Tom Price

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, job growth in the U.S. has increased for 25 straight months with unemployment at 5 percent, lower than the average for the last three decades. And the news just keeps getting better. New home sales hit a record high in June. And that should not come as a surprise, seeing as how more Americans are working than ever before-- over 130 million jobs. But we do not see this on the front page of our newspapers or on the nightly newscasts. The Republican accomplishments of this House speak for themselves. We passed medical liability reform to prevent frivolous lawsuits from forcing doctors out of practice or closing hospitals and leaving patients with limited access to care. We passed Association Health Plans to let small businesses pool their resources together in order to purchase affordable health insurance for their employees. Mr. Speaker, remember the death tax, the tax that unfairly burdened American families at the most inopportune of times? We listened to Americans, to our constituents, and we voted to repeal that unjust and unfair tax. Mr. Speaker, as we head into the August work period we have a record of accomplishment and we look forward to sharing it with the American people.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to have my name removed as a cosponsor of H.R. 1946.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, 20 States including my home State of Georgia are experiencing a medical liability crisis. Hospitals are shutting their doors, doctors are leaving the profession, and patients are the ones left out in the cold. OB-GYN doctors and some surgeons are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in insurance premiums. One-third of the OB doctors in my State no longer deliver babies because delivering a baby is defined as a ``high-risk procedure.'' Other specialists no longer cover emergency procedures. One tragic story I am reminded of is a man who came to the emergency room after a fall with a subdural hematoma, or ``bleeding on the brain.'' What is required to treat this is a relatively simple procedure performed by a neurosurgeon to relieve pressure on the brain. Instead of being saved, he died; and he died because there were no neurosurgeons at the hospital due to frivolous lawsuits and skyrocketing insurance rates. Mr. Speaker, court rooms are interfering with our operating rooms and are threatening health care quality and raising the cost of health care for all Americans. The HEALTH Act puts patients first and will protect our health care system for us and for our children and for our grandchildren. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5. Vote for the HEALTH Act.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I rise in support of the rule and the bill. This debate, this issue is about patients and the principal challenge that we have. What is the principal challenge that we have? I believe it is that it is imperative that we provide a system which allows patients to have access to the highest level of health care, and we are losing this across this Nation for a variety of reasons, but not the least of which is the lottery mentality of our court system. Our system is woefully broken. As a physician for over 25 years, as an orthopedic surgeon, I have seen a vast array of medical and surgical problems. I have also stood back and been astounded, astounded by certain surprising occurrences. One was with a patient who was cared for by one of my partners. Not too long ago, across this land, we asked patients to identify whether their surgery was to be on the right side or the left side so that we did not operate on the wrong leg or the wrong arm. And we asked the patient in the preoperative area to identify which side was the correct side. This one patient marked the incorrect side. The patient did. He marked the wrong side on purpose. On purpose. Thankfully, thankfully there were enough checks and balances in place in this hospital that it was caught just before the surgery began. When asked why he marked the wrong side, he said, I thought I'd take a chance and see if I could make some money. This is the lottery mentality. This is the climate that we are in out there. Our system is woefully broken. The mentality in the system that we have right now drives hospitals to close, and it drives doctors to end their practice. And patients, then, lose the ability to see their doctor. To ensure Americans have access to the highest-quality care, I encourage my colleagues to support both the rule and the underlying bill.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, sometimes I get tired of all the bad news. You come here and you listen to the speeches that go before the House and you think, my goodness gracious, there must be all sorts of bad news out there. When I go home and I talk to constituents at home about any issue, I often lead off with saying, ``I am going to have to tell you some things that you haven't seen on television and that you haven't read in the newspaper,'' because the good news, the good news that is happening here, oftentimes gets smothered with all the bad news and all the political sniping that goes on. I was pleased to hear the gentlewoman from Virginia (Mrs. Drake) just now get up and demonstrate her passion, her passion, for principles that we hold dear here in the United States. I was also wonderfully pleased to hear the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick) earlier talk about the importance of health care and Health Savings Accounts, an exciting proposal, an exciting policy that we have here, that we have adopted in the Congress, that will allow individuals greater choice in health care. That is good news. That is good news. When I read my local paper, I have got to get way down in that paper before I see good news. In terms of politics, all you see is who is fighting whom and what will not happen. It is remarkable. So I am here to talk about a little good news today, because we have good news that we need to spread across this Nation. There has been a remarkable turnaround in this Nation's economy. The policies that this Congress have adopted have helped our Nation recover from attacks at home, recover from corporate scandals, recover from the bursting of the tech bubble and the incredible demands that we have facing us as a Nation in the War on Terror. These are real challenges, incredible challenges, but we are a strong and a vibrant and a resourceful Nation, and we can overcome these challenges, and, frankly, any other that folks throw in our way. But what are the principles that are guiding us? Strong, common sense, conservative principles that foster entrepreneurship and almost guarantee success. These are the true engines, entrepreneurship, of job growth and strength in our economy. From tax relief, to a responsible decrease in areas of our Federal budget, this Republican major is leading the way with a return to fiscal discipline and economic growth as our guideline. And what are the results? What are the results? There used to be somebody on television that said, ``Let's go the videotape.'' Here we say, ``Let's go to the chart.'' Look at this chart. This is May 2003 and these are the number of jobs that have been created in this Nation. May 2003. And look where we are in June 2005. It is a steady increase in growth in the number of jobs. That is exciting news. That is good news. Have you seen it in your newspaper? Have you heard about it on television or on