John Sarbanes

I see this through two lenses. One is absolutely that the Hatch Act is there to protect Federal employees.

Most people want to believe, however, that once the President is in office, he or she will endeavor to act in the best interest of the country and not just a specific political party.

The purpose of the Hatch Act as being a separation of the nonpartisan governance of the country from partisan political campaigning

There's also the danger that allowing Federal employees to advocate for political campaigns while on duty would undermine the public's confidence that the government is actually doing its job.

If you have a work force where everybody is campaigning on taxpayer money, that is not a good use of the taxpayer money.

The impact that is being predicted from implementing this gag rule is it will have a tremendous effect on access to care

It seems to me that your office ought to have given consideration to what the practical impact would be

If not replaced, the public health impacts would include an increase in unintended pregnancies, an increase in sexually transmitted infections, an increase in undetected cancers, and a decrease in access to prenatal care.

I am very proud that in Maryland, we have been a leader in expressing our opposition and taking action against the gag rule.

I want to echo what has been pointed out by my colleagues, many patients seeking care at Title X clinics have no other source of care.

I ask you to give that real consideration.

I think overall the Commission could probably be doing more to cooperate with States, really view it as a collaborative effort.

My concern is that the administration's proposed policy changes on State oversight of water quality certification could weaken our efforts to achieve clean water in the Chesapeake Bay.

Unfortunately, my view is the Commission doesn't always give those interests the sufficient weight that they deserve.

The impact of those bills... is very sobering.

Even when patients are trying to anticipate a situation and do their homework... they can still get caught short.

We all hear stories from family members and friends of this kind of gotcha moment that they face.

As a matter of fact, the Maryland Health Care Commission from its study found that in three years after implementation of the benchmark system the total amount of out-of-network payments decreased from 20 percent to 11 percent.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you all for being here much of the day.

We have absolutely not seen evidence that benchmark rates will cause problems in networks.

I think it shows the benefits of that.

These can total tens of thousands of dollars and it can wipe somebody out.

It's incredible, I guess, but not totally surprising that it's affecting as many as 1 in 7 patients in America.

I think that will have a very positive effect on networks.

I am sort to attracted to the No Surprises Act right now because I think it achieves that balance in a way that works best for patients.