Donna Shalala

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Roybal-Allard).

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, I have no further speakers.

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I wish to remind them what the President said after terminating DACA and ending TPS for hundreds of thousands of immigrants: ``It is now time for Congress to act.'' And today, we are acting. We are in the midst of the longest probationary period for citizenship and permanent status in American history. But today, we are finally providing real solutions for Dreamers, TPS recipients, and DED beneficiaries. We are providing solutions for people like Maria Moreno, who came to the United States as a child and is a constituent of mine. She is now a 22-year-old anthropology student at Florida International University and currently working at HistoryMiami Museum. She has spent her life focused on her education. Now, as she pursues her career as an anthropologist, she continues to find ways to make changes within her community. She is a tutor for local kids, empowering them to find joy in learning. To say that Maria is not worthy of permanent legal status is cruel and unjust. She is just as American as you and I. And Maria is just one of millions of Dreamers who cherishes the American Dream. They work hard and believe in a country that has been shamefully slow in recognizing their worth. Despite all the hardship we have put them through, like the newcomers before them, they still believe in our country's commitment to opportunity and fairness. Today, the Dreamers, Madam Speaker, are one step closer to getting their dream. Today, the Dreamers, Madam Speaker, are one House closer to getting their dream. Madam Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the rule and the previous question.

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize my dear friend, Eduardo Padron, on the occasion of his retirement as President of Miami-Dade College and his brilliant service to the South Florida community. Dr. Padron has spent his career giving back to the community that welcomed him when he arrived from Cuba as a child. In the 50 years he has spent at Miami-Dade College, as a student, professor, and President, he has fundamentally transformed the school into an internationally recognized institution of higher education. Under his leadership, Miami-Dade College has become a true center of community for South Florida. The college has educated thousands of students in South Florida and sent them on to successful careers and lives. Dr. Padron has received numerous accolades for his work as an educator. He was included in TIME magazine's list of top ten college presidents in 2009, named Floridian of the Year by Florida Trend in 2010, and honored as one of the eight most influential college presidents in the U.S. by The Washington Post in 2011. In 2016, President Barack Obama awarded him with a Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of his leadership on access and inclusion in higher education. We have all witnessed Dr. Padron's extraordinary dedication to the people of South Florida. I'm grateful to know him as a leader in education and as a friend, and I wish him all the best in his retirement.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 2157) making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2019, and for other purposes, with the Senate amendment thereto, and concur in the Senate amendment.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, I rise in honor of my friend, Alina Hudak, Deputy Mayor of Miami-Dade County, and her 35 years of public service to the greater Miami community. Alina began her career in the Miami-Dade County government as a management trainee in 1984. In 1993, she became the first Hispanic woman appointed to the position of Assistant County Manager. In 1996, she was tapped for the position of Director of the General Services Administration. In 1998, she rejoined the County Manager's Office, and she took over the post of County Manager in 2011. She currently serves as Deputy Mayor of Miami-Dade County as well as Director of the Solid Waste Management Department. Alina has worked with nearly every department of Miami-Dade's extensive administration, and she possesses an unrivaled knowledge of the County. Throughout her career, she has overseen an impressive portfolio of departments, including the nationally recognized Police and Fire Rescue, Animal Services, Elections, Transit, Public Works, the Citizen's Independent Transportation Trust, and the Public Health Trust. She spearheaded the County's Haitian Relief Efforted, the United Way campaign, the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign, and has acted as liaison for numerous county tournaments and events. Alina continues to give to the Miami-Dade community. She is an active alumna of the University of Miami, where she earned a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and a master's degree in Public Administration. She is also deeply involved in the American Society for Public Administration and the International Women's Forum. We have all witnessed Alina's extraordinary skill and dedication to Miami-Dade County. She has served with grace and heart, and I look forward to seeing the impact she will continue to make on our community for years to come.