the radio? Probably not. But that is good news, and it is good news that is happening because of the policies that this Congress has adopted. More Americans are working now than ever before. More Americans are working than ever before in our Nation's history. Nearly 4 million jobs have been created over the past 2 years. The economy has had job growth, more job growth, 24 straight months. Look at that, 24 straight months. That is good news. Unemployment is at 5 percent. Say, what is that? Well, it is lower than the averages for the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s. Unemployment is at an all-time low, given the averages over the last three decades. Unemployment is down for all levels of education, all races and all ages. This is great news. So I ask my colleagues and I ask folks back home when they pick up their newspaper, do not look at the front page; go to page 7 or 8 or 9 or further, and you may find some good news there. Those are the kinds of stories that need to be on the front page. Mr. Speaker, we in Congress here are going to continue to work in a positive and a confident way, one that is trustful of Americans and one that appreciates and believes in America. I look forward to being joined by my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to further these common sense principles.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, you remember the old Peanuts cartoon strip, and the booth with the sign on it that said, ``The doctor is in''? Well, too many times these days nobody is in at the doctor's office, and we are not currently improving the situation. Many doctors are being forced to shut their doors and leave the practice of medicine due to skyrocketing insurance premiums. In addition, medical schools are seeing fewer young people apply, not as many people interested in becoming doctors. This week we will be talking a lot about problems and solutions to the challenges we face in health care, and a few questions we must answer are: Where will our doctors come from? What can we do to increase the number and maintain the quality of those wanting careers in medicine? Skyrocketing medical school costs raise critical questions. Is the cost of medical schools preventing some of our best and brightest from choosing to become a doctor? How will this affect the quality of care for all patients? Mr. Speaker, patient choice is about being able to choose the doctor that is right for you. If bright young people are not going into medicine, we all lose. Let us work to improve our system so patients will be able to have the right to choose the doctor that is best for them.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time and for his work on this issue and so many other important issues. When I go home, and especially as a physician in Congress, when I go home and talk to small businesses, they say whatever you do, whatever you do, do something about my health care costs. Make it so I can help my employees get insurance. Mr. Speaker, 45 million uninsured we have heard, 60 percent or more of those are employed currently, and why do they not have health insurance. Either they are self-employed or they work for small businesses so they have to purchase health insurance in the individual market. So what is the solution? Pool together. Six people can buy insurance for cheaper than one person; 60 cheaper than 6; 600 cheaper than 60; and 6 million cheaper than 600, and it can be quality insurance, and H.R. 525 is a step in the right direction. We have heard that the number of uninsured will go up, the cost for the premium will go up 23 percent. I will take that wager. This is the same crowd that said welfare reform would not work. I will take that bet. Once again, the rhetoric we have heard is disgraceful. We have heard that Republicans do not care about women with breast cancer. Come on. What kind of nonsense is this. Who do you think will be making the decisions about the kinds of provisions that will be in that insurance policy? It is patients. It is patients in the associations, and they are much closer I would argue to the individuals making decisions about what is going to be included under those plans than human resources officers in large companies. H.R. 525 is a step in the right direction. I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support it.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, the time to pass pension reform is now. Today, with Senator Johnny Isakson and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland), I spoke with Delta employees and retirees at the Delta Pension Reform Support Day in Atlanta. The sense of urgency for a solution to our Nation's pension crisis could not have been more evident. In the face of high fuel costs and a post-9/11 world, financial losses continue to hinder legacy airline carriers' ability to fully fund their pension plans. Having airlines keep their commitments to their employees and not burden taxpayers is what this is all about. Pension reform is financial security for thousands of airline employees. Retiring with a pension of only a fraction of what you expected is not truly a retirement. A lifetime of work should not be rewarded with wondering how you will make ends meet. Mr. Speaker, the case has been made. Pension reform is needed now. The employees with whom I spoke today have put forth much effort to make a difference. They realize the crisis their pension plans are in, the American public realizes the crisis that pension plans are in, and it is time we fixed the problem before it is too late and before the burden is put on the backs of the American taxpayers. Without objection.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, when President Bush started his first term, he challenged our educational system to end the soft bigotry of low expectations. Some of my colleagues objected to the accountability necessary. Students must be challenged to achieve. We must insist on results in our classrooms rather than accepting the status quo. Students and teachers in Cobb County, Georgia, have accepted the challenge and excelled. Pope, Walton, Kennesaw Mountain, and Lassiter High Schools have some of the highest percentages of students meeting and exceeding standards in the entire State of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I am proud of all the teachers and students who dedicate themselves and work so diligently to make these achievements. I am excited about what is happening with education in my district. Challenging students to excel and insisting on accountability are the keys. Administrators, parents, teachers and students are to be congratulated. I am proud of the steps the Cobb County school system has taken to provide quality education to our children, some of the best in the State.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, like many Americans, I have heard of some activities at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay that have given me some concern. Unlike most Americans, I recently had the opportunity to visit Guantanamo and what I saw with my own eyes was not what I had heard. All Americans can be proud of our servicemen and women who protect us, including those at Guantanamo. They are our moms and our dads, our brothers and our sisters, our sons and our daughters, and they are running a professional, respectful, orderly and clean detention facility that is vital to our security. The war on terror continues. The men being held at Guantanamo are constantly being evaluated to determine whether their detention should continue. Are they still a threat, or can they provide further information in the war on terror? For each of them the answer is clearly yes. Mr. Speaker, General Raymond Hood and all members of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo should be honored and commended for their work and help in protecting all Americans.