Lloyd Doggett

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, rain can be a blessing or a curse depending on whether we get too much or too little. Like water, America can sustain our prosperity and our strength by the flow of people who want to come here, if they can come here legally. What Republicans rave about as a crisis, if properly addressed, represents a great opportunity for our country. By overcoming Republican opposition last year, we have achieved the lowest unemployment in America in 50 years. If every single American who is reported as unemployed today were to take a job, we would still have millions of unfilled jobs in this country. Our economy is crying out ``help wanted'' to which Republicans respond, ``keep out,'' and ``let's build a wall to wall us off from the rest of the world.'' We have a serious worker shortage. Our economic growth today is being slowed because so many businesses cannot find the workers they need to fulfill the needs of their customers. Yet, just across our border are a host of people who are looking for a job. We need construction workers. We need workers to care for the old, the ill, and the young, and restaurant and other service jobs. Some of them are very highly skilled, and some of them are hardly skilled. If some immigrants could work in this country and come here legally and go home when they need to, then they wouldn't be risking their lives in deserts, dying in dangerous rivers, and sitting on the streets of our border communities. Certainly, we cannot take everyone who wants to come here. We need rules for orderly immigration and for fairness. They are the rules that Republicans have blocked in this Congress for years. So long as they see any immigrant hysteria as more valuable to them politically than finding a solution, then we are not going to get there. Today's vote represents just their latest refusal to accept reality and another refusal to enact a comprehensive and reasonable system for legal entry for workers. There is, of course, a humanitarian aspect. Our Dreamers, who were brought here as little children and many of whom are now adults, are facing years of uncertainty. A nurse, a Travis County prosecutor, a teacher, and many students whom I have met personally, still don't know how long they can tell their employer they can work. There is so much they have to contribute. Multiple studies show they will only strengthen our economy. There are other families in Texas border towns today who have risked everything to escape oppression and corrupt and authoritarian governments like Venezuela. Many of them have legitimate claims for political asylum, but the Republicans have abandoned the promise of our Statue of Liberty.

Mr. DOGGETT. America's strength has always been found in our diversity. Let's overcome the fearmongering and the anti-immigrant hysteria and do the serious, hard work of passing genuine comprehensive immigration reform. Let's turn immigration into a true win for the American people.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, after President Trump twiddled, while thousands of Americans died of COVID, we entered a national crisis. In that emergency, the Trump administration, the Biden administration, and the States did not do enough to prevent fraud in this and other programs. If Republicans were genuinely interested in strengthening any fraud efforts, as I certainly am, we could, today, approve bipartisan legislation to do that. Instead, they rejected many of the important recommendations from their own witnesses before our committee from the Government Accountability Office and the inspector general told us were necessary. Instead of protecting taxpayers today from fraud, they use this misnamed bill to actually cut the very funding that is required for any fraud and recovery of wrong payments. When millions of Texans found themselves out of a job, the Texas Workforce Commission was not ready to provide a lifeline. Even in the middle of the night, my neighbors could not get through to get the insurance to which they were entitled. Little wonder that the same State agency did a sorry job of preventing fraud. The vast majority of Texans, who eventually received unemployment, were entitled to it, unlike apparently an indicted member of the Republican Caucus. Our unemployment insurance system should be strengthened, not undermined, as this very bill would do.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, ``Here Comes the Sun.'' It is more than a great tune. It is about a great renewable future, but our Republican colleagues refuse to see through the dark smoke of fossil fuels and fossilized thinking. They just blindly follow Trump at every opportunity to try to reduce progress on addressing the very real climate crisis. President Biden is both enforcing our trade laws and maintaining our commitment for more solar power by giving American companies a reasonable time to adjust their supply chains away from China and without an unreasonable disruption of installing more solar panels all across this country. This temporary tariff pause ends in only about a year. That is just not soon enough for those who are determined to disrupt our move to a clean energy future. I must say, this is a truly anti-business move because it penalizes companies that have relied in good faith on the President's order. It also, as my colleague from Oregon has just shown, will kill a number of good-paying union jobs across this country. Despite ice