Andy Harris

Mr. HARRIS

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chair, the Republicans were sent back to the majority this term of Congress to get things in order in Washington. Mr. Chair, I ask my colleagues to support the fiscal year 2024 Agriculture appropriations bill, which returns to pre-COVID spending levels and starts us on a path to decreasing our Federal spending and decreasing inflation. That is what the American people want. This legislation does prioritize critical programs that support our Nation's farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. The bill importantly reins in Federal spending and regulatory overreach as well as includes a number of conservative policy victories to stop the Biden administration's woke agenda. Mr. Chair, again, I ask my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chair, first, it was that we are cutting it to FY 2000 levels, then it was 2001 levels. Now, they raised the ante. It is FY 2003 levels. The FY 2003 funding level in this bill was $17.55 billion. I will remind all the Americans watching that 17.5 is less than 22.5. In fact, we are $5 billion above that. We are not cutting spending to FY 2003 levels. Now, maybe the next speaker will suggest 2005, 2007. If they get to FY 2019, pre-COVID, yes, we are. The floor leader on the other side of the aisle said Republicans talk of everything going up. Mr. Chair, if that were true, if it were only Republicans that talk of everything going up, we would be getting 95 percent of the vote in America because everybody is talking about everything going up. You can't go anywhere without someone saying they have to pay $4.80 a gallon for diesel, or they have to pay so much for milk, pay $2 for a loaf of bread that they used to pay $1.20 for. It is not Republicans talking about that. We are just listening to what Americans say. That is why we are returning spending to the pre- COVID levels. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARRIS. 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 H.R. 4368, and that I may include tabular material on the same.

