Joseph Kennedy

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, we all suffer when this country breaks its promises. But for our children, that cost compounds. They pay the interest on our inaction and inadequacy. They pick up the pieces of the precious things that we broke, the sacred resources we took for granted, the battles that we were too afraid to fight. Time and again, by choice and by chance, they have not disappointed. Their broad shoulders carry twice as much twice as far. Their spines prove twice as sturdy as the adults meant to protect them. American history is littered with the names of young men and women, and even boys and girls, forced to be heroes before their time: the patriots of D-day, memorialized in a statue called the Spirit of Youth in Normandy; 14-year-old Emmett Till, lynched by a lie; Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, all 14, and Carol Denise McNair, 11, four choir girls lost at the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Alabama. The Children's Crusade. Little boys and girls, kids, who dared defy Bull Connor's firehoses and attack dogs to be arrested and rearrested again and again as a Nation recoiled in horror. Nine African-American high school students from Little Rock marched into an all-White high school to prove that separate is not equal. Four college students from Kent State who gave their lives to a war- weary nation's plea for peace. Thirteen-year-old Ryan White from Indiana who showed our Nation that an HIV diagnosis does not claim your dignity. The record number of men and women under the age of 21 who showed up at military recruiting stations in 2001, signing up to serve a nation reeling from terror on its soil. Nineteen-year-old Zach Walls who told us that love is love as he bravely defended his two moms before the Iowa State Legislature. Seventeen-year-old Lila Perry from Missouri who withstood the sting of stigma by being true to herself and her gender identity. Thirty-one-year-old Alonso Guillen, a Texan who traveled 120 miles from safety into the heart of Hurricane Harvey's fury on a volunteer rescue mission, who gave his life so that others, strangers, might survive. His courage and sacrifice exemplify the best traits of our Nation. They place him squarely on the long list of young American heroes who have carried us toward a more perfect union. But this week, President Trump slammed the door on 800,000 people like Alonso. DREAMers. Children raised in our neighborhoods, who run on our playgrounds, who pitch in our Little Leagues, who proudly march in 4th of July parades, who make lemonade stands, build snowmen, go to prom, and get summer jobs, who hit the books, who earn a living, who raise families of their own, who serve in our military, who give to this country just as much, just as faithfully as you or I. Now, our President told them that they are not wanted, that he would rather see them in handcuffs, their families ripped apart, their futures in limbo, sent to be strangers in a strange land. Mr. Speaker, sometimes this body has to make hard choices. Sometimes our solutions are complex. This is not one of those times. This one is easy. Our work comes down to a very simple question: What are we willing to ask our children to bear? We have the power in this body to say: Not this, not again, that we will not ask the youngest among us to force our country's conscience to awake because of the burden that we, the adults in the room, place on their shoulders. We can do better. We can be braver. We can change the course of that history. We will not stand here and leave it for future generations to wonder why we allowed such harm to pass.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, when our bravest men and women raise their hand and volunteered to defend our Nation, they defend all of her people, rich and poor, young and old, Democrat and Republican, gay and straight, Americans of all races, religions, ethnicities, beliefs, gender identities. Our soldiers do not discriminate. They do not offer to pay the ultimate sacrifice for some Americans and not for others. Their government owes them that same courtesy, that same decency in return. Instead, this morning, our President has told thousands of American soldiers that they will fight for us, but we will not fight for them; that their deeply personal medical decisions are somehow the public's business; that although they are willing to sacrifice their lives to protect our freedom, we will not offer them the most basic freedom in return. Today, the President of the United States looked American soldiers in the eye and dared to question their patriotism, their courage. He doubted their commitment to their brothers and sisters in uniform. He said that our military couldn't or wouldn't stand for all of us. To the thousands of brave transgender men and women serving today in uniform, please know that a grateful Nation does not take your service, your patriotism for granted. You deserve better from your President. You deserve better from your government. You deserve better from your country.