mass in Greenland and Antarctica melting at an average of about 420 billion tons every year, already raising sea levels in the Gulf of Mexico, Republican opposition in fighting climate change remains frozen in the past. Trading fossil fuel and fossil power for the power of the Sun by getting as many solar panels as soon as possible is one way that more and more American families and American businesses can make their contribution to their own lower energy bills. It can help us respond to the climate crisis that is already engulfing America with wildfires and intensified weather, like tornadoes and floods and droughts in different places, and, of course, hotter and hotter and hotter temperatures. At this dawn of a new clean energy era, now is not the time to eclipse solar. In Texas, we are already number two in the country among the States for solar capacity, creating thousands of new jobs and providing clean energy and lower energy bills to thousands of families. Austinites know that solar power saves them on their energy bills and saves them when storms disrupt the grid. Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues will see the light and see the power of solar and join us in voting ``no'' on this misguided proposal.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I oppose this Republican ``Default on America'' act because it will create more deficits for millions of Americans. It will create an educational opportunity deficit for the students that are relying on Pell grants, seeing them slashed, and their hope for debt forgiveness dashed. It would create an educational opportunity deficit for the children that are denied preschool.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Chair, with this bill, our Republican colleagues offer their answer to our overheated planet, turn up the heat. And to those parents concerned about their children's future in what could become an uninhabitable planet, they say quite simply, ``shut up and get out of the way.'' This dirty bill will not bring our energy costs down, but it will drive our hospital bills and our doctor bills way up because it is a dirty deal. Republican fossilized thinking threatens the health of millions of Americans and endangers the future of our planet. Our country should be the world's leader in combating the climate crisis and growing the many new jobs that are necessary to develop the new technologies to combat the ravages of an overheated planet. But instead, the Republicans surrender the green technology leadership to China and other countries around the world. Protecting American families from the climate crisis should be a bipartisan issue, but it has increasingly become one as most of our Republican colleagues ignore the dangers and remain beholden to polluters over people. Last year, we made some modest progress under Democratic leadership. We offered incentives for both businesses and families to come together to slow carbon pollution, to go electric, to improve energy efficiency, and to develop additional renewable energy resources. Instead of adding to that progress, which we need, Republicans today would drag our country back to the disastrous years of their hero, Donald Trump, who abandoned American leadership in favor of more and more pollution. Only this month, the world's scientists have told us once again: ``There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.'' Republicans want to slam that very window shut. As the U.N. Secretary General declared: ``Humanity is on thin ice, and that ice is melting fast. Our world needs climate action on all fronts, everything, everywhere, all at once.'' This bill doesn't deserve its designation as H.R. 1. It is not even H.R. 0 because it drags us backward into a world in which our grandchildren will not be able to safely reside. And even for those who won't listen to the scientists and the world leaders near unanimous view on this, all they need to do is just open their eyes. The extreme weather that we see, the intensified heat, the mega-droughts, the ice storms, the tornadoes and hurricanes, and heat, heat, and more heat in places that it has never occurred before, threatening food production and human health. All of this, along with the threat of tropical diseases appearing in places like Central Texas where they have never occurred before. The climate crisis is already taking lives, and it will take many, many more the longer we are delayed by outrageous tactics like we see here today. This sorry bill will never become law, but every day that Republicans dither, delay, and distract us; every day they feed the ignorance about the climate crisis, the nearer we come to a tipping point from which we can never recover. I am voting ``no'' because, left unchecked, Republican half-baked ideas will burn up our planet.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I was prepared to vote for this resolution. Socialism is clearly not the best path for America. Who wants to be associated with Stalin and the others whom this resolution denounces? They were really thugs who were masquerading as socialists. But when the promoters of this worthless resolution rejected the Takano amendment to protect Social Security and Medicare, their goal became clear. They have a long history of rigorously attacking most every new social initiative--originally claiming that Social Security would ``enslave workers'' and ``Sovietize the country''--and they have long denounced Medicare as ``Socialism.''

