Frank Pallone

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Casten), who is a leader on energy issues.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Huffman).

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. It certainly is no surprise that the oil industry would support this bill because this bill does absolutely nothing to prevent them from selling to China and to Russia and all our adversaries. Only 2 percent of the oil that is sold to China comes from the SPR, so they will continue to be able to sell to whoever they please. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Mrs. Fletcher), who is a member of our committee.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time remains on both sides.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. I listened to the majority leader, and I want to stress that history is not on his side. The fact of the matter is that the Republicans created this problem by lifting the ban on the export of crude oil to China and the rest of the world when they were in the majority. This bill does nothing to solve the problem. Only 2 percent of the oil that is exported to China comes from the SPR. Even if this bill passes, which it won't in the Senate, it will still allow the other 98 percent of crude oil to go to China. The consequence of the Republican policy was to destroy jobs at American refineries, including my home State of New Jersey, because they allowed the crude oil to be exported, and as a result, a lot of the refineries closed, and we lost jobs here. Don't tell me that this is a bill that is going to help our country, help jobs. It is just the opposite. It is just masking the reality, which is they want to continue to sell oil to China, to Russia, to Iran, and to all our adversaries. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time because they have more time on their side.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I find myself compelled to point out that listening to Republican arguments today, you would think that they have been sacred stewards of the SPR, and that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, when Republicans had the majority in both the House and the Senate from 2015 to 2019, they passed six bills, none of which had anything to do with energy, that raided the SPR for a total of 260 million barrels of crude. Now the Republicans stand here criticizing President Biden's usage of the SPR, and it is laughable. President Biden's usage of the SPR has helped lower gas prices by nearly $1.80 per gallon since their peak. While the Republicans want to pretend they are tough on China, it is really the opposite that is true. Last year, the Biden administration was forced to sell 20 million barrels from the SPR under one of those laws that I mentioned earlier that passed a Republican-controlled Congress. The Republicans didn't include any restrictions, no restrictions or stipulations on that sale, and as a result, the administration was forced to sell to the highest bidders, including a firm owned by the People's Republic of China. Again, I am going to stress in closing, the Republicans caused China to have a huge petroleum reserve by lifting the ban on crude oil in 2015 when they were in the majority. Prior to 2015 when the Republicans lifted the ban on exports of crude oil, we had that ban in place for 40 years--40 years--and then in 2015, they came in, and they lifted the ban, so they caused this problem. During the Trump administration, the amount of crude oil that was sold to China was unbelievable. As a result, the petroleum reserve, you know, increased significantly in China. They took advantage of the situation. Now, if you really wanted to do something today, first of all, you would say that the SPR should not only be banned by selling oil from the SPR to China, but you should say that you can't sell it to Russia. You can't sell it to Iran. You can't sell it to North Korea. You can't sell it to our adversaries, which is exactly what the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania, Ms. Houlahan's bill, does on a bipartisan basis. But even beyond that, you could simply say no crude oil should be sold at all, exported at all, or certainly not exported to our adversaries, and that is not what is happening here. So this is a problem that was created by the Republicans, and they pretend that they are doing something about it today, but, in fact, they are not. The reason is because they are with the Big Oil. They are with the special interests that want to sell this crude oil, continue to sell it overseas, and they don't care that it goes to our adversaries. That is the bottom line. This bill is not going to accomplish anything, and so I would urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the legislation. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time until we are prepared to close.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time until we close.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds. The gentleman talks about how China has built up its reserves, its petroleum reserves. It is because you, when you were in the majority, stopped the ban on export, and they used that opportunity to build up their reserves. This has nothing to do with the SPR. Mr. Speaker, 98 percent of the oil that is exported to China is not from the SPR. So they used the opportunity since 2015 when you lifted the ban to build up their petroleum reserves on your watch. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this final omnibus package. This bill includes important health care and consumer protection provisions out of the Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill invests in our children's health with two years of additional funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and, for the first time, guarantees 12 months of continuous coverage for kids on CHIP and Medicaid. This will safeguard access to health care for 40 million young people across the nation. It also permanently extends the option for states to provide new moms with Medicaid coverage for 12 months postpartum, a critical part of our effort to address the unacceptable maternal mortality crisis that disproportionately affects women of color. I am also pleased that we reached bipartisan agreement to ensure Puerto Rico and the U.S. Territories have the Medicaid funding they need to ensure access to care for their residents. The government funding agreement also provides additional resources to address the mental health and substance use disorder crises facing the nation, especially among our young people. It reauthorizes key programs that support Americans' mental health and substance use recovery needs, expands access to medication assisted treatment, bolsters workforce capacity and training, and establishes important new programs and services including a national maternal mental health hotline and task force. The omnibus also strengthens our nation's public health agencies. It modernizes the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) accelerated approval program to give the agency more oversight over drugs and biologics that receive approval through this pathway. It also provides the agency with new authority to improve the diversity of populations participating in clinical trials, and finally updates FDA's authority to oversee the safety of cosmetics and personal care products. This is something I've been working on for more than a decade and now it is a reality. This omnibus also applies the lessons learned from the COVID- 19 pandemic to help the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prepare to respond to future public health emergencies. Finally, the omnibus includes a number of important consumer protection provisions that will guard consumers against counterfeit and dangerous products, bolster U.S. manufacturing, and continue to promote our economic competitiveness on the world stage. I am proud that this final bill includes so many important health care and consumer protection provisions that came out of the Energy and Commerce Committee in a bipartisan fashion over this last Congress. I urge my colleagues to support this important bill that invests in the health and well-being of the American people. I am submitting additional supplemental materials on the intent of certain Medicaid provisions that I authored in the omnibus. Mr. Speaker, the bill before us today is a tremendous step forward in expanding health care access for millions of low-income Americans. It will permanently strengthen access to Medicaid for children, new mothers, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. It will responsibly wind down the maintenance of effort requirement from the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), and gradually phase out the enhanced federal Medicaid matching funds. And finally, it will expand beneficiary protections, enhance transparency, and provide the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) with additional tools to prevent improper coverage loss. Under FFCRA, Congress provided states with a temporary increase in their federal Medicaid dollars in exchange for states adopting certain policies. Collectively, these policies were known as the ``maintenance of effort'' requirements. One of these requirements is that for the duration of the public health emergency, states may not disenroll anyone from their Medicaid programs, sometimes referred to as the continuous coverage requirement. Experts have raised concerns that when the continuous coverage requirement ends, millions of eligible Medicaid beneficiaries--most of whom would be children--could improperly lose access to health care. This is unacceptable. I'm pleased that this legislation includes several provisions to mitigate these coverage losses. Specifically, it gives the Secretary additional enforcement authority to ensure that states follow all requirements that apply to Medicaid eligibility redeterminations. These are, of course, in addition to enforcement tools already available to the Secretary under current law. Under this legislation, states would only receive the enhanced federal funds if they follow these requirements. This will provide the Secretary with more targeted enforcement authority in addition to that which he already has under the Medicaid statute. The bill before us also combines discretionary enforcement authorities with mandatory penalties for states that fail to comply with certain provisions. For example, if a state is out of compliance with the additional beneficiary protections, the Secretary may require a corrective action plan, assess civil monetary penalties against a state, or require a state to stop disenrolling individuals for procedural reasons. However, if a state fails to comply with the bill's data reporting requirements, the bill would require the Secretary to reduce that state's Medicaid matching rate. States will face an unprecedented task when they begin the work of conducting eligibility redeterminations for more than 80 million low- income individuals, including children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. That is why it is so critical for us to pass this bill to provide additional protections to these vulnerable populations. That said, I want to be clear that nothing in this bill in any way constrains the remedies available under current law to Medicaid beneficiaries and stakeholders who have been harmed by a state's violations of the Medicaid statute. Specifically, the bill does not establish a comprehensive remedial regime of the type described by the United States Supreme Court in decisions regarding litigation involving section 1983. It is also not the intent of Congress to alter any federal right on the part of private individuals to use the remedies guaranteed by Section 1983, if they are injured by unlawful state actions involving Medicaid eligibility redeterminations. The bill before us is a huge victory for Medicaid beneficiaries and states. It expands coverage while giving states the resources they need to responsibly transition from the continuous coverage requirement, while protecting low-income individuals from improper coverage loss. It will provide the Secretary of HHS with new tools to protect beneficiaries, while preserving the existing enforcement mechanisms and legal remedies that will help mitigate coverage loss. This bill is obviously not perfect, and there is still more that must be done to expand coverage to low-income individuals, but I'm proud of this bill and strongly believe it will improve access to health care for millions of our most vulnerable citizens. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important bill.