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam Speaker, I met Ted a few weeks ago. He is a bricklayer from Fall River, Massachusetts. It is hard, proud work, the kind that comes with frequent physical injury. Ted is no exception. Then came the opioid prescriptions. Then came a long and painful road to addiction. But Ted fought back. By force of will, faith, he pulled himself up, he got treatment, and he got clean. But his most recent injury cost him his job and his health insurance, and a new diagnosis just came in: liver cancer. Madam Speaker, this is where a system proves what it is made of. When our people are sick, when they are tired, when they are terrified, and when they have given everything that they have got, do we abandon them? No. We pull them up. We bet on their resilience because there is nothing more fundamentally American than the belief that our people survive, they endure, and they rise to fight again. They deserve a government that will jump into the ring by their side. Today is that test of what is good and decent for our people.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Walden, Ranking Member Pallone, Ranking Member Green, and Subcommittee Chairman Burgess for their leadership in uniting our colleagues across the aisle on a bill that supports patients and the life sciences industry. This user fee bill is a testament to what can be achieved when we debate policies in the open and confront challenges together. I would also like to specifically focus on one piece of the legislation, the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine wrote to me and shared her story of hearing loss. A 34-year-old lawyer, it nearly derailed her career by leaving her unable to argue cases in the courtroom. She continued by outlining the often overlooked side effects brought about by hearing loss--isolation, anxiety, depression, and memory loss--all compounded by prohibitive costs for hearing aids that aren't covered by Medicare or most private insurers. Faced with prices upwards of $5,000, many Americans are denied the relief and the treatment that they deserve. With this bipartisan bill, we will not only spark innovation and competition, we will help our constituents in their communities, offices, factory floors, and even their own homes. I hope my colleagues will support this bill. I want to thank Representative Blackburn for her tireless work in getting it across the finish line as well.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, Members on both sides of the aisle have offered their share of passionate words about the GOP healthcare bill. And as can happen, the debate has been deeply polarized here, leaving Americans to wonder sometimes whether the facts get obstructed by the politics of the day. So I want to take a minute and share what some experts have had to say about the Republican healthcare proposal. These are not politicians; far from it. These words come from folks who operate outside the walls of Washington's halls and have dedicated themselves to fighting for those struggling with mental illness. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the Republican healthcare plan will ``force people with mental illness out of work, onto the streets, and into jails and emergency rooms.'' The legislation ``shows dangerous disregard for the well-being of people with substance use disorders and their families and erases decades of progress,'' says the Association for Addiction Professionals. Mental Health America tells us that this bill ``will ultimately do significant harm to people with all chronic conditions, including mental illness, while increasing the cost of healthcare to everyone.'' The National Association for Rural Mental Health agrees, saying, ``these actions will leave millions of Americans with serious mental health and substance use conditions without life-sustaining and essential health insurance coverage, especially at a time when the Nation is suffering from the largest opioid epidemic in history.'' In short, this bill would be, according to the American Psychiatric Association, ``particularly devastating to the millions of Americans in need of mental health and substance use treatment.'' Mr. Speaker, these groups are not political organizations. They are doctors; they are healthcare professionals; they are patients; they are advocates who have dedicated their lives day and night to filling the gaps of a badly broken mental health system. Take it from them. This is what TrumpCare is offering our country. This is what they are trying to sell us at a time when we are losing nearly 100 Americans a day to an opioid epidemic. This is what is being negotiated behind closed doors as we speak while the rest of us read reports that tell us that the death toll from opioids could reach well over half a million people in the next decade. So let me be clear: You cannot advocate for comprehensive mental health reform and then stand on the opposite side of nearly every major mental health organization in this country. You cannot claim to be a champion for those suffering from mental illness and then support a bill that guts funding for Medicaid, which is the largest payer of mental healthcare in this country. You cannot say that you are committed to addressing the opioid epidemic and then stand behind a piece of legislation that gives insurance companies cover to deny those patients addiction treatment and to tell those in the grips of addiction to summon just a little more will. You have to choose: With these families or with this bill? Which side are you on?

