Issues of the Day

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GROTHMAN.

Recognizing Dean C. Mathisen's Service to our Nation and Nebraska's Second District

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to address several issues.

The first issue that has been in the paper lately is vitamin D. I have spoken before this Chamber several times in the past on the importance of taking vitamin D. Over 40 percent of American adults do not have an adequate amount of vitamin D in their system.

Several institutions of higher learning have done research and strongly suggest that vitamin D is a way to reduce the number of people who get COVID as well as greatly reduce the effects of COVID on those people who unfortunately get it. This has been found by MIT, by Northwestern in Evanston, and by Trinity College in Iowa.

It has been my disappointment to this point that the appropriate government agencies that have no problem sending out press releases and advertisements on COVID have not addressed vitamin D.

I was, therefore, elated to find out that, late last week, Dr. Fauci came out and supported the evidence behind vitamin D's benefits. Even more than that, Dr. Fauci said that he has been taking vitamin D himself, which is very good. This is a change.

Traditionally, many people out there said that you should even stay inside, and one way to get vitamin D is to be out in the Sun. So, the idea that we need more vitamin D is the opposite of what some of the experts or at least what some politicians have told us.

Vitamin D, of course, is good not only to prevent COVID but to prevent other sorts of infections and respiratory problems as well.

Now that Dr. Fauci has come out and told us that getting more vitamin D is a good idea, and particularly now that Dr. Fauci has admitted that he himself has been taking vitamin D, I strongly encourage the CDC and all other appropriate government agencies to publicize the benefits of vitamin D.

We have to do something other than just wait for a vaccine, which may or may not happen. And we all know, when it does happen, many people will not take that vaccine.

I strongly encourage Dr. Fauci to follow up on his statements with approving TV commercials talking about vitamin D and the fact that he takes vitamin D in his future interviews.

Harvard estimates that 1 billion individuals worldwide may be vitamin D deficient, and of course, the rest of the world looks to the United States for leadership. So, the benefits would not only accrue to American citizens but to citizens around the world.

Mr. Speaker, I remind you to take vitamin D, particularly if you have any friends or relatives who may be vitamin D deficient or have special problems. I would talk to your doctor and anybody who is going in for a regular check-up. I would ask for a vitamin D test as well because there are ways to reduce the number of people getting COVID and to reduce the number of fatalities other than just hanging around and waiting for a vaccine.

Mr. Speaker, the next topic I would like to address tonight is also a medical topic that has been something I would have liked to address since I got here. I came across some information with regard to biosimilars, and that is people who need insulin.

I consider myself an advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Association, and I am aware of many different people who have diabetes. Depending upon the type of insurance you have, Mr. Speaker, if you have diabetes, you may be spending $100 a month on insulin. I have run into people who are spending $800 or $1,000 a month for insulin.

Can you imagine if you have a child and you have to go out of pocket for another $1,000 a month just to keep your child alive?

I ran into the fact that people are working on substitutes for insulin called biosimilars. I am introducing H.R. 8190, the Biosimilar Insulin Access Act, which will increase competition in the insulin market by making biosimilars available. Biosimilars are to insulin what generics are to normal prescription drugs.

It would be tremendous if we could get more of these to the market. Right now, for whatever reason, it takes far too long to get these products to market. Sometimes, they aren't available at all. Because they are not available, people continue to have to overpay to keep themselves or their loved ones alive.

Interchangeable biosimilar products are able to be automatically dispensed at the pharmacy counter for their brand-name reference product or brand-named insulin. We want to generate the same type of cost savings for insulin that we have already done in the past for generic drugs.

I realize it is late in the session, but things can move fast. We all know that bills pass around here relatively soon after they are introduced.

When I think of the people who are having to pay $1,000 a month or maybe just $500 or $600 a month for themselves or their children, I hope people in this building and the relevant committees and relevant leadership find a way to get this bill to the floor.

