Ron Wyden

Well now, Senator Crapo and I are going to do this together. We are going to sort this bureaucracy challenge out.

Because for years we pressed the case on a bipartisan basis to update the Medicare guarantee.

What we have seen from the pandemic is that there has been unequal access, and the communities that have been most likely to access telehealth have been whiter, richer, more urban, and with more access.

The CARES Act also allowed Federally Qualified Health Centers, including community health centers and Rural Health Clinics, to receive Medicare payment for telehealth services.

My view, as a general proposition, is that patients ought to be able to have more accessible opportunities for telehealth.

We thought in particular it made some sense as part of our duties, from time to time to step back and take a look at what happened during the pandemic.

Senator Crapo and I both thought telehealth was an ideal place to start.

I particularly want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for the exceptional participation yesterday on the infrastructure hearing.

We applaud the leadership of Chairman Wyden and Ranking Member Crapo and members of the Committee for holding this hearing.

. . . it is the policy of this Nation, in fulfillment of its special trust responsibilities and legal obligations to Indians . . . to ensure the highest possible health status for Indians and urban Indians and to provide all resources to…

I believe the committee can work together on a bipartisan basis to make that and other changes a reality.

The CHRONIC Care Act, which was passed by the committee when Orrin Hatch was the chair, marked the very first time seniors, for example, could get telehealth in-home for kidney disease.

Telehealth is going to be a big part of the transformation going forward, moving beyond acute care to dealing with chronic disease.

I think the Trump administration regularly undermined whistleblowers.

The Fourth Amendment is not for sale where the government basically uses a credit card to throw the Fourth Amendment in the trash can.

Senator