Katherine Clark: “Here we go again. We are back here using valuable legislative time to make a doomed attempt to repeal the Affordable…”

“Here we go again. We are back here using valuable legislative time to make a doomed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Next week the highway bill will expire. The week after that we are facing the prospect of defaulting on our Nation's debt. Next month we could shut down government because we don't have a long-term budget. Yet, here we are again, repealing the Affordable Care Act, defunding Planned Parenthood, because maybe the 65th time it will stick? I would like to remind my colleagues that the Affordable Care Act has insured over 17 million Americans and that Planned Parenthood provides care to 2.7 million patients a year, often in underserved areas of our country. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle seem determined to replay these issues, despite the fact that we have already voted on them. Mr. Speaker, we have a lot of very important time-sensitive issues we need to deal with. We need to fund our highway system. We need to pay our bills. We need to keep government open. These are the very basic functions we were elected to perform. These are the minimum of what families need and expect from us. Instead, we are wasting precious time debating backward, ideological bills that roll back important progress made for women and families who are working hard to get to and stay in the middle class. I urge my colleagues to vote down this partisan attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act and defund Planned Parenthood.…”