Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WYDEN. At the end of the year, Mr. President, when there is so much to do, I think it is particularly important for this body to try to find common ground on difficult issues, to try to be bipartisan. I mentioned it yesterday, but literally 24 hours ago, I joined with the senior Senator from Iowa, Mr. Grassley, on a bipartisan effort to deal with this enormous challenge of making sure that when we have breakthrough cures for serious illnesses here in our country, Americans are going to be able to afford them. Senator Grassley and I teamed up for 18 months, reviewed 20,000 documents, did an exhaustive inquiry into the new drugs that have come out to deal with hepatitis C, and they are extraordinary drugs. The question is, Will Americans be able to pay for them? Senator Grassley and I thought it was very important to do it because this is what the future is going to be about.

I know the distinguished Senator's son is very interested in these health issues. As we try to get cures for Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart disease, and the question of hepatitis C, it is wonderful to have the cure. The question is, Is it going to be beyond the reach of the people? Senator Grassley and I, for over 18 months, worked painstakingly in a bipartisan kind of way, and it has been very well received. So 24 hours ago we were talking about that, and what I am so troubled about this morning is that when we need bipartisanship more than ever, we are looking at a partisan reconciliation bill that, in my view, will undermine women's health care in this country by denying funding to Planned Parenthood.

My view is that to take away health care choices from American women that have nothing to do with abortion--particularly after the horrific act last week in Colorado--is just an act of legislative malpractice that is beneath the Senate.

I note that it is going to get a veto if it hits the President's desk. My hope is that this body will not let it get that far.

It is long past time, in my view, to end the ongoing campaign to undermine the fundamental right of all women to make their own reproductive choices and access affordable high quality health care. Millions of American women, including tens of thousands in my home State of Oregon, turn to Planned Parenthood for the routine health care services that this bill puts at risk. I have read this list on the floor before, but it appears not to be sinking in. So let me repeat it. This bill, for millions of women, could eliminate access to pregnancy testing, possibly gone; and birth control, possibly gone; prenatal services, possibly gone; HIV tests, possibly gone; cancer screenings, possibly gone; vaccinations, possibly gone; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, possibly gone; basic physical exams, possibly gone; treatment for chronic conditions, possibly gone; pediatric care, possibly gone; hospital and specialist referrals, possibly gone; adoption referrals, possibly gone; and nutrition programs, possibly gone. When you wipe out Planned Parenthood's funding, you dramatically curb access for women in this country to health care services that have absolutely nothing to do with abortion. I know that there is a smear campaign out there that says that is not the case, but it is.

Senator Murray and I have a proposal that has taken a different tack. Our amendment says that instead of putting women's health care at risk, let's do more to guarantee that women in Oregon and Washington and Alaska and across the country get the high quality care they need. Let's help our health care clinics treat more women, and let's help them keep their patients safe when they walk through that door. The proposal that Senator Murray and I have put forward, in my view, is worthy of support from Democrats and Republicans. That has always been the case.

I have enjoyed talking to my new colleague from Alaska, and we talked about what has happened to this question of the Senate's historically bipartisan approach, which is why I spent some time talking about how proud I was to team up yesterday with the distinguished senior Senator from Iowa, Mr. Grassley, on this question of making sure that when there are breakthrough blockbuster cures, people can actually afford them and can actually get them. Those kinds of issues, along with women's health, ought to be a bipartisan cause. It has historically been a bipartisan cause. My hope is that my new colleague from Alaska, the distinguished Presiding Officer of the Senate, is going to continue that as we talk about that kind of historical approach where we try to find common ground on issues such as women's health care.

I also wish to note, colleagues, the reconciliation bill involves the Senate Finance Committee. Chairman Hatch, of course, chairs the committee; I am the ranking member. We have a significant role with respect to these public health programs, and we have tried to work in a bipartisan way. But this reconciliation bill is a rejection of bipartisanship. It is going to pump more noise into the echo chamber, but my view is it is going to drive the parties further apart in this effort that I look forward to talking to our new colleague about, which is how we are going to get people together to work in a bipartisan way for improving women's health care.

When you create such a vitriolic fever pitch, there are obviously real consequences. To me, the politics of hostility and extremism help spark a culture of violence. And amid that dangerous and toxic culture, a man walked into a Planned Parenthood clinic determined to do enormous harm. In my view, it attacks women's health. It is an attack on the American public, and it cannot be tolerated. It must be fought and resisted at every opportunity.

At a moment when the Senate has a long list of issues to wrap up before the year's end and many serious challenges to face, my view is that we ought to be in the business of trying to solve problems, not create more of them. It is not as if there is a shortage of things that have to be addressed; we have plenty of stuff. So why in the world would we want to reject the Senate's long tradition of bipartisanship and take a very partisan turn with this reconciliation bill?

I hope my colleagues will support the Murray-Wyden amendment when we vote on it, end the campaign against women's health, and do everything we can to restore the historic tradition of this body working in a bipartisan way on women's health.

Without going into too much of the history when I was thinking about coming over and thinking about the tradition of the Senate, one of the first things that happened when I came to the Senate is I had the opportunity to work with our former colleague Senator Snowe of Maine, who was a champion of exactly these kinds of issues: choices for women and improvements in women's health care.

We can have all of that again--men and women working together in the Senate on behalf of the States that sent us to support improvements in women's health. To do that this week you have to support the Murray-Wyden amendment.

With that, I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source