Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 4626, Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act

Floor Speech

Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 4626, Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act

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Ms. FOXX. I thank the gentlewoman from New York for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of the 110th Congress, the new majority came to power full of promises for a bipartisan working relationship and a landmark pledge to create the ``most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history''; however, this rule and this bill are the antithesis of that statement.

The bill we consider today, H.R. 4626, the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act, is not the language that passed the House Judiciary Committee in November of 2009 as H.R. 3596.

In fact, the bill we have before us today was not considered by any committee and was introduced only 2 days ago, on Monday, February 22, 2010.

It is hard to understand what is the sudden rush. Yesterday, the gentlewoman from New York said we have waited 60 years to get this bill; today, she says this is long overdue. But she doesn't point out that in all that period of time, the Democrats have been in charge of Congress except for 2 years in the fifties during the Eisenhower administration and the years 1995 to 2006. So why didn't they get it passed when they were in control before? Why have they been waiting 60 years to get it done?

The language in H.R. 4626 is substantially different from the bill the Judiciary Committee passed. That bill dealt with both health insurance and medical liability insurance, but medical liability insurance has since been stricken from the language. In addition, my colleague, Mr. LUNGREN from California, offered an amendment that was accepted with bipartisan support by the House Judiciary Committee during markup. That amendment was stricken from the language of the current bill that we see in H.R. 4626. During the Rules Committee debate yesterday, Mr. LUNGREN offered that same amendment; however, it was not made in order. Instead, we have yet another closed rule where Members are shut out from offering any amendments to a bill that did not see the proper vetting process. It is high time that we open this process up and that we hold the majority to their promise to make this an open Congress and allow amendments to be offered on the floor and fully debated.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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