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, this first Republican bill should be known as the protect Donald Trump and his tax cheating cronies act. After years of obstructing access to Donald Trump's tax returns, we learned how little he paid toward the cost of our national security and how poorly the Trump Internal Revenue Service enforced our tax laws. Each year the richest 1 percent in our country avoid paying an incredible $160 billion of the taxes they owe. This crime wave of Trump-style tax cheating is made possible by Republican insistence on defunding the revenue police. Over the past decade, audit rates for corporations are down by half and the ultrarich by three-fourths. Republican claimed interest in law and order seems to vanish when it comes to tax fraud by the wealthiest few. And their very first bill adds $114 billion to our deficit. Yes, Trump may have been indispensable last week, but this is outrageous. When those, like Trump, don't pay what they owe, then the tax burden gets shifted to small businesses and to families across the country. Reject the Republican drive to defund.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, this legislation provides a modest way for us to honor one who did so much in so many ways to benefit so many people. So let's name the post office in the heart of the community that he called home, just a block away from a twist and turn of the great Guadalupe River, in honor of the great, late Bob Krueger, honoring his memory and make his rich legacy--his values, his grace, his kindness, his commitment to service--a part of our future. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for her leadership and for our Republican colleague, as well. Madam Speaker, I would just address for the Record the comment that was made about the sponsorship. There were 34 of the 36 Members of the Texas delegation who have indeed cosponsored this bill. The other two Members who chose not to cosponsor have indicated they have no objection to the bill. We are, by presenting this bill, applying the same standard that will apply to the next bill up honoring properly our former colleague, Mr. Wright, in legislation sponsored by Mr. Cornyn and by House Members here, treating them the same way. I think both are well-justified pieces of legislation, and I look forward to their approval.

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor a true Texas statesman, Bob Krueger. Decades ago, Bob and I were fierce political adversaries, but since then we have joined on behalf of our State and our Nation in common cause. Now I join so many of his former colleagues and many Texans in recognizing his remarkable contributions. He is a proud native of New Braunfels, which remained his home in recent decades. He once served here in this House in a district that many parts of had more cattle than constituents that stretched from San Antonio to San Angelo and almost to El Paso. After studying at Duke and Oxford, Bob served Duke as vice provost and dean before returning to Texas to win a rather improbable election and reelection as a Congressman. He was voted the most effective Member of his freshman class by colleagues here in the House. He voted to prolong the life of the Voting Rights Act and extend its application to Texas, he supported the admission of women to the service academies, and supported an increase in the minimum wage, among other matters. In those elections and a subsequent race for the U.S. Senate, he attracted talent like Land Commissioner Gary Mauro, media legend Roy Spence, and future Deputy Energy Secretary and Mayor of Houston, Bill White, among many others. When the Senate race was unsuccessful, Bob was named by President Carter as Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Mexican Affairs. In 1990, he won a statewide election to serve in the important position on the Texas Railroad Commission. A few years later, Governor Ann Richards appointed him to fill a Senate vacancy, but within a few months he was defeated by Kay Bailey Hutchison. Yet, Bob never let these setbacks get in the way of lifelong civic engagement and public service. After Senator Hutchison's victory, President Clinton appointed him as Ambassador to Burundi, which he described as the most fulfilling period of his life. There he met with Rwandan refugees fleeing massacres, which he documented, putting him at personal risk, as one of the first Western voices to report the genocide. He discovered villages where children were massacred and livestock was left alive. Even after the front pages of two local newspapers there in Burundi called for his death, he continued this mission: Sounding the alarm, documenting the genocide and the atrocities. He survived an assassination attempt, and only after it became too unsafe for his family to remain there, he was evacuated and then appointed as Ambassador to Botswana. He cut a singular figure: a Shakespeare-quoting, former East Coast professor who connected with Texas ranchers, a busy public servant, who nevertheless valued a few days of daily meditation. Throughout all his types of service, whether he was driving a pickup truck around West Texas or in an armored vehicle in Burundi, he always was driven by the same values, the same faith, and the same guiding light: his family. His partner for almost four decades, Kathleen Tobin Krueger, meant