Making Medically Necessary Nutrition Available

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUTHERFORD. Madam Speaker, today hundreds of thousands of children and adults all across America, including over 177,000 just from my State of Florida, live with digestive gastrointestinal liver or pancreatic disease or inherited metabolic disorders, commonly referred to as ``IMD,'' that actually inhibits their bodies from being able to process typical foods.

When left untreated, Madam Speaker, inherited metabolic disease or gastrointestinal conditions actually cause the body to fail to absorb nutrients, and the food can actually become toxic.

Without necessary nutrition, patients can face severe health risks, including unnecessary surgeries, hospitalizations, intellectual disabilities, or death.

Our health system must be structured to support proven treatments so that these patients can continue to live with these diseases.

I recently introduced legislation with Representative McGovern that would make medically necessary nutrition more easily accessible to patients across the Nation.

H.R. 6892, the Medical Nutrition Equity Act, builds on coverage Congress passed for TRICARE and would actually cover medically necessary food, vitamins, and individual amino acids for these Americans with digestive and inherited metabolic disorders and allow them to lead normal, healthy lives.

As co-chair of the Crohn's and Colitis Caucus where I advocate for these digestive disorders, I urge my colleagues to consider supporting this legislation as we work to pass it into law. Holding Rule Breakers Accountable

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Mr. RUTHERFORD. Madam Speaker, as a former sheriff, I dedicated my life to holding rule breakers accountable, and I am here to tell you this morning that President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas are rule breakers.

Their inaction on securing the southern border is not a failed policy, Madam Speaker--it is their policy. For over a thousand days now they have refused to secure our southern border.

The House tried to intervene when we jointly passed H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, the strongest border security bill in history.

While Senator Schumer and President Biden refused to act on this bill, we continue to see record numbers of illegal immigrants at our border, increasing rates of fentanyl poisoning, and an uptick in our national security threats.

Senator Schumer and President Biden falsely claim that they need additional authority to fix this situation at the southern border. That is blatantly false.

If the President cared about truly securing the border, Madam Speaker, all he has to do is undo the 94 executive actions that he has taken since becoming President that have created this crisis at the southern border and support States like Texas and others in their efforts to secure their own borders, and he can sign H.R. 2 into law.

I am proud to join with Representative Hinson and my other colleagues in demanding that the President enforce our laws on the books today to immediately address this crisis at the border.

I have to say that the President's inaction is costing American lives and billions of dollars. For 3 years, Republicans have been the balefire to America that our southern border was in crisis--3 years.

It takes a Presidential election and the impeachment of the Homeland Security Secretary to actually get Democrats to finally admit that there is a crisis at our southern border. That should not be.

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