Tom Rice

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. 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. 7227, currently under consideration.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this is a bipartisan, commonsense measure that I am proud to have worked on alongside Mr. Lewis and many members of the Ways and Means Committee for the past 2 years. Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I stand in strong support of the tax and oversight package before us today. I appreciate the concern about the deficits from my colleague across the aisle, but I would remind my colleague that President Obama added $2 trillion in deficits in only 1 year. Mr. Speaker, this bill adds to the successes, the amazing successes of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which became law last year, and our economic potential in America has, once again, been unleashed and America is, once again, the land of opportunity. Unemployment is at a record low, Mr. Speaker. Consumer confidence and small business confidence are at historic highs, and wages are growing at their fastest pace in nearly a decade. Mr. Speaker, my friends across the aisle can say that this bill benefited only the wealthy, but I can tell you, I represent three of the poorest counties in South Carolina, Marion County, Dillon County, and Marlboro County, and all three of those counties, in 2016, were at or about 10 percent unemployment. Today, each one of those counties, largely as a result of this tax bill, are below 6 percent. For the first time in 30 years they are below 6 percent unemployment. When we passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, our message was clear: We will not wait another 30 years to take up tax legislation. We will consistently work to improve the Tax Code. The legislation before us is an opportunity to build on the economic momentum that is creating opportunities and lifting people up in South Carolina and across the country. Two years ago, Hurricane Matthew made landfall in South Carolina, and just a few days before a tax filing deadline, people were ignoring evacuation orders from disaster officials to ensure they could meet their IRS filing deadlines. Can you imagine having to choose between boarding up your house or filing a tax return? That is what my constituents had to do. Ambiguity under the current law results in the IRS waiting to grant a deadline extension for weeks after a natural disaster. My bill, the Disaster Certainty Act, would create an automatic 60-day extension following a Presidential Disaster Declaration, and it is included in this bill. Additionally, this package includes the Hurricane Florence Tax Relief Act, which I introduced with Congressman Holding. This legislation gives disaster victims the flexibility to access emergency funds, encourages charitable giving, and enhances the deduction for personal casualty losses. Immediately following a disaster, families are faced with the cost of home repairs and temporary housing, but most do not have these funds at their disposal. Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this package.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, opioids and illegal immigration are two cancers of a porous southern border, and my constituents have had enough. Illegal immigration holds down wages and diminishes our middle class. The Democrats say they are for border security; they just don't want to pay for it--empty words. It is funny, Mr. Schumer voted for a border wall in 2006, but he is against it now. Why? Because our President wants it? Empty words. In 2017, 150 people in my district in 2017 were killed by opioid overdoses. My law enforcement agencies tell me that 85 percent of those drugs come across our porous southern border. You say you are for border security, but you don't want to pay for it--empty words, playing politics. There were 150 people killed in my district. They are in your districts, too. It is a cancer. It doesn't just affect my district. It is across this entire country. You say you are for border security, and you won't take any action to stop it. Mr. Speaker, it has gone on long enough. Illegal immigration holds down wages, stretches our social safety net, holds down our middle class. The opioids kill people across our country. It is a cancer and it is growing. It is not even leveling off. It is growing, killing people in my district and yours, too. Empty words, shame on you.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand before you today to discuss two bills that expand choice and offer lower cost. And lower cost and choice are what are needed in healthcare. Back home in South Carolina, the average premium before ObamaCare, in 2013, in the individual market, was $233. In 2017--which the premiums were set before the President took office--before the ``assault'' on ObamaCare that my colleague was speaking of, the premium reached $512. That is a $279-per-month increase in 4 years, a 120 percent increase from 2013 to 2017. Before ObamaCare, 85 percent of the people in the country were covered by health insurance. At the peak, under the Affordable Care Act, 91 percent were covered. So we covered 6 percent more people, and that is a good thing. But what was the cost of that? To cover 6 percent more of our population, the other 85 percent, who were already covered, either by Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance, had to pay another 120 percent on their premiums in South Carolina, 105 percent nationwide. And the premiums are going to go up double digits again this year. We need lower cost, and we need choice. In South Carolina, all of the insurance companies have pulled out of the exchanges except for one. In fact, 40 percent of the counties in the country have only one choice for health insurance. That is no choice at all. It is either health insurance or nothing. You select from that one company, or you get nothing. We need lower cost, and we need choice. These bills today, by allowing more liberal contributions to health savings accounts, by allowing easier access to health savings accounts, by allowing health savings accounts to be used for more purposes--like private family care or for nonprescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs--they are serving the exact causes, the exact purposes, that I hear the most complaints about back home. My folks back home are saying: How can I afford these insurance policies? With the high deductibles that are being forced on us by these insurance companies, even if I have the insurance policy, I cannot afford to use it. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand before you today to recommend these bills.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I would also like to thank the minority leader, Ms. Pelosi, for her plea on behalf of the DACA recipients. She certainly showed great passion and stamina. I do wonder, however, why she is so concerned now. This is not a new problem. All of these people who qualify for DACA today had to be here by the year 2007. They were here illegally in the United States during those 2 years when Ms. Pelosi served as Speaker of the House and Harry Reid was the leader of a supermajority of Democrats in the Senate and Barack Obama was President, yet she took no action then. They could have passed a law, rather than having President Obama sign an illegal executive order, and given the DACA kids a pathway to citizenship, but I guess it wasn't a priority then. Last month, my home county, Horry County, South Carolina, settled a claim brought by the United States Department of Justice. It seems the Department determined that Horry County wasn't doing enough to accommodate students who couldn't speak English. One would think that wouldn't be much of a problem in South Carolina. We are a long way from our southern border. But as it turns out, according to the Horry County independent newspapers, 5,511 out of the 44,700 students in Horry County Schools spoke English as a second language only. That is 13 percent of the student body in Horry County, South Carolina. So the school system agreed to pay a claim by paying $600,000 to accommodate those students who couldn't speak English. My constituents back home certainly have sympathy for all children--including the DACA children--but before they resolve this DACA issue, they have one condition. They want the flow of illegal immigrants stopped first, and so do I. Thirty years ago, we gave amnesty to millions of illegal aliens on the promise that we would stop the flow of illegal immigration. Yet here we sit again. Well, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. I am willing to try to find a solution for the DACA folks, but first we have to stop the flow. President Trump has made an offer to resolve the DACA issue. I think it is quite reasonable. He has laid out a good framework: number one, secure the border; number two, end chain migration; number three, end the visa lottery. Personally, I want to add to that list a legal obligation on employers to check the immigration status of the people they hire. This system called E-Verify is already required in many States, including South Carolina. If E-Verify is required and enforced, it will end the practice of coming here illegally for a job. In return, under the President's proposal, 1.8 million DACA recipients--which is almost three times what President Obama had proposed--would be granted legal status, but no special pathway to citizenship. They would go to the back of the line like everyone else. DACA recipients are illegal immigrants. Presumably, they were brought here as children by their family members who, presumably, were also here illegally. But I would like to focus here for a few minutes on legal immigration. You have to differentiate, and people confuse the two. You see, our legal immigration system is quite complex, and most Americans are unaware of the details. But, Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out a few things that are really important for the American public to understand about our legal immigration system. We accept 1.1 million legal immigrants per year. I would like to refer to this chart for a minute, which I know is hard to see on TV, but as recent as the year 1970, we were accepting 200,000 legal immigrants per year. That number passed 400,000 in about 1980. You can see this big spike. That is when President Reagan promised us that, if we would make the people who were here illegally legal, we would secure this border and we wouldn't have a problem again. But you see what has happened now, this is legal immigration. It has gone up and up and up to the point now where we are accepting almost 1.2 million legal immigrants per year. If you add on top of that the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants coming in that number is much higher than this. This is only legal immigration. Mr. Speaker, at 1.1 million legal immigrants, there are people who stand up here and say that we are hard-hearted if we don't accept every illegal immigrant who gets across our border. But the numbers say otherwise. The numbers don't lie. We are very open to immigration. We still go by the motto on the Statue of Liberty. We accept people from all over the world, 1.2 legal immigrants a year. And look at this slide, Mr. Speaker. This is a representation of the top 10 countries in the world that accept legal immigrants. You will notice on the far side, here is the United States. This is as of the year 2015. We accepted 1.051 million legal immigrants. The next closest was Germany at 686,000. We are almost