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Mr. Speaker, I rise to celebrate the life of one of the greatest public servants of any age, the indomitable Alice Rivlin, who died of cancer last week. An intellectual giant with Midwestern sensibilities, she had a resume that would never be matched: Assistant Secretary for Policy and Evaluation at HEW, founding Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, president of the American Economic Association, and Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve. In between her government service, she sat on a high perch at the Brookings Institution, producing rigorous, centrist, and insightful books and articles on a wide range of Federal policies. In her spare time, she was credited with saving D.C. from bankruptcy. She never forgot her responsibility to her adopted hometown. Alice was deeply respected and beloved by her peers and politicians of both parties. She was one of the first recipients of a MacArthur Foundation genius award, a tribute to her skill in building one of the most important public institutions of our lifetime, the CBO. Her sustained contributions to public policy analysis have fundamentally shaped our thinking about the impact of public programs and the budget. She also constantly reminded us that when we refuse to use evidence in making policy decisions, we do so at our country's peril. Alice Rivlin was my dear friend. I met her here in D.C. as a newly minted Ph.D. She was already famous for her classic book, ``Systematic Thinking for Social Action.'' She was funny, warm, generous, and welcoming. She wanted all of us newcomers to love her adopted city as much as she did. When I returned to Washington to join the Clinton Cabinet, Alice, along with her friend Meg Greenfield, the powerhouse editorial page editor of the Post, and Post publisher Katherine Graham, formed the Smart Women's Club. They invited me to join them in hilarious dinners with interesting guests, a high point in my career. One of my fondest memories of Alice took place on a day in the 1980s when I was still in New York. She called me and asked if I could take a month off to go to Kashmir to trek in the Himalayas. What an adventure, the beginning of decades of trekking in some of the most interesting places on Earth with friends and her patient husband, Sid Winter, himself a world-class economist. You learn a lot about people when you share a narrow ledge in a rainstorm on some of the highest mountains in the world. Alice was tenacious, brave, cheerful, and the kindest and nicest person I have ever known. She was a legend, renowned for mentoring younger colleagues and helping people of all walks of life with their challenges. Hers was more than a life well lived. She was a patriot who loved her country and her city, and she served both with extraordinary skill and passion.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Mr. Speaker, in Florida and many other States, LGBTQ Americans are still at risk of being fired, evicted, and denied services because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBTQ people confront discrimination throughout their entire lives, from harassment that youth face at school to the bias that older, same- sex couples experience when they are denied housing in retirement communities. In the gallery today is Christian Bales, an openly gay and gender- nonconforming student who was barred from delivering his valedictorian speech at his high school on account of his sexuality. Two nights ago, Christian was honored with the 2019 Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award for Education. Today, we will take a crucial step in standing up for people like Christian by passing H.R. 5. Mr. Speaker, 2019 is the 50th anniversary of the uprising at Stonewall and the birth of the modern LGBTQ movement. There is no better way to honor the decades-long struggle for dignity and equality for LGBTQ people than for our elected leaders in Congress to pass this legislation. I am proud to support H.R. 5.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Mr. Chairman, this amendment expresses the sense of Congress that the secretary should not do anything that prohibits State insurance commissioners from allowing for so-called silver loading. Let me walk you through how we got to this point. Because while silver loading has worked to keep costs on the exchange lower for folks who get subsidies, it has only been used because the President was actively trying to kill the Affordable Care Act. In 2017, the President decided to stop reimbursing health insurance companies for what are called cost-sharing reductions, or CSRs. CSRs are payments that health insurance companies are required to make to help low- and moderate-income people afford healthcare. Under the Affordable Care Act, the health insurance companies must help people that have more affordable, and, possibly, no co-pays or deductibles. The Federal Government was supposed to reimburse insurance providers for making these payments; however, in October of 2017, the administration stopped making these payments. This was a deliberate attempt to make health insurance on the exchange unaffordable, and undermine, weaken, and attack the Affordable Care Act. In response to this, States let health insurance plans do what is now called silver loading. State insurance regulators, in a desperate and creative attempt to stabilize the insurance marketplaces, allowed insurance companies to bill the unpaid CSR costs into their silver plans on the exchange. This was a very creative attempt to stabilize the insurance market. This wasn't the solution that anyone wanted, but it is a solution that has worked and has created some stability and predictability in the insurance market in the face of an administration that seeks chaos. Because the tax credits are benchmarked to the silver plan, silver loading has meant that most who receive subsidies did not see an increase in their health insurance premiums. In fact, new data shows that 2.6 million healthcare.gov consumers are now paying lower premiums as a result of silver loading. States that allowed for silver loading as a way to cope with the manufactured chaos that the administration tried to inflict on the market, actually saw an increase in enrollment in the exchanges.

