Providing for Consideration of H.R. Breaking the Gridlock Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LAWLER. Mr. Speaker, after the 43-day Democratic-led shutdown, I agreed to sit down with my Democratic and Republican colleagues to negotiate in good faith to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credit with reforms.

We negotiated a 2-year extension with income limits, with insurance reforms, and with the elimination of zero-premium plans. Unfortunately, we could not get that bill to the floor for a vote, so I and three of my other Republican colleagues felt that we had no choice but to sign the discharge for this 3-year clean extension.

I am voting in favor of this discharge and this legislation to send it to the Senate so that the Senate will have the opportunity to put forth a reform package that can pass Congress and become law.

The fact is that health insurance premiums have risen 96 percent since ObamaCare took effect in 2010, with insurance companies' profits increasing by 2,000 percent.

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Mr. LAWLER. Mr. Speaker, insurance companies' profits have increased by 2,000 percent.

Republicans and Democrats can agree that our system is broken, and we need to fix it. We need to work in a bipartisan way.

To me, this is two-pronged: deal with the immediacy of the enhanced premium tax credit, and deal with the larger healthcare reform issues that have to take effect. Enough of the blame game on both sides. Let's focus on actually delivering affordable healthcare for Americans.

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