Bob Filner: “tonight I am asking the Speaker of the House and the leadership of the Republican Party to respect the will of the…”

“tonight I am asking the Speaker of the House and the leadership of the Republican Party to respect the will of the American people, respect the demands of the American people, respect the vote of this House of Representatives, and quickly appoint conferees on H.R. 2723, the Patients' Bill of Rights. This country cannot wait any longer for the vital health protections included in its important legislation. We cannot afford to have only those opposed to those protections at the table negotiating. To do so would guarantee that these hard-fought protections would just be negotiated away. It would be criminal not to include Members from the majority who listened to the pleas from their constituents. It would signal the intent of the leadership of this House to ignore the protections that we fought so hard to include in the bipartisan patient protection plan. So I ask the Speaker, I ask the House leaders not to prejudice the conference from the beginning. The Patients' Bill of Rights included life-saving protections that must be embraced and not thrown out. The people have spoken, and we must listen.”