Joseph Pitts

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Terry), the prime sponsor of the legislation.

Mr. PITTS. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, just to clarify, we hear the words ``sign up,'' ``signed up,'' ``equal to enrollment.'' We may know how many people have signed up. We do not know how many have actually enrolled and have paid their first month's premiums. Secondly, we are stewards of the taxpayers--we are not shareholders--and the lack of data is precisely what led the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee to declare this law as a train wreck in that there are no metrics, no data, to determine whether this law is working and on track. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, opponents of the Exchange Information Disclosure Act have argued that requiring weekly reports on the health care law to the American people is too burdensome, too costly for the Department of Health and Human Services. Yet, somehow, HHS managed to find money in its budget for taxpayer-funded grants spent on such things as bike lane signs, dog neutering campaigns, promoting a sport called ``pickleball,'' and lobbying campaigns for soda taxes. Clearly, HHS does not suffer from a lack of resources. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentlelady from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), the vice chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. PITTS. I yield the gentlewoman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana, Dr. Cassidy, a very active member of the Health Subcommittee.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, as Secretary Sebelius acknowledged at an Energy and Commerce hearing in December, enrollment in an exchange plan is not complete until the first month's premium has been paid. The administration, so far, has refused to tell the American people how many people are actually enrolled by paying their first month's premium in the health care law's exchanges. Asking the Department to provide the American people regular updates is simply a matter of transparency. Given that HHS officials were so blatantly wrong about the readiness of the health care law's exchanges, they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt. Regular disclosure is necessary to assess the status of the law, and that is all this bill requires. Let's make the administration, who has continually held back facts regarding implementation of the health care law, meet their pledge to be the most transparent in history. I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve a point of order against the motion to recommit.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my point of order, and I claim the time in opposition to the motion.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, opponents of the Exchange Information Disclosure Act argue that HHS is already reporting data. Yet more than 3 months after the disastrous launch of the exchanges, we simply do not know how many Americans have actually completed enrollment by paying their first month's premium. As Secretary Sebelius acknowledged at an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing in December, enrollment in an exchange is not complete until the first month's premium has been paid. The administration so far has refused to tell the American people how many people are actually enrolled in the health care law's exchanges. Either the administration is refusing to tell us how many people are actually enrolled or they simply do not know. Neither answer should instill confidence in a law that puts over 2 trillion taxpayer dollars on the line. This underlying bill would require the administration to give us real and actual enrollment data. The American people deserve transparency, and this is what the Exchange Information Disclosure Act would deliver. I urge all Members to oppose this motion to recommit and vote for the underlying bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, the administration reported this week that they have fallen far short of their goal for signing young, healthy Americans up for new ObamaCare plans. Ever since the failure of healthcare.gov to launch properly, the administration has downplayed the importance of enrolling their goal of 7 million Americans in exchange plans. All the recent talk has been about how much more important it is to have a mix of older, sicker Americans than younger, healthier Americans. Now we come to find out that this younger cohort only makes up 24 percent of enrollees. That is 15 percentage points below their goal. The definition of success keeps changing. That is exactly why we need Representative Terry's bill to require HHS to give Congress and the American people solid data. We cannot trust officials who keep moving the goalpost and keep assuring us that everything is fine when in reality it keeps failing. It is time we remove the rose-colored glasses and get to the facts.

Mr. PITTS

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 3811.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 455, I call up the bill (H.R. 3811) to require notification of individuals of breaches of personally identifiable information through Exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, in the days leading up to Christmas, hackers stole millions of credit card numbers from the servers of retail giant Target. I imagine that at least a few here in this Chamber may have had their own credit cards replaced to prevent theft. What if Target had not bothered to tell anyone? What if they had waited until people noticed fraudulent charges popping up on their statements? The damage would certainly be worse. It may shock some people to learn that there is no legal requirement that the Department of Health and Human Services notify an individual if his or her personal information is breached or improperly accessed through the Affordable Care Act's exchanges. While HHS has said that it will notify individuals in such a case, the American people have a right to know that their government is required by law to contact them if their personal information is compromised. H.R. 3811, the Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act, would simply ensure Americans receive notification from HHS when their personally identifiable information has been compromised through the exchanges. Specifically, the bill requires HHS to notify individuals no later than two business days after discovery of a breach of an exchange system. Since the disastrous rollout of the healthcare.gov Web site, congressional oversight has uncovered that end-to-end security testing of healthcare.gov did not occur before the October 1 launch, and that high-ranking administration officials were told of the security risks before the Web site went live. Teresa Fryer, the chief information security officer for the agency running the exchange system, even stated in a draft memo that the Federal exchange ``does not reasonably meet security requirements'' and ``there is also no confidence that personal identifiable information will be protected.'' A recent article in Information Week discussed a report released by Experian entitled ``2014 Data Breach Industry Forecast,'' which stated that ``the health care industry, by far, will be the most susceptible to publicly disclosed and widely scrutinized data breaches in 2014.'' According to Information Week, the author of the study said he is basing this prediction at least partly on reports of security risks posted by the healthcare.gov Web site and the health insurance exchanges established by various States. The Web infrastructure to support health insurance reform was ``put together too quickly and haphazardly.'' The most glaring problem for these sites has been their inability to keep up with consumer demand. The organizational infrastructure behind the implementation of ObamaCare is also complex, meaning that many parties have access to the personal data and could misuse or mishandle it. So we have volume issues, security issues, multiple data handling points, all generally not good things for protecting protected health information and personal identity information. Given the lack of security testing and the risk associated with healthcare.gov, and the administration's repeated misrepresentation of the Web site's readiness and functionality, H.R. 3811 is a reasonable step to ensure Federal officials are required to notify individuals in case of a breach. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa), the distinguished chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased, at this time, to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlelady from Tennessee (Mrs. Black), who is an expert on this issue.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California, Kevin McCarthy, the distinguished whip of the House.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), a distinguished member of the Health Subcommittee.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia, Eric Cantor, our distinguished majority leader.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton), the distinguished chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. PITTS. I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire of the time remaining.