Breaking the Gridlock Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, this argument is about universal access. For years, the Republican leadership in this institution has attempted to avert this very moment. For us this is not to be about spiking the football. This is not to be about an end-zone dance. This is about to declare a major victory for the American people.

Despite what I have heard, they have used every maneuver and procedure to prevent the very debate that we are going to have for the next hour. All these years later, they never even had a plan or an alternative.

We can finally choose families, and they can join us today in extending the ACA tax credits and save healthcare for millions of members of the American family. How easily and quickly they did a massive tax cut for the wealthiest amongst us while subsequently arguing that they could deny average men and women an opportunity for health insurance.

So here we are all these years later, as one who helped to write the Affordable Care Act, the ACA is still standing. We will continue to improve it every single year. When I consider now the uninsured enrollment in America is down to 6 percent, it is thanks to the ACA.

If Congress did not do what we are about to do in the next hour, a family of four making $130,000 would see their marketplace premium go from $921 to $1,992. That would be an 18.4 percent increase. Our enhanced credits make sure that nobody would pay more than 8.5 percent of their income for coverage.

Now, Republicans think that people can afford increased premiums by 37 percent, and that is what they are proposing today. They said 2 weeks ago that they had a healthcare plan that they wrote on Friday night. As I noted at the time, it was held together by bubble gum and Elmer's Glue. By the way, Democrats never even got to see it. If they had a healthcare plan alternative, they should have shown it to us.

Let me say this, Mr. Speaker. This is a good day for the American family. This is an important consideration for this institution. Despite repeated denials and efforts to thwart this very moment, in the next hour, my colleagues are going to do for the American family what they said they would do, and that is to extend these tax credits for the ACA.

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Mr. NEAL. Clark), the Democratic minority whip, who can stand at that microphone and say the following: Every child in Massachusetts has health insurance and 97 percent of the adults in Massachusetts are covered because of the ObamaCare plan.
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Mr. NEAL. Pelosi). There is no finer leader or person who was more determined to help bring us to this moment and whose fortitude helped to give us the ACA than Speaker Emerita Pelosi.

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Mr. NEAL.

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Mr. NEAL. Sanchez).

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Mr. NEAL. Sewell).

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Mr. NEAL. DelBene).

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Mr. NEAL. Chu).

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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
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Mr. NEAL. Plaskett).

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Mr. NEAL. Underwood).

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Mr. NEAL. Salinas).
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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, it is too bad that we had to play this out to the anxiety and consternation of the American people. Think of what this might be like if you didn't know a month ago whether or not your children were going to have health insurance. Think of the anguish that you might feel proceeding into the holidays while not knowing whether or not that child would be able to complete the doctor's appointment that you had made for them because you didn't have health insurance.

I didn't hear the other side complaining about keeping 26-year-olds on their parents' health insurance. How about the idea that, in the ACA, we were able to abolish preexisting conditions being routinely used to deny the opportunity to access even primary care for millions and millions of Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I call attention to this because I have watched over these years how the ACA has not only become more popular, but the American people have come to expect the benefits of the ACA.

This argument for those of us who were here and participated at the time was not really complex at all. The argument was that we would proceed on the basis of the notion of universal access and that you wouldn't have to worry that if you went to the emergency room, you somehow might be turned away because you had not been able to pay another bill.

We don't get a chance on this Earth to predict when we are going to get sick. Those are the basic actuarial realities of what insurance is about. By way of example, we don't get to buy homeowners' insurance after the house has burned down. We don't get to buy life insurance after we die.

The idea of what we did here was to spread the notion of risk, an entirely reasonable consequence, authored by former President Obama and, by the way, the steadfast determination at the time of Speaker Pelosi.

This was negotiated across the board with all members of the healthcare system, and we came up with a reasonable solution that we continue to build upon.

Mr. Speaker, I will point out a couple of pretty important statistics: 4 years straight of record enrollment in the Affordable Care Act, and 24.3 million Americans have now signed up.

That is what we had in mind. When you look back at these enhanced premium tax credits, we keep hearing the other side say that there are billionaires and millionaires who are driving the benefit. JCT has said that nobody over $500,000 is getting this benefit. We are open to these conversations as we go forward, as well. Yet, only 38 percent of their tax cuts inure to the benefit of people at the lower end of the economic spectrum.

By ending these enhanced tax credits, we will stop the Republican assault on the ACA. They have repeatedly said that they want to work with us, but there has been no effort on the Republican side to work with us on expanding and extending these tax credits.

