Peter Roskam

Mr. ROSKAM

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert), and I ask unanimous consent that he be allowed to control that time.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 519, currently under consideration.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 519) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to facilitate water leasing and water transfers to promote conservation and efficiency, as amended.

Mr. ROSKAM

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, about 22 million Americans are covered by high-deductible health plans with an HSA. These are options that are increasingly popular across the spectrum because they lower premiums and they are a vehicle to save for other healthcare expenses. I think this is a good bill. It has been well articulated this afternoon, particularly by the bill's sponsor and by Mr. Thompson, and I urge its passage. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Moolenaar).

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to stand before you today as we consider H.R. 1476, the Native American Health Savings Improvement Act, a bipartisan bill introduced by Mr. Moolenaar of Michigan, that makes commonsense improvements to current rules surrounding health savings accounts and those who get care through the Indian Health Service. Generally, anyone covered solely by a high-deductible health plan that meets certain requirements is allowed to make tax-free contributions to a health savings account. But for certain individuals who receive care through the Indian Health Service, this isn't the case. Under IRS guidance, an individual who has received medical services at an Indian Health Service facility at any time during the previous 3 months is ineligible to make contributions to an HSA. This practice could discourage those who rely on care delivered at an Indian Health Service facility from participating in an HSA. This should be fixed so that these enrollees can avail themselves to the benefits of Health Savings Accounts. High-deductible health plans and health savings accounts are critical components of consumer-driven healthcare. Together, they empower individuals and families to shop around. They unleash the power of choice and competition that are so badly needed in healthcare to lower costs and improve quality today. These are the elements we need to encourage in the system, if we are going to start bending the cost curve in the right direction, and if we want to lower barriers to these types of accounts and encourage individuals who are otherwise eligible not to forgo treatment at an Indian Health Service facility simply because of confusion over when they might be able to resume contributing to their HSA. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bipartisan legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 1476, currently under consideration.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1476) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permit individuals eligible for Indian Health Service assistance to qualify for health savings accounts, as amended.

Mr. ROSKAM

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. We hold conscience in this House tenderly. Our Founders were wise. In the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights, the first freedom that they articulated was our freedom to worship. What you are hearing today is a bipartisan consensus that we value that, and we recognize the power of conscience, the power of religious liberty, the power of being able to worship as one pleases. That is something that Mr. Davis from Illinois is advocating today, Mr. Thompson is supporting as well, along with the longstanding work of Mr. Smith from Texas. Passing this bill will give those who object to health insurance on religious grounds the ability to opt out of the system that they don't want to participate in, in its entirety. They won't have to face a choice between violating their belief and violating the law anymore. I urge its passage, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis).

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, the good news for my friend from California is that tomorrow he will have an opportunity to vote on bills that will lower the costs of healthcare with the health savings account agenda that is forthcoming. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith), a longstanding advocate on behalf of Christian Scientists, who has tried to bring rescue to them.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to see this bipartisan bill is getting a vote today. H.R. 1201, the EACH Act, or Equitable Access to Care and Health Act, introduced by my colleague, Mr. Rodney Davis from Illinois, provides commonsense relief from ObamaCare's mandate to purchase insurance from those who object on religious grounds. This bill extends the religious conscience exemption from ObamaCare's individual mandate to those individuals who rely solely on a religious method of healing. Receiving medical health services, as we traditionally think of them, is inconsistent with the religious belief of Christian Scientists. This bill says that for people who choose not to use traditional healthcare or services, they are fully exempted from the Affordable Care Act's requirement to buy insurance. For Christian Scientists, if they bought the insurance plan, they wouldn't use it anyway. If you don't believe in something, why should the government force you to participate. In healthcare, so many of our choices have been restricted because of the Affordable Care Act's domino effect across the entire healthcare sector. The EACH Act takes a step in the right direction by restoring freedom for people who had to face a dire decision of either violating their conscience by purchasing ObamaCare or violating the law. This is an unfair position that the law should not put them in, and I hope we can finally resolve this by passing the EACH Act today. We must come together to help those who have been hurt by this intrusion into their lives. This bill has widespread bipartisan support. In fact, the House passed a similar bill last Congress by voice vote. Once more, passing the EACH Act will reduce the deficit by $31 million. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROSKAM. 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 H.R. 1201, currently under consideration.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1201) to amend section 5000A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide an additional religious exemption from the individual health coverage mandate, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. ROSKAM