twice as much as the next one. And if you add the next five together, we are still more than they are. So anybody who tells you that our immigration system is hard-hearted is simply ignoring the facts. It is baloney. We have the most open system of legal immigration in the world, by far. Most countries base their immigration system on merit. Ours, on the other hand, two-thirds of our legal immigrants come in based on chain migration. The criteria is extended family, so we end up importing a lot of people that have low education and low skill sets. Most countries say, look, we want to use or immigration system to become more competitive, to make our economy thrive, to lift not only the immigrants, but the people who live here. So what they say is, if you have a skill set or an educational background that we need, then you move to the front of the line. It makes perfect sense. It makes sense for the immigrant. It makes sense for the economy of the country. It makes sense for the people who live there. Ours, on the other hand, is based on chain migration. So does that make us more competitive or less competitive? Mr. Speaker, look at this slide. The top slide here--this is from the Center on Immigration Studies--shows that immigrants, our legal immigrant families, families headed by a legal immigrant in the United States, 51 percent of them get some type of social safety net benefit; 51 percent, as compared to 30 percent for the average family. The head of household is a native-born American. Fifty-one percent of the people that we are bringing into our country under chain migration end up relying on our social safety net. Mr. Speaker, I have to ask you, it is only common sense. Do you think that makes us more competitive or less competitive? Don't you think that drives up our deficit, Mr. Speaker? Don't you think it takes resources away from people in this country already that need it? The bottom of this slide represents the amount of dollars from our social safety net that are taken by immigrant families versus Native American families. You can see the average immigrant family getting benefits gets an average of $6,200 a year in benefits, while the average family headed by somebody who was born in America gets $4,400 in benefits. So it is very easy to see, Mr. Speaker. It is common sense that using chain migration in the visa lottery to determine two-thirds, 65 percent of our immigrants, 800,000 people, the result is that we bring in people with a low education, a low skill set that end up relying on our social safety net and, in fact, make our country less competitive and take resources away from folks at the bottom end of the scale here in America that need these resources. I believe our immigration system is broken. The President believes so too. He has said: I want a bighearted deal for the DACA kids. Leader Pelosi is also very concerned about the DACA kids obviously. So we have areas of agreement, and I am glad we do. I look forward to an agreement that takes care of the DREAMers, secures our borders, and moves us to a modern, merit-based immigration system like every other developed country has that lifts our economy and at the same time lifts opportunity for all Americans. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, the American Dream is what separates us from the rest of the world. It promises that, with hard work and determination, you can improve your station in life and that your children have the opportunity for a better life than yours; but for many in the generation coming of age in the past decade, the American Dream has been a little tarnished, just out of reach. The last time we did tax reform was 30 years ago. At that time, we were the world's uncontested economic leader, our economic system and Tax Code were competitive; but for decades, we have sat idly as the world restructured to pass us by. As we became less competitive, more and more American companies and American jobs left our shores. What has been the result? We have lost millions of middle class jobs. In 1990, the middle class comprised 50 percent of American families, today only 40 percent. Today the middle class makes just about the same take-home pay as they did in 1990, 27 years later. When we all worry about income disparity and the gulf between the rich and the poor in this country, this is the source of the problem. The American middle class is smaller and has not had a raise in 30 years. How could this happen? It has everything to do with this bloated, overregulating, and overtaxing Federal Government, a government that sucks the life out of the economy and forces our companies, our innovators, and our job creators out of the country to survive. Some folks say it doesn't matter that we have the highest business tax rate in the world; that is not why companies left. They say those jobs aren't coming back. Well, I say the outdated Tax Code is an anchor around the neck of American business, our innovators, and our American middle class. I say the American worker can compete with anyone on a level playing field if we just get government out of the way. Since January, we have been working to correct that. We have made dramatic steps in reducing regulation, and you are already seeing the economic lift. Today we continue to advance a tax cut which will restore economic growth, put more take-home pay into the pockets of hardworking Americans, and restore opportunity for a generation. It will bring American jobs back to America, which will grow our middle class, and finally, after 30 years, give the middle class the pay raise it deserves. If you really wish to grow the economy, you should support this tax reform package. If you really wish to give the middle class a raise, you should support tax reform. If you really wish to reduce income disparity, you should support this tax reform package. If you really wish to give hope to Americans who have given up and left the workforce, and reduce crime and addiction in this country, you should support this tax reform package. If you want America to have the economic strength to remain a force of peace and stability in the world, you should support this tax reform package. Finally, if you support the American Dream, you should support this tax reform package.