the world to him, they traveled it together. Recently, she has been involved in continuing their work in advocating for their close friend and San Antonian, Paul Rusesabagina. Paul, who inspired ``Hotel Rwanda,'' and who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work in saving people in Rwanda, remains wrongly imprisoned in Rwanda today. Bob's wonderful daughter, Mariana, an accomplished photographer, who shares his love of Duke as both an undergrad and graduate of Duke, and now lives in Austin, continues his legacy. His daughter, Sarah, a double Duke alumna, works as a senior reporter for WRAL in Durham, living there with her husband Will and their son Brooks. His son, Christian, who worked here in the House recently as a legislative assistant for Congressman Joaquin Castro, lives in Texas with his wife Marion. At the memorial service this spring after Bob passed away at 86 years of life well-lived, former Ambassador Scott DeLisi, who worked with Bob in Botswana, said Krueger had ``the most finely tuned moral compass of any man that I worked with in over four decades of public service.'' A true gentleman and a scholar, it is a mark of Bob's character that after completing such important public service, it was Bob, as a visiting professor at Texas State in San Marcos back in 2004, who, despite our previous personal differences, graciously presented me a public service award rather than the other way around. Today, by authoring this bill, I recognize his truly award-worthy service.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Hydrocephalus Awareness Month. Every September patients, caregivers, and their families come together throughout our Nation in support of the more than 1,000,000 people of all ages living with hydrocephalus in the United States. As co-chair of the Congressional Pediatric and Adult Hydrocephalus Caucus, I believe Congress has an important role to play in raising awareness of this condition and crafting policies that result in better treatments and potentially a cure. I urge my colleagues to join the caucus to learn more about this devastating condition. In addition, I urge you to join Representative Chris Smith and me in showing your support for this community by cosponsoring our resolution, H. Res. 20, which supports the goals and ideals of Hydrocephalus Awareness Month. Hydrocephalus is a complex, chronic neurological condition caused by an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. From newborns to seniors, anyone can develop hydrocephalus at any time. The breathtaking prevalence of this condition is reflected in my own district. I recently met a constituent in Austin who described the challenges she has faced due to the limited treatment options available for hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is the most common reason for brain surgery in young children. The physicians and staff at the Children's Hospital of San Antonio perform the brain surgeries necessary to treat many of the one in 770 babies across the country who develop hydrocephalus each year. Veterans and active military personnel, such as those stationed at Joint Base San Antonio, are disproportionally affected. Since 2000, more than 370,000 U.S. service members have sustained a traumatic brain injury, and it is estimated that 14 percent of those individuals with severe TBI--over 50,000 service members--could develop hydrocephalus as a result. Let's join together in recognizing Hydrocephalus Awareness Month. Congressman Smith and I welcome all colleagues to become members of the Congressional Pediatric and Hydrocephalus Caucus and cosponsoring H. Res. 20.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, weapons of war are designed for war. They are designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Our country is exceptional in making these weapons of war, these assault weapons, available in the civilian sector, and we have quickly--because those weapons are easier to qualify for than getting a driver's license; they are easier for a teenager to get than to buy a beer, because we have done that, we have turned our churches, our schools, our shopping centers, our entertainment venues, almost any place, into a battleground with one massacre after another. There is no Second Amendment right to own a machine gun, which has been banned in this country since, I believe, the thirties. But if you talk about rights, how about the rights of those little children in Uvalde to live, the rights of those families to be whole? They have rights, also. And that is what we are protecting today. I think that we just cannot continue to live like we have been living in the shadow of fear, a terrible kind of American exceptionalism where we are horribly exceptional to the amount of dead children gunned down in their best tennis shoes after end of the school year celebrations, of young parents having to bury their still younger little children; where we are the exception in how many congregants die where they are massacred in their churches or in their temples; where we are the exception, the outlier in how many gruesome bullet-ridden bodies our doctors see month after month. And God help us because Texas has been among the worst. From El Paso to Uvalde to across the center of the State to the Houston area, murderers, massacres with assault weapons, where one family or another grieves.