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chair, I rise today to bring before the House H.R. 4368, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024 appropriations bill. I thank Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Granger and commend her for her leadership in moving this bill and the fiscal year 2024 appropriations process forward. I also recognize the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee (Ms. DeLauro), and the ranking member of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee (Mr. Bishop). I appreciate the conversations he and I have had regarding the bill. While I know we don't agree on everything, we have reached areas of consensus that will keep our ag communities strong. As Americans know all too well, our country continues to battle high inflation driven by the overspending of the last Congress and the Biden administration. The fiscal situation in the United States, in fact, has changed since the Appropriations Committee passed this bill in June. While we were on the August recess, the Congressional Budget Office projected the deficit to reach $2 trillion for this fiscal year, doubling last year's deficit of $1 trillion, and the deficit outlook for the future has gotten much worse. We simply cannot continue down this path of spending large sums of money without regard to the fiscal future of our Nation. This bill takes the same approach American families take every day. They simply have to do more with less under the Biden economy. American families decide every single day where to cut back spending to pay for what is most important for them. For them, those decisions are difficult. Likewise, we have to make tough, difficult decisions for the good of the Nation. This is why the rule implements further reductions totaling $2.7 billion across the discretionary accounts in this bill, except for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children, or WIC. With this reduction, the fiscal year 2024 Agriculture appropriation bill's discretionary allocation is $15.1 billion. By redirecting nearly $7.5 billion in unobligated funds from the Inflation Reduction Act, this bill funds the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with an effective program level of $22.5 billion--a decrease of 12.8 percent from the current fiscal year. This legislation prioritizes critical ag research and plant and animal health programs, invests in our rural communities, provides nutrition assistance to those in need, and ensures that American consumers have a safe food and drug supply. This legislation rejects the Biden administration's unrealistic proposed spending levels that disregard the dire fiscal reality our country faces. It also rejects the administration's continued push to bloat inside the beltway Federal bureaucracy by halting new hires in the Washington, D.C., office; instead, focusing on hiring an increased USDA workforce outside of the Capital Beltway in the offices that directly serve and support rural America. I will highlight a few areas where this legislation prioritizes essential functions while being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars. In regard to supporting the core mission, the bill provides $1 billion for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to support the Department's efforts to protect our producers from foreign plant and animal diseases. The bill continues to invest in the delivery of farm programs, disaster assistance, and crop insurance to farmers and ranchers by maintaining funding for the Farm Service Agency and the Risk Management Agency. The bill provides $1 billion for the Food Safety and Inspection Service to fund our Nation's frontline inspectors of meat and poultry products. We also continue to make important investments in critical agriculture research that will keep our producers on the cutting edge of technology and production practices. We continue to fund rural development programs, including critical infrastructure investments in water and wastewater systems, broadband, and rural housing programs. For the Food and Drug Administration, the bill provides just over $6 billion in direct appropriations and user fees to enable the agency to keep food, drugs, and medical devices safe and effective. The bill includes $296 million for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to continue to oversee and ensure the integrity of U.S. derivative markets. With regards to fiscal responsibility, at the same time, this legislation reins in some of the administration's wasteful, out-of- control spending. For instance, it removes the Secretary's discretionary use of the Commodity Credit Corporation to fund unauthorized, nonemergency programs by returning statutory language to its pre-COVID language that didn't have that discretionary authority. The CCC is not intended to allow USDA to completely bypass Congress in establishing new programs. Yet, the USDA apparently just can't help themselves, and that is exactly what they have been doing with the Commodity Credit Corporation. According to a recent article in AgriPost, the USDA intends to use the Commodity Credit Corporation to spend nearly $1.4 billion on trade programs and another $1.1 billion to pay for ``commodity-based international food aid.'' That sounds a lot like the Food for Peace program. Since the USDA has provided $1.1 billion for food aid that will be distributed during fiscal year 2024, the rule amendment reduces Food for Peace to $532 million. This bill will put an end to the habitual abuse of the CCC. In doing so, the bill saves $1 billion in fiscal year 2024 alone. Given that the USDA used these discretionary powers to spend another $2.5 billion and $6.6 billion in the last 2 fiscal years, respectively, I would submit to my colleagues that the real savings to taxpayers of taking these discretionary authorities away will be much higher than the CBO score. Mr. Chair, that is exactly what we need in times of the fiscal crisis we are in. Let me be clear: Restricting these authorities in the CCC will have no impact on farm bill and conservation programs, crop insurance, or the Secretary's ability to access the CCC in an animal or plant health emergency, the uses for which the program was created, not as a de facto slush fund for the department. All of those important duties and functions will continue under this bill. This legislation also rescinds wasteful spending from the Inflation Reduction Act. It is finally time to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars by rescinding these new government giveaways. We must work to rightsize programs, especially since the pandemic is over and President Biden ended the public health emergency in May. It, in fact, is time to return to pre-COVID spending levels. Perhaps, Mr. Chair, we can return to pre-COVID inflationary levels, too, which I am sure the American public would, indeed, welcome. Well, this is why we are returning the WIC cash value voucher benefits to a normal, sustainable inflation-adjusted funding level. The American Rescue Plan provided a one-time increase in these benefits due to the pandemic, but these increases continue to be built into the WIC program in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 after they were due to expire. Keeping these increases on autopilot adds an additional $1 billion to the program. This bill does provide cash value vouchers above prepandemic levels to help with the food price inflation caused by the Biden economy. With the end of the public health emergency, it is time to return this program to normal pre-COVID operations. On the regulatory front, this legislation puts a stop to USDA's efforts under the Packers and Stockyards Act to dictate how poultry and livestock producers raise and market their animals. This bill also prevents the purchase of farmland by our foreign adversaries, while providing funds for the Farm Service Agency to fulfill its duty to track foreign ownership of land. The bill also returns the use of mifepristone to in-person dispensing by a healthcare provider. This is a drug that should not be used without the supervision of a physician or a similarly licensed provider. Anyone who truly cares, who genuinely cares about women's health and safety, should support this commonsense provision. Finally, as I said earlier, this bill takes the same approach American families take every single day now. They have to do more with less under the Biden inflation economy. American families decide every day where to cut back spending to pay for what is most important. We are not appropriating monopoly money, Mr. Chair. It is hard-earned taxpayer dollars, and sometimes tough decisions have to be made, and this bill makes them. In closing, I ask for your support for this important piece of legislation. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chairman, what is really harmful is a $2 trillion deficit, not the legislation before us. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Miller).