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, in spite of all of what the pessimists have said, and regardless of what the mainstream media reports, the economy has greatly improved. The facts are plain and simple. Our Nation is producing more, and our government is spending less. The estimated Federal budget deficit is $94 billion less than the earlier prediction, and we have had 14 consecutive quarters of economic growth. House Republicans have faith in America's ability to grow our economy, and we look to the future with confidence. Our job in Congress is to hold the line on spending. And the unemployment rate has fallen to 5 percent, the lowest since September 2001, with nearly 4 million new jobs created in the last 2 years alone. Sustained job growth, falling deficits, low interest rates and a booming housing market: America's economy is robust and getting stronger. With fiscal responsibility and passing pro-growth bills, including the death tax repeal and legal reform, we continue to show our commitment to growing America's economy. But there is still work to do. I am hopeful that Congress will approve the highway and energy bills which will add new jobs to the economy, help improve our roadways, and decrease our dependence on foreign oil.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, on June 30, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI's Safe Street Gang Task Force arrested 10 members of the SUR-13 gang on illegal immigration charges in my district. The largest gang bust in Alpharetta, Georgia, history serves to spotlight the ever present need to secure our borders. These illegal gang members are not only taking American jobs and tax money, they are also taking American lives. These gang members distribute dangerous drugs, they commit murders, assaults, drive-by shootings and auto thefts. We must get serious about immigration reform. Mr. Speaker, 400,000 illegal aliens who have been ordered deported are still in this country because their deportation orders have not been enforced. In many cases, after being ordered deported by a judge, the illegal alien simply walks out of the courtroom without so much as someone ensuring that they leave the country. Mr. Speaker, our immigration policies are broken. One of the SUR-13 gang members put it all in perspective. When ordered deported, he said, ``I'll be back. It's so easy. People here are stupid.'' Our borders need to be secured and the time to act is now.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, Americans love their teachers, and they want to reward the best. For too long, teachers have been shackled by outdated performance systems that do not necessarily recognize effective teaching. Americans want to reward the best teachers for the work they do. Yesterday, I introduced a new initiative, the Teacher Incentive Fund, to reward these hardworking educators. This innovative program will allow teachers to be compensated based on performance and accomplishments and how well they are helping students learn and achieve. These voluntary grants would provide incentives for States and local school districts to develop, implement, and maintain systems that reward teachers and principals who deliver on student achievement. The Teacher Incentive Fund will work to put the focus on the most important component in our education, and that is the children. Evidence shows that children achieve most when taught by high-quality teachers. Most of us remember the teachers who affected us in a remarkable way. For me it was one of my high school teachers, Dr. Welch; and I will never forget how he challenged me to excel. Now let us reward those teachers who reside in every congressional district and challenge our children to excel every day.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, 2 years ago, the Nation mourned the space shuttle Columbia tragedy. President Bush declared, ``This cause of exploration and discovery is not an option we choose, it is a desire written in the human heart.'' Today, seven more astronauts will take hold of that desire and follow their heart into space. This return to flight marks a new era of space travel with unparalleled safety measures. As the crew tests new safety techniques and delivers much-needed supplies to the International Space Station, we will all watch. We will watch with excitement and pride, and we will remember. We will remember and honor the lost crew of the space shuttle Columbia. The Columbia crewmembers valiantly gave their lives pursuing knowledge in our name for space exploration and today, we continue our quest to get our shuttle program back. Mr. Speaker, thanks to those who worked so hard to get that shuttle program back. To today's crewmembers, Eileen Collins, James Kelly, Charles Camarda, Wendy Lawrence, Soichi Noguchi, Steve Robinson, and Andy Thomas, may they be safe and may their mission be successful. We thank them for their dedication, their determination, and their courage. Godspeed.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) so very much for his comments. When I first started looking into this issue of health insurance and why it seemed that employers had this remarkable incentive and I looked back and looked back and tried to figure out where it began and I got to the discussion about World War II and I talked to some of my friends about it and they would say it could not have started back then, I appreciate his perspective on it and his knowledge and expertise in appreciating that the tax treatment of the purchase of health insurance is so important, so incredibly important, as we try to solve the challenges of the increased cost of health insurance and health care. I thank him so much for joining me tonight. He was very kind to participate and bring focus to those issues. I touched a little earlier on that association between jobs and health care and how jobs are so important to health care because of the tax treatment. And so it is important that we talk about jobs and small businesses; and this Congress has worked incredibly hard, incredibly hard, to create jobs, especially in the area of small business; and it is important. We keep talking about small business because that is the engine, that is the engine that drives our economy. Ninety-nine percent of all businesses in this Nation are small businesses, and 75 percent of all new jobs that have been created have been jobs that are added in the area of small business. And this Congress has been incredibly diligent in making certain that we have the right incentives to create jobs. And they have been mentioned earlier, but I would like to touch on a couple of them. The Energy Policy Act that we passed will create nearly \1/2\ million new jobs in the manufacturing and construction and agriculture and technology sectors, \1/2\ million jobs. The Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act, that is not only an unfair tax, but it is also taking money out of the pockets of individuals, especially small business individuals, that they could use to instead grow their businesses. The Class Action Fairness Act that we passed, some legal reform. It is estimated