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, like in anyone's office, the photos and trinkets on display in mine tell a little bit about who I am: a wedding photo, a picture of me and my family on our swearing-in day, a copy of the first bill I had signed into law, the moments that I am proud of, the pieces of me that I want to share with the world. In this body, the people's House is no different. We have always been proud of our democracy and even prouder to display it for all the world to see. That is why we keep these cameras on whenever we are in session. It is why every single word that is uttered on this floor is documented and preserved long after the day we draw our last breath. It is why we walk beside Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs through the rotunda with the same awe of our Nation's history embodied in bronze statues and bold paintings. It is why every single night this building glows through the darkness; because the light of democracy not only lays bare our divisions and dissent, but it lights a path to our proudest moments. In times of war and peace, fights over civil rights and equality, our debates in these halls have always been driven by a fierce conviction of our beliefs and a shared vision of a kinder, stronger country. Disagreements, yes, but enlightened by ideals, by vision, by a shared commitment to our American experiment. And when you stand behind those principles and your policies, you welcome that spotlight; you engage in that debate; you are eager to answer questions; you are ready to be held accountable. And so, Mr. Speaker, we should all be concerned by what has transpired in our Capitol over the course of the past few weeks. For if you are proud of your legislation, you don't lock it behind closed doors; you don't shield it from the very people that are going to be hurt most by it; you don't turn off the cameras and then call it mean; you don't sabotage a healthcare system and leave a wake of devastation and destruction to score political points. Drafting TrumpCare under the cover of darkness is an admission that this bill cannot--cannot--withstand the sunlight of our neighbors. Mr. Speaker, the America that I know would never turn its back on a friend or a stranger in need. TrumpCare does. The America that I know doesn't tell the sick, the elderly, or the frail that you are on your own. TrumpCare does. The America that I know doesn't tell the young woman struggling through an opioid recovery that your next relapse, well, that one was one too many. TrumpCare does. The America that I know understands that our greatness comes from our goodness; that we lean into challenges, you don't yield to them; that the frustration that we see in our streets and our communities is a cry for our government to be as good and as decent as the people we aim to serve. They, we, deserve nothing less. TrumpCare is not that cure.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, amidst the breaking news alerts and tweets that have overwhelmed our Nation over the past several days, and as our Nation tunes in to a hearing taking place on the other side of the Capitol as I speak, lies a simple question: Did the President of the United States put his own personal and political interests above the interests of the American people? Congress cannot allow itself to become desensitized to the gravity of those accusations or be deterred from an aggressive, expeditious, and fully independent investigation conducted in full view of the American public, because the real victims of this investigation's ``cloud'' are our constituents: Americans who wake up every morning praying that their monthly budget won't be compromised by the unexpected; who walk into their office hoping that today isn't the day that that layoff notice arrives; who tuck their son or daughter into bed at night knowing that, despite working two jobs, their kid won't be afforded the same luxuries as their friend down the street; who look to Washington for a hand and instead see us forced to wrestle with an almost unbelievable question: whether the leader of the free world compromised the security of his citizens and our democracy to a foreign adversary. Mr. Speaker, there has been an awful lot of talk about loyalty in the past 24 hours. Let's be very, very clear. The American people should never have to be reassured of the loyalty of their Commander in Chief.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, Americans aren't asking for much: the ability to put in an honest day's work and provide for your family's basic needs; the chance to wake up in the morning without facing a series of impossible choices--food or medication, mortgage or car repair, a bus pass or school supplies. In other words, the basic economic dignity that every single person in this country deserves. The Trump administration claims that their budget is about dignity. Here is what this budget doesn't understand: dignity can be threatened by something beyond your control, by disability, by job loss, by illness, by accident, by automation, by a government that shames you for needing a little help when you are dealt a tough hand, by the pain of having to send your kid to school knowing that he is not going to have the lunch money that he needs. Countless American families battle these daily heartbreaks and small injustices with their heads held high. For those families, this budget doesn't see them for their dignity, but views them with disgrace.