Providing for Consideration of H.R. Restoring Access to Medication Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. I appreciate having an opportunity to debate the rule because, as we learned a couple of weeks ago, we are not always guaranteed that right.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

First of all, Mr. Speaker, with regard to the underlying bill that would be considered if this rule were passed, H.R. 1270, the so-called Restoring Access to Medication Act of 2015, I will insert into the Record the Statement of Administration Policy, which says that if the President were presented with H.R. 1270, he would veto the bill.

Let me just read the first paragraph so my colleagues know why.

He says: ``The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 1270, which would create new and unnecessary tax breaks that disproportionately benefit high-income people, increase taxes for low- and middle-income people, and do nothing to improve the quality of or address the underlying costs of health care.'' Statement of Administration Policy H.R. 1270--The Restoring Access to Medication Act of 2015--Rep. Jenkins, R-KS, and 39 cosponsors

The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 1270, which would create new and unnecessary tax breaks that disproportionately benefit high-income people, increase taxes for low- and middle-income people, and do nothing to improve the quality of or address the underlying cost of health care.

The Affordable Care Act is working and is fully integrated into an improved American health care system. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions is a thing of the past. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 20 million more Americans have health insurance. And under the Affordable Care Act, we have seen the slowest growth in health care prices in 50 years, benefiting all Americans.

H.R. 1270 would repeal the Affordable Care Act's provisions that limit the use of flexible savings accounts for over-the- counter drugs--provisions that help fund the law's coverage improvements and expansions. The bill also would provide additional tax breaks that disproportionately benefit those with higher income by expanding tax-preferred health savings accounts. These changes would do little to reduce health care costs or improve quality. To fund these new high-income tax breaks, H.R. 1270 would increase taxes paid by low- and middle-income families by removing the law's limit on repayment of premium tax credits available through the Health Insurance Marketplaces.

Rather than refighting old political battles by once again voting to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, Members of Congress should be working together to grow the economy, strengthen middle-class families, and create new jobs.

If the President were presented with H.R. 1270, he would veto the bill.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, like the previous bill we considered, this is a bill that is going nowhere. And it is, I guess, the 64th time that we have voted and considered a bill to either repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act, but we have yet to consider one piece of legislation, not even one, to deal with the issue of preventing any additional gun violence in this country.

For some reason, the leadership of this House can't find the time to have that debate and to bring such legislation to the floor, like the legislation we have been advocating for, which is the no fly, no buy legislation, which says that if you are on the FBI terrorist watch list and you cannot fly on an airplane, that you ought not to be able to go in and buy a gun.

And the other piece of legislation would be one that would close all these loopholes that are currently in our background check laws; loopholes that say that, while you need to get a background check when you go into a licensed gun dealer, you don't need one if you buy a gun online or if you buy a gun at a gun show.

I mean, how ridiculous is that?

And for the life of me, why that kind of initiative is controversial or so difficult to get to the House floor is beyond me. I just don't get it.

The number of mass shootings in the United States of America continues to increase. There were 372 mass shootings in the United States in 2015, killing 475 people and wounding 1,870 people.

Why isn't there more alarm about those statistics by my friends on the other side of the aisle?

There were 64 school shootings in 2015. I mean, nobody should have to worry about the safety of their child when they send them to school in the morning. Nobody should have to worry about their safety if they go into a movie theater or if they go into a church or if they go into a nightclub.

Yet gun violence is at an epidemic level in this country, and we can't seem to get the leadership in this House to want to do anything about it.

Now, I guess in response to the sit-in that the Democrats did 2 weeks ago, and to the growing calls that I know my colleagues are getting from concerned citizens, they are trying to bring a bill to the floor that essentially was written by the National Rifle Association, which I guess is a sound bite. But other than that, you can't say much about it because it would still allow people on the terrorist watch list to be able to get guns.

So, Mr. Speaker, I would just say to my colleagues that they can talk all they want about bills that are going nowhere, about meaningless pieces of legislation. That is their right. But we have the right-- unless my colleagues want to take that away from us, too--to speak about the issue that, quite frankly, is in the forefront of the minds of the American people.

Every public opinion poll shows that 85, 90, 95 percent, Democrats and Republicans, support the commonsense gun safety legislation that we have proposed, and yet we can't even get a vote. The greatest deliberative body in the world, and we can't deliberate on the great issues confronting our country. We have to deliberate on issues that are going nowhere, issues that amount to nothing more than a press release written in the basement of the Republican Congressional Committee. I think that is shameful.

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Mr. Speaker, I am going to urge that we defeat the previous question. If we do, I will once again offer an amendment to the rule to bring up no fly, no buy, bipartisan legislation that would give the Attorney General the authority to bar the sale of firearms and explosives to those on the FBI's terrorist watch list.