that $88 billion a year, $88 billion a year, is spent on lawsuits; and if that money is not needed on inappropriate lawsuits, then where can that money go? To small business and to jobs, create jobs, hire more workers. So this was an important bill that was passed and signed into law by the President. The highway bill, the Transportation Reauthorization bill, not only will it increase the quality of our transportation infrastructure across this Nation, but it is estimated that for every $1 billion that is spent to improve our highways, 40,000 jobs are created, 40,000 jobs: $1 billion, 40,000 jobs. Do we know what that means for a bill that has a price tag of about $280 billion? That is 15 million jobs. You talk about a Congress that is serious about putting people to work, this is that Congress. And the Job Training Improvement Act that we passed breaks down the barriers for millions, millions of job-seekers. So this Congress has actively worked to expand small business which, again, is the engine, the engine of our economy, and it is working. We see the results already. Mr. Speaker, 146,000 jobs were created in the month of June with the unemployment rate dropping to 5 percent, the lowest unemployment rate since September of 2001. Steady growth has taken place each of the last 25 months with more Americans working than ever before. This chart shows the declining unemployment rate and the number of jobs that have been created, and we see each month for the past, on this chart, 13 months, but it has been 25 months in a row, each month we have created jobs in this Nation, across the Nation. The economic indicators show strong and sustained growth with real gross domestic product and real income revised up for the first quarter, and inflation down. Listen to this: profits as a share of gross domestic product are up to their highest level since 1967, profits up to their highest levels since 1967. What does that do? It allows businesses to reinvest and create more jobs. Mr. Speaker, durable goods orders are on the rise with new orders for durable goods increased by 5.5 percent in May. That is the largest increase in 14 months. U.S. manufacturing continues to expand. Again, for the 25th consecutive month, manufacturing expanded again in June. And we see it in the private sector as well, with consumer confidence rising nearly 3 points in June to its highest level in 3 years. Mr. Speaker, I am telling my colleagues, the improving economy that we have talked about and the jobs that have been created, it is not empty rhetoric, it is not just words. The policies of this Congress and this administration, they are pro-growth, and they are leading the charge, and they are indeed succeeding in the challenges that we have before us in creating jobs. But when I go home, when I talk to folks at home who are small business owners, who create the jobs in this Nation, and when I talk to them and I ask them, what is the biggest challenge that you have? I do not care what kind of small business it is, whether it is a restaurant owner or gas station folks or a small business owner or lawn care people, real estate, shoe repair, I do not care what it is, their biggest challenge, they will tell you that their biggest challenge is the health care, providing health care for their employees, and many, many simply stop. They are unable to provide health care any longer for their employees, whether it is that extra dollar that the health insurance costs or whether it is the undue burden of the regulation that pushes them over the top. And they say, as much as I would like to, I am just unable to do so from a financial standpoint. So it is imperative; remember, most employees, most people get their health insurance through their employer, again, because of the things we were talking about before, but it is imperative that we work on those constraints that make it so that it is difficult for employers to purchase that health insurance. The unemployment rate is coming down with all of the work that we have done, now down to, as the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) mentioned, 5 percent, a remarkable, remarkable improvement in our economy. I want to talk about small business and health care facts. I want to talk about the problem as it relates to the rising cost of health care and how it affects jobs and the provision of that health care. As health care premiums continue to increase or as they increase, employers are forced to pass that expense on to their workers in the form of higher copayments or deductibles, and oftentimes, they have to reduce coverage. They are not able to provide the same kind of coverage that they have in the past. It is not because they want to; it is because they are being constrained from a financial standpoint. Employers this year will pay an estimated 12 percent more for employee health care than benefits in 2003, 12 percent more, marking the fifth consecutive year of double-digit increases and a doubling of employer health care costs since 1999. This graph is so incredibly poignant, and it just shows the continuing increase of the cost of health care. The cost for employers is the lower bar. The middle bar is the cost for employees. And then the upper bar is the out-of-pocket costs for employees, and we see those continue to rise over the years. Decreasing these costs to American businesses is imperative, because what it will allow them to do is to spend more money on expanding their operations and hiring workers, more jobs. It has been shown that each percentage point increase, this is a phenomenal statistic, each percentage point increase in health insurance costs increases the number of uninsured by 300,000 people. Think about that. Each single percent of increase in health insurance costs increases the number of uninsured by 300,000 people. This is an issue that is imperative, imperative for us to tackle as a Congress. Then we have heard about the need for legal reform, what kind of challenges we have in the area of liability insurance that physicians and hospitals and others have. Those premiums for medical liability insurance have increased 500 percent, 500 percent since 1976, and what that has done is driven many doctors out of the profession, many of them closing their practices or decreasing the high-risk procedures that they do. I had one fellow physician tell me that they had to stop one of their high-risk procedures, and I said, what was that? And they said, delivering babies. An obstetrician, they could no longer deliver babies because that is defined as a high-risk procedure. In fact, in our State, over a third of the obstetricians have stopped delivering babies because it is a high-risk procedure because of the cost of liability insurance. The average jury award in a medical malpractice case is now up to $3.5 million, up more than 70 percent since 1995. This cost of insuring doctors against oftentimes petty and frivolous lawsuits is reducing the quality and access of Americans to top-rate health care. Now, there are a number of solutions that have been put on the table, and I want to talk about three of them in kind of a larger principled way. The first is about pooling resources. The second is about the tax treatment that we have talked about, and the third is about liability reform. Associated health plans, which the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) mentioned, are incredibly important, and they work because what they allow people to do is to pool larger numbers to purchase