Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank our leaders for working so tirelessly to find a compromise to fix the SGR. For too many years this arbitrary budget device has worked to up-end Medicare doctors and patients alike, creating turmoil when what was needed was common sense. Thankfully, today common sense wins out.

But I have to say as well that I am disappointed that the bill includes unnecessary language on restricting women's reproductive rights. The inclusion of a statutory reference to the Hyde amendment is bothersome in the least and very possibly a dangerous precedent-setting salvo by anti-choice opponents to codify the Hyde language.

Mr. Speaker, I don't understand why Hyde had to be referenced at all in this bill. Everyone already knows that community health centers are already subject to Hyde restrictions. Including it in this SGR bill is redundant. Unfortunately, it is all too typical of this Tea Party-infused Congress to sow discord rather than accommodation. Adding the Hyde language to the bill only causes heartburn in a bill that could much more easily have satisfied our hunger for bipartisanship.

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