Katherine Clark

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Jackson Lee for her advocacy and leadership and always championing our communities of color who have also been devastated by this crisis. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus).

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Rothfus for sharing the stories of Jared, Chad, and Tony and really putting a face and a name to this epidemic. I now yield to the gentlewoman from Maine (Ms. Pingree).

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Guinta. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney).

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Please extend our thanks to Jennifer's family for sharing that story, and I thank the gentleman for his advocacy. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Katko).

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. I thank the gentleman for sharing Morgan's story with us. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the western part of the Commonwealth, Mr. Neal. (Mr. NEAL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. I thank Mr. Neal for the critical story that Bethany shared with him and that the gentleman shared with us. We know how devastating this crisis has been in western and central Massachusetts, and we thank the gentleman for all of his leadership on it. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Stefanik).

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleagues for joining us this evening for this critically important discussion. I thank the chairs of the bipartisan task force on the opioid epidemic for their leadership and tenacity in pushing reforms. I thank Congresswoman Kuster and Congressman Guinta. This week the House will debate solutions to our Nation's opioid crisis. If there has ever been a time to put away partisan differences and ideological rhetoric, it is now. I am proud of the work of the task force in supporting bipartisan bills to help stem the tide of this epidemic. This is a public health crisis that reaches into every community. It is an equal opportunity killer, without regard for age, gender, race, or economic background. It does not care if you are a Democrat or a Republican. In Massachusetts, just last year we lost nearly 1,400 lives to this opioid crisis. Half of all of the deaths in Massachusetts of opioid overdoses involve heroin, but prescription opioid overdoses are also surging. Between 2013 and 2014, they increased by over 90 percent. In my State more than others, the epidemic is claiming the lives of our young people ages 25 to 34. Too many parents are trying to save their child from opioid addiction's deadly grip, and they are counting on us for help. That is why we are here this evening--to do everything we can to save lives. At the center of this debate are the families at home who speak out and bravely share their stories so no other parent has to endure the pain of losing their child. Tonight I am thinking of Debbie Deagle, who I met in October during a town hall in Revere, Massachusetts. In front of a large audience she told the story of Stephen, her only child, who she lost to opioid addiction. In her words, she was inconsolable and it was difficult to make it through each day. She was also angry because not a month had gone by in the last 15 years she hadn't heard of somebody overdosing, but nobody wanted to talk about it and everybody was too ashamed. Debbie talked about the shame her son felt. She described him as brilliant, her miracle child. She raised him as a single mother and, while it was hard, his beautiful life was a gift she cherished. He was smart, witty, a songwriter, and a musician. He had a bright future. He had graduated with honors from St. John's Prep and went to Northeastern University, where he became a computer science major, which was his gift. It was four impacted wisdom teeth his freshman year of college and the opioids that he took for pain that started him on his road to addiction. When his substance abuse disorder derailed Stephen's life, Debbie started reading blogs where people commented: They are only junkies. They should just cull the herd. That is what got her angry. She thought: These aren't animals. These are children. On their own, Debbie and her son battled addiction, insurance companies, and the courts. In the end, it was a battle they lost. On January 8, 2015, Stephen Deagle passed away after his excruciating struggle with opioids, and his mother lived her worst nightmare saying goodbye to her only son. When we asked Debbie if we could share her story, her request was simple: Please get Congress to do something. We deserve real solutions now. So my request to this Congress is to listen to Debbie and the pleas of too many other moms like her. This crisis is an urgent calling for Congress to act and save lives. This week we will have the opportunity to pass legislation that will give critical tools to address this crisis. Ultimately, however, we must also provide the financial resources to our State and local partners to change the course of this epidemic. I thank you for all the work that is being done. I yield to the gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr. Guinta).