There has been no concerted effort from our Republican colleagues to really put on a piece of legislation, a tax bill, that stands up under the magnifying glass of critical analysis. It is patchwork. It is announced every time we get near some cliff in the debate that somehow they have a healthcare plan. We haven't seen it yet.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to close by saying the same words that I opened with: This is a most significant day. This is a happy day for the American people.

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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 230, nays 196, not voting 5, as follows: [Roll No. 11] YEAS--230 Adams Aguilar Amo Ansari Auchincloss Balint Barragan Beatty Bell Bera Beyer Bishop Bonamici Boyle (PA) Bresnahan Brown Brownley Budzinski Bynum Carbajal Carey Carson Carter (LA) Casar Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Cisneros Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Conaway Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crockett Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis (IL) Davis (NC) De La Cruz Dean (PA) DeGette DeLauro DelBene Deluzio DeSaulnier Dexter Dingell Doggett Elfreth Escobar Espaillat Evans (PA) Fields Figures Fitzpatrick Fletcher Foster Foushee Frankel, Lois Friedman Frost Garamendi Garbarino Garcia (CA) Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Gillen Golden (ME) Goldman (NY) Gomez Gonzalez, V. Goodlander Gottheimer Gray Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Hoyle (OR) Huffman Hurd (CO) Ivey Jackson (IL) Jacobs Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Joyce (OH) Kamlager-Dove Kaptur Kean Keating Kelly (IL) Kennedy (NY) Khanna Krishnamoorthi LaLota Landsman Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Latimer Lawler Lee (NV) Lee (PA) Leger Fernandez Levin Liccardo Lieu Lofgren Lynch Mackenzie Magaziner Mannion Matsui McBath McBride McClain Delaney McClellan McCollum McDonald Rivet McGarvey McGovern McIver Meeks Menendez Meng Mfume Miller (OH) Min Moore (WI) Morelle Morrison Moskowitz Moulton Mrvan Mullin Nadler Neal Neguse Norcross Nunn (IA) Ocasio-Cortez Olszewski Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pelosi Perez Peters Pettersen Pingree Pocan Pou Pressley Quigley Ramirez Randall Raskin Riley (NY) Rivas Ross Ruiz Ryan Salazar Salinas Sanchez Scanlon Schakowsky Schneider Scholten Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Simon Smith (WA) Sorensen Soto Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Subramanyam Suozzi Swalwell Sykes Takano Thanedar Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tokuda Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Tran Underwood Valadao Van Orden Vargas Vasquez Veasey Velazquez Vindman Walkinshaw Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Whitesides Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Wittman NAYS--196 Aderholt Alford Allen Amodei (NV) Arrington Babin Bacon Balderson Barr Barrett Baumgartner Bean (FL) Begich Bentz Bergman Bice Biggs (AZ) Biggs (SC) Bilirakis Boebert Bost Brecheen Buchanan Burchett Burlison Calvert Cammack Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Ciscomani Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Collins Comer Crane Crank Crawford Crenshaw Davidson DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Downing Dunn (FL) Edwards Ellzey Emmer Estes Evans (CO) Ezell Fallon Fedorchak Feenstra Fine Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fleischmann Flood Fong Foxx Franklin, Scott Fry Fulcher Gill (TX) Gimenez Goldman (TX) Gonzales, Tony Gooden Gosar Graves Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hageman Hamadeh (AZ) Haridopolos Harrigan Harris (MD) Harris (NC) Harshbarger Hern (OK) Higgins (LA) Hill (AR) Hinson Houchin Hudson Huizenga Issa Jack Jackson (TX) James Johnson (LA) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (PA) Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kennedy (UT) Kiggans (VA) Kiley (CA) Kim Knott Kustoff LaHood Langworthy Latta Lee (FL) Letlow Loudermilk Lucas Luna Luttrell Mace Malliotakis Maloy Mann Massie Mast McClain McClintock McCormick McDowell McGuire Messmer Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Mills Moolenaar Moore (AL) Moore (NC) Moore (UT) Moore (WV) Moran Nehls Newhouse Norman Obernolte Ogles Onder Owens Palmer Patronis Perry Pfluger Reschenthaler Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rouzer Roy Rulli Scalise Schmidt Schweikert Scott, Austin Self Sessions Shreve Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Stefanik Steil Steube Strong Stutzman Taylor Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner (OH) Van Drew Van Duyne Van Epps Wagner Walberg Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Westerman Wied Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Womack Yakym Zinke NOT VOTING--5 Baird Hunt McCaul Murphy Rutherford

Messrs. CRAWFORD and SCOTT FRANKLIN of Florida changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''

So the bill was passed.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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