Chris Van Hollen

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The Republican leader said we don't have to worry about the veto. The reality is the President's veto will be sustained today. Apparently, our Republican colleagues are not worried about the 22 million Americans who will lose access to affordable health care. I don't know what the Republican leader's definition of ``mockery'' is, but if anybody is mocking the Republican bill here, it is the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which wrote to each and every Member of Congress that, if you actually overrode the President's veto and enacted this legislation--and I am sorry to repeat it again, but it is here in black and white from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office--you would increase the number of people who are without health insurance coverage by 22 million people. That is what our Republican colleagues are talking about here. So, no, we don't want to do that, and the President doesn't want to do that, and that is not going to happen here today, but it certainly does indicate the stakes in the 2016 elections, because, on the one hand, you have a Republican-controlled Congress that would, at the snap of a finger, like to get rid of affordable health care for 22 million people, and, apparently, it wants to ignore the facts that we learned from the Texas grand jury that vindicated Planned Parenthood and said that their accusers, instead, should be indicted. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I would remind my colleagues that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said that if you actually override this veto, 22 million Americans would lose access to affordable health care. Under the Affordable Care Act, the number of uninsured Americans has dropped significantly. It is a sad day that some people don't see that as a good thing, just like the same people apparently want to deny women access to reproductive health care. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), a member of the Judiciary Committee and the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, it is hard to see how giving power to the people is stripping 22 million Americans of their affordable health care. I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Speier), a member of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Cartwright).

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I really urge my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats alike, to read the letter from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. This is the agency that we all turn to for unbiased, nonpartisan advice. On page 9, you will read that their estimate is that, by overturning the President's veto and enacting the underlying bill, H.R. 3762, we would increase the number of people without health insurance coverage by about 22 million people in most years after 2017. When my colleagues say this is a historic moment, it is true. Never before would this Congress have voted on a veto override that would immediately deny access to affordable health care for 22 million people. I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Watson Coleman), a terrific member of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind), a distinguished member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. DelBene), who is on the Republican committee designed to roll back protections to women's health care.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, facts are stubborn things. Since the Affordable Care Act was passed, which our Republican colleagues said would be a jobs killer, we have actually seen millions and millions of jobs added in the economy, and the unemployment rate has come way down. The notion that the Affordable Care Act was going to wreck the economy is just blatantly false for everybody to see. Just look at the statistics around the country. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin), someone who cares about the facts, the distinguished ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee. (Mr. LEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, is the gentleman prepared to close?

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Not having access to any affordable health care certainly doesn't meet anyone's definition of patient-centered healthcare. Our Republican colleagues, when they first launched the attacks on the Affordable Care Act and ObamaCare, said: We are going to repeal this, and we are going to replace it. Well, we have voted, as of today, 63 times to dismantle it. How many times have we voted to replace it? Zero. Zero times to replace it. My colleague, Mr. Kind from Wisconsin, raised an important point. The way our healthcare insurance system was working back in the early 2000s, millions of Americans were denied access to health care because of a preexisting condition, because their kid had diabetes or asthma. Premiums were going through the roof and skyrocketing. The Affordable Care Act has now provided affordable health care to millions more Americans and, as we have heard from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, passing this bill would actually take it away for 22 million Americans. Despite all that, despite the 63rd attempt to get rid of it and deny that access to health care, not once have we heard the replaced part of that Republican agenda. So, Mr. Speaker, it is a sad day when you want to take away access to affordable health care from 22 million Americans and don't have a single alternative to put on the floor of this House. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), a distinguished member of the Committee on the Judiciary who is focused on an evidence-based approach to all of these issues.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. We have heard a lot of talk about premiums going up. The dirty little secret, which every Member of this House knows or should know, is that premiums have been going up consistently for a very long period of time. The issue is: How fast do they go up? If you look at this chart, you will find that, for employer-sponsored insurance, which is what most Americans are on, premium increases were huge between 2000 and 2010, before the passage of the Affordable Care Act, 9.5 percent. After the passage of the Affordable Care Act, those premium increases have dropped substantially, 4.8, now 2.7. When Members of Congress get up here and talk about premiums going up, ask yourself the question: How fast are they going up? Because before the Affordable Care Act passed, it was through the roof, and they have dramatically slowed. I said our Republican colleagues did the repeal part, but not the replace part. So they want to take out the part that has slowed down the premiums and go back to the day when you had skyrocketing premium increases. So we need to talk in a fact-based conversation here on the floor of the House of Representatives. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The only thing historic about this vote today is it probably breaks the record for the number of times a Congress has voted to try to overturn existing law that has been twice upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. Yes, Mr. Speaker, here we go again and again and again. How fitting it is that we are here, on Groundhog Day, for the 63rd vote in the House of Representatives to overturn the Affordable Care Act. And make no mistake. The Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan entity that analyzes bills, has told us and told the American people that, in overturning the Affordable Care Act, you will eliminate affordable health care for 22 million Americans. So this is a historically callous action that, in 1 day, our colleagues are proposing that we would deny affordable health care to 22 million Americans. It is also the 12th vote this House has taken to attack women's health care and defund Planned Parenthood. You know, the American people have got to be scratching their heads. They were told that, with a new Speaker, in the new year, 2016, we would actually begin to address the real challenges facing this country and do some serious work. Yet, the very first action taken here on this House floor in 2016 with the new Speaker was to again try to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. And, yes, that legislation went through the Senate and the House. It went to the President's desk, and the President vetoed it. Make no mistake. We will not overturn the President's veto today. This is a futile gesture. It is part of an obsession to try to undo affordable care for 22 million Americans, and it is not going to happen. Now, what has happened since the last vote we had here to attack women's health programs and defund Planned Parenthood? We have had a decision by a court in Texas. Here were the headlines that came out of that court decision: ``Vindication for Planned Parenthood'' and ``Texas grand jury clears Planned Parenthood, indicts its accusers.'' I have to say, Mr. Speaker, our colleagues have a lot of gall to bring this to the floor after that Texas court decision. You know, they went into that Texas court decision, and the Harris County District Attorney said at the outset of their investigation into Planned Parenthood: We must go where the evidence leads us. It began as an investigation into Planned Parenthood, just as we have had a series of witch-hunt investigations here in the House, where the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said months ago that there was no evidence that Planned Parenthood had committed any wrongdoing. Now we have a Texas court not only vindicating Planned Parenthood, but indicting their accusers. Mr. Speaker, I tell you, this does take a lot of gall to come back here after that and go after women's health programs not for the first time, not for the second time. This is now the 11th time. This will be the 11th time this House has wasted taxpayer time and money trying to overturn women's health programs and the 63rd time it has wasted taxpayer time and money trying to strip away affordable health care to 22 million Americans by undoing the Affordable Care Act. So, yes, this is a shamefully historic day. As I said, Mr. Speaker, I think it probably breaks all the records in wasting taxpayer time and money where, in a really cruel way, if we actually did overturn the President's veto, 22 million Americans would be denied access to health care. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to sustain the President's veto. Don't take away health care to 22 million Americans, and don't continue this attack on women's health. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. What the chairman of the Budget Committee said about the Affordable Care Act omitted the fact that a majority of Americans do not want to repeal and dismantle the Affordable Care Act. We would be happy to work with our colleagues in smoothing out some of the edges, but our Republican colleagues are only determined to take it down entirely without a replacement. In fact, when you ask the American public: ``What one word describes how you feel about the ongoing political debate about the Affordable Care Act?'' they respond: ``ridiculous,'' ``waste of time.'' It is a waste of time. Here we are for the 63rd time trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. It is not going to happen. The President vetoed the bill. We will sustain the veto. To add insult to injury, our Republican colleagues now want to ignore all the facts about the grand jury investigation into Planned Parenthood, which vindicated Planned Parenthood and concluded instead that they should indict Planned Parenthood's accusers. Mr. Speaker, we will sustain the President's veto. We will protect health insurance for 22 million Americans, and we will protect women's access to reproductive care. Let's sustain the President's veto. Let's get on with doing the people's business here.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I heard the word ``bullying'' used. It is ironic that that word would be used in a vote that would deny 22 million Americans access to affordable health care. Again, I want to underscore for our colleagues, some of whom may not have read the Congressional Budget Office's report, that this comes from the nonpartisan entity that advises both parties in Congress. In fact, the head of the Congressional Budget Office was appointed by our Republican colleagues. It is they who are telling us that, with this vote, 22 million Americans would be denied access to affordable health care. That seems to qualify as bullying if anything does. Mr. Speaker, let's review the situation with respect to Planned Parenthood. This Republican-controlled House had its standing committees investigate Planned Parenthood, including the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. They had hearings, and they hauled up the head of Planned Parenthood to some of these hearings. At the end of those hearings, the Republican chairman of that committee concluded that Planned Parenthood had engaged in no wrongdoing. He said that on national television. Despite that finding, back in January, our Republican colleagues went ahead and launched this attack on women's reproductive health and defund Planned Parenthood. That was bad enough. Since that time, we have had even more evidence. We have had the grand jury proceeding in Texas that exonerated Planned Parenthood. They began the investigation against Planned Parenthood, and they said they would go where the evidence led them. At the end of that evidence- seeking effort, they exonerated and vindicated Planned Parenthood and called for the indictment of the people who had wrongly accused them. That was the result. Yet here we are on this House floor today as if nothing had happened--ignoring the evidence that the grand jury heard and continuing on this witch hunt of the special committee's against Planned Parenthood. So, yes, maybe this day is making history. It is probably one of the saddest examples of a Congress run amuck, when, for the 62nd or 63rd time now, we are trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act--ObamaCare-- and, for the 12th time, trying to launch this attack on women's reproductive health and on Planned Parenthood despite all of the intervening and previously existing evidence. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 3662. The focus of the JCPOA is to achieve the long desired objective of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. We must be vigilant in our verification and enforcement of that agreement. Iran's breach of the UN Resolutions regarding ballistic missiles is serious, but it is a distinct issue that requires its own targeted response. That is why President Obama was right to impose separate sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile violations. As Mr. Engel has indicated, this legislation is nothing but a blatantly partisan attempt to re-litigate the JCPOA. It was drafted without consulting a single Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and passed out of Committee without a single Democratic vote. Let us focus together on holding Iran accountable for all its actions--with respect to JCPOA, its ballistic missile program, and its support for groups in the region that have engaged in terrorism. But it is a sad day when our Republican colleagues play political games with important national security and foreign policy matters.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chair, today I rise in opposition to The Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2015. In our first legislative week of 2016 the Republican agenda is clear--continue to erode the rights of Americans. Despite its sunny title, this bill does nothing more than make it more difficult for agencies to implement environmental, public health and consumer regulations. This bill helps big corporations that do not want to comply with agency promulgations at the expense and health of the American people. It is for this reason Mr. Speaker that I must vote no.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chair, I rise to express my opposition to the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2015. On Monday of this week, the Justice Department filed a civil complaint against Volkswagen after discovering that Volkswagen manipulated over half a million diesel engines to circumvent our environmental standards. By the end of the week Republicans brought legislation to the floor that will make it exceedingly difficult for consumers harmed by deliberately deceitful corporations to file class action lawsuits. The problem that Republicans are pretending to solve with this bill does not exist, but the consequences of this bill are very real. If this bill passes it will limit the ability of consumers to have access to courts and prevent them from holding companies accountable. We have spent this week on policies that deprive Americans of their health care, deprive women of safe and secure healthcare, and protect corporations instead of protecting American citizens. If this week is a harbinger of the legislative agenda that Republicans have for 2016 then the people's House will fail to do the people's business.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. With all due respect to Mr. Upton and putting aside the merits of this bill, this is the 62nd time we are voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act. We have never seen a vote in this House on any kind of so-called substitute to the Affordable Care Act. Our Republican colleagues have been full of talk, and we haven't seen any action. I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore), a member of the Budget Committee.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This is a sad and shameful way to begin the new year 2016 here in the United States Congress. This bill is entitled Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, the freedom of health insurance companies to once again deny health care to people based on preexisting conditions. It may be a new year, Mr. Speaker, but here we go again. We are in this Congress, on the floor of this House for the 62nd time with this effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and, to add insult to injury, to deny millions of women access to healthcare choices by targeting Planned Parenthood. While the calendar has changed, the Tea Party Republican agenda remains the same. Despite all the pressing issues we face in this country at home and abroad, the only thing and the first thing our Republican colleagues decide to bring to the floor of the House as the most pressing business to start 2016 is to take away access to affordable care from 22 million Americans and deny access to affordable care for millions of American women. That 22 million figure, Mr. Speaker, that is not my figure. That is the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that has looked at this legislation and concluded that, as a result of this bill, 22 million Americans will lose access to their affordable health insurance. It will be the freedom to be uninsured, the freedom to not have any opportunity to have coverage when your family has healthcare needs. Mr. Speaker, if you look at this chart, you can see that the Affordable Care Act has already made a dramatic difference in bringing down the number of uninsured in the United States of America, yet here we are in a new year, and the first act of this Republican Congress will be to turn back the clock and change that figure. I really hope, Mr. Speaker, that our colleagues will begin to focus on more important issues in the days ahead. Everybody knows that this will take about a nanosecond for the President of the United States to veto because the President of the United States is not going to allow 22 million Americans to lose their access to affordable health insurance, and the President is not going to allow millions of Americans and millions of American women to lose access to reproductive choice and a range of healthcare options here in the United States. It is disturbing, shameful, and sad that this is the way we are starting the new year. I hope we get on to more important business, Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), a member of the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal) of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen).

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I inquire of the gentleman from Georgia if he has any further speakers.