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Maine. I thank her for sharing the personal story of David and Michael. I know that, in my extended office family, we grieve and remember and will continue to work for change for Kyle and Emmett, who we have lost in the past year as well. We will remember all the names that were mentioned in this first hour of Stephen, Jennifer, Morgan, Bethany, Matt, Tracy, Jared, Chad, Tony, David, and Michael. I thank my colleague from New Hampshire again for his work on this bipartisan task force. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, February 27 marked the 28th anniversary of harrowing violence against the Armenian community in Sumgait, Azerbaijan. I am proud to stand today with the Armenian-American community, including many of my constituents in Massachusetts, in remembrance and mourning of this unspeakable tragedy. In February of 1988, anti-Armenian rallies through Azerbaijan gave way to waves of ethnically-motivated violence, death and destruction. In the aftermath of these terrible events, Azerbaijan's Armenian community all but disappeared, with thousands displaced, culminating in a war against the people of Nagorno Karabakh. That war resulted in almost 30,000 dead on both sides. Hundreds of thousands of refugees were forced to flee their homes. And to this day, those who lost their lives or were displaced by this violence still seek resolution and justice. Many displaced Armenian families have sought refuge in America, and are now making vital contributions in the Fifth District of Massachusetts. Proudly, our diverse District is home to one of the largest Armenian communities in the nation. Together, our community is a thriving example of strength and perseverance in the face of extreme adversity. Like the persecution of too many others before it, the lessons of the Sumgait Pogrom must not be forgotten. We have a moral obligation to promote tolerance and justice, and we have a duty to recognize the atrocities that have kept us from our common goal.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, the district I serve, the Fifth District of Massachusetts, is home to women who have shaped our Nation's history. I would like to celebrate one of those extraordinary women in celebration of Women's History Month. When you hear the song, ``Over the River and Through the Woods,'' you are hearing the words of Medford native Lydia Maria Child, a 19th century novelist, poet, abolitionist, Native American rights activist, and women's rights advocate who pioneered early progressive activism with her groundbreaking work. In her fight for justice and equality, she wrote one of the earliest American historical novels, the first comprehensive history of American slavery, and the first comparative history of women. As we celebrate Women's History Month and continue to strive for equality and justice for all women, we take great pride in celebrating the contributions of Lydia Maria Child and the other women leaders who have shaped our great country.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of one of my constituents, Becca Pizzi of Belmont, Massachusetts. Becca is a single mother, a child care provider, a local ice cream shop manager, and just recently, a world record-breaking athlete. In the early hours of January 30, 2016, in Sydney, Australia, Becca became the first woman from the United States to complete the World Marathon Challenge. This international marathon began in Antarctica and is comprised of seven marathons on seven continents, all over seven days. In her race around the world, Becca set two world records: the fastest average marathon time among women at 3 hours, 55 minutes, and 11 seconds, and shortest time frame for a female to complete marathons on all seven continents at 6 days, 18 hours and 38 minutes. Upon her return, Becca's hometown of Belmont greeted her and her family with a parade in celebration of her accomplishment. Through all of her training and through the grueling race, Becca credited her 8 year old daughter Taylor as her source of inspiration. Becca's story exemplifies our community's unique grit and determination to reach the highest heights despite any obstacle. I thank Becca for inspiring athletes around the world and congratulate her on her historic achievement.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Madam Chair, I was unavoidably detained during rollcall votes 24 and 25. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on Conyers Amendment to H.R. 1927, and ``yea'' on the Deutch Amendment to H.R. 1927. Amendment No. 5 Offered by Ms. Moore