health insurance. Remember that 60 percent, 60 percent of the 44 million uninsured Americans are employed by small businesses or are dependents of someone who is employed by a small business. Some people estimate that that number is as high as 85 percent, meaning that 85 percent of the folks that are either employed or live in the home of somebody who is employed by a small business do not have health insurance, of the 44 million who are uninsured. Phenomenal when you think about it. What do associated health plans allow you to do? They allow you to buy in bulk. They allow one small business, a group of employees, say three or five folks to join with three or five folks from some other businesses to pool with eight or ten somewhere else, and before you know it, you have hundreds and thousands and sometimes millions of individuals who then use that purchasing power to purchase health insurance. It allows them to get health insurance at the cost that some of the larger employers do. Associated health plans would be required to offer fully-insured or self-insured benefits that are certified by the United States Department of Labor. There has been some discussion about whether or not people could provide cut-rate health insurance. Well, that is not the case. It encourages broad participation in coverage by prohibiting discrimination of any kind against certain high-risk individuals. Again, if you pool numbers of folks together, if you allow them to join together and use their power to purchase insurance, then they will be able to do so in a very competitive way. It increases the bargaining power. So the first area is allowing folks to get together as groups, large groups, thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people to have the benefit of purchasing insurance. The second issue I want to bring to the fore that would allow for a real solution has to do with the tax treatment and flexible spending accounts. Now, the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) talked about his idea for health savings accounts and the equal tax treatment for individuals to purchase health savings accounts. Great idea. Works splendidly to move some of those incentives so that people who are employed by a small business or are self-employed or are unable to get their insurance in another way will have an incentive to purchase health insurance. And what flexible spending accounts do is that they allow workers to direct their employers to deduct money from their paychecks to be placed in this flexible spending account, tax- free--tax-free. That is the key. That is the incentive: to pay for health care expenses that they may incur during the course of the year. It is a tax benefit to employees. Workers could save on their taxes for the purchase of health insurance. It also provides for long-term coverage advantages, because 37 million employees right now in America have access to these accounts, but few of them take advantage of it because there is a use-it-or-lose- it rule. Now, what is the use-it-or-lose-it rule? Well, currently, if you do not use the money by the end of the year that you have put into a flexible savings spending account for health care, then that money is forfeited. It goes away. It goes back to the employer. This rule is a huge disincentive for participating in a flexible spending account, and it probably drives up health care costs itself because it encourages individuals to spend money on health care at the end of the year that may not necessarily be needed, but you have three weeks left, and you have this money in your account, so you might as well go do that. So it has that adverse incentive for the purchase of appropriate health insurance. So flexible spending accounts, allowing you to have equal tax protection, tax-free purchase of health insurance or health care, in addition to the pooling that we talked about. Those are the first two. And the final one is medical liability reform. As the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) mentioned, I am a physician, an orthopedic surgeon; spent nearly 20 years in private practice of health care and saw during that period of time an incredible explosion in the cost of liability insurance, for somebody that was never sued, never had a suit. And whether or not you do, the real cost of the current crisis that we have as it relates to medical liability reform is not the cost of the purchase of the insurance for the doctor; that is not the real cost. Those costs are going up, certainly, but that is not the real cost. But those are millions and millions of dollars. The real cost, the real reason that we need liability reform in the area of health care is because of the practice of defensive medicine. You may have heard about this. What is defensive medicine? Well, when you go to your doctor and you tell your doctor what your symptoms are, what you think is wrong, your doctor, he or she, will run through in their mind or look through their resources to be able to determine what kind of tests or studies ought to be done to make an appropriate diagnosis. Now, the practice of defensive medicine says to the doctor that we ought to do virtually everything that we can do to make that diagnosis as rapidly and as accurately as possible, even though those tests may not be absolutely imperative to do to make that diagnosis. The example that I like to use is, if you have back pain and you came into my office, 90 percent of back pain, 90 percent of back pain is what is called functional back pain. It means that you hurt your back, and you strained it, and it will go away, given a little rest and therapy and exercise and sometimes some medication, 90 percent. But I promise you that everybody that comes into the doctor's office with back pain, what do they get? They get an x-ray. Now, they do not get an x-ray because you can diagnose functional back pain on an x-ray; they get an x-ray because if something is not picked up immediately on that x-ray, then they are liable. They are liable to be sued for not picking it up in 1 week when they may have picked it up in 3 weeks if the back pain did not get any better. That is the kind of thing that goes into the practice of defensive medicine. It has to do with blood tests. It has to do with heart tracings. It has to do with extremely expensive tests and studies that we have available to us that are wonderful. They allow us to have the kind of quality health care that we have as a Nation. But what happens is that they drive up the cost of health care to an incredible degree and frankly do not increase the quality of care that is being provided. How much money is that? The estimates vary because you cannot get a firm figure on that. No doctor orders a test and says, this test is unnecessary. So the cost is likely to be somewhere in the range of $250 billion to $500 billion, that is with a B, $250 billion to $500 billion in the cost of health care each year in our Nation. That is why, that is why it is imperative that we have medical liability reform. So the cost of the insurance itself is significant. But that is not the real reason. Now, there are a number of ways that you can institute appropriate health care reform. I believe that we must give States as much flexibility as possible. I think that there are a number of good solutions on the table. I believe that we have got to adopt one of those solutions that will have true and real and honest effect on the medical liability crisis that we face. So lots of solutions. Three that I have