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, Texas children right now have no reality as they will soon be returning to school than to duck and cover and learn new exercises. We can do something about that and banning assault weapons is the most critical issue in doing that, not the kind of weak, modest measure that will never change things in Texas that we passed earlier in the year since it is dependent on the Texas legislature, but a direct effort to limit the access to assault weapons that are weapons of war that kill and kill and kill that make us exceptional in quite the wrong way.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, telehealth is good. Telehealth fraud is not. The Cheney bill is remarkably similar to a bipartisan measure that I worked on last year and got the support of 22 health-related stakeholders after holding a productive bipartisan hearing. I applaud Representative Cheney's support for telehealth and her valued service to our Nation in general. Through no fault of hers, this bill contains a glaring omission. Whenever billions of Federal dollars are available anywhere, some will try to steal it. That is what has happened with telehealth. The Justice Department has brought one charge after another against hundreds of defendants for stealing through fraud billions of taxpayer dollars, including charges that they brought last week. What happens is that someone using the telehealth mechanism is ordering expensive genetic tests, allergy tests, and medical equipment that the patient does not need and billing the taxpayer through Medicare. My effort to address this is not just to see a prosecution of theft after it has occurred, but to prevent it and to protect taxpayers with an amendment that was designed to employ the recommendations of a nonpartisan commission to prevent and reduce this kind of fraud. It enjoyed bipartisan support. I saw that it was not included under this rule. I think that is unfortunate. Accordingly, Mr. Speaker, I do not support the rule or the bill.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, with telehealth helping so many throughout this pandemic, we should certainly continue its benefits, as I proposed in bipartisan legislation last year, and for which I secured the support of 22 health-related stakeholders. But we don't have to accept billions of dollars of fraud, of theft of taxpayer funds as the price for maintaining telehealth. Here is what has been happening: Information for some patients who wanted a COVID-19 test was used fraudulently to bill Medicare for expensive cancer genetic tests and allergy tests without any medical necessity or any knowledge of the patient. In other cases, expensive medical equipment in no way needed by the patient was ordered. The wrongdoing has been exposed by the General Accountability Office, the Health and Human Services inspector general, and is the subject of Justice Department prosecutions for literally billions of taxpayer dollars. Through no fault of the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Ms. Cheney) or Chairman Pallone, this bill fails to address this theft. I offered an amendment to the bill that was recommended by an independent, nonpartisan commission called MedPAC, mandating reasonable steps to prevent or at least significantly reduce this telehealth fraud. Outrageous interference with the consideration of this bill is denying the House today any opportunity to consider this antifraud amendment. My amendment would have required in-person visits within 6 months prior to ordering this high-cost lab testing or DME--medical equipment--as well as an audit of outlier clinicians whose orders for these very high-cost services and devices are largely made through a telehealth appointment. This has to stop, and we need to prevent the fraud, not just prosecute it and get back a few pennies for the taxpayer per dollar after it has occurred.

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, this bill costs $132 million per month. Without these targeted provisions to prevent Medicare from being looted, I must vote against it.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the gentlewoman from Texas, the Honorable Mayra Flores, be permitted to take the oath of office this evening. Her certificate of election has not arrived, but there is no contest and no question has been raised with regard to her election.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, central to the preservation of our democracy is recognition of the results of fair elections you lose just as much, if not more, than the elections which you win. Tonight, we welcome to this Chamber a new Member and recognize a fairly won Republican victory in my home State for the 6 months remaining this year in the term of our recent colleague, Filemon Vela, who resigned. Mayra Flores was born and raised in Tamaulipas, Mexico. She came legally to the United States at 6 years old with the help of her father and became a naturalized American citizen. Mayra graduated in 2014 as a respiratory care practitioner and currently works caring for those with chronic respiratory issues. With Latino Texans bearing a very disproportionate burden from the pandemic, she has been on the front lines combating COVID. She graduated from South Texas College, and her husband serves as a Border Patrol agent. Mayra will be the first Mexican-born woman to serve in the House and the first Hispanic Republican woman to serve in our Texas delegation. She ran a very vigorous campaign. I congratulate her on her success. I see that she brings a beautiful family to our Chamber. I look forward to working with her this year. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady), who is the senior Texas Republican in my Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, tonight we stand with courageous Ukrainians who refuse to give in to Putin's war crimes. The morning after this unprovoked attack, I authored the first sanctions legislation in this Congress. Eventually, it may help. But what is needed immediately is more weapons and humanitarian relief. Undoubtedly, Putin was encouraged by those he hoped would divide the West, like his admirer President Trump, who declared Putin ``a genius'' and called this ``a peacekeeping mission,'' and his close adviser who, even after the bombing got underway, claimed that Putin was being too gentle. With our weapons, Ukrainians defend not only themselves, but freedom and democracy everywhere. Tonight, I hope that Republicans will join Democrats in what is truly a test of our commitment to freedom. Together, we offer strong support for Ukraine to push back on the brutal aggressor, end this terror, and maintain its independence.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I thank both of the gentlemen for their bipartisan effort on this bill. Six weeks ago today Putin began his bloody aggression in Ukraine. The next morning Representative Blumenauer and I introduced legislation to revoke normal trade relations with Russia and expel it from the World Trade Organization. On March 9, this House overwhelmingly approved action on the World Trade Organization but deferred the PNTR provision and added the important Magnitsky provisions--which the Senate has weakened today in this legislation--and a ban on Russian energy. Thereafter, on March 17, the House approved overwhelmingly again the PNTR provisions. It has taken 6 long weeks to approve this first economic sanctions legislation, but today it is finally done. We know that it will not immediately end the funding of the Putin war machine, but it is a step in the right direction. Let us hope that the administration will move forward more expeditiously on getting Ukrainians every weapon they need to defend themselves and that it will move faster than this bill did.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I support this bill's relief for Mary in Austin whose grandson, like so many others, will be able to get some relief. They are paying up to $300 per month for insulin, and now they would pay $35 per month. But 5\1/2\ million Texans and 28 million Americans are uninsured. This bill offers them no help whatsoever. In our upside-down healthcare system, those who have the least continually get asked to pay the most for essential pharmaceuticals. Sixty-eight percent of those without health insurance are forced to pay full monopoly prices for their essential insulin. They are being denied any relief today, despite the fact that I and 12 of my colleagues offered a simple amendment that could have provided that assistance. Nor does this bill represent the slightest progress toward preventing prescription price gouging. It is so true, as many have said, that many Americans are paying 10 times the price for insulin as do consumers in other countries. This bill does not do anything, however, to lower it to nine times. Indeed, this bill does not lower the price of insulin by one penny, it just shifts the burden of paying for the insulin off the shoulders of insured insulin users, and shifts it on to the rest of us who are paying insurance premiums, and will pay higher premiums because of this, and $11 billion more in costs to the taxpayers. Mr. Speaker, I assume Big Pharma supports this bill because it is not facing any additional duty to lower its prices for this lifesaving product. Some day this Congress will break free of the shackles of Big Pharma, which fills these halls with more lobbyists than there are Members of Congress. Some day we will provide genuine relief to all Americans burdened by soaring drug prices, but that day, sadly, is not today.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, to assure a stable supply of insulin and better health at $35 instead of $300 monthly, I fully support this bill for Yolanda, a retired Texas teacher, and one-quarter of insulin- dependent patients forced to ration their insulin because of predatory pricing. Yet, instead of addressing pharmaceutical price gouging, this bill really only shifts how Big Pharma is rewarded. Since this bill does not reduce any insulin prices by one penny, all of us who are insured will ultimately pay through our premiums while taxpayers are on the hook for $11 billion. For Americans who rely on other types of lifesaving drugs, there is also no relief. Big Pharma remains immune from any restraint on its monopoly prices from a Congress that is simply unable to hold it accountable. My further concern is that this bill widens the coverage gap for nearly 5.5 million Texans and 28 million Americans who are uninsured, wrongly excluded from any benefit, and who do not receive any benefit today. While the uninsured population represents 17 percent of the insulin-dependent population, they constitute 80 percent of the people who pay full, monopoly prices. So, help for some--which is important-- but there is a need to do more for the many who are not covered today.