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Mr. McGOVERN.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from 141 of the Nation's leading medical and public health organizations, a letter sent to all Members of Congress that urges us to end the dramatic and chilling effect of the current rider language restricting gun violence research, which, apparently, in the wisdom of the people who run this House, thought they would prevent the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the ability to do research into this, which shows you just how powerful the National Rifle Association is in this House of Representatives. April 6, 2016. Hon. Thad Cochran, Chairman, Appropriations Committee, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Hon. Barbara Mikulski, Vice Chairwoman, Appropriations Committee, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Hon. Harold Rogers, Chairman, Appropriations Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Nita Lowey, Ranking Member, Appropriations Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Senator/Representative: The undersigned health care, public health, scientific organizations and research universities representing over 1 million members across the country urge you to end the dramatic chilling effect of the current rider language restricting gun violence research and to fund this critical work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In 1996, Congress passed the so-called Dickey amendment as a rider to the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education Appropriations bill. The language stated that the CDC could not fund research that would ``advocate or promote gun control,'' and the language has remained in each subsequent annual funding bill. At the same time, Congress cut CDC funding for this research. Although the Dickey amendment does not explicitly prevent research on gun violence, the combination of these two actions has caused a dramatic chilling effect on federal research that has stalled and stymied progress on gathering critical data to inform prevention of gun violence for the past 20 years. Furthermore, it has discouraged the next generation of researchers from entering the field.

Gun violence is a serious public health epidemic resulting in the senseless deaths of an average of 91 Americans, and another 108 gun injuries, each and every day. A central part of preventing future tragedies is through conducting rigorous scientific research as this has been a proven successful approach in reducing deaths due to other injuries.

Health care providers and public health professionals are overwhelmed in emergency departments, clinics, offices, and communities with the victims of mass shootings, homicides, suicides, accidental shootings, and firearm injuries. Medical professionals and our communities work to address the devastating and long-lasting physical and emotional effects of gun violence on victims, their families and their friends, but are hampered by the insufficient body of evidence-based research to use to point communities toward proven gun violence prevention programs and policies.

Former Representative Jay Dickey (R-AR), author of the current language that has effectively restricted gun violence research, recently noted that, ``it is my position that somehow or someway we should slowly but methodically fund [gun] research until a solution is reached. Doing nothing is no longer an acceptable solution.''

Here are some of the critical questions that enhanced research would help us answer:

(1) What is the best way to protect toddlers from accidentally firing a firearm? Safe firearm storage works, but what kinds of campaigns best encourage safe storage? What safe storage methods are the most effective and most likely to be adopted? What should be the trigger pull on a firearm so a toddler can't use it?

(2) What are the most effective ways to prevent gun-related suicides? Two-thirds of firearm related deaths are suicides. Are firearm suicides more spontaneous than non-firearm suicides? Do other risk factors vary by method? How do we prevent it in different populations active military, veterans, those with mental illness, law enforcement or correctional officers, the elderly, or teenagers?

(3) What is the impact of the variety of state policies being enacted? How are different policies around safe storage, mental health, public education, and background checks impacting firearm injuries and deaths?

The CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control is an important part of answering these types of questions. Public health uniquely brings together a comprehensive approach connecting the complex factors that result in violence and injuries including clinical, social, criminal, mental health, and environmental factors.

The impact of federal public health research in reducing deaths from car accidents, smoking and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome has been well proven. Decades ago, we did not know infant car seats should be rear-facing. Robust research on car accidents and subsequent legislation has helped save hundreds of thousands of lives without preventing people from being able to drive. It's time to apply the same approach to reducing gun violence in our communities.

As professionals dedicated to the health of the nation and to the application of sound science to improving the lives of our fellow Americans, we urge you to take action this year. Americans deserve to know that we are working with the best tools and information in the fight to reduce gun violence deaths and injuries.

As Congress works to craft the FY 2017 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill, we urge you to provide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with funding for research into the causes and prevention of gun violence.

Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to working with you to improve health and protect the safety of all Americans. Sincerely, Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health Academic Pediatric Association Alameda Health System Department of Emergency Medicine American Academy of Family Physicians American Academy of Pediatrics American Association for the Advancement of Science American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy American Association of Nurse Practitioners American College of Emergency Physicians American College of Emergency Physicians, California Chapter American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine American College of Physicians American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists American Educational Research Association American Geriatrics Society American Medical Association American Medical Student Association American Medical Women's Association American Pediatric Society American Psychiatric Association American Psychological Association American Public Health Association American Society for Clinical Pathology American Society of Hematology American Thoracic Society American Trauma Society Arkansas Public Health Association Asociacion de Salud Publica de Puerto Rico Association for Psychological Science Association of American Universities Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs Association of Population Centers Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Big Cities Health Coalition Boulder County Public Health Brigham Psychiatric Specialties California Center for Public Health Advocacy California Public Health Association-North Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists Central Oregon Medical Society Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis Chicago chapter Physicians for Social Responsibility Colorado Public Health Association Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU Healthcare Congregation Gates of Heaven Consortium of Social Science Associations Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists Cure Violence Delaware Academy of Medicine/Delaware Public Health Association Doctors Council SEIU Doctors for America Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Inc. Futures Without Violence Georgia Public Health Association Hawaii Public Health Association Health Officers Association of California Houston Health Department Illinois Public Health Association International Society for Developmental Psychobiology Iowa Chapter Physicians for Social Responsibility Iowa Public Health Association JPS Health Network Kansas Public Health Association Koop Institute KU Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health Law and Society Association Lee County Health Department Local Public Health Association of Minnesota Louisiana Center for Health Equity Maine Public Health Association Maryland Academy of Family Physicians Minnesota Public Health Association Montana Public Health Association National AHEC Organization National Association of County and City Health Officials National Association of Medical Examiners National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health National Association of Social Workers National Association of State Emergency Medical Services Officials National Association of State Head Injury Administrators National Black Nurses Association National Hispanic Medical Association National Medical Association National Network of Public Health Institutes National Physicians Alliance National Violence Prevention Network Nevada Public Health Association New Hampshire Public Health Association New Mexico Public Health Association North Carolina Public Health Association Ohio Public Health Association Oregon Academy of Family Physicians Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility Oregon Public Health Association Pediatric Policy Council Physicians for Social Responsibility, Arizona Chapter Physicians for a National Health Program NY Metro Chapter Physicians for Reproductive Health Physicians for Social Responsibility/Northeast Ohio Physicians for Social Responsibility Wisconsin Physicians for Social Responsibility, Arizona Chapter Physicians for Social Responsibility/New York Physicians for the Prevention of Gun Violence Population Association of America Prevention Institute Psychonomic Society Public Health Association of Nebraska Public Health Association of New York City Public Health Institute Research!America RiverStone Health Safe States Alliance San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, Physicians for Social Responsibility Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research Society for Mathematical Psychology Society for Pediatric Research Society for Psychophysiological Research Society for Public Health Education Society of Experimental Social Psychology Society of General Internal Medicine Southern California Public Health Association Southwest Ohio Society of Family Medicine Student National Medical Association Suicide Awareness Voices of Education Texas Doctors for Social Responsibility Texas Public Health Association Trauma Foundation Tri-County Health Department Trust for America's Health United Physicians of Newtown Vermont Public Health Association Virginia Public Health Association Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics Washington State Public Health Association Wellness Institute of Greater Buffalo Whiteside County Health Department

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Mr. McGOVERN. Norton).

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Mr. McGOVERN. Clarke).

Mr. Speaker, let me begin by saying that it is frustrating for not only many of us on this side of the aisle, but I am sure it must be frustrating to the American people who are watching this debate that here we are debating a bill that would essentially be the 64th bill that we have debated and voted on to either repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act.

We all know this bill is not going anywhere, and I doubt very much that we will see much action in the Senate, but we know that the President will definitely veto it. This is not like the other bills that we have been dealing with in this Congress, bills that really are more designed for press releases and sound bites than for really, actually, making people's lives better.

In the aftermath of Orlando where 49--49--of our brothers and sisters were murdered, the best that the leadership of this House could do was have a moment of silence. I have to tell you, people that I have talked to in the aftermath of that moment of silence viewed that as the ultimate inaction by Congress because all we do is moments of silence when there are massacres. We don't do moments of silence after each individual loses a life to gun violence in this country because we would never have time to do anything else if we did. But people are just so angry that the people who serve in this Chamber don't seem to have the political will to do anything about it. I mean, massacre after massacre after massacre cannot be the new norm.

Last Wednesday, a number of us participated in a national day of action all across the country in an attempt to try to raise awareness of ways to prevent gun violence. I did one in Worcester, Massachusetts, where I am from. We had a grandmother, Beverly Spring, who talked about how she lost not only one grandson to gun violence, but she lost two grandchildren to gun violence.

Does anybody have any idea the heartache that this woman and mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers have gone through who have lost their loved ones to gun violence? Does anyone have any idea the pain of those family members whose loved ones were lost in Orlando or Aurora or Sandy Hook? Or I could go right down the list of massacres.

I am asking my colleagues here to give us an opportunity to have a debate and to have a vote on two commonsense gun safety legislative initiatives. One is no fly, no buy. And the other is let's have our background check system be universal so that people who have criminal backgrounds or who have a history of mental illness do not go to gun shows to buy guns or go online to buy guns.

That is why I am urging my colleagues to defeat the previous question. If we defeat the previous question, we could vote on the underlying bill, but we could vote on this sensible piece of legislation. Enough is enough. Let's do something. Let's not just sit around here and continue to be indifferent. The American people expect more of us than what they have seen.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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