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, the American Dream is what separates us from the rest of the world. It promises that, with hard work and determination, you can improve your station in life and that your children have an opportunity for a better life than yours. But for many in the generation coming of age in the last decade, the American Dream has been a little tarnished and just out of reach. The last time we did tax reform was 30 years ago. At that time, we were the world's uncontested economic leader. Our economic system and Tax Code were competitive. But for decades, we have sat by as the world passed us by. In 1990, the middle class was about 50 percent of American families; today, only 40 percent. Today, the middle class makes just about the same take-home pay as it did in 1990. When we all worry about income disparity and the gulf between the rich and the poor in this country, this is the source of the problem. The American middle class is smaller and has not had a raise in 30 years. How could this happen? It has everything to do with a bloated, overregulating, and overtaxing Federal Government, a government that sucks the life out of the economy and forces our companies, our innovators, and our job creators out of our country to survive. Some folks say it doesn't matter that we have the highest business tax rate in the world. That is not why our companies left. They say those jobs aren't coming back. Well, I say the outdated Tax Code is an anchor around the neck of our businesses, our innovators, and the American middle class. I say the American worker can compete with anyone on a level playing field if we just get government off their back. Since January, we have been working to correct that. We have made dramatic steps in reducing regulation. You can already see the economic lift. Today, we undertake a tax cut, which will restore economic growth, put more take-home pay into the pockets of hardworking Americans, and restore opportunity for a generation of Americans. It will bring American jobs back to America, which will grow our middle class and, finally, after 30 years, our middle class will get the pay raise it deserves. If you really wish to grow our economy, you should vote for this bill. If you really wish to give the middle class a pay raise, you should vote for this bill. If you really wish to reduce income disparity, you should vote for this bill. If you really wish to give hope to Americans who have given up and left the workforce and wish to reduce crime and addiction in this country, you should vote for this bill. If you want America to have the economic strength to remain a force of peace and stability in the world, you should vote for this bill. And, finally, if you truly believe what Thomas Jefferson said 240 years ago, that all men are created equal and that they are entitled to pursue their own happiness, you should vote for this bill.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Ms. Dione Buonto, CEO of the Grand Strand Boys and Girls Club, for being selected to win the 2017 Maytag Dependable Leadership Award. As one of only 10 recipients of this award nationwide, Ms. Buonto is among the best of the best and is truly deserving of this recognition. In order to receive this award, recipients must possess three key traits: dependability, reliability and leadership. Throughout her time at the Grand Strand Boys and Girls Club, Ms. Buonto has exemplified all of these traits and more. To see why she is so deserving, look no further than the success of the Club and the youth that are a part of it. Under the direction and leadership of Ms. Buonto, the Grand Strand Boys and Girls Club has become an award-winning program for students, with a dozen Club graduates currently attending college on scholarships made possible by their involvement in the Club. Ms. Buonto makes it her mission to invest in every student. She is a true credit to the youth she coaches and to the entire Grand Strand community. Because of her leadership and being honored with this award, the Grand Strand Boys and Girls Club will now have the opportunity to continue to invest in and change the lives of youth all across the Grand Strand. Congratulations to Dione, and I thank her for all she does.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Bethel United Methodist Church in Marion, South Carolina, for 150 years of service and fellowship. As stated in the first verse of Psalm 133, ``How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!'' Despite what may be heard in the media, faith and God are alive and well in our country. Evil tries to shatter our communities and sow seeds of despair, but to the Devil's dismay our faith in God is resilient. Thank you for all you do to advance God's message in our community. Through fellowship, community programs, and outreach, Bethel United Methodist Church is doing God's work right here in Marion. We, people of faith, must ensure that God's message of salvation is heard in every city, state, and country in the world. In faith, hope, and love, we cannot fail. May God continue to bless Bethel United Methodist Church and all those who worship there.