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, what this legislation does on the surface is very clear: it makes health care more expensive. The more you need it--the sicker or older or poorer you are--the further out of reach it will be. That is why doctors, hospitals, nurses, the mental health community, and patients have spoken out, and spoken out against this bill. But this bill doesn't just cut coverage and hike premiums all for a tax cut for the wealthy. It codifies a worldview by this administration that is dead set on dividing America along the lines of the god of your prayers, whom you love, where you come from, and your fate and fortune. We see it in their tax plan, in their budget cuts, in immigration policy, and now in health care, a worldview that scapegoats the struggling and the suffering, that sees fault in illness, and that rejects the most basic universal truth of the human existence, which is that every single one of us one day will be brought to our knees by a diagnosis we didn't expect, a phone call we can't imagine, and a loss we cannot endure. So we take care of each other because, but for the grace of God, there go I one day, and we hope we will be shown that mercy, too. It is the ultimate test of the character of this country confronting our Chamber today: not the power we give the strong, but the strength with which we embrace the weak.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Kathleen Kruse, a long-time member of Senator Ted Kennedy's staff and a tireless advocate for arts and cultural policy. Kathy is stepping down from her role as Vice President of Institutional Affairs and Assistant Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where she has served with distinction for the past seven years. Kathy had a long and accomplished career in the Senate as the Cultural Policy Advisor and Senior Counselor for Senator Kennedy for 30 years. In this capacity and throughout her tenure, she was the staff liaison for Senator Kennedy to the Kennedy Center's Board of Trustees. During her time in the Senate, she was a fierce advocate for arts organizations nationally, authored key Kennedy Center legislation and served as a trusted liaison to and friend of the Kennedy family. I would also like to acknowledge the generosity of Kathy's daughter, Sasha, who has supported her mother's work in public service, and shared her with us during her many late nights in the Senate and at the Kennedy Center. Kathy is a fixture in the arts and cultural landscape in Washington, DC and across the country, and she will be dearly missed. We are certain that she will find tremendous success in her next professional ventures and that she will enjoy spending more time with her family. On behalf of the Kennedy Center's Board of Trustees, I offer my sincere gratitude to Kathy for her many contributions to the United States Congress, the Kennedy Center and our nation.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I stand proudly today with my colleagues to reintroduce the Equality Act, a bill that would finally fully codify civil rights protections for the LGBTQ community. It is unthinkable to me that this bill finds opposition in this Chamber, where we stand less than a mile from a sacred American promise that is etched in stone above the doors of the Supreme Court: ``Equal justice under law.'' There is no asterisk. There is no condition or compromise. No caveat. It is a promise that is afforded to each of us; that no one--man, woman, political candidate, or President--can look us in the eye and say that you do not count or you are unworthy. Some of the most shameful moments of our Nation's history have come when we have broken that promise, when we say that everyone matters except you. Every life counts except yours. It is time for this body to take a stand and say everyone counts in this country today, on our watch today.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, as my Republican colleagues debate TrumpCare amongst themselves, they speak so often of so-called flexibility. But let's be clear about what that wink and nod to insurance companies actually means. For working families, flexibility is a cold euphemism for less choice; actually, for an impossible choice between caring for a new child or aging parent, between lifesaving treatment or your life savings, between an inpatient bed or monthly mortgage, desperately needed medication or food on your table, between life, and, yes, for some, death, because the moment essential health benefits become negotiable, they become dispensable. And while insurance companies might enjoy that newfound flexibility, American families and our loved ones will pay that price.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, 5 years ago, I got the phone call everyone dreads. My wife had collapsed at work and was being rushed to an emergency room. It is a moment that is painfully familiar to far too many. Time stops. You fight to push your breath down your throat. Your brain gets stuck in that highlight reel of worst-case scenarios. You are terrified. Fortunately, we were among the lucky ones. Lauren was okay. Most critically, our health coverage gave us the support that we needed to be able to focus on the one thing that mattered most, her recovery. For families in America, that is the simple expectation of our country's healthcare system, a commitment that our society makes to care for one another in our time of deepest need because our health is our great equalizer. No matter your power or privilege, no one among us escapes our time here on Earth without watching someone we love fight for their life. So we fortify this social contract, not just out of sympathy for the suffering, but so that it is there for us, too, when we need its sturdy brace. ``Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.''