Ms. SHALALA. Mr. Chairman, the administration must stop trying to sabotage the Affordable Care Act. My amendment expresses that it is the sense of Congress that the secretary of Health and Human Services shall not do anything to prohibit the use of silver loading, a program designed by the States to stabilize the health insurance marketplace.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. SHALALA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chair, this amendment expresses a sense of Congress that the Secretary of Health and Human Services should not do anything that prohibits State insurance commissioners from allowing for so-called silver loading. Let me walk you through how we got to this point because, while silver loading has worked to keep costs on the exchanges lower for people who get subsidies, it has only been used because the administration was actively trying to kill the Affordable Care Act. In 2017, the administration decided to stop reimbursing health insurance companies for what are called cost-sharing reductions, CSRs. CSRs are payments that health insurance companies are required to make to help low- and moderate-income people afford healthcare. Under the Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies must help people have more affordable and, possibly, no copays or deductibles. The Federal Government was supposed to reimburse insurance providers for making these payments. However, in October of 2017, the administration stopped making these payments. This was a deliberate attempt to make health insurance on the exchange unaffordable and to undermine, weaken, and attack the Affordable Care Act. In response to this, the States, bipartisan States, including my own, let insurance plans do what is now called ``silver loading.'' State insurance regulators, in a desperate and a very creative attempt to stabilize the insurance markets, allowed insurance companies to build the unpaid CSR costs into their silver plans on the exchange. This was not the solution anyone wanted, but it is a solution that has worked and has created some stability and predictability in the insurance markets in the face of an administration that seeks chaos. Because the tax credits are benchmarked to the silver plans, silver loading has meant that most who receive subsidies did not see an increase in their health insurance premiums. In fact, new data shows that 2.6 million exchange consumers are now paying lower premiums as a result of silver loading. States that allowed for silver loading as a way to cope with the manufactured chaos that the administration tried to inflict on the market actually saw an increase in enrollment in the exchange. The administration has to stop trying to sabotage the Affordable Care Act. My amendment expresses that it is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of HHS shall not do anything to prohibit the use of silver loading to stabilize the health insurance marketplaces. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. SHALALA. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the California delegation for giving me this opportunity. I met Ellen Tauscher in the 1980s when I was the director of the American Stock Exchange and she was an officer. She was brilliant, and she had a heart of gold. We worked together again in the 1990s when she was elected to Congress. She hadn't changed. She could still focus, razor sharp, on any issue. She was a classic citizen legislator. She had had a previous extraordinary career in finance and then committed herself to public service. All of us who knew and worked and played with her loved her. Actually, we had a date this month for dinner at her favorite Georgetown restaurant. She will be missed as a kind, warm, and wonderful friend, as a classy colleague. She will be remembered as a patriot who loved her country and served it well.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, the United States holds the worst maternal mortality rate of any country in the developed world: every year, approximately 700 women die from pregnancy-related complications. This rate is three times as high as Canada's and six times as high as Scandinavia's. In Great Britain, a man is more likely to die while his partner is pregnant than she is. In the United States, however, a woman today is 50 percent more likely to die in childbirth than her own mother was. And the biggest risk factor in dying from childbirth is being black. A recent CDC study found that 60 percent of pregnancy-related deaths in recent years could have been prevented. Title X family planning clinics play a key role in preventing these deaths by helping women avoid and terminate unwanted pregnancies. Given the particular danger of pregnancy, this care saves women's lives. However, the administration's proposed gag rule would bar Title X providers from offering comprehensive reproductive healthcare. If this rule goes into effect, maternal mortality rates will rise. Racial disparities in healthcare will worsen. And more families will be needlessly ripped apart.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, today, I would like to speak about South Florida's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. Consistently recognized as the best eye hospital in the nation, Bascom Palmer treats over 250,000 patients every year at its five centers in Miami, Coral Gables, Plantation, Naples, and Palm Beach Gardens. In addition to serving as a national model for excellent eye care, Bascom Palmer acts as the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Miami. The center provides students with the opportunity to work with world- class doctors and conduct innovative research to improve patient care and treatment methods. Eye care is a delicate science. The doctors, students, and staff at Bascom Palmer demonstrate every day not only their vast knowledge of the constantly developing field of ophthalmology, but also their enormous compassion for patients who suffer from blindness, glaucoma, ocular cancer, and other debilitating conditions. It was a joy to partner with this stellar team of medical professionals when I led the University of Miami. I am grateful to know that the eye health of South Florida is in good hands with Bascom Palmer leading the field.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, I rise today during Small Business Week to celebrate one of the longest-thriving small businesses in Florida's 27th Congressional District. In publication for 61 years, Miami's Community Newspapers is a family-run business founded by Ronald Miller in 1958. Today, brothers Grant and Michael Miller have grown the business to include 14 editions covering Miami-Dade County. Miami's Community Newspapers covers the local issues that are the fabric of our neighborhoods. Recognizing the accomplishments of high school students and centennial birthdays, Miami's Community Newspapers is hyper local; however, they do not shy away from discussing important issues like transportation and education. The Miller brothers host breakfast socials and a luncheon series that has featured everyone from the county transportation director to David Beckham. Unknown to most is that the Millers have, for years, given jobs to numerous people attempting to reenter society after incarceration. With a distribution of 65,000, their newspapers can be found in every diner and lobby in Miami-Dade. Today, we honor Grant and Michael Miller and the 30 employees of Miami's Community Newspapers as a great small business.

