Legislative Program
Floor Speech
Legislative Program
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HOYER. You heard the President's comments last night. I agree strongly with the President and with the Speaker, and I think, frankly, there is no difference in the three of us. We all believe that a public option is an important option, A, to save money and, B, to give consumers options that they might not otherwise have and bring prices down for consumers as well as for government. So there is no difference there on the importance of the public option.
I am for a public option, as you probably heard me. I don't know whether you watched my town meeting, but that question was asked and I responded I am for the public option.
What I have said is essentially what the President said last night, that there is much in this bill that I think advantages consumers, businesses, individuals and families, and I think the public option is important, but there are other things in the bill which are important. But I expect that we are going to bring a bill to the floor. I am certainly hopeful that it has a public option in it. We think that is the best alternative. The President has indicated he thinks that is the best alternative.
He did, however, say, and I share his view, if there are other ways people think we can do it, provide that competitive model to bring prices down and to make sure consumers get the best product available, if there are other ways to do that, then we are certainly open to hearing them.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. Does the gentleman believe that health care will come to the floor in the House before in the Senate?
Mr. HOYER. I think health care will come to the floor in the House when it is ready to come, and what I mean by that is when we have a consensus on exactly how the bill ought to be fashioned. We believe on this side that the committees are some 85 percent in agreement, as you know, the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Education and Labor Committee, and the Ways and Means Committee. As you also know, there are differences between those bills, and we are working on that at this point in time to see how we can make those compatible. The President's comments last night will obviously also be taken into consideration.
So we will bring to the floor a bill that we believe reflects the President's view, our view, and hopefully we would hope the views in part at least of some of the Members on your side of the aisle.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman.
Reclaiming my time, I notice you refer to the bill and sometimes another bill, and you have this bill H.R. 3200 done by one side of the aisle, passed three committees. I know last time when President Clinton was in and they took up health care and they produced a bill in Ways and Means, it took 7 weeks of debate. I know this was 48 hours and others were a short time period.
When you refer to that bill, are you referring to H.R. 3200 coming before this body, this House?
I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
First of all, let me say I don't know where he gets 2 weeks. The Ways and Means Committee was in discussion. You may mean formal hearings on the bill. But we have had 80 hearings in the committees over the last 24 months on health care reform, so it was an extensive part of the debate of every candidate for President over the course of 2008, and, frankly, prior to 2008.
This bill and many of its facets have been considered extensively, many of which were in plans presented by Presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle, Democrat and Republican. And clearly the President of the United States talked extensively about his ideas and where he wanted to go on health reform, and much of what he said and proposed was included in the bills that have been acted upon and I think reflect his views as well as the views of many people not only in this body but throughout the country.
So, from that standpoint, we believe this has gotten very extensive consideration. I think it is unprecedented. We had over 1,000 town meetings on our side. I know you had a number of town meetings on your side. I am not sure of the number. But literally I think thousands and thousands of Americans had an opportunity to participate and are continuing to participate in the discussion of the specifics of this bill.
So we think it has gotten very widespread and very thorough consideration. Given that consideration, there are still differences that we are working on.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, just referring back, what I said was when the Clinton administration did health care, on Ways and Means they debated for 7 weeks, taking the bill up itself. When we did it this time, it was 48 hours of presenting the bill, the amendments, and being voted out of committee.
Knowing the call to the American public about transparency, and we all heard that during the month of August, would the gentleman allow, before any bill comes to the floor--and I guess the bill would be H.R. 3200, from what I am hearing the gentleman say. I know it is in committee, but when you get to that final version----
Mr. HOYER. Will the gentleman yield, because I want to clarify that.
H.R. 3200 was a base bill that was put together by the committee Chairs, the committee staff, with input from others, as a mark. My expectation is that there will be a compendium that will be put together and we will probably have a new number on it. So I don't think H.R. 3200, which was a base mark, but you understand this was a bill, and, as you well know, in three committees, so there may well be a bill fashioned from the product of the three committees.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. Reclaiming my time, so it would be a different number, but in essence the same bill.
Would the gentleman allow, before that bill is voted on on this floor when you come to the conclusion of where that bill ends up, would we be able to have the time to go back to the American public and, again, all of us have townhall meetings again for the transparency of saying this is the bill that would be voted on in the House?
I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
There has been unprecedented, I reiterate, I don't think you can remember, and I have been here 29 years and I can't remember a bill that has been more widely vetted than this bill in terms of the American public. Maybe the Social Security proposal the President some years ago had, that was pretty widely vetted, but I don't think as widely vetted as this proposal.
So I say to the gentleman, you go and you vet the bill, you discuss alternatives, you then come back after having listened to those alternatives and fashion a bill. You don't have new committee hearings, whether it is a health care bill or any other bill. You amend it and you perfect it pursuant to hearings, and then you bring it to the floor. I don't expect we will treat this bill any differently.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. I thank the gentleman.
The only thing I would ask, knowing that the
American public did have this bill vetted but the majority of the American public disagreed with this bill, disagreed with the public option, and having the transparency here that the American public is asking, having the American public so engaged and educated on health care and it being such an issue, I always thought it would be helpful not only to this body but to the American public itself, before we go and vote again, whatever comes before that bill to come to the House, that you allow the opportunity for Members to go home and have a townhall and explain what is in the final version of the bill before that vote takes place. I think the American public would appreciate it, and it would be a great opportunity for both sides.
Mr. HOYER. Well, if the gentleman will yield, I want to say clearly, as you know, the base bill, the mark bill from which the three committees worked, as you know, was put online before the August break, so that it has been online for a very long period of time. Now, there will be changes. There will be amendments. There have already been amendments in the three committees and those have been online.
So, I think the gentleman's concern is correct. We share it. We want to make sure the public has the opportunity to know what is being done, that we transparently have the specifics for the American public to know what we are doing and for the Members to have that knowledge, and we intend to do that.
Now, whether or not we are going to have a timeframe in which somebody can have a townhall meeting, which may take a month to notice and get together, I think you would be shocked if I responded to you that, oh, sure, we will just wait around until you have your town meetings. So I am not going to say that. But I do appreciate the gentleman's point, which is we want to make sure the public does in fact have notice.
Mr. McCARTHY of California. Well, I thank the gentleman and I appreciate his answers today. The one thing I would say, I did this townhall in Bakersfield, California, where I did no notice, I didn't do a mailer, and gave enough opportunity. We have an opportunity now to know we will be in past October. I had 3,000 people, that is 1 percent of the whole city's population, turn out, and very engaged, very knowledgeable of the bill itself.
So I just hope the opportunity comes that knowing maybe there is a different number on this bill, but it is still H.R. 3200, that the public would be able to see it. And I will tell the gentleman that the Republicans on this side have a lot of ideas about health care, a lot of bills out there, of ways that we can lower the costs, take care of preexisting conditions and actually make health care much better for all Americans.
I appreciate the time and yield back.
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