On the recordJune 21, 2016
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Again, I want to thank my colleague, Mike Thompson from California, for his collaboration. I want to thank the Ways and Means staff for working with us to get this legislation done, working with the stakeholders. I also want to single out some of our staffers who really worked very hard on this: Melissa Gierach, Casey Badmington, and Lakecia Foster. Without their help, we could not have gotten all this put together and seen this legislation through, so I am deeply grateful for their efforts as well. Mr. Speaker, this is a commonsense change that will expand options, it will increase portability, it will protect small businesses, and it will end these harsh penalties that small businesses were encountering as they were trying to do the right thing. So I urge my colleagues to join me and support H.R. 5447. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