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I remind Americans, if they are watching, that we are not dealing with Monopoly money. Where are the ideas to solve a $2 trillion budget deficit? The President didn't have any. In fact, the President submitted a budget to Congress that never ever balanced and was supposed to have $1 trillion deficits, but in fact, we had overspending in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which is one of the biggest misnomers we ever had in the history of Congress. The American people know, when you increase spending by hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars, you increase inflation. You don't reduce it, you increase it. The fact of the matter is, our deficit is now $2 trillion, not $1 trillion. Mr. Chair, I am hoping to hear from the other side of the aisle: How do we pay for all of this? We have to borrow every single penny of this bill, and it has to be paid back by our children, our great-grandchildren--those are the facts. I know the facts are disturbing, but we have a $2 trillion deficit, and it is the House Republicans who are taking the responsible position in Washington and dealing with it. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, it is only in Washington that this can happen. Last year's bill, from the other side of the aisle when they were in the majority, funded WIC at $6.0 billion. This year's bill in front of us funds WIC at $6.0 billion. That is a slash, if you listen to the other side of the aisle. The average American is going: What? Wait a minute. We are funding it at exactly the same level as last year and they are accusing us of taking food out of the mouths of women, infants, and children. This is the same level they did last year. That is what the American people can't stand about Washington. The average American understands that $6.0 billion last year is the same as $6.0 billion this year. All they see is a partisan struggle going on. They don't see Americans and the House of Representatives wanting to solve their problems. The price of food in the grocery store, the price of gas, the price of everything, the inflation, they don't want to solve the problem at the southern border. What they want to do is accuse us of slashing things when we fund it at exactly the same level. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chair, I guess we are just going to have to be fact-checking all night long. Once again, the gentlewoman said that we are slashing $800 million from the WIC program. Now, maybe this is new math. Maybe this is why our public schools are failing our children, but $6.0 billion this year, our amount, is exactly the same as the $6.0 billion last year--6.0 minus 6.0, for those of you watching on TV, take note, is exactly the same. It is not $800 million less. Now, I think I heard that we are taking this down to FY 2000 funding levels. Well, that is interesting because we just looked up the FY 2000 funding levels, and the ag bill was funded at $14 billion. We are funding it at $25 billion. Now, again, this might be new math, 14 might be more than 25, maybe in some alternate universe. That is the way this government functions. It is in an alternate universe. It doesn't understand what every American family knows: Inflation is what our problem is. Inflation is driven by out-of-control government spending, by a $2 trillion deficit, and then we are accused of cutting spending to the FY 2000 levels. Again, for those who weren't paying attention the first time, FY 2000, look it up. It is easy. Google it--$14 billion. Our bill, $25 billion. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chair, I am going to fact check myself. Our budget, the bill that is coming to the floor is $22.5 billion, not $25 billion, but that is still a whole lot more than $14 billion. The toxic hazard is not this bill. Rather, it is a $2 trillion deficit and an open southern border. That is what the toxic hazard is, and we are not discussing that in Washington. We should be discussing it in Washington. Mr. Chair, I just have a question. Aren't the remarks supposed to be directed to the chair, the speaker's comments?

