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Floor Speech
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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, for 24 years, I practiced medicine as an orthopedic surgeon in Wyoming. And over that time, I know what it is like to practice in a frontier State, a State where huge distances separate us.
Medical care is needed everywhere. I know how important it is to provide available, affordable, quality care for the citizens in my State and in the Presiding Officer's State.
(Mr. SHEEHY assumed the Chair.)
And as in the Presiding Officer's State today where people are celebrating an overtime victory by the Montana football team last evening--a 1-point difference--and people traveled vast distances to get to the game, they also travel vast distances to get to care.
So in my State of Wyoming and in the Presiding Officer's State of Montana where the distances are great, we know how important it is to provide quality care for all of our citizens.
I want everyone in my State to be able to get the care that they need from a doctor they choose, at a price they can afford. And that is why we worked so hard--myself and the Presiding Officer, working together-- during the Working Families Tax Cut bill that we passed last year to include a specific, large component for rural healthcare, for the patients in our small communities to get the care that they need and, many times, closer to home.
And we funded this program in a way that it really provides the necessary care in our communities. And I know, in my home State of Wyoming, $205 million came to the State of Wyoming, and it is headed specifically to our critical access hospitals. It is heading for emergency medical services, emergency medical technicians.
It is to address the needs we have all across our State. And it is also going for education--to provide the education needed, to provide to make sure that, in the future, there are people there to continue to be able to deliver the care--because we need the money to help strengthen and to train and to retain nurses and EMTs and paramedics and X-ray technicians, essential healthcare workers.
You know, if we want them to stay local, we need to train them locally. And the Presiding Officer sees that in his home State, and I certainly see it in mine.
Well, now, hospitals and clinics and health centers in vulnerable rural communities will have the necessary resources that we need to allow us to treat patients closer to home.
More choices and better care is a direct result of the Republicans' Working Families Tax Cut bill. This Rural Health Transformation Program that we put in place for $50 billion is the largest Federal investment in rural healthcare ever.
Now, Democrats talk constantly about access to healthcare. Yet when Republicans--when we proposed this fund to help in rural America, every single Democrat in the Senate voted against it. Every single one of them said: Nope. We are not interested in funding rural healthcare.
When Democrats shut down the government last fall--lots of pain for the American people--one of their demands to reopen the government was to slash all of the funding for rural healthcare. They say they are for rural healthcare. They say they are for healthcare. But when given the chance, they refused and actually voted to eliminate our efforts to provide healthcare for rural Americans. That tells you exactly how little these far-left Democrats value America. Democrats have a long history--and it continues today--of thumbing their noses and turning their backs on rural communities and rural America.
At the same time, last summer, what did they vote to do? They voted to provide taxpayer-funded healthcare to illegal immigrants. Democrats: Yes for illegal immigrant healthcare; no for rural American healthcare. And they did it as we continue to uncover massive amounts of fraud. We are seeing it now in Minnesota with government programs, scammers who stole billions of dollars from taxpayers.
Republicans are committed to ensuring Americans have the healthcare they deserve and that the money goes where it needs to go: to American citizens who are deserving and need the care and need the funding and need the support, not to people ripping off the system as the Democrats look the other way.
In September, I attended the grand opening of a hospital in Pinedale, WY. For years, the nearest hospital was 85 miles from Pinedale--and that 85 miles includes curvy roads and a mountain pass. And if the roads were closed due to weather, the next hospital, which was a different direction, was 100 miles away. So this new hospital in Sublette County is going to be saving lives.
Republicans want rural communities across America to have what Pinedale has today: care they need, doctors they choose, closer to home. Regrettably, many other rural communities are not so fortunate.
And let me tell you what has happened since ObamaCare has become law. Since the Democrats passed ObamaCare on a party-line vote 15 years ago, over 100 rural hospitals have closed--over 100. It is yet another broken promise from the failure of ObamaCare.
Republicans are reversing the trajectory: we are strengthening hospitals; we are supporting providers; and we are keeping care closer to home. That is our commitment, and this is just the beginning. Hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing now, and more funding will continue for the next 5 years. More communities are going to be better served; more patients will receive care; and more lives will be served.
Rural America deserves this sort of treatment and respect and care from the Federal Government. These are the hard-working people that make this country great. High-quality care is necessary for them, and we need to make sure it is where they need it.
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