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, a few months ago, a woman from my district walked into my office and told me about her daughter, a young lady diagnosed with acute mental illness at just 4 years of age. A decade later, the stories that that young mom shared would split your heart: stories of countless ER visits, endless fights with insurers and courts, a little girl being boarded at a hospital for 21 days while they searched up and down the East Coast to find a bed where she could stay. At 14 years old, she has now spent half of her life in residential care. But it was how her mother ended that story that has stuck with me. She looked me in the eyes and told me that: ``Compared to other people I know, we have been lucky.'' Mr. Speaker, that is not luck. This is a mental health system so broken that it is hard to recognize. And how have our Republican colleagues followed up in response? They have offered a piece of legislation that is one of the largest assaults on our mental health system in recent history. The GOP repeal bill will remove guaranteed behavioral health coverage for everyone covered under the Medicaid expansion. It will abandon those suffering from substance abuse disorder to fend for themselves in a country ravaged by opioid abuse. It will allow work requirements for care, forcing countless people to somehow choose between getting treatment and keeping their job. It will help insurers further skirt parity laws that require them to treat the mentally ill fairly. It will send out-of-pocket costs soaring for the most vulnerable among us. Mr. Speaker, one in five Americans today suffer from mental illness. These brave men and women and their families that love them deserve more than the cheap luck of a broken system. They deserve more than the empty rhetoric of a bill that ``might'' cover or ``could'' cover the care that they need. They deserve an ironclad commitment from their government that we will have their back. This bill does not do that.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for adding her voice on such an important issue before our country today and for leading our efforts here this afternoon on the House floor. There are an awful lot of important components to this bill that we are debating now and that will supposedly come before us tomorrow afternoon. One of the critical pieces of it is how we are going to treat people suffering from mental illness. Now, the bill itself does a number of things across insurance marketplaces and across Medicaid and Medicaid expansion, but I think it is critically important that we look at this through the framework of what health care is supposed to be all about. Health care, at least from my understanding, boils down to one simple principle. It is how we treat each other in our time of need and this commitment that we make as a country to each other, that, yes, I care about you and your family and want to make sure that you get the care that you need when you need it. Because with health care, at some point, I am going to need that same care as well: a loved one of mine, my children, my family members, and I hope that you would be there for me the same way that I would be there for you. So if you look at this bill through that prism, one of the pieces that stands out is the fact that, for the Medicaid expansion population, about 11 million people across our country, this bill strips what is called the essential healthcare benefits from those 11 million people. Now, that is a bureaucratic term, but it means some of the most basic aspects of health care: maternal care and newborn care, preventive services, wellness, ambulatory care, and, yes, mental health services and addiction, behavioral health. So what does that actually mean? It means that because of existing legislation, the Federal law, mental health parity, which says that if mental health benefits are, in fact, offered as part of a healthcare package, insurance package, that it has to be offered in the same way that physical health care is. You should treat your access to behavioral health care the same way we would treat access to health care if you needed cancer treatment or a broken leg. But the mental health parity law does not require mental health benefits to be offered at all. The Affordable Care Act, however, says that in order for a plan to be qualified, it does have to offer an essential health benefits package, included in that being access to mental health care. So those two laws together work in tandem to have created a massive increase in access to behavioral health and mental health services, including, critically for the moment that we are in our country, access to opioid treatment. What this bill does is strip those essential benefits, including access to addiction services and mental health care, from that essential benefits package and says to the States: Good luck, you can pay for them if you want to, providing nowhere near the sufficient funding to cover all of the demands that our Republican colleague says the funding will be there for. Now, to make matters even more convoluted in this, it was clear, during the debate in our committee 2 weeks ago for 28 straight hours, that some of our colleagues actually thought these protections were maintained when we pointed out that, in fact, they were stripped. There was then a different version of this bill that was brought forth for consideration called the manager's amendment. That manager's amendment happened to reinstate those benefits, which was great, and I applaud my Republican colleagues for doing so, aside from the fact that they then realized that they included those benefits and they offered an amendment to strip them back out, just in the past 36 hours, recognizing that there was a bill that they thought offered these benefits--the package of essential health benefits--for 11 million people to begin with, they found out that it didn't, in fact, offer it; they fixed it and put them back in a bill, realized they did it inadvertently and took it out again and are now laying that bill supposedly before our consideration tomorrow. If health care is, in fact, that commitment we make to each other in our time of need, how does this bill answer that question? The average cost of a birth in this country is roughly $10,000. Medicaid itself pays for half of the births in our Nation. Maternal care and newborn care are covered under the essential health benefits, but not anymore for the Medicaid expansion population. For that population, having a child could very literally bring you to bankruptcy. That is the bill that this Republican Congress is putting forward for your consideration tomorrow. That is one of the many reasons why I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to share the story of a family that I have come to know. They came from a humble place, scraping by. Amidst instability in their native land, they could barely keep food on their table. For years, their government ignored their struggle and suffering. Like so many others, they dreamed of a better life in America. Finally, they managed to cobble together enough money to make the dangerous journey to our shores. Yet, once here, they discovered that life wasn't so easy. They were resented for their accents, their faith, and their foreign ways. Doors were slammed in their faces when they sought work. So they worked harder. They leaned on each other and those who came before. They forged a community and they organized. They built churches, businesses, and schools. Slowly but surely, they began to enjoy some measure of success and stability. Mr. Speaker, I am sure that there are Garcias or Asgaris or Rodriguezes that share that same story, but the one I tell is not theirs. This family's name is Kennedy. Struggling immigrants whose quest for a better life took them from Ireland's potato famine to Boston's immigrant barrios. It is the ageless story of a young man looking for a better future, of a family in search of a safe place to settle down, of the sacrifice that any parent would make for the benefit of their children. And it has been repeated millions of times in every corner of our world in the over 150 years since my ancestors fled their home to find a new one. My father has a memory of my great-grandmother, Rose, that he shared with me once. He was playing outside with friends one day when she called him in. As he fidgeted around and impatiently tried to sit still, she pulled out a big scrapbook and flipped to a stack of carefully folded newspapers in the back. One after another, she opened them up to the help wanted section. There, she pointed to ad after ad marked in big block letters: No Irish need apply. My great-grandmother's message was clear: Don't forget where you came from, don't forget the blood and the sweat and the tears that generations before you have shed so that you would never feel the sting of prejudice. For my family and so many others, this became a deeply personal fight. In July of 1964, a young Attorney General named Robert Kennedy sat in front of the House Judiciary Committee. There, my grandfather urged Congress to act on immigration reform. Our system, he said, ``is a source of embarrassment to us around the world, it is a source of anguish to many of our own citizens, it is a source of loss to the economic and creative strength of our nation as a whole, it is inconsistent with our principles and out of step with our history.'' The opposition that he and other advocates have faced half a century ago sounds eerily familiar to so many of us today: Immigrants will flood our cities and towns. They will take American jobs. They will poison American culture. They aren't from here. They aren't like us. They are somebody else's babies. Fifty years later, the opposition still hasn't updated their talking points. Fifty years later, our broken immigration system is still a source of embarrassment, but worse, of anguish and of loss. Fifty years later, we face a threat unlike almost any we have seen in recent history: a President who has built an entire campaign--and now an administration--on the scapegoating of immigrant families. We have watched President Trump threaten our most fundamental American values with border walls and bad hombres. We have heard his racial epithets. We have seen cold-hearted executive orders. We have stood in horror as his administration sweeps the country with raids that appear unprecedented in their utter disregard for family, community, and common decency. That is why I stand here today, on the eve of St. Patrick's Day, the proud son of Irish immigrants and the humble beneficiary of our country's golden doors, to deliver a message to immigrant families: President Trump does not speak for all of us, and his immigration policies are opposed by leaders in Washington who do not take your patriotism for granted. We are grateful for your contribution to our communities, our culture, and our economy. We understand your willingness to walk to the ends of the Earth, to navigate oceans and mountains and deserts and war zones because every parent would do the same. We know what you have risked to give them a better future and what you have sacrificed to be a part of our United States. We stand by your side in the fight ahead.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his work on this. Mr. Speaker, after weeks of empty promises that he had a secret plan to insure every American at lower costs with higher quality care, President Trump is now standing behind a House GOP repeal plan that was introduced last night that fails every single one of those promises. Based on estimates that we have seen so far, millions of Americans stand to lose coverage, out-of-pocket costs will skyrocket, and the quality of care will plummet. But today, hours after that bill was introduced, Mr. Speaker, our President referenced a to-be-announced second and third phase of his healthcare rollout that Secretary Price referred to as ``a work in progress,'' once again injecting our healthcare system with crippling uncertainty that is hurting our patients, hospitals, behavioral health providers, and local economies. If you are so proud of this bill, why has it been locked in dark rooms? Why not have an open debate? What are we so afraid of to have a debate on this floor? That is why I urge my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike, to support my resolution of inquiry tomorrow, to try to make sure that the details that have been discussed by this White House and by the Republicans behind closed doors are open for America to understand before we cram a healthcare overhaul down our throats.