Mr. HARRIS. Okay. I thought so. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I guess it is fact-check time again for the American people. FY 2000 was $14 billion. I think I demonstrated that 22.5 is more than 14. The gentleman says we are cutting it to FY 2001 levels. Well, Mr. Chair, that was $15 billion. Again, it might be new math, but when I went to school, I was taught that 15 was less than 22.5. No matter how many times you say it on the floor of this House, we are not cutting spending to FY 2001 levels. We are cutting them to pre-COVID levels because, Mr. Chair, the pandemic is over. The free-wheeling spending during the pandemic has to end. A $2 trillion deficit and an open southern border are existential threats to this country, and the Republican House majority is dealing with it. Mr. Chair, I remind the body that the Senate is not controlled by Republicans, and they haven't passed a single appropriations bill to the floor. Now, we only passed one, but, again, when I went to school, one was more than none. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chair, I rise in favor of this amendment. This is the bipartisan amendment, which includes priorities for Members on both sides of the aisle. I appreciate Ranking Member Bishop working with us on this amendment and ask for your support. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARRIS

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Shiela D. Corley for receiving a 2023 University of Kentucky Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award. This prestigious award is presented to those who have provided extraordinary leadership, dedication, and have a history of diligently serving the UK alumni and community. Shiela grew up on a farm in the small town of Greenville, Kentucky. She followed her dream of attending the University of Kentucky, where she received both her bachelor's and master's degrees. After graduate school, Shiela began her career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a dedicated public servant with the National Agricultural Statistics Service and later the Food and Nutrition Service. I am pleased that she is currently serving on a detail assignment from USDA to the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, of which I chair. While living in Washington, D.C., Shiela has been an active member of the University of Kentucky's Nation's Capital Alumni Club, serving as vice president from 2004 through 2009. She currently serves on UK's Alumni Leadership Advisory Council and is active in the Washington, D.C. community as a member of the Junior League and other non-profits, including the Kentucky Society of Washington. In 2017, Shiela and her family established the Corley Family Endowment in memory of her sister Shannon, who was also a UK alum and avid Wildcat fan alongside Shiela. The endowment provides support to a member of their hometown community to attend the University of Kentucky. To date, they have awarded five scholarships, with the first recipient graduating this past May. Through this endowment, Shiela and her family help others realize their dream of attending the University of Kentucky while also memorializing and celebrating the life and Wildcat spirit of Shannon. It is my distinct honor to recognize Shiela D. Corley for her outstanding servant leadership to the University of Kentucky, USDA, and as part of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee team.

Mr. HARRIS

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chair, the gentleman from Arizona has it absolutely right. When I was in the military as a physician, what you wanted when you were injured in battle, Mr. Chair, was the best person taking care of you with the greatest skill. You didn't care what the color of their skin was. You didn't care what their religion was. You didn't care what their background was. You wanted a highly trained individual who was going to keep our fighting force healthy. Mr. Chair, that is why we need this amendment, to protect our men and women serving this country. This has nothing to do with other amendments. It is about having a fighting force that is the best in the world.

Mr. HARRIS

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, it is not the Republicans who want to defund veterans. It is the Democrats. We have marked up the MILCON-VA bill in subcommittee, and it doesn't have cuts. I don't know where the people on the other side of the aisle suggest we are not supporting veterans. As a veteran myself, I am proud of the work we do. It is the President who suggested that we decrease from the fiscal year 2023 numbers across the board. Mr. Speaker, that is defense, veterans. That is across the board. It is the President who wants to cut the defense budget. It is the President who wants to defund our veterans. Shame on the President.

Mr. HARRIS

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, I will take a few moments today to honor the memory of Wicomico County Sheriff Deputy Glenn Hilliard, a brave Eastern Shore police officer who was killed in the line of duty while trying to arrest a wanted criminal on probation. Officer Glenn Hilliard lived his life as a devoted husband, father, and police officer who was commonly referred to as a hero by his fellow officers on the police force. On June 12, 2022, just a little under a year ago, Officer Hilliard was shot and killed by a fugitive who had committed multiple felonies and was running from justice. As we honor National Police Week, both Glenn Hilliard's life and death are a testament to why we should support and fully fund police officers as they risk their lives daily to keep us safe. Officer Glenn Hilliard served Wicomico County with honor, valor, and distinction. In the end, Officer Hilliard's memory is most treasured not by how he died but by how he lived as a selfless and heroic police officer who put the safety of his community above his own.