I will be available to explain the importance of this bill. I am ready to explain the importance of this bill to any of the Members. I will be on the floor the next couple of days talking about it. I hope to get a good cosponsorship list, but I do hope that the relevant committees immediately take up this bill and get it to the floor so that we can save as much money as possible for the people who are stuck with this disease.

The final point I am going to bring up tonight is concerning border security. It is an issue that, because of the COVID, has been pushed to the background. But pushed to the background or not, it remains to be important for this country.

No country can continue to exist if they have open borders and unlimited and unvetted people continue to come here.

Now, there are people who come here whom we do not expect to come here, who are caught or who come in contact with the border security, and there are other people who sneak across the border. They are never contacted by border security because, quite frankly, we have a shortage of agents, though they are caught on cameras.

A year ago in May, right now about 15 months ago, 16 months ago, about 90,000 people came into contact with the Border Patrol and were allowed in this country--people who were not coming here through the normal immigration channels. Since that time--it is something that has been underpublicized, and quite frankly, it ought to be more publicized by President Trump himself because he is not afraid to publicize his successes--we have dropped from 90,000 people to under 2,000 people coming into contact with our Border Patrol and let in the country.

This has been done by three things, all underpublicized.

One, President Trump, in part by talking about tariffs--I believe, maybe not--has gotten the Mexican Government to agree to hold people on the Mexican side of the border instead of having people who are asking for asylum come to the United States and be released into the American interior where we never see them again.

We all know that some of these people are probably drug-running. We know that some of these people are breaking the law. And we know that some of these people are going to wind up on some sort of public assistance. So we salute President Trump for reaching an agreement and holding people south of the border.

The next thing President Trump has done is he has contacted the countries in Central America, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras and made sure they are holding more people of not only their own nations, but people further south in their countries rather than allowing them into Mexico.

Now, the United States does provide foreign aid to these countries, and I think it is important that we maintain good relations with these countries. But I think it has been under-publicized that President Trump, through negotiations with these countries, is further decreasing the number of people who are coming into this country who we do not necessarily want to have come into this country.

And the final situation, is now people coming into this country, who may have COVID, are immediately turned around and told to go back home.

So you combine these three things, and you go from about 90,000 people coming into contact with the border patrol and being allowed in here to--I am told--under 1,000. It is almost too good to believe. But that is what happens when you have a man of action, a person who is committed to holding people south of the border.

This is particularly true because in the future, we have people talking about giving people coming across the border free healthcare. We already know--unless you are blind--that people are taking advantage of public benefits who are coming here illegally.

So I think at a time when there is so much bad news out of government, we ought to pay attention to exactly what happened when we went over 90,000 to certainly under 2,000--and maybe under 1,000 people--allowed in the country. I will point out that this does not include people who do not come in contact with the border patrol. And in the year that is wrapping up, we estimate that about 10,000 people have come in here without contact with the border patrol. We know this because we have cameras taking pictures of people sneaking across the border. We do not have enough border control to turn these people around.

Mr. Speaker, I also want to thank the border patrol for the number of pounds of cocaine, methamphetamines, and fentanyl which they have turned around at the border in the most recent year. That is certainly a degree of success. I know fentanyl, in particular, has been the newest lately, and I wish Congress would pay much closer attention to the people who are dying of fentanyl overdoses this year as the number of people who are dying of other unfortunate incidents.

In any event, those are three things I want the American public to pay attention to. I, again, emphasize the importance of taking vitamin D.

I emphasize the importance of getting biosimilars to the market so that we can save money for the poor people who have to take insulin.

And I salute the border patrol and the administration for all they have done in greatly decreasing the number of people who are coming into this country illegally.

Now, of course, in the Chamber today, we have many different people. And I am prepared to ask to adjourn, but if the people in the front of the room would rather hear a little bit more about fenofibrates, I would be happy to talk about fenofibrates.

Do you want to hear about fenofibrates?

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GROTHMAN.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source