put out on the table tonight: one is to allow individuals to pool together, to be able to use the power of many people for the purchase of health insurance; second it is imperative to allow individuals to have that equal tax treatment for the purchase of health insurance that the employer has. We need to make it so that all individuals have an incentive to be able to purchase and have health insurance; and then the third issue is the one that I touched on at the end there, that is, the extreme importance of reforming our crisis in lawsuit abuse. It is imperative that that happen. If we do not do that, we do all of the other things, it is not likely that we will be able to get our handle on the increase of health care costs. So, finally, what three things drive up the cost of business for any business, be it large or small? There is a common denominator to those things that drive up costs. They are taxation, they are litigation, and they are regulation. The problem with the area of health care is that all of those costs for the provision of health care for our entire Nation are passed on to somebody else. They are passed on in this instance to the employer, by and large, who provides again the majority of health insurance. When they are passed on to the employer, what is the employer bound to do? They must pass them on to the employee, to the worker. So the worker is hit twice. It is a double jeopardy as it relates to the ability to obtain health insurance. So hopefully what we have been able to do tonight is to bring some clarity and some focus to how jobs and how health insurance are related, why it is important to concentrate on the cost drivers for health care, taxation litigation, regulation, and why it is important to provide options and opportunities for both individuals and businesses to purchase health insurance and to provide health insurance for their employees. So with that, Mr. Speaker, I am honored to have had the opportunity to address the House tonight; and once again I want to thank my colleagues, the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) and the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) who were so very helpful in bringing clarity to those issues. And I look forward to garnering the support of my friends on both sides of the aisle, because this is not a Republican issue, it is not a Democrat issue. It is an American issue. It is an issue that is important for all of our constituents across this Nation. I look forward to working with all Members of this House to solve the challenges that we have.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentlewoman so much for her comments. I appreciate her leadership in this issue and so many other issues in our Congress, and I thank her for her perspective as a small business owner and somebody who has been a real advocate for increasing choices for patients and opportunities to purchase health insurance. I mentioned briefly before the tax treatment of health insurance and why we seem to be in a situation now where there is this remarkable incentive for employers to purchase health insurance, and that again is because of the tax treatment. And nobody understands that better than the next individual whom I have asked to join me today. Because of this tax incentive, solutions to our current situation must address the taxes and how they affect decisions about the purchase of health care. And one person who understands this as well as anybody and is a good friend and legislator is the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King). The gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) is working to fight burdensome government regulation and red tape. He truly understands the challenges of starting and operating a business first hand as a successful agri- businessman. He brings 28 years of business know-how with him to Congress, and he has introduced a very exciting piece of legislation that talks about the tax treatment of the purchase of health insurance. I yield to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King).

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, what an honor it is to come before my colleagues tonight to talk about some of the most important aspects of all of our lives, and that is our jobs and our health and how they are tied together. I think it is helpful to begin this by answering the question, how did we get to this point? Why do most Americans receive their health insurance from their employer? Did you ever think about that? Whether it is good or bad. You think about other kinds of insurance. Car insurance does not come from your employer necessarily. Certainly, health insurance does, and that is so incredibly important. Your home insurance does not come from your employer. Why health? Like most things, it has a long and a curious and sometimes a colorful history. By way of introduction, and I will be brief, but I think it is important to review kind of how we got to where we are right now. Actually it begins during World War II when employers were short on employees, and they were attempting to attract employees, and so they offered a health benefit to try to encourage some folks to come and work at their place of business. The government at that time had to decide whether it was going to treat that health benefit as a taxable benefit or whether it was going to be a nontaxable benefit. Were they going to tax the employee for getting that benefit or not? What the government at that time elected to do is to treat it as a nontaxable benefit. And so began this incentive that we now have and have lived with for the past 60 years or so for employer-based health care. During the 1950s, there was a period of significant collective bargaining in our Nation, and many individuals got their health insurance with what is called first dollar coverage, meaning that every single dollar of their health care was paid for by somebody else. In the 1960s, the government got involved with Medicare and Medicaid and instituted Medicare as a program that was a cost-plus program, meaning that those individuals that were providing the care were paid for the cost for providing it plus some. And so what you had over a period of the next 10 or 12 years or so was a significant increase in the cost of health care. Businesses said, Hey, wait a minute, what's going on here? We've got to have some help. And so instead of looking at that situation then and moving toward a system that allowed individuals greater choice and greater opportunity for their selection in health care, what happened was an increasing regulation of both the insurance industry and the beginning of HMOs and the managed care as we know it. All of this began basically with the tax favorability for employers to purchase health insurance. And so that system flourished. Now, tying health care to jobs has had many unintended consequences and many that have adversely affected those who can get insurance. As a legislature, as a Congress, as leaders and decisionmakers, we need to make it easier for businesses to provide health insurance. One person who knows firsthand about that and about how to make that happen is the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn). The gentlewoman from Tennessee is a small business owner herself and represents a district that is heavily dependent on small businesses and the jobs that they generate. She understands this issue as few do and has been a great leader in our Congress in an effort to pass both the health savings accounts and associated health plans. I am proud to yield to my colleague as she discusses the issue of small business and health care for a few moments.