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor one of our nation's heroes, First Lieutenant John J. Daly. Lieutenant Daly was an All-American in the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II and commanded a parachute company in the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment. On June 6, 1944 Lieutenant Daly and his comrades landed behind enemy lines in Normandy, France, and secured multiple bridges of supply for the German beachfront embankment. One month later on July 4, 1944, Lieutenant Daly gave his life attempting to take Hill 95 in Normandy. The sacrifice of Lieutenant Daly and so many others helped make our country what it is today. Because of their sacrifice, we are an independent nation that remains the strongest beacon of freedom, hope, and prosperity in the world. We owe a great debt to these members of the Greatest Generation and honor their sacrifice, for without which life as we know it would not exist. May God bless the fallen soldiers, veterans, and those who currently serve, and May God bless the United States of America.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1551) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify the credit for production from advanced nuclear power facilities, as amended.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. 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. 1551, currently under consideration.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I stand in strong support of H.R. 1551, a bill I have sponsored that modifies the advanced nuclear production tax credit. The nuclear production tax credit has been a vital incentive to jump- start a nuclear industry that has been dormant for almost 40 years. Unfortunately, due to overregulation, ambiguities in the law, and other unanticipated events, the first-in-a-generation nuclear plants that began construction because of this tax credit are in danger of being shut down midconstruction. Without certainty that these facilities will have full access to the allocation of their tax credits, it may be another 30 or 40 years before this country builds another cutting-edge nuclear facility. Thankfully, the legislation we are considering today provides these facilities the certainty they so desperately need to move forward. Almost 12 years ago, Congress established the nuclear production tax credit as part of a broader package designed to ensure our energy independence. Not wanting to oversubsidize the nuclear industry, Congress set out to limit the credit in a number of ways, including a national production capacity that effectively capped the amount of this credit available. South Carolina and Georgia responded to this incentive, making large investments in nuclear facilities that represented the pinnacle of safety and innovation in the industry. After years of applications, planning, and rigorous oversight by multiple regulatory authorities, these plants began construction in 2013, receiving sizable allocations of the nuclear production tax credit's national capacity. Yet, it quickly became clear changes to the underlying provision were necessary in order for these plants to fulfill the capacity allocation as Congress originally intended. For example, right now, not-for-profit entities like public utilities are unable to utilize or transfer their share of the credits, leaving the majority of the tax credits allocated to these two plants unusable. Additionally, strict placed-in-service date rules would force these plants to make decisions between finishing before a deadline or making sure they are constructed in the safest way possible. Recently, to make matters worse, a third-party contractor for both plants unexpectedly filed for bankruptcy, putting the projects in jeopardy of finishing before the placed-in-service date, if at all. In the coming weeks, both plants must go before State regulators and provide a plan for how they will continue construction. The full availability of the $2 billion in tax credits will be a key factor in the regulators' assessment of whether to approve the plans to continue with the facilities or shut down the construction completely. Taking a step back for a second, I think it is important to note that one of my top priorities in Congress is to help restore our country's competitiveness through a comprehensive overhaul of our Tax Code. An ideal tax system promotes parity between different energy sources and gets the government out of the business of picking winners and losers. Before we get to that ideal tax system, we must create a smooth transition from our current system to the new system. This legislation is an important part of that transition. As Ways and Means Committee Chairman Brady said at our markup last week: ``Nuclear power is a critical component of an all-of-the-above strategy for energy independence and national security.'' Without this legislation, the nuclear power industry may cease to exist as we know it today in this country, which is exactly why passing this legislation today is more important now than ever. Nuclear power is crucial to our energy independence. Additionally, if these facilities shut down tomorrow, it will immediately cost 12,000 jobs in South Carolina and Georgia. It will cost the ratepayers hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in increases in their annual utility bills. And most alarming, our national security will be jeopardized, as countries like China and Russia continue to make massive investments in nuclear power production. We need to give these plants the certainty of the tax credits as Congress originally intended, not just for South Carolina and Georgia, but for the continued innovation of nuclear energy and the security of our Nation. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan).

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Jody B. Hice).

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen).

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Sanford).