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to honor the memory of Bancroft ``Nick'' Littlefield, a dear friend and dedicated public servant who passed away last week. Few in our country could match Nick's career. From stages on Broadway to classrooms at Harvard Law School to courtrooms in New York City and eventually to the halls of this Capitol as an aide to my uncle Senator Ted Kennedy--Nick did it all. Always guided by the simple principle that our laws should help and protect our citizens, his fingerprints can be found on every page of landmark legislation such as the Children's Health Insurance Program, Americans with Disabilities Act, Family Medical Leave Act and the 1996 minimum wage increase. As Senator Kennedy's Staff Director for the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee from 1989 until 1998, he worked tirelessly behind the scenes to enact bipartisan reforms to our health insurance market and mental health system that would ultimately lay the foundation for the Affordable Care Act. Each day he arrived at his Senate office, he brought a contagious enthusiasm for his work and extraordinary empathy for the people he served. For all of his peers, regardless of political party, and for me as well, he will always be an inspiration because of his faith in what our government can accomplish when we work together. Even while battling the multiple system atrophy that would leave him unable to walk, talk, write and sing, he considered himself ``not entirely unlucky'' to have the disease because it allowed him to ``truly sympathize'' with others who had disabilities. Mr. Speaker, because of Nick's devotion to our country, those effected by once incurable illness have been healed, families struggling to care for a loved one are able to keep their job, millions of children have received the health care they need, and millions more who work for a living have been able to ensure that they do not live in poverty. His intelligence, compassion, and dedication were matched only by his devotion to his family. In this difficult time, my thoughts and prayers are with Nick's wife, Jenny Lyman, as well as his stepchildren Frank, Tom and Kate. Our nation has lost a good man, but we are all better for the life he lived.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to honor the memory of Dr. John ``Jack'' Manning who passed away last week at the age of 96. A life-long resident of Massachusetts, Jack attended Coyle High School in Taunton before enrolling at Boston College and earning his Medical Degree from Tufts University. Immediately after his graduation, he enlisted in the United States Navy and served aboard six warships from 1946 through 1950 as the only doctor. When he returned home, he started a family with his beloved wife, Lily, and opened a pediatric office in Fall River. While continuing to operate his own private practice, Jack volunteered to become the Medical Director at a school for children with development disabilities. Through nearly 50 years at the school, he never accepted a penny for his services. Caring for those children became the cause of his life and he continued to fundraise for the school through the end of last year. More than his professional and community service work, it was his love for his wife and his family that always guided him. Shortly after opening his pediatric office, Lily contracted paralytic polio. At the age of 33, she would never walk again, and Jack would never leave her side. After two years in hospitals throughout Massachusetts, Lily returned to a renovated home that accommodated her every medical need. Together they raised their sons, Jack and Mike. A little over a decade ago, when Lily returned to the hospital for the last time suffering from pneumonia, Jack was asked how he took care of his wife and their boys for so long. He replied that, ``Ours is not a sad story. I love her just as much today as I ever did, and I know she would have done the exact same thing for me.'' If only we could all be so lucky. On behalf of all the children who Dr. Manning treated and all of the people he inspired, I extend my thoughts and prayers to his family in this difficult time.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening with a heavy heart to honor the memory of Nick Littlefield, a dear friend and dedicated public servant who passed away last week. Few in our country could match Nick's career. From the stages of Broadway to classrooms at Harvard Law School, to courtrooms in New York City, and eventually to the Halls of this Capitol as an aide to my late uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, Nick did it all. Always guided by the simple principle that our laws should help protect our citizens, his fingerprints can be found on landmark legislation such as the Children's Health Insurance Program, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, and the 1996 minimum wage increase. Every day that he arrived at his Senate office, he brought a contagious enthusiasm for his work and extraordinary empathy for the people he served. Even while battling the multiple system atrophy that ultimately cost him his life, he considered himself ``not entirely unlucky'' to have this disease because it allowed him to ``truly sympathize'' with those who had disabilities. Nothing was ever more important to him than his family. In this difficult time, my thoughts and prayers are with Nick's incredible wife, Jenny, as well as his stepchildren Frank, Tom, and Kate.