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I have come down on these four bills and I have come for a variety of reasons, but one main reason is to make those corrections that are so necessary with the arguments on the other side. We have heard, why can we not have investigations? Why can we not consider another bill? Why can we not do this or that? Well, these are all interesting questions but they have nothing to do with this bill. The hyperbole from the opposition has been remarkable. The contention, they would say, is that unless you are going to win, do not bring the case. That is not what this bill says. This bill simply provides that if the small business owner wins, then OSHA should be responsible for the attorneys' fees. We seek to improve OSHA and make it responsive to the intent of Congress. This bill is designed to strengthen small business and to save jobs. Again, the magnitude of this issue, 99.7 percent of all businesses are small businesses, 75 percent of all new jobs are in the area of small business. OSHA has a budget of $468 million, with 2,200 employees and 1,100 inspectors. The deck is stacked. Yes, it is stacked; it is stacked against those most beneficial to our economy, small business owners and their employees. H.R. 742 would allow a small businessman or -woman to recover attorneys' fees if they contest and they win, they win, an allegation in a citation by OSHA. Remember OSHA's budget, $468 million? You win, OSHA was wrong. Right? OSHA was wrong, but you spent thousands of dollars to defend your business and your workers' jobs. Remember, you win against a $468 million budget. So OSHA should reimburse your attorneys' fees. Right? Just like current law. Right? Wrong. You cannot win. Even if you win your case, you may be out the amount of money it cost to defend yourself. Less money in your business means fewer jobs. Remember, reimbursement only occurs if you win. If you lose, you are responsible, and that is as it should be. So let us stop punishing the backbone of our economy. Let us stop punishing small businesses and employees and workers. I urge support for H.R. 742, one of four commonsense worker-friendly, job-friendly, small business-friendly bills before us today.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, once again I want to commend the chairman of the committee for his wonderful work in this area and commend the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) for keeping this issue alive as he has tried to enact these appropriate reforms. Once again from the opposition we have heard some very interesting stories. But the problem is they do not have anything to do with the bill. I am reminded of the newspaper correction column, that column that is on page 5 or 6 or 10 or 12. We need a correction column right here. The misstatements and the untruths by the opponents would be amusing if this were not so doggone important. We are not interested in dismantling OSHA. We are interested in improving workers' safety. I rise to support H.R. 741, and I want to once again bring us back to the magnitude of the issues we are talking about. Small business, 99.7 percent of all business is small business; and 75 percent of all new jobs are hired in the small business sector. Have my colleagues ever been up against Big Brother? Ever been up against Big Brother? OSHA's budget is $468 million; 2,200 employees; 1,100 inspectors. OSHA is Big Brother. And the analogy has been used here, but what if Big Brother were the prosecutor and the judge and the jury? Unfair? Unfair? You bet. That is the current system. That is the current system under which we are working. OSHA is the prosecutor, it is the judge, and it is the jury. And that was not the intent. That was not the intent. H.R. 741 restores the original intent and the original system of checks and balances that was intended by Congress. Read the bill. What does it say? All it says is: ``The conclusions of the Commission with respect to all questions of law that are subject to agency deference under governing court precedent shall be given deference if reasonable.'' That is it. That is all it says. What does it mean? It means that the review committee will be the independent committee and the commission that Congress intended originally. Very simple common sense. I urge my colleagues to adopt H.R. 741.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I once again want to commend the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) for his wonderful and excellent work in the area of worker safety and his real concern for making certain that the rules under which we ask businesses and employees to work are workable. We are all interested in workplace safety. We have got to get that on the table as often as possible. We are all interested in workplace safety. Now, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) made some very moving and interesting points. The problem is, they do not have a thing to do with this bill, not a thing to do with this bill. We have just heard that grievances should be heard. That is a concern of somebody opposed to this bill, that grievances should be heard. Well, we agree. The grievances should be heard. But as you heard from the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood), two-thirds of the time the commission has been unable to sit for a variety of reasons, not the least of which they have been unable to seat a quorum. And then the question is raised: If you cannot sit three, how can you sit five? No, the question is, if you cannot sit two, how could you sit three? Well if you add two people to the commission, to the review commission, then it makes all of the sense in the world that you have made it easier to reach a quorum. Mr. Speaker, I think it is also important that we keep in mind the magnitude of the discussion that we are talking about and why these things need to be fixed: 99.7 percent of all business is small business, 99.7 percent. And 75 percent of all new jobs in this Nation have been created in small businesses. Small business owners, they work hard and they drive our economy. In this instance, regarding 740, I rise in support of H.R. 740 because if those small business owners are not working, they are not producing. If they are not producing, then jobs are not being created. Once cited by OSHA, an employer deserves his or her expeditious day in court. And with the current membership of the review commission, it is often, we have heard extremely often, difficult to end that process. There are some cases that are before the commission right now that have been there for over 10 years, over 10 years. That is not fair to employers; that is not fair to employees. So I rise and say that increasing the review commission will help small businesses, and it will increase the safety of workers; and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 740.