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for 1 minute.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Kline and Ranking Member Scott for their leadership on this bill and for proving that Congress can listen to our educators, administrators, and communities and put the needs of our students first. We all know that a great country deserves great schools. And I am pleased to join champions of education in both Chambers, both sides of the aisle, in supporting this blueprint for schools that invites every child to participate, no matter a child's income, race, ZIP Code, or disability. This bill helps fulfill the unrealized promise of No Child Left Behind by protecting resources for schools in underserved communities. It provides accountability and equality of access while reducing reliance on high-stakes tests. It creates opportunities for our most vulnerable students--homeless and foster youth--who have suffered abuse and those who have experienced trauma. And, for the first time, we have a bill that invests in early learning through Preschool Development Grants. This legislation brings us closer to ensuring that every child gets a fair shot at their dream. I thank my colleagues for their work and commitment to our country's children and to our economic future.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, today 58 babies, 1 baby every 25 minutes, will be born suffering from the same pain adults describe as the worst pain of their lives, the pain of drug withdrawal. Over the last decade, the number of infants born experiencing withdrawal from powerful drugs has grown nearly fivefold. It is a condition called neonatal abstinence syndrome. It results from prenatal exposure to opioids like heroin and prescription painkillers. In States like Massachusetts, we are seeing this happen at a rate three times the national average. In addition to the human suffering, the costs associated with NAS births are staggering. They are five times more expensive than healthy births, totaling $1.5 billion for hospitals in 2012, with 80 percent being paid by Medicaid. But despite the best efforts of doctors, nurses, and others, there is no coordinated response to this crisis. There are no clear best practices for treating these infants, and more research is needed to help understand the problem. That is why I have worked with my colleagues, researchers, doctors, and advocates to introduce the Protecting Our Infants Act, the first Federal bill to take proactive steps in addressing the rise of NAS births. We were able to pass this bill in the House in September, thanks to the help of my partner on this bill, Representative Steve Stivers. A slightly modified version was passed a few weeks ago, due to the hard work of our Senate sponsors, Majority Leader McConnell and Senator Casey. With broad support in both Chambers, this is an opportunity for Congress to make a difference for moms and babies suffering because of the opioid epidemic. The Protecting Our Infants Act will require the Department of Health and Human Services to develop recommendations to prevent and treat prenatal opioid abuse and NAS, and to develop a strategy in the Department to coordinate programs and research. This will help ease the suffering of the smallest victims of the opioid crisis. It will help hospitals and Medicaid save money, and ease the burden on doctors and nurses that are overwhelmed by this problem. This is not controversial, partisan, or political. It is just good policy. I thank my Republican partner in the House, Steve Stivers, for his leadership in getting this bill to where it is today. I ask the House to come together and help the thousands of babies and mothers who are fighting this epidemic, and I urge my colleagues to pass the bipartisan Protecting Our Infants Act and send this legislation to the President for his signature.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, here we go again. We are back here using valuable legislative time to make a doomed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Next week the highway bill will expire. The week after that we are facing the prospect of defaulting on our Nation's debt. Next month we could shut down government because we don't have a long-term budget. Yet, here we are again, repealing the Affordable Care Act, defunding Planned Parenthood, because maybe the 65th time it will stick? I would like to remind my colleagues that the Affordable Care Act has insured over 17 million Americans and that Planned Parenthood provides care to 2.7 million patients a year, often in underserved areas of our country. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle seem determined to replay these issues, despite the fact that we have already voted on them. Mr. Speaker, we have a lot of very important time-sensitive issues we need to deal with. We need to fund our highway system. We need to pay our bills. We need to keep government open. These are the very basic functions we were elected to perform. These are the minimum of what families need and expect from us. Instead, we are wasting precious time debating backward, ideological bills that roll back important progress made for women and families who are working hard to get to and stay in the middle class. I urge my colleagues to vote down this partisan attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act and defund Planned Parenthood. Let's get back to solving this Nation's problems.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of talk about defunding Planned Parenthood. Some Republicans have made this such a priority that they are vowing to shut down our government, shut down our programs for veterans and hinder their ability to access services, WIC programs serving moms and babies, curtail services for domestic violence, and close our national parks and landmarks. The last Republican shutdown cost our economy $24 billion, but many of the GOP's Presidential candidates said in their debate just last night that defunding Planned Parenthood is a priority. We are not talking about abortion here. We are talking about access to health care. Under current law, Federal money cannot be used for the coverage for abortion except in the most extreme circumstances of rape, incest, or the possibility of the death of the mother. Even though most Americans disagree with that restriction and believe firmly that decisions surrounding pregnancy should be between a woman, her doctor, and her faith, that is not the law of the land currently. So if we are not talking about abortion, what are we talking about? What is this threat that will be stopped by cutting off all Federal funding for Planned Parenthood? What we are talking about is denying health care to the 2.7 million patients