Sander Levin

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Madam Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Danny K. Davis), a distinguished member of our committee.

Mr. LEVIN. Madam Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda).

Mr. LEVIN. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. LEVIN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of our time, and I will speak very briefly because the message here is so clear, that those who vote for this bill are saying they are willing to use the threat of default once again, and we shouldn't be doing this. I don't think the Nation believed that this government and its programs would be shut down; but it turned out, because of the way the Republicans handled it, this government was shut down, and programs were very much undercut that were needed by the people of this country. We came within a flicker of default. The consequences of playing with that were very, very substantial. So now, once again, the Republicans bring up a bill, and whatever the reason is, are giving people a chance, once again, to say that playing with default is a legitimate method of operation. You shouldn't do this. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Well, for a week now, the Republicans said no to a CR funding the entire government unless there was defunding of health care reform. That was the bludgeon. It did not work. So the Republicans shut down the government. It turns out that tactic was in the works for a year, as described in The New York Times yesterday: One morning in a location the Members insist on keeping secret, came a little-noticed ``blueprint to defund ObamaCare'' signed by leaders of more than three dozen conservative groups. It articulated a take-no-prisoners legislative strategy that had long percolated in conservative circles: that Republicans could derail the health care overhaul if conservative lawmakers were willing to push fellow Republicans--including their cautious leaders--into cutting off financing for the entire government. So now we have a shift. Keep the government shut down, let government not pay its bills. Why? Because the Speaker said it would be ``unconditional surrender.'' That isn't what's needed. We don't need another supercommittee. What we need is to be allowed to vote. This poster shows 195 Democrats willing to reopen the government; 22 Republicans on record. That's a majority of the House. Mr. Speaker, let democracy prevail. Let us vote.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, this will be a short 5-minute, indeed a short 1-minute, because it all can be said in a very few words. Yesterday, the Speaker said ``there are not enough votes in the House to pass'' a clean bill to fund the government and end the shutdown. There is one clear way to find out, Mr. Speaker: let us vote on the floor of the House. On Saturday, 195 of us Democrats sent a letter to the Speaker, saying we are willing to vote ``yes.'' And the reports are also 22 Republicans at least are ready to vote ``yes.'' That's a majority. There are enough votes to end the shutdown. And Mr. Speaker, if you don't believe it, let us vote.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, we should not be debating a bill that's going nowhere. We should be debating a bill that will end this shutdown. Yesterday, the Speaker said this: There are not enough votes in the House to pass a clean bill to fund the government and end the shutdown. The truth of the matter is, if the bill will come up, it will pass. On Saturday, 195 Democrats wrote to the Speaker and said, Bring up the bill. Informed reports say there are 22 Republicans who will also vote ``yes.'' That is a majority of the House. I say to the Speaker: Let all of us speak. The President today said this: The truth of the matter is there are enough Republican and Democratic votes in the House of Representatives right now to end this shutdown immediately, with no partisan strings attached. The House should hold that vote today. If Republicans and Speaker Boehner are saying there are not enough votes, then they should prove it. Let the bill go to the floor, and let's see what happens. Just vote. Then he continued: There's no reason that there has to be a shutdown in order for the kind of negotiations Speaker Boehner says he wants to proceed. Hold a vote. Call a vote right now, and let's see what happens. We say to the Speaker: Let democracy prevail. Bring the Senate bill up for a vote now.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Madam Speaker, let's be clear about what's happening here. We are in day-four of the shutdown of the federal government for one reason, and one reason alone: The desire of a radical wing of the Republican Party to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. To that end, House Republicans have rejected the clean government funding bill passed by the Senate, and shut down the government. The shutdown could end today if Speaker Boehner would bring up the Senate- passed funding bill. There are more than enough votes to pass it and send the bill to the President, who would sign it. The only reason we aren't voting on the Senate bill is because Speaker Boehner has not stood up to a radical group of Tea Party lawmakers who are demanding repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Instead of re-opening the entire government, the Republican Leadership is playing more games as they continue to bring up piecemeal bills to fund the most visible casualties of the shutdown they caused. Earlier this week, we had a vote to reopen the Smithsonian and the National Parks. Then we had a vote to reopen the National Institutes of Health. Then the Republicans began to feel the heat from veterans, so they brought up a bill to reopen the VA. These Band aid bills are an attempt by Republicans to give themselves political cover for causing this shutdown in the first place. Today we have another Band aid bill before us. This bill would restart funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children through December 15. Nearly 9 million moms and kids under five living near or below the poverty line rely on WIC for healthy food, breastfeeding support, infant formula and other necessities. It's as if Republicans have just figured out that closing down the federal government has health consequences when mothers cannot provide food and nutrition for their kids. Let me read a statement from the National WIC Association, which urges the House to reject the bill before the House. They call this Republican bill ``a cynical ploy to use low-income nutritionally at- risk mothers and young children as political pawns for political ends. Funding the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) in this piecemeal, short-term, stop-gap manner is not an acceptable solution. . . . NWA urges Congress to end the uncertainty that exists in our fiscal environment and the already challenged lives of vulnerable mothers and young children by responsibly discharging and fulfilling its moral obligations to the nation. NWA will not tolerate efforts to leverage the nutritional health and well-being of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, their babies, and young children to satisfy the political ends or strategies of policy-makers.'' It's time to stop playing politics, and have a vote on the Senate's clean funding bill. It's time to end the shutdown.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I've listened to the debate. Nobody on the Republican side has answered this question: Why not a vote on the clean CR? Why not? It would pass. That's why you're not bringing it up. It's politics within your conference, but it's harming the people of this country. Piece by piece it's hiding the reality. Let me just point to a bit of it. I'm reading from an NIH document, 2013 figures compared to the 2012 figures for NIH. There were approximately 700 fewer competitive research project grants issued; approximately 750 fewer new patients admitted to the NIH clinical center; cuts to research delaying progress in development of better cancer drugs that zero in on a tumor with fewer side effects; research on a universal flu vaccine that could fight every strain of influenza without needing a yearly shot. Come forth and tell us why not a vote on a clean CR. Don't give us all the other stories. Come, someone, and say why not, why not a clean vote. It would pass. We can do it, a long journey, in one step, right now.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I think it's deeply disturbing that someone comes here and talks about a park. That's important, but a park? How about the children? How about the kids who need daycare? There are several billion spent on childcare and daycare in this country, and you're shutting it down. What about health research? You talk about parks. What about health research that involves the needs of people in your districts where there's a park? You're trying to evade reality. The reality is that you have to let all the hostages go, every single one of them. This Republican shutdown is a disgrace. Here's what you need to do: face up to it, bring up the Senate bill, and let the majority work its will. The only reason you don't do it is because part of your caucus is being held hostage. Bring it up. Most of us Democrats will vote for it, and more and more Republicans will vote for it, and we will end this shutdown. No more talk about parks. Let's get over this shutdown.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I urge that we need to pause to consider the real meaning of what's happening tonight. This is more than about a vote or two. I think this is a fateful occasion. It signifies this: The Republican Party in the House is being thoroughly radicalized. There are Republicans cheering as the U.S. ship of state goes over the cliff. A House Republican colleague of ours said this, as reported today: I do believe Republicans will be blamed. There are some, I think, who would relish a showdown. I think that's unfortunate. It's worse than unfortunate. It's historically reckless and radical. This is an eventful and, I think, shameful night for the Republican Party in the House of Representatives.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Madam Speaker, this bill defunds still more than the Affordable Care Act. It undermines Medicare. It would end improvements in new prescription drug benefits, increases costs for those with Medicare Advantage, and hurts children covered by CHIP as well as the disabled. But this measure has still more peril for our country. We in the House are like two ships passing in the night. House Republicans will pass this bill. It will sail off to the Senate, surely to return after the Senate has stripped off the effort to defund the Affordable Care Act. So then it will be squarely up to the Speaker of this House. Will he act as the captain of the entire House of Representatives or remain a captive of his right-wing Republican mates? Will he, as he acts, worry mainly about the risk to his Speakership or the risk to our entire Nation? House Republicans, taking the ship over the cliff, will take the Nation's economic well-being with it. This is the inevitable danger of the course being chosen today by House Republicans. Only those blinded by rigid ideology can fail to see it.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. So why are we going through the motions once again--I guess 41 times now? Because the health care reform train is rolling. It's picking up momentum, and the Republicans are once again trying to throw a monkey wrench in its way. In Michigan, 14 different insurance entities are competing. Tens and tens and tens of organizations are working to make this work. Medicaid is now available. Republicans see this happening, and they just can't stand the thought. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman), the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and I ask unanimous consent that the balance of my time be managed by the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott).

