Brett Guthrie: “I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 1216. The health care bill that…”

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 1216. The health care bill that was signed into law last year spent over a trillion dollars and empowered Federal bureaucrats more than it did the American people. As a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, I have been working on legislation that takes steps to peel back a few of the many mandatory programs that were instituted in the health care law and limit the Federal Government's unprecedented power. Section 5508 of the health care law authorizes the Health and Human Services Secretary to award teaching health centers development grants and appropriates $230 million from 2011 through 2015. H.R. 1216 amends the Public Health Service Act to convert funding for graduate medical education in qualified teaching health centers from direct appropriations to an authorization of appropriations. This bill is not about the merits of graduate medical education or teaching health centers. Everyone agrees that there is a strong need for more primary care physicians in our health care system, but picking and choosing one program over another to receive automatic funding is irresponsible. Making these programs mandatory spending is unfair to all of the other health care programs that have to compete every year to continue to receive funds.…”