Ms. SHALALA

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 357 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. General Leave

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members be given 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, on Tuesday, the Rules Committee met and reported a rule, House Resolution 357, providing for consideration of H.R. 986, the Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act, under a structured rule. The rule makes in order 12 amendments. The rule provides 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and the ranking member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. The rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 2157, the Supplemental Appropriations Act, under a structured rule. The rule self-executes a manager's amendment and makes in order 10 amendments to H.R. 2157. Finally, the rule provides 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking member of the Committee on Appropriations. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the two bills in this rule, H.R. 986, the Protecting Americans with Preexisting Conditions Act of 2019, and H.R. 2157, the Supplemental Appropriations Act. H.R. 986 will ensure that the patient protections and benefits of the Affordable Care Act are protected. It will prevent this administration from doing administratively what they failed to do legislatively, make health insurance inaccessible for the, at least, 52 million Americans who live with preexisting conditions. The administration is trying to coax States, through misuse of the 1332 innovation waivers, to make available plans that don't cover all of the essential health benefits that the ACA requires, or don't cover preexisting conditions, possibly with tax credits. This is consumer fraud. It is a misuse of taxpayer money. The administration would make it possible for plans to deny coverage or charge higher premiums based on health status. Under their guidance, plans could have lifetime or annual limits. They would be able to charge higher rates to older people than the ACA allows and are not required is cover essential health benefits. It will hurt consumers who think they are buying comprehensive health insurance and then find out that their plan doesn't cover whatever health crisis they may be facing. The guidance from the administration is a back door to destroying the Affordable Care Act. H.R. 986 makes sure that that will not happen. I also rise to support H.R. 2157. The disaster supplemental will provide $17.2 billion in disaster relief to communities across America, including my own State of Florida. The House passed a similar bill in January, which the Senate failed to take up. Since January, there have been floods in the Midwest and tornadoes in Alabama, and we have included additional money to fund those disasters. No American should wait for assistance while Congress squabbles. Seven months have passed since Hurricane Michael devastated the panhandle in Florida, including completely leveling Tyndall Air Force Base. It is time to pass both of these bills. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Castor), a distinguished member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Ms. SHALALA. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).