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, on Friday, I visited a community health center in Worcester, Massachusetts. There, at a place dedicated to healing those in their community, I met one of their patients. It was a 42-year-old Muslim refugee from Baghdad who arrived in the United States this past November. He, his wife, and his children spent 3 years in a Turkish refugee camp after fleeing their home country. His family had been targeted in Iraq. He had been hospitalized four times with bombing injuries. He and his wife had both been shot. He watched his own brother burn to death in front of his eyes, and countless members of his family are still missing. He was a musician back home, but he struggled to keep up his craft as he has fled. A doctor in that health center managed to track down a used trumpet and presented it to that man as a gift. Now, every time he visits that health center, he brings the trumpet and plays it for the staff. My visit was no exception. He stood in front of our group and proudly played our national anthem with tears in his eyes because this country had given him a home. This country is helping him mend his wounds, has protected his family, and has given him a chance to fight another day. It is a badge of honor that he shares with every single person living in our great Nation, regardless of color or creed, that we are all bound together by the immense opportunity of those golden doors, opened at one point for our own families sometime down the road. Hours after our visit, our President--his President--told him that his relatives, his neighbors, and millions of others who have suffered just as he has were no longer welcome here. To Samira Asgari, a 30-year-old doctor traveling to Boston to study cures for tuberculosis, he closed the doors. To the Iraqi general who commands an American-trained counterterrorist force traveling here to visit his relocated family, our President closed our doors. To all of the 21.3 million refugees worldwide, the leader of our free world told them that their pain and their suffering was not his problem, and he closed our doors. And to the global community, he made clear that his government will give in to terror and will make decisions based on fear rather than strength. Mr. President, I hope you hear us loud and clear when we say that these actions are an insult to the country we all love. They are an insult to our Constitution and an embarrassment to the blood, the sweat, and the tears that generations of Americans have shed in defense of Lady Liberty. So, Mr. President, we will fight, we will march, we will protest, we will raise our voices, and one day we will win.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. Madam Speaker, a few days ago, I stood immersed in a sea of women, of men, and of children of all colors, creeds, and backgrounds; citizens who fiercely believe that the diversity of their opinions anchor, that they do not undermine, the values that we share, and that their personal activism and unique advocacy could be traced back to one collective, guiding principle--equality. As hundreds of thousands of people swarmed this Capital, Boston Common, town greens from Wilton, New Hampshire, to Newport, Oregon, they sent a clear message to their government that when you treat any of us as less, you threaten all of us. And that is what this bill does. It tells women across this country that their health can be compromised; that constitutionally guaranteed means something different to them than it does to men. If this was a simple attempt to limit a woman's legal right to abortion or reproductive health care, that would be bad enough. But it is more than that. Combined with yesterday's reinstatement of the global gag rule, this bill crystallizes the fact that our new GOP-led government sees women's health care as expendable, both within and far beyond our borders. Make no mistake, if my colleagues continue down this path, I know that there will be a few million men, women, and children willing to keep marching.

Mr. KENNEDY

Mr. KENNEDY. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you for allowing me to discuss the Fair RATES Act, H.R. 587, and for bringing it to the floor today for a vote. I also want to thank the subcommittee chairman, Mr. Upton, his staff, and, of course, during his tenure as chairman of the full committee, his staff, along with the staff of Mr. Pallone and the chairman and ranking member of the subcommittees. We have worked on this legislation for now several years. It did pass unanimously, as Chairman Upton indicated, on a bipartisan passage last year. I am grateful for his acknowledgment of that effort between our teams and that it is on the floor so early in this Congress. Because many of my colleagues have heard me speak about this at length and patiently listened as I dove too far into the weeds about forward capacity auctions, I am hoping to keep this part short and am happy to answer any questions that anyone may have. As the chairman alluded to, New England holds an energy capacity auction to ensure that we have sufficient energy supply to meet consumer demand. Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago, during an auction where there was a shortfall, those capacity payments tripled, skyrocketing from about $1 billion to $3 billion. That rate increase hasn't even reached our constituents yet, but this June, a significant portion of their bills will triple due to that auction. When the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reviewed that rate increase, they were down to four Commissioners, and they deadlocked 2- 2. One Democratic Commissioner and one Republican Commissioner raised concerns about whether those rates were just and reasonable for consumers. Because of the deadlock, those rates took effect by operation of law without any action from FERC. With no official decision from the agency, there was no decision to appeal, leaving my constituents completely voiceless. Mr. Speaker, in 2 weeks, our region will hold that same annual auction, once again determining rates that will be passed along to families and businesses in my district 3 years down the road. Once again, FERC is understaffed, without a full complement of Commissioners to consider the new rate filings. Although the situation may sound complex and unique to New England, there is not a corner of this country that is immune from the unpredictability of American energy markets and the resulting burden our consumers and businesses are forced to bear as a result. That is why I urge my colleagues to pass this bill and enact a simple fix to a very complex problem. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comment. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette).

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I will stand on the remarks I have already made, and I urge quick passage of the legislation. I, again, want to extend my gratitude and thanks to Chairman Upton and his team for all of their work, both last Congress and this one. I yield back the balance of my time.