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I cannot overstate the importance this legislation represents to the future of nuclear energy production in the United States. As the Ways and Means Committee noted when it approved this same measure last year, while the committee continues to work on comprehensive tax reform as a critical means of promoting economic growth and job creation, it is important to provide immediate clarity and certainty on tax issues affecting American businesses, and this legislation will provide just that. I would also like to thank Chairman Brady for his continued support of H.R. 1551, as well as the bipartisan support we received when this bill was voted out of committee by voice vote last week. Mr. Speaker, I ask for continued bipartisan support from my colleagues here in the House in passing this legislation, not just because it makes commonsense changes to the credit but because of the extreme sense of urgency to provide certainty for our nuclear industry. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I stand in support of the American people today who are being dragged down by this failing disaster called ObamaCare. Since I first got to Congress, I have consistently heard from people across the Seventh District of South Carolina who have been negatively affected by ObamaCare. We were told: If you like your plan, you could keep it. We were told: Your premiums would go down by $2,500 per family. We were told it would provide more choice. But what we have seen is exactly the opposite. 232,000 South Carolinians' plans were canceled, premiums have increased by double digits every year and are up by 28 percent this year. There is only one insurer left in South Carolina, and they are threatening to pull out. The law is failing miserably and getting worse. This bill repeals harmful ObamaCare taxes across the board that drove up healthcare costs and transitions health care to a more competitive, patient-centered insurance market. There are still fixes that need to be made to further improve health care, but this is a dramatic move forward from where we are today and the first step in moving America's health care from an unsustainable system to a sustainable one.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize my friend and an outstanding man from my home in Horry County, South Carolina, who has dedicated his entire life to education and public service. Mr. Neyle Wilson retired last month after 14 years of serving as the president of Horry Georgetown Technical College and leaves behind a great legacy of selflessness and devotion to education in the community. Under Mr. Wilson's direction, Horry County Technical College added nine new buildings, 40 new programs of study, and saw enrollment double. He never failed to go above and beyond to complete the task at hand. Often he was called on at the last minute to provide education or skilled workplace training to fill spots at existing local businesses or businesses looking to move to Horry County to employ South Carolinians, and he always came through. Mr. Wilson was a credit to Horry County Technical College and the entire Grand Strand community. He led thousands of South Carolinians to meaningful jobs. Through these and his many other meaningful contributions, he will always be remembered.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I stand in strong support of the American Health Care Act and urge my colleagues to vote in favor of the bill. ObamaCare was built on broken promises. President Obama said you could keep your policy, keep your doctor, and it would bring down the cost of the insurance for a family of four by $2,500 per year. It is time for the lies to stop. Let me share with Members the shameful reality of ObamaCare in South Carolina. It turns out you couldn't keep your doctor. In fact, the Medical University of South Carolina is not an accepted provider under ObamaCare in South Carolina. That is right. South Carolinians cannot go to the Medical University of South Carolina if they are covered by ObamaCare exchange policies. It turns out you couldn't keep your policy. It is hard to believe, but more South Carolinians had their plans canceled by ObamaCare than have enrolled in the exchanges. 237,000 South Carolinians' policies were canceled in ObamaCare. It turns out South Carolinians did not see a $2,500 reduction in their healthcare premiums. In fact, premiums have increased by double digits every year since the exchange opened; and this year, premiums increased 28 percent and deductibles 26 percent. I submit to you that if you have a health insurance policy with $6,000 in deductibles and copays so high you can't afford to use your policy, regardless of the fact that statistics say you are covered, you are not covered. 206,000 South Carolinians have signed up for ObamaCare--4 percent of the population. Ninety-six percent of South Carolinians are not on ObamaCare. Three times as many people in South Carolina have chosen to pay the mandate penalty rather than to pick up ObamaCare policies. Mr. Speaker, President Obama promised South Carolinians we would have many competitive plans to choose from, but after only 3 years of Obama's damage to our healthcare system, only one provider remains, and they are threatening to pull out.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. The CEO of a major hospital in South Carolina stated, the way it is going right now, it is probably going to implode in the next year or two. Our State's director of insurance, last year, said companies have given their best shot and can't sustain this business model, can't make a profit. The Affordable Care Act has not worked, does not work, and cannot work under this structure in South Carolina.

Mr. RICE of South Carolina

Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, 4 percent of the people of South Carolina have individual policies under ObamaCare. I submit to you that if you have a health insurance policy that pays nothing, with a deductible so high that you can't use it, regardless of the fact that statistics may say you are covered, you are not covered. Sadly, that is what many of my constituents back home in South Carolina are dealing with under ObamaCare. I have statement after statement from folks in South Carolina that are being horribly damaged by this law. They are faced with rising premiums, high deductibles, and limited choice. In my State, premiums went up nearly 30 percent last year. At one time, South Carolina had five different providers. Now there is only one, and they are threatening to pull out. What happens then? By now it is clear that this law is not helping South Carolinians the way it was intended. But what I also want to make clear is Republicans have a plan to fix it. Our plan does a blanket repeal of harmful ObamaCare taxes, like the individual and employer mandates. It preserves patient protections so people won't be denied for preexisting conditions. It gives individuals and families better control of their health care by allowing them to spend their healthcare dollars as they see fit. Simply put, our plan moves us from an unsustainable path to a sustainable one.