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this final omnibus package. This bill includes important health care and consumer protection provisions out of the Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill invests in our children's health with 2 years of additional funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and, for the first time, guarantees 12 months of continuous coverage for kids on CHIP and Medicaid. This will, safeguard access to health care for 40 million young people across the nation. It also permanently extends the option for states to provide new moms with Medicaid coverage for 12 months postpartum, a critical part of our effort to address the unacceptable maternal mortality crisis that disproportionately affects women of color. I am also pleased that we reached bipartisan agreement to ensure Puerto Rico and the U.S. Territories have the Medicaid funding they need to ensure access to care for their residents. The government funding agreement also provides additional resources to address the mental health and substance use disorder crises facing the Nation, especially among our young people. It reauthorizes key programs that support Americans' mental health and substance use recovery needs, expands access to medication assisted treatment, bolsters workforce capacity and training, and establishes important new programs and services including a national maternal mental health hotline and task force. The omnibus also strengthens our nation's public health agencies. It modernizes the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) accelerated approval program to give the agency more oversight over drugs and biologics that receive approval through this pathway. It also provides the agency with new authority to improve the diversity of populations participating in clinical trials, and finally updates FDA's authority to oversee the safety of cosmetics and personal care products. This is something I have been working on for more than a decade and now it is a reality. This omnibus also applies the lessons learned from the COVID- 19 pandemic to help the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prepare to respond to future public health emergencies. Finally, the omnibus includes a number of important consumer protection provisions that will guard consumers against counterfeit and dangerous products, bolster U.S. manufacturing, and continue to promote our economic competitiveness on the world stage. I am proud that this final bill includes so many important health care and consumer protection provisions that came out of the Energy and Commerce Committee in a bipartisan fashion over this last Congress. I urge my colleagues to support this important bill that invests in the health and well-being of the American people. I include in the Record additional supplemental materials on the intent of certain Medicaid provisions that I authored in the omnibus. The bill before us today is a tremendous step forward in expanding health care access for millions of low-income Americans. It will permanently strengthen access to Medicaid for children, new mothers, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. It will responsibly wind down the maintenance of effort requirement from the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), and gradually phase out the enhanced federal Medicaid matching funds. And finally, it will expand beneficiary protections, enhance transparency, and provide the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) with additional tools to prevent improper coverage loss. Under FFCRA, Congress provided states with a temporary increase in their federal Medicaid dollars in exchange for states adopting certain policies. Collectively, these policies were known as the ``maintenance of effort'' requirements. One of these requirements is that for the duration of the public health emergency, states may not disenroll anyone from their Medicaid programs, sometimes referred to as the continuous coverage requirement. Experts have raised concerns that when the continuous coverage requirement ends, millions of eligible Medicaid beneficiaries--most of whom would be children--could improperly lose access to health care. This is unacceptable. I'm pleased that this legislation includes several provisions to mitigate these coverage losses. Specifically, it gives the Secretary additional enforcement authority to ensure to that states follow all requirements that apply to Medicaid eligibility redeterminations. These are, of course, in addition to enforcement tools already available to the Secretary under current law. Under this legislation, states would only receive the enhanced federal funds if they follow these requirements. This will provide the Secretary with more targeted enforcement authority in addition to that which he already has under the Medicaid statute. The bill before us also combines discretionary enforcement authorities with mandatory penalties for states that fail to comply with certain provisions. For example, if a state is out of compliance with the additional beneficiary protections, the Secretary may require a corrective action plan, assess civil monetary penalties against a state, or require a state to stop disenrolling individuals for procedural reasons. However, if a state fails to comply with the bill's data reporting requirements, the bill would require the Secretary to reduce that state's Medicaid matching rate. States will face an unprecedented task when they begin the work of conducting eligibility redeterminations for more than 80 million low-income individuals, including children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. That is why it is so critical for us to pass this bill to provide additional protections to these vulnerable populations. That said, I want to be clear that nothing in this bill in any way constrains the remedies available under current law to Medicaid beneficiaries and stakeholders who have been harmed by a state's violations of the Medicaid statute. Specifically, the bill does not establish a comprehensive remedial regime of the type described by the United States Supreme Court in decisions regarding litigation involving section 1983. It is also not the intent of Congress to alter any federal right on the part of private individuals to use the remedies guaranteed by Section 1983, if they are injured by unlawful state actions involving Medicaid eligibility redeterminations The bill before us is a huge victory for Medicaid beneficiaries and states. It expands coverage while giving states the resources they need to responsibly transition from the continuous coverage requirement, while protecting low- income individuals from improper coverage loss. It will provide the Secretary of HHS with new tools to protect beneficiaries, while preserving the existing enforcement mechanisms and legal remedies that will help mitigate coverage loss. This bill is obviously not perfect, and there is still more that must be done to expand coverage to low- income individuals, but I'm proud of this bill and strongly believe it will improve access to health care for millions of our most vulnerable citizens. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important bill.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 4120.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 1541) to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Communications Commission to ensure just and reasonable charges for telephone and advanced communications services in correctional and detention facilities.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 3405.

Mr. PALLONE

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 4978.

Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 4978) to amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize the State offices of rural health program.