Elijah Cummings: “President Obama came into this situation having to put a patient in intensive care, not just in critical--not just…”

I really do think that we are in a moral situation. People are striving to live, trying to breathe the air of our country, trying to be better, trying to be healthy.

The American people demanded that their representatives in Washington fight for them and for what affects their lives on a day-to-day basis.

We are better than where we are. We are better than this.

If we had a House and if we had a Senate that would pass legislation and we had a President that would sign it, this problem which is the subject of this hearing today could be fixed.