Pete Stark

We do not need a review, but we need a bill that we can read. We are spending taxpayers' money to help Wisconsin.

it is a joy to get a chance to speak to Sam when he has to sit and listen to us. Mr. Speaker, I have worked with Sam my entire 22 years on the Committee on Ways and Means. It is interesting. Sam opposed expanding the Committee on Ways and…

Mr. Speaker, this bill is called the Health Coverage Availability and Affordability Act, but it ain't. Because of the medical savings accounts and other provisions in here, the Republicans have managed through some legislative legerdemain…

reclaiming my time, quite frankly, the committee that deals with this topic has not met, and it is responsible for Medicare, and it does nothing except worry and tell us that Medicare is going to go broke. It is in fact fiddling with this…

I am talking about data base requirements by an employer, an issue raised by the previous speaker, and I believe it is quite germane as it deals with the requirements that employers may be faced with in keeping medical data banks as…

I am relatively indifferent, but I can find nothing to oppose it. If it came to a vote, I would vote for it.

I thank the Chair. The important issue is that if we were to even consider doing away with the data bank, we could not have the records to support the fact that we ought not to do away with nursing home regulations as the Republican…

reclaiming my time, if I may respond, the gentleman makes a very good point. These particular bills are brought to the floor under a euphemism referred to as ``correction day.'' Now, I think we need a correction week. As a matter of fact…

this legislation will have no effect. The Gingrich-Thomas legislation will so destroy nursing home regulations that even if it did have an effect, it would not make any difference, because the nursing home regulations would be tossed out…

The other issue of data banks, Mr. Speaker, is in the field of insurance regulation. This data bank was designed to find a correlation between private insurance that an employee might have and Medicare. We have further need for a data bank…

I will confine my remarks to employers collecting data for a data bank that relates to Government insurance and private insurance, which I believe is specifically what the bill and I am suggesting; that while we are eliminating this, we…

I believe most people on both sides of the aisle know why we are spending the time of the House on this issue. This is nothing more than a cynical maneuver by the Republicans to give themselves some cover with the elderly for the massive…

I would like to engage my distinguished colleague from California, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Environment. This is a wonderful project. The gentleman knows it will go to Livermore, CA, and shooting light on these…

This is bubbles in a bottle, shining a little light on the bubbles for California champagne is certainly worth $1 million of the taxpayers' money.

It is right in the center, reclaiming my time, Mr. Chairman, of the finest champagne country in the world. What this will do is irradiate that champagne that comes from California, much to the disadvantage of New York, where they do not…

my constituent, Dr. Harry Wu of Milpitas, CA, a Chinese-born American citizen, has campaigned to publicize conditions in the Chinese labor camps. He has recently been arrested and charged with espionage by the Chinese government, and he…

I rise in hopeless opposition to a rule that was crafted in the dead of night, and I rise to warn the American public. This is terribly flawed legislation. This bill destroys a fairly good idea. This bill has been introduced and written by…

the reason to vote no on this bill is to give the Congress time to perfect the necessary structures and regulations for Medicare Select to work. Indeed, it does work in California. The trouble is, there is only one insurance company, Blue…

Mr. Speaker, this is a perfect example of the triumph of ideology over American pragmatism. The Republicans say they are going to save the fund. First they take $86 billion out by a tax break. Then they take another $280 billion out by the…

Republicans talking about saving Medicare remind me of the man who murdered his parents and begged for mercy as an orphan. They are making a blatant attempt to distract the public from a tax bill that takes $87 billion out of the Medicare…

I just wanted to correct the misstatements of the previous speaker. On March 8 the committee report indicates that the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Gibbons] did not vote. As a practical matter, he was out sick on that day and did not vote…

I mean, if it is such urgency, I do not know because it seems to me we are bringing it up without the responsible procedure of seeing whether the bill is indeed any good. A closed rule does not permit any changes, and, except in some of…

If I can reclaim and explain to the gentleman. The premiums under the current law cannot be raised during the middle of the year so that there, first, is no danger that existing beneficiaries under these plans would have their premiums…

Mr. Speaker, I gather that the majority feels that we should move ahead rapidly with this bill, and I begin to sense that we are not going to have any opportunity to amend it.

I would like first to congratulate the distinguished gentlewoman from Connecticut, the sponsor of H.R. 483. While I may agree with what is in the bill, it is the absence of a few things with which she and I would differ. But she gets my…