and ensure a medical home for vulnerable at-risk West Virginians. Annually, America's 1,200 free and charitable clinics provide health care to 1.7 million people through 5.9 million patient visits. This is accomplished through a dedicated staff and over 160,000 volunteers, including 30,000 medical providers, 21,000 nurses, and almost 71,000 nonmedical volunteers. Free and charitable clinics do not receive dedicated Federal funding. Instead, these clinics rely heavily on private donations from individual donors, foundations, grants, and volunteers, which allow them to keep their doors open and to deliver health care to those who need it the most. I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues in Congress to better address the needs of the medically underserved and to increase awareness and understanding of the important work that free and charitable clinics do every day.

Mrs. CAPITO

Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I wish to thank my fellow Senator from Louisiana, Mr. Cassidy--Dr. Cassidy--for his really creative ideas--the World's Greatest Healthcare Plan and the way he frames it, in terms of his years of practice and the sincerity with which I know he has practiced in all kinds of health care settings and has done a lot of work with folks who never could or never would have afforded health insurance. So I thank the Senator for what he is doing and for working with us to try to solve this issue. I rise today to join many of my colleagues in sharing the realities of ObamaCare. We have heard a lot about this. In my home State of West Virginia, for many, this law has been nothing short of devastating. While the number of people insured has increased because of the expansion of Medicaid in my State, the way these policies were put into place has created possible catastrophic fiscal cliffs for States. My State, by the way, last fiscal year was over $300 million in the hole because of other issues, and now they are looking at this fiscal cliff of having to pay the full rate of Medicaid expansion. There is now a segment of our population that is falling through the cracks when it comes to health reform. They make too much money to qualify for aid or subsidies and end up paying the full cost of increasing individual coverage premiums. These working families are being faced with sky-rocketing premiums, copays, and deductibles. Talk to any health care center. Talk to the hospitals. This rising amount of deductibles is influencing their bottom line because they are not chasing the uninsured. They are chasing now people's deductibles. In my State and across this country, we have little, if any, choice in insurers. I know we have all heard that often-repeated phrase, and I will say it again. It is the claim that if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. This has been pure fiction. The provider and hospital networks have shrunk and insurers have shifted away from options to give patients the choice they were promised and that they counted on, and they are now being pushed into much more restrictive plans. One of our local papers recently ran a story about a West Virginian in just this situation, a small business person who labeled this plan accurately, calling it the ``Un-Affordable Care Act.'' Since ObamaCare, my premiums have increased at least $450 per month in the last couple of years. The plan I had was can- celed. . . . So if you like your health care, you can keep it. His was canceled-- false statement. He had to enroll in a new plan. His premiums are currently over $1,350 a month. Between the high deductible and meeting the out-of-pocket maximum, this West Virginian has to pay 20 percent-- all out-of-pocket--and the situation is likely to get worse. In West Virginia, we, like many other States, are currently waiting to see what our premium increase is going to be for 2017. It hasn't been approved yet by the State insurance commission. The question is not whether there will be an increase; that is a given. The question is, How enormous will it be? If nearby States are any indication, there is much to be concerned about. In the State of Tennessee, the State insurance commissioner recently sounded the alarm saying that the ObamaCare exchange in Tennessee is very near collapse. Rates there are skyrocketing to between a 44- and 62-percent increase. Sadly, the story is the same whether one is in Arizona, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nebraska, or West Virginia. All too often, these rate increases are coming with much less coverage as well. I recently spoke with a West Virginia small business person who has absorbed the cost of increased premiums for their employees, realizing they can't afford it but, at the same time, that employees are getting much less coverage, higher deductibles, and higher copays. Attempting to switch to a lower cost plan comes with its own perils. The average bronze plan deductible in 2016 was $5,700. This is assuming you have choices. A recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that one- third of all counties in the United States will only have one ObamaCare insurer next year. This is up dramatically from the 7 percent of counties in 2016, and it is largely the result of major insurance companies scaling back or withdrawing their participation on the marketplaces. Unfortunately, there is nothing that indicates that this trend will not continue. Many counties are becoming ObamaCare ghost towns. In Pinal County, AZ, 10,000 people bought exchange coverage this year, but no insurers are planning to offer plans on the exchange next year. What are they supposed to do? I fear this scenario could all too easily play out in West Virginia. Traditionally, over the course of ObamaCare, we have only had one insurer for the entire 55 counties. This year we happen to have 1 insurer for 45 of the 55 counties. This lack of competition in the marketplace is not new for our State. This has been the reality for the vast majority of our residents, and now we are seeing it just expanding all across the country. This lack of choice, along with unaffordable premiums, copays, and high deductibles, has prompted most Americans to reject ObamaCare plans and not even join. Nationwide enrollment in ObamaCare exchanges is only half what was originally planned. We owe it to those we represent to do better. We have heard Senator Cassidy talk about his ideas. We have great ideas on this side of the aisle to improve it, and we have asked and voted many times to throw out ObamaCare and start over. I think that is the direction we need to go, because Americans deserve a health care system that works for them, every day, from year to year. It is becoming clearer and clearer that ObamaCare is not that plan. Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.