Rob Portman: “I would say this amendment does in fact address the problem, it does in fact force Congress to deal with the issue of…”

“I would say this amendment does in fact address the problem, it does in fact force Congress to deal with the issue of public-private competition. If Congress, under its point of order requirement, which would be the discretion of Congress by majority vote, chooses not to impose a mandate because of the private-public concern, then Congress has the ability to do that under H.R. 5. And by this amendment we are insuring that Congress has the information to carry out that very informed debate and to make this very important decision. So I would say that this amendment in fact does solve the gentleman's concern, and I look forward to the debate on his amendment.”