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Floor Speech
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, let me be very clear: In the midst of a broken and dysfunctional healthcare system, we must do everything that we can to find new cures and treatments for pediatric cancer, and I strongly support that effort, period.
I think we can all imagine the kind of heartbreak that parents go through when they learn that their babies or their young children have been diagnosed with cancer. And I should say that as the former chair of the HELP Committee, I was actively involved in the bipartisan agreement that we reached over a year ago, which included the Give Kids a Chance Act, bipartisan support, ready to go.
Sadly, that enormously important legislation was torpedoed, as some of you will recall, by a series of tweets by Elon Musk. And Republicans became frightened, and they gave up on that bipartisan legislation.
As the current ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, I believe that we must revive that bipartisan agreement that was worked on month after month after month by Democrats and Republicans.
Therefore, in a minute, I will be making a unanimous consent request to include this bipartisan healthcare package, again, an agreement that was supported by the leadership of the House and the Senate as an amendment to the Give Kids a Chance Act, and I hope very much that my Republican colleague will support that amendment, and we can go forward together.
And let me very briefly describe what my amendment would do, which I hope my Republican friends will support. And I say this at a time, as all people know, not only that our healthcare system is broken but our primary healthcare system is especially broken. Tens of millions of Americans today cannot get to a doctor when they need to. And there are estimates--you talk about people dying, there are estimates that tens of thousands of people die in the United States of America because they are sick, and they can't afford to get to a doctor when they should. And that is why community health centers are so very important and provide healthcare today, dental care, low-cost prescription drugs, mental health counseling to over 30 million Americans.
All we are doing here is asking my Republican colleagues to support the bipartisan agreement we had last year, which would increase funding for community health centers by $340 million.
In fact, according to the Commonwealth Fund, health centers today are facing a disastrous situation. In fact, they face losses of nearly $42 billion in revenue over the next 5 years. So community health centers are a lifeline. They are the way the low-income, working-class people in rural America, urban America, get the healthcare they need, and we are seeing them under enormous financial strain.
Just this past year, we had a health center site in Vermont and I understand two in New Hampshire that were forced to shut down because of lack of funding.
What do you think happens when people can't get to a doctor? You know what happens when they are sick? They die. This is happening all over America. We all know that primary care is critical for children. In fact, in detecting cancer early, saving lives, how do you think children with cancer, how do we learn about it? They go to a doctor. They don't go to a doctor, we don't find out about it.
Researchers at the Emory University School of Medicine and the University of Chicago found that having access to primary care in childhood has been shown to lower the rate of death in blood cancer by over 10 percent.
It is vital that we begin to increase funding for community health centers. If Republicans agree with it, if Democrats agree with it, let us do it, let us do it right now.
Further, the amendment would extend mandatory funding for the National Health Service Corps for 2026. Guess what. In the richest country in the history of the world, we don't have enough doctors; we don't have enough nurses; we don't have enough dentists.
And what that actual health service corps does is forgive medical debt to those professionals who practice in underserved areas where they are desperately needed. Let's do it.
Further, this amendment would extend mandatory funding for the Teaching Health Center Program through September 29, 2029, on an annualized rate that reaches $300 million. Teaching health centers are extraordinarily important because they allow medical school graduates to do their residencies in community health centers, not just in large urban hospitals.
Finally, this amendment would provide $200 million a year for the Special Diabetes Programs, which are so very important. Again, this is not a radical amendment. I am not coming here saying let's do something we have not talked about. I am not talking about passing Medicare For All here. I am talking about doing what the Republicans and Democrats agreed to a year ago but was torpedoed by some tweets from Elon Musk.
Therefore, I ask that the request be modified, that my amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mr. SANDERS. Well, let's speak the truth.
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Mr. SANDERS. Don't interrupt me.
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Mr. SANDERS. Yes.
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Mr. SANDERS. The Senator from Oklahoma says that I am talking about politics. Well, if talking about politics means that millions of children have the right to see a doctor, I guess I am talking about politics.
If talking about politics means that kids can get dental care when their teeth are rotting in their mouth or get mental health counseling, I guess I am talking about politics.
So, once again, this important piece of legislation, I support, but I also support passing the bipartisan piece of legislation that was worked on last year.
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