Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, as an aside, I was inclined to get up and ask that the gentleman's words be taken down. Of course, when we do that, we do it in a different context. With those words, we ought to all be happy today. Whether we are for or against, the Congress is working today as the American people would have the Congress work.

Speaker Boehner, Leader Pelosi, our extraordinary staffs on both sides of the aisle, and Members have come together and dealt with some difficult issues. As the gentleman, Dr. Burgess indicated--and I have worked with him on SCHIP for a very, very long period of time as I recall--we are making progress. We are not where we all want to be, but we are making progress.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill and thank the Democratic leader as well as Speaker Boehner, Ranking Members PALLONE and LEVIN, and the chairman of the committee, Mr. Pitts, and others for getting us to where we are today.

This bill will permanently replace the broken Medicare sustainable growth rate formula that, frankly, I have been working to get rid of for almost a decade, if not longer, which has created uncertainty and instability in the Medicare program for over a decade. I am pleased that the parties were able to come together and craft a bipartisan bill that will ensure seniors' access to their doctors and incentivize high-quality, high-value care.

I am also glad that this bill includes a robust reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP, which has been a bipartisan success story. This is an issue, Mr. Speaker, I worked hard on when I was majority leader, and I am glad that we are moving forward today in a bipartisan way that recognizes how important the CHIP program is for children and for families.

Another major component of this bipartisan compromise is the $7.2 billion in funding for community health centers. These centers serve some of our most needy citizens. These centers, in my home State of Maryland and throughout our country, provide essential health services for millions of underserved families. That is good for all of us.

This, of course, as I said, is not a perfect bill. No compromise is ever perfect from everybody's perspective. There are some parts I and other Democrats would have liked to see improved, just as there are some parts my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would change, but this compromise will provide much-needed relief and certainty to seniors, children, and families.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this effort. It will be a good day for the Congress of the United States, and it will be a good day for America. I thank all of those whose leadership--Members and staff--who got us to this point for the work that they have done.

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Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend, who has a magic minute that I dearly miss. I forgot to articulate, and I should have articulated, I want to congratulate Fred Upton.

Fred Upton is my friend. Fred Upton is the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Fred Upton is one of those Members in this House who represents this institution so well because he is committed to working in a bipartisan fashion. We find ourselves sometimes not able to do that. But I want to say thank you to Mr. Upton from Michigan for his leadership and his commitment to making sure this institution works as the American people want it to work.

I thank my friend, the majority leader, for yielding.

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