who received care just last year at Planned Parenthood. More than 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does is preventative care. This includes wellness exams, cancer screenings, contraception, prenatal care, and testing and treatment for STIs. Just last year, Planned Parenthood had over 2 million contraception patients, performed approximately 3.7 million STI tests, 370,000 Pap tests, and 450,000 breast exams. These are the types of services patients receive at Planned Parenthood, and this preventive health care is what the majority would like to get rid of by defunding it. That is what is most important about this debate: the care that patients receive, the care that one in five American women will receive from Planned Parenthood at some point in their life. I would like to welcome my colleague, at this point, from New Jersey's 12th District, Congresswoman Watson Coleman. She is a strong voice for women and families. I am proud to call her a friend and a colleague, and I yield to the gentlewoman.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. I thank the gentlewoman from New Jersey. I want to reiterate something that the Congresswoman said, that this is really a thinly veiled extremist position. What we are talking about is exactly as the gentlewoman from New Jersey put it. We are talking about relitigating rights that are established under the law and that have really nothing to do with abortion. They are having everything to do with the way that one in five American women receives her health care. And Planned Parenthood not only has a huge reach in the patients that they serve, but they historically serve low-income and underserved populations. For example, in 2013, 78 percent of Planned Parenthood patients had incomes of 150 percent of poverty or less. To put that in real terms, that is an income of a little over $36,000 dollars a year for a family of four. So not only does Planned Parenthood provide critical services to low-income families, but they also have a geographic reach to help ensure all patients have a healthcare access point. Nationwide, they represent 54 percent of all health centers in rural areas, medically underserved areas, and health provider shortage areas. And in some areas, they are even a larger part of the healthcare system. In Alabama, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Rhode Island, and Wyoming, they are 100 percent of the health centers in rural areas, medically underserved areas, and health provider shortage areas. That is why Planned Parenthood is so critical. I am delighted to yield to my colleague from California's 33rd District. Congressman Lieu represents communities in Los Angeles. He is an Air Force veteran and Reservist, president of the freshman class of Democrats, and, as a California State senator, and now as a Congressman, he has had an unparalleled record on women's issues. I yield to the gentleman.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Thank you, Congressman Lieu. We appreciate your coming. The story that you shared is repeated over and over with the millions of women that count on Planned Parenthood for their healthcare services. I would now like to yield to my colleague from Tennessee's Ninth District. Congressman Cohen is a champion on women's issues and a lifelong supporter of Planned Parenthood.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. No.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. I thank the gentleman from Tennessee for his words and for his commitment to women and their access to health care and for pointing out the confounding thing about defunding Planned Parenthood, which is that we are not even talking about abortion, as we have already restricted that Federal funding. Madam Speaker, we are talking about access to health care to underserved women, to low-income women, who are trying to get general wellness checkups, who are trying to have cancer screenings, who are trying to access health care. It is Planned Parenthood that fills that void in our underserved populations, in our rural areas. That is where they make a critical difference. You are absolutely right in that the messaging that this is somehow about something else is completely hiding the fact that we are bringing bills to the floor without committee hearings, that we are not being transparent, and that we are misleading the American public about what this debate is about. I am delighted that we also have another champion for working families and a great voice for the communities he serves. I yield to my colleague from California's 36th District, Congressman Ruiz.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. I thank the gentleman from California for sharing his experience as a medical doctor and as someone who stands with Planned Parenthood. Thank you for joining us. Congressman Ruiz raises an interesting point about looking at our system of health care. Part of the proposal from the Republicans is that this is easy, that we can simply take the money from Planned Parenthood and give it to community health centers, but there is simply not the capacity in the system to handle these extra patients. Currently, more than half of Medicaid providers are not offering appointments to new Medicaid patients, but two-thirds of the States report difficulty in ensuring enough providers, including OB/GYN care. Madam Speaker, this hurts low-income women especially hard because 60 percent of Planned Parenthood patients access care through Medicaid and/or Title X, and 35 percent of women view their OB/GYN as their main source of care. So what we are talking about here is not abortion, but women's health care, preventative measures that save lives. We know that over 90 percent of the services Planned Parenthood provides are preventative. We know that they serve underserved areas. We know that there isn't enough capacity to see these patients in other settings and that eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood would mean over 390,000 patients would no longer receive health care. If all of this sounds crazy to you, you are not alone. It is why I came down here tonight, and I thank my colleagues who joined me. It is time that we reveal the falsehoods of this argument and defeat these efforts--these radical efforts--that are threatening to shut down our government in order to defund Planned Parenthood, which carries so much of our healthcare system for women in this country and especially for low-income women. It is time we stand up, debunk the lies and the mysteries that we are being told, and let women have the healthcare access that they need and deserve. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts

Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.