Bobby Scott

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis), the chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici), the chair of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Wild), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), who is the distinguished Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. McBath), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Schrier), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished majority leader of the United States House of Representatives.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Underwood), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Madam Speaker, this bill will reduce the cost of prescription drugs. Americans pay twice as much, three times as much, as much as 10 times more than those in other countries pay for the exact same drugs. This bill will allow the Department of Health and Human Services to try to negotiate better prices. Those on the other side have criticized reduced prices because they potentially could reduce investments and research, but this bill offsets any such reductions with significant increases in investment in research at the National Institutes of Health. This bill makes improvements to the Affordable Care Act by reducing premiums, expanding coverage to families, protecting those with preexisting conditions, and reducing the number of uninsured. We have heard criticisms but no description of a better alternative. We have heard about the 1996 law on preexisting conditions, but that did nothing in the individual market. And that is what the Affordable Care Act protects: preexisting conditions in the individual market. But look at what the CBO said about the Republican bill when they had the majority and were able to pass a bill. They actually passed a bill that CBO scored, and they said that it would increase costs 20 percent the first year, 20-some-million fewer people would be insured, those with preexisting conditions would lose some of their protections, and the insurance you get is worse than what you have. We can do better than that by passing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act, and that is what we should do today by voting ``yes'' on this legislation. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib), a member of the Financial Services Committee and Oversight and Reform Committee.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Wild), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Harder), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), the chair of the Committee on Financial Services.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, could you advise how much time is remaining on each side?

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Iowa (Ms. Finkenauer).

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of overriding the President's veto of H.J. Res. 76, a bipartisan Congressional Review Act resolution that would stop the Department of Education's harmful borrower defense rule from going into effect. Mr. Speaker, I first want to recognize the hard work of the gentlewoman from Nevada, Representative Susie Lee, for her tireless efforts in protecting students, particularly student veterans, from predatory schools. Borrower defense is a valuable tool to provide relief to student borrowers who are defrauded by predatory institutions. Unfortunately, instead of using the Department's authority to make borrowers whole and give students a second chance at a quality education, it has gone out of its way to prevent victims of fraud from getting relief. The Department's rewrite of the borrower defense rule, which is set to go into effect on July 1, will mean that a vast majority of defrauded student borrowers will get virtually no relief. Even in cases where a school clearly violates the law, defrauded victims can still be denied relief under the rule if they can't show that the school intentionally defrauded them or they can't file their claim fast enough or they can't document, according to the flawed Department methodology, exactly how much harm they suffered due to fraud. Even those student borrowers who do receive partial relief will receive significantly less relief than before. Under Secretary DeVos, the average loan discharge amount for approved borrowers has dropped from about $11,000 to about $500, and for many students zero relief will be available even though they can prove massive fraud. Class actions are not allowed under the rule. Each student must bring an individual case even though the school may have been found to have been guilty of egregious systemic fraud. Democrats and Republicans came together earlier this year to pass a Congressional Review Act resolution that rejects this rule and prevents the Department of Education from denying borrowers the relief they deserve. A broad coalition, including veterans and military groups, consumer advocates, student advocates, and civil rights groups, called on the President to sign the congressional resolution and protect student borrowers from predatory schools; but, while the President initially indicated support for the resolution, he ultimately chose to veto it. Today the House has one final opportunity to ensure that defrauded students get the relief they deserve by overriding that veto. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote to override the President's veto. Mr. Speaker, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx), who is the ranking member, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Nevada (Mrs. Lee), who is the sponsor of the resolution and a hardworking member of the Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano), a member of the Committee on Education and Labor, but more importantly, chair of the full Committee on Veterans' Affairs, because so many veterans have been implicated by fraud on these institutions.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis), the chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Courtney), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici), the chair of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Adams), the chair of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee and also chair of the HBCU Caucus.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Jayapal), a distinguished member of the Committee on Education and Labor.

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia

Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of D.C. statehood. Today's affirmative vote in the House of Representatives to admit the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth as the 51st state in the Union is long overdue for the more than 700,000 disenfranchised American citizens who currently live in the District of Columbia. This is the first time a chamber of Congress has voted to approve D.C. statehood. I have long been a proponent of D.C. statehood and was the only member of the Virginia delegation to vote for D.C. statehood the last time it came before the House in 1993. And during my service as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, I introduced the resolution for Virginia to ratify the Constitutional Amendment to grant full Congressional voting rights to the District of Columbia. Unfortunately, neither my resolution nor the Constitutional Amendment were ultimately successful. Today's vote marks a historic victory for the indefatigable advocates for statehood including my colleague, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has been a tireless advocate for the disenfranchised citizens of our nation's capital. Supporting D.C. statehood is about our nation's core constitutional principles of self-determination, opposition to taxation without representation, and giving an equal voice to all Americans regardless of where they live. I hope my Republican colleagues in the Senate put aside politics and pass this bill and finally end the historic injustice that has persisted for more than 200 years for the people of Washington, D.C.