Mr. HARRIS

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, fiscal sanity has returned to Washington, D.C. I didn't think I was going to live long enough to see this, but today, minutes ago, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2811, the Limit, Save, Grow Act. We agreed with the majority of the American public that inflation is tied to runaway Federal Government spending and that it is about time the President realized that his fairyland budget that never, ever, ever balances is actually bad for America. Maybe this will bring him to the negotiating table so that when we raise the credit limit on America on our American credit card, we actually do what we would do in our own households--we would actually begin to control spending. That is a huge step. It is about time it is happening in Washington. Mr. Speaker, I hope it is not too late.

Mr. HARRIS

Mr. HARRIS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HARRIS

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, the chairman of the committee got it right, this is historic. This bill is overdue, bipartisan, and bicameral, as it should be. Today, I rise in support of H.R. 8454, the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act. Representative Blumenauer and I have jointly cosponsored this bill for four Congresses. Talk about overdue. Although we disagree about recreational marijuana--he supports it; I oppose it--we both concur that in regard to medical marijuana, we need to do the rigorous research to answer the questions. As a physician, I realize that if we are going to have marijuana legal in over three dozen States for medical uses, we really ought to be able to do the research on it to see what it can and can't be used for. Many claims are made about it--some are legitimate, some will be found to be illegitimate--but the American public deserves to know whether medical marijuana and cannabidiol work for those claims that are being made. This bill makes it easier to do the necessary, rigorous medical research just like is done for any other drug that has a claim of efficacy in this country. The American public deserves to know what medical marijuana is useful for, because for anyone with those conditions where it is found to be useful, it could be a godsend. But for other conditions where the claims won't be found to be valid with rigorous research, it would be found to be ineffective, and that would help protect American patients as well. This would modernize our research methods, bringing medical marijuana up to the scientific standards we use for every other type of medication that is sold as a drug in this country. Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this bill.

Mr. HARRIS

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HARRIS

Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Chair, I thank Ranking Member Granger for yielding. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to H.R. 8294, which includes the FY23 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. First, I thank Chair DeLauro and Ranking Member Granger for their leadership in moving these bills through the appropriations process. I also thank the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee chairman, Mr. Bishop, for his leadership in crafting a bill that funds a number of programs with broad bipartisan support, such as rural broadband programs, critical ag research programs, and protections to ensure we have safe food, drugs, and medical devices. While there are many things to like about this bill, the total discretionary spending level of $27.2 billion, or an 8 percent increase over the previous year's funding, does not acknowledge the economic reality that our Nation faces. A stunning 88 percent of Americans believe our country is on the wrong track, according to a recent poll by the Monmouth University Polling Institute. That is what Americans are talking about around their kitchen tables. Just last week, inflation jumped again to a 40-year high of 9.1 percent. We can't keep ignoring this situation. Americans have figured out that more government spending only ends in higher prices for the American people and adds to the inflation problem created by this Congress and the Biden administration's reckless and immoral spending included in this minibus. In this vein, this division of the minibus provides unsustainable funding increases across the board, most notably for the Food and Drug Administration, which would receive an overwhelming and unnecessary 10 percent increase. A lot of American families wish they were getting a 10 percent increase in their paychecks. Based on how the FDA has handled the infant formula crisis, it is clear that strong leadership is needed at the FDA, not this unnecessary increase in funding. The bill also includes increased benefits for the WIC program, a great program, but those increased benefits were intended to be a temporary, one-time increase included in the American Rescue Plan. I understand the importance of making sure WIC participants have access to fruits and vegetables. However, this bill is taking a temporary increase in response to COVID and including it in the regular, ongoing program as if to make these increased benefits permanent without regard to the inflationary pressures of out-of-control government spending that is already squeezing taxpayers. I am also extremely concerned about providing the administration with unlimited spending authority for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, at the end of the next fiscal year. The administration claims this authority is needed for an unexpected increase in SNAP participation, but the President continues to tout record-low unemployment rates, which should translate into a decrease in SNAP participation. Furthermore, the program has a reserve fund totaling up to $9 billion already to address unexpected participation increases should they unexpectedly occur, so providing USDA with a blank check is just simply irresponsible. In times like these, as stewards of taxpayer dollars, Congress must make tough decisions in the greater interest of the American people. While I support a number of programs in the bill, I cannot support the bill at this unsustainable spending level. This bill touches the lives of every American, and I hope we can find common ground to support America's farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. As this process moves forward, I am committed to working with Chairman Bishop, Chair DeLauro, Ranking Member Granger, and the rest of our colleagues to resolve these differences. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill.