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, the day after Russia invaded Ukraine, I introduced the centerpiece of today's legislation with Congressman Blumenauer. It denied Russia preferential trade treatment and would expel it from the World Trade Organization. At that time, 3 weeks ago, there was hope that economic sanctions like this might limit the extent of Putin's brutal aggression. Now we have seen that economic sanctions are having no immediate impact to limit the slaughter from Putin's war of annihilation against Ukraine. Uniting the world to isolate Russia has weakened the ruble, certainly, but it has not stopped Putin from reducing so much of Ukraine to rubble. While I favor excluding every possible Russian import, this bill will grant President Biden appropriate authority to raise tariffs significantly on any Russian import that is permitted, and the same for Belarus. This is largely the same bill on which I sought action last week until President Biden requested a delay. Surprisingly, this bill does not include the ban on Russian energy imports that this House approved overwhelmingly last week on the bill that we considered then. I hope that ban will be restored in further work on the legislation. Though important to finally approve this bill as another way to isolate Russia, we should recognize there is no substitute for getting Ukrainians all of the weaponry that they have requested, including jet fighters, to stop the mass murder we observe daily. The financial pain imposed won't immediately ease the pain of Ukrainian families. They are paying in blood while we pay in dollars, but it is one way for us to hold Putin accountable and to act in solidarity with them. To those who ask that we adopt further sanctions or more weapons only if Russia does something more, I say what more barbaric butchery need we see before doing everything we possibly can, short of sending troops into Ukraine. The time to do everything is now, the time to provide for Ukrainian refugees to enter our country is now.

Mr. DOGGETT

Mr. DOGGETT. This rule makes proper for our consideration legislation that I have offered to respond to the brutal aggression of Vladimir Putin destroying, hour by hour, Ukraine, and its people, with death and destruction. I am pleased to hear from the gentleman from Oklahoma that he supports this legislation because it will be stronger if we are united in sending this message. Like so many Americans, I have watched the horrors in Ukraine. I have seen the people standing with their blue and yellow Ukraine banners and flags on the steps of the State capitol in Austin day after day, rain and shine, to express their concern. And like them, and like so many of us of all political persuasions, we wonder what we can do to prevent what is happening that we see played out, in real time, on our televisions? Well, in my case, it has been advocating that we get all of the weapons that Ukrainians need to defend themselves to them yesterday. Immediately. But to recognize that to put a squeeze on the Russian empire, we should respond with the most effective sanctions that we can. One of those sanctions arising out of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee is the ability to respond with reference to the World Trade Organization and Russia. The week before last, I introduced with Mr. Blumenauer, the chairman of that subcommittee, legislation concerning the trade status of the Russian Federation. The legislation that I introduced yesterday that this rule puts into effect is different from that, and I will discuss that in the course of our consideration of the bill. But it continues to urge the expelling of Russia from the World Trade Organization, which I think we should do to attempt to isolate as completely as we can Russia from any benefits from the world economy. To see now one American-owned company closing down hundreds of its locations throughout Russia, one American company, including some of the big oil companies withdrawing from the Russian Federation, they are acting in a way that supports what we need to do--put Russia in an economic vise. I believe that there is much more that we need to accomplish but that we respond today on the number one issue on the world agenda, and that is what is happening in Ukraine and what we can do to prevent it. Now, I understand some people continue to have their own ideological agenda to defend and ignore the climate crisis, deny climate science, and promote more and more fossil fuels. They choose the Keystone pipeline, which is exactly 8 percent completed. It uses the dirtiest form of oil in the tar sands.

Mr. DOGGETT. From the cold tar sands of Canada, completing the Keystone pipeline will not save one Ukrainian life nor will the adoption of the rest of their agenda. Let me just say, I have only one agenda in this matter, and that is to respond to the aggression and do all we can to try to stop the brutal attacks unprovoked on the Ukrainian people. I am very pleased that this legislation that I introduced yesterday incorporates the good work of Chairman McGovern on the Global Magnitsky Act. That is legislation that fits so well with what I have been urging about Russia because it combats human rights abuses there and all over the world. He has strengthened the provisions of the Global Magnitsky Act, which would have expired at the end of this year. By incorporating it, it fits well with our agenda to respond to Russian aggression and human rights abuses that are going on as people are being murdered as we speak today.