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to talk on this bill. I want to commend the chairman for his work in this area and commend the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood), who has labored long and hard on these issues. Let me make a few points initially before I talk about the merits of the bill. I think it is important for people to appreciate that no one, no one, is interested in trivializing the issue of safety in the workplace. We are interested in improving workplace safety and in holding businesses accountable when they are at fault, not just because. No one is interested in trivializing this issue. No one is putting a price tag on life. That has been mentioned. No one is putting a price tag on life here, and no one is interested in giving employers a pass. They also talked about a legal loophole. This is not a legal loophole. What this does is simply put faith in small business, and it shifts the burden of proof to the accuser, where it should be. There was some analogy drawn to a court of law. What this does is shift the burden of proof to the accuser, that is, OSHA, where it should be. The bill will not weaken OSHA either. It will simply allow small business a fair opportunity for a fair hearing when it is cited, and that is it. I rise in support of H.R. 739. The magnitude of this bill is huge: 99.7 percent of all businesses are small businesses, 99.7 percent. Seventy-five percent of all new jobs come from small business, three out of every four jobs. In talking about this before and in researching this, I went back and looked at the original OSHA Act. The original OSHA Act in 1970 said that it was to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by authorizing enforcement of the standards developed under the act. The mission today as described by OSHA on their Web site is to ensure the safety and health of America's workers by setting and enforcing standards. Do the Members notice the difference? We have shifted who is setting the standards from Congress to a nonelected body. I think this is a lot of power. A lot of power. The OSHA budget is $468 million, 1,100 inspectors out of 2,200 employees. A lot of power. As has been mentioned, currently if a citation is given, the employer is given 15 days to respond. This is an arbitrary time frame. Nobody can argue that. There really is no rationale for those 15 days. Why not 5? Why not 35? Why not make it fair to small business? This is a simple commonsense amendment. Eleven words is all the amendment is, 11 words. It would add that ``unless such failure results from mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect,'' 11 little words. A commonsense amendment, which I am sorry to say is oftentimes all too uncommon around here. It does not mean that any citation is null and void. It does not mean that at all. It simply means that small business has an opportunity to get its fair day in court. So in closing, Madam Speaker, I want to commend once again the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) for the hard work he has done and the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Boehner) for bringing this issue to the floor. I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 739 and do it for small business and for the employees and jobs in our Nation.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, 146,000 jobs were created in the month of June with the unemployment rate dropping to 5 percent, the lowest unemployment rate since September of 2001. Steady job growth has taken place each month over the last 25 months, and more Americans are working than ever before. Economic indicators show strong and sustained growth, with real gross domestic product and real income revised up for the first quarter and inflation down. Profits as a share of GDP are up to their highest levels since 1967. Durable goods orders are on the rise, with new orders increasing 5.5 percent for May, the largest increase in 14 months. U.S. manufacturing continues to expand. For the 25th consecutive month, manufacturing expanded, again, in June. Consumer confidence is up, rising nearly 3 points in June to its highest level in 3 years. Mr. Speaker, the improving economy is not empty rhetoric. What is crystal clear is that the policies of this Congress and this administration are pro-growth, leading the charge, and they are succeeding.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, the tragic and reprehensible bombings in London last Thursday show the world once again just how vigilant we must be in protecting our citizens and continuing to fight terrorism wherever it leads. This is a war unlike any we have ever seen, and victory will require greater resolve than we have ever mustered. The lack of human decency shown by terrorists proves that they will stop at nothing to kill innocent people in an attempt to strike fear in the hearts of us all. However, terrorists are mistaken if they think cowardly actions will shake the resolve of those nations fighting the war on terror, and they are mistaken if they think people will see them for anything other than the evil terrorists they are. As our friends in England begin the healing process, rest assured that we in America will stand by them. We will fight, side-by-side, together, as we have done before, in this war on terror, and, as the President has said, we will not falter and we will not fail. May God bless England and continue to bless the United States of America.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, the money set aside for Social Security should be spent on Social Security. Americans know this only makes sense. The money set aside for Social Security should be spent on Social Security. Others, however, do not believe in this principle. In March of this year, the minority leader was against robbing the Social Security trust fund. On Fox News she stated it crystal-clear. She said, ``We must stop robbing the Social Security trust fund of its money to pay for other things.'' Today, the minority leader finds nothing wrong with sticking her hand in the Social Security cookie jar. In a recent interview she said, ``There is nothing wrong with Social Security lending money with the prospect of returning it.'' Prospect of returning it? That is not good enough. It is that kind of thinking that has gotten us into our current trouble. Mr. Speaker, this is exactly why Americans should be able to put part of their Social Security money in a personal account with their name on it. Raiding the Social Security trust fund is not a solution. It is irresponsible, and it pushes the consequences to our children and grandchildren, consequences that we should fix now.

Mr. PRICE of Georgia

Mr. PRICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, as our troops fight the war on terror, it is imperative that we show our appreciation for all of their sacrifices, their efforts and their courage. As Secretary Rumsfeld said, ``Our country is proud of every member of our Armed Forces, and we are deeply grateful for those who have sacrificed for the cause of liberty.'' Many Americans want to thank our troops; they just do not know how. There is a great program that America should know about. It is called America Supports You. It is a nationwide program run by the Department of Defense to recognize and communicate support by citizens for our military men and women. The program highlights many ways that Americans can get involved and join in the support effort. By going to www.AmericaSupportsYou.mil, you can donate frequent flier miles to provide tickets to hospitalized soldiers and their families, provide prepaid phone cards so their family members can keep in touch or just write a letter of gratitude. Mr. Speaker, it is time we showed the troops how much we care. With the 4th of July approaching, let us take time to show our appreciation and give back to those who have made so many sacrifices for us and for our liberty. AmericaSupportsYou.mil lets all Americans say thanks.