Mr. HARRIS

Mr. HARRIS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding the time. Madam Speaker, I rise with concern about H.R. 6087, Improving Access to Workers' Compensation for Injured Federal Workers Act. It was mentioned that it is fine if healthcare practitioners are qualified to deliver workmen's comp. Certainly, in some States, nurse practitioners and physician assistants--nurse practitioners, specifically, can practice without a physician oversight, but the question is whether that is appropriate for workmen's compensation. Remember, workmen's compensation includes people who have been injured or claimed to have been injured on the job. These employees deserve the highest level of care, the highest level of evaluation, of diagnosis, certification, and treatment. And what this bill does is turns over the qualifications for who is going to treat those injured Federal workers to the State to make the decision. Because it says, Well, if in a State they decide that a physician assistant practicing independently is just fine, well, that Federal worker is not going to have the benefit of having a physician involved in that care. Madam Speaker, this is a serious policy debate. This debate should be taking place, I believe, not on a suspension calendar but actually come under a regular rule and be debated for whether or not this is the way we want to treat Federal employees, that we want to subject them to a State level of care as opposed to a level of care that we think is appropriate, again, for an injured Federal worker. So, Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from the American Medical Association strongly opposing H.R. 6087. American Medical Association, June 5, 2022. Hon. Nancy Pelosi, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Kevin McCarthy, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader McCarthy: On behalf of the physician and medical student members of the American Medical Association (AMA), I am writing in strong opposition to H.R. 6087, the ``Improving Access to Workers' Compensation for Injured Federal Workers Act.'' This legislation would allow nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) to diagnose, prescribe, treat, and certify an injury and extent of disability for purposes of compensating federal workers under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA). Current law prohibits non-physician health professionals from making these determinations and reserves this function to physicians who have the education, training, and expertise to make these evaluations. The AMA remains steadfast in its commitment to patients who have said repeatedly that they want and expect physicians leading their health care team. In a recent survey of U.S. voters, 68 percent say it is very important for a physician to be involved in their diagnosis and treatment decisions. However, H.R. 6087 effectively removes physicians from the care team and sets up our federal workers for suboptimal health outcomes and increased costs, without improving access to care. At a time when inflation is at an all-time high and our economy is still struggling to recover from the costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, now is especially not the time for Congress to enact this type of policy change. EDUCATION MATTERS: PATIENTS WANT PHYSICIANS INVOLVED IN THEIR DIAGNOSIS

Mr. HARRIS. Madam Speaker, they give reasons. They say, look, education matters. Patients want physicians involved in their diagnosis and treatment decisions. I think that is true. They say that increasing the scope of practice of nurse practitioners or physician assistants can lead to increased healthcare costs, specifically mentioning the fact that there are studies now that show that when a nurse practitioner is involved or a physician assistant----

Mr. HARRIS. Madam Speaker, they mention that, for instance, opioid overprescribing occurs four times as much when a nurse practitioner is involved. Obviously, in a workers' comp case where injury may be determined, this could be significant. This is something we should deal with. Finally, even the AMA recognized that they are concerned that we are attempting to pass this under suspension of the rules usually, typically, reserved for noncontroversial bills. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. HARRIS

Mr. HARRIS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.