Tom Harkin: “I listened to the statement made by my good friend--and he is my good friend--Senator Enzi from Wyoming. We are in the…”

“I listened to the statement made by my good friend--and he is my good friend--Senator Enzi from Wyoming. We are in the seventh month since the Affordable Care Act became law. Ever since the day President Obama signed the bill into law, my friends on the Republican side have made it clear they intend to use every conceivable opportunity they have to repeal it. This resolution, regrettably, is another attempt to make good on that pledge by undoing some of the law's most critically important patient protections. The resolution offered by Senator Enzi claims to protect small businesses by repealing the grandfather regulation, which defines which insurance plans and businesses have to comply with certain consumer protection provisions of the Affordable Care Act. However, if passed, the businesses and Americans could be in the worst of all worlds, losing the clear rules that allow them to keep the plans they have while not gaining additional consumer protections that apply when their plan changes. I have a letter from the Main Street Alliance, which strongly opposes this resolution.”