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Chairman Brady for his leadership on this. I have done a lot of work over the past several months, as I know we all have, of listening to my constituents in suburban Chicago, and here is what I have heard: They want us to take a multifaceted approach. One of the things that I am doing this morning is highlighting a portion of this bill that Mr. Brady mentioned in his opening statement, and that is a lock-in phenomenon. Here is the story: The power of this molecule, when it gets into our bodies, is breathtaking and is sobering. Here is one statistic that should make us shudder: One-third of part D Medicare beneficiaries were prescribed an opioid in 2016--one-third of Medicare part D beneficiaries were prescribed an opioid in 2016. There is nothing good that is going on with that. So here is what we are trying to do: We are saying that we need to resist pharmacy shopping. We need to resist doctor shopping. And we need to make sure that people can be identified who have a predisposition towards this addiction. So what this bill does--what part of this bill does--is it says: Medicare part D programs don't just have the option of requiring a lock-in program, we are now locking in on lock-in. We are saying: You have got to do this. Unambiguously, it is a mandate, it is a good mandate, and it is something that has been a long time coming. TRICARE uses this, and a number of other distribution systems use it, but the time is ripe and we have absolutely got to get this done. It is part of a holistic approach that I think is really welcome. Mr. Chairman, I congratulate and thank Mr. Levin, the ranking member; Mr. Bilirakis; and Mr. Lujan, also who similarly worked on this legislation. I am confident that in 10 years' time, our country, based on the work that this House is doing now, is going to reflect back, and it is going to say: America responded. We did it on a bipartisan basis. And we are going to be having a better and different conversation.

Mr. ROSKAM

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I think Ms. Tenney's argument a minute ago is smart, it is good policy, it is thoughtful, it is measured, and it is the direction we should go. In other words, if there are incentives that are misaligned, let's understand those and let's absorb them and let's change them. It should not be that there is a financial incentive to offer an opioid or for an opioid to get into a system as opposed to a nonopioid alternative. So, for sure, we need to study this. We need to have a clear understanding. I would like to thank the Members on both sides of the aisle for the work they did, as well as Chairman Brady for his leadership in moving this through the Ways and Means Committee. It is such an important time. With 115 deaths from opioid overdoses every day, everyone knows that time is not our friend. There is an urgency to this. We have to have a clear understanding of what is going on. It is imperative that we identify current practices that prevent the use of nonopioid treatments for pain management and that we reduce financial incentives that have unintentionally led to overprescriptions. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney).

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5723, the Expanding Oversight of Opioid Prescribing and Payment Act of 2018, sponsored by my colleague, Representative Tenney, along with Representatives McKinley and DelBene. H.R. 5723 is the result of work by Members and staff on both sides of the aisle, and I am pleased to have taken part in these important efforts to address the opioid epidemic. This legislation responds to a crucial recommendation from the Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the opioid crisis by directing the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC, to investigate financial incentives for prescribing opioids. These incentives may discourage providers from prescribing evidence-based nonopioid treatments for pain management that can reduce patients' exposure to opioids and slow the epidemic. The report will take a close look at these financial incentives, while also examining the use of data to track and monitor opioid use to more fully understand opioid utilization patterns in Medicare so that we may cultivate better solutions to combat the epidemic itself. MedPAC may also make recommendations to address perverse incentives in Medicare's payment systems that may encourage opioid overprescribing. Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 5723, the Expanding Oversight of Opioid Prescribing and Payment Act of 2018. Opioids took the lives of 42,000 Americans in 2016, and the issue affects countless families in Illinois and in my congressional district, and I know that is true all across the country. This legislation brings us one step closer to providing our communities and families with the tools necessary to combat the epidemic. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means, Washington, DC, June 8, 2018. Hon. Greg Walden, Chairman, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Walden: I write to you regarding several opioid bills the Committee on Ways and Means ordered favorably reported to address the opioid epidemic. The following bills were also referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce. I ask that the Committee on Energy and Commerce waive formal consideration of the following bills so that they may proceed expeditiously to the House Floor: H.R. 5774, Combatting Opioid Abuse for Care in Hospitals (COACH) Act; H.R. 5775, Providing Reliable Options for Patients and Educations Resources (PROPER) Act; H.R. 5776, Medicare and Opioid Safe Treatment (MOST) Act; H.R. 5773, Preventing Addition for Susceptible Seniors (PASS) Act; H.R. 5676, Stop Excessive Narcotics in our Retirement (SENIOR) Communities Protection Act; and H.R. 5723, Expanding Oversight of Opioid Prescribing and Payment Act. I acknowledge that by waiving formal consideration of the bills, the Committee on Energy and Commerce is in no way waiving its jurisdiction over the subject matter contained in those provisions of the bills that fall within your Rule X jurisdiction. I would support your effort to seek appointment of an appropriate number of conferees on any House-Senate conference involving this legislation. I will include a copy of our letters in the Congressional Record during consideration of this legislation on the House Floor. Sincerely, Kevin Brady, Chairman.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 5723, currently under consideration.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5723) to require the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to report on opioid payment, adverse incentives, and data under the Medicare program, as amended.

Mr. ROSKAM

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

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, in closing, in a nutshell, I think the gentlewoman from California put it well. What she was arguing was this bill strikes a balance, which it does. It is designed to focus our time, our attention, and our energies on making sure that the bad actors are weeded out, that the abuse is stopped, and that we can bring balance to the system. The Stop Excessive Narcotics in Our Retirement Communities Protection Act, or SENIOR Communities Protection Act, is another step in this direction to protect our Nation's seniors. This bill was brought to the floor through a bipartisan committee process, and I urge its passage. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey.

Mr. ROSKAM. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. MacArthur)