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. We are now 7 months into this House Republican session. It has been nothing more than a bridge to nowhere. Nowhere on jobs. Nowhere on immigration reform. Nowhere on a budget agreement. Nowhere on most appropriations bills. Instead, House Republicans today continue their obsession--so vividly embraced by the chairman of our committee in his words--with trying to destroy the bridge built by the President and the Democratic Congress to somewhere vital--putting all Americans in charge of their own health care. This bill before us is nothing more than a continuation of the Republicans' blind obsession with repealing the Affordable Care Act. This is how Republicans have chosen to spend the last day here before they recess this House for 5 weeks. It's so clear. The Republican mission is to destroy, not implement, health care reform. Rather than help leading on the issue, House Republicans have spent the last 2-plus years trying to mislead Americans about health care rights under the ACA. Now we can expect more misinformation, and the statement of our chairman is loaded with it. Thirteen States, for example, published preliminary premiums for marketplace coverage. Within those States, Americans will be able to purchase insurance at a price that is, on average, 20 percent below what the CBO estimated; and in Michigan, there will be 14 insurance carriers in the marketplace--and someone comes up here and says health care reform is failing. So, to the American people, be prepared for more scare tactics and other misguided efforts from Republicans to convince constituents that applying for health care coverage will be time-consuming and cumbersome, and be prepared for all kinds of misstatements about the powers and the role of the IRS. This should be said categorically. Neither the IRS nor the Department of Health and Human Services will have access to medical records or other personal history--no access whatsoever. Five weeks of recess await Republicans when they adjourn this House today. I hope when they return they will at last turn their attention to the pressing economic issues that Americans expect the Congress to address. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott), another member of the committee. (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds. Saying that the entire administration of health care is turned over to the IRS is a big lie. The IRS will not have access to the medical records or personal health history of a single American. I now yield 2 minutes to a distinguished colleague of mine from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

Mr. LEVIN. It's now a special pleasure for me to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman who presided over the passage of Medicare 48 years ago and has worked on health care issues his entire historic career, Mr. Dingell from the State of Michigan. (Mr. DINGELL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LEVIN. I now yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews), who has been a leader on this issue. (Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LEVIN. I now yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett), another distinguished member of our committee.

Mr. LEVIN. I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. LEVIN. It is now my pleasure to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the minority whip, who has devoted so much time to health care during his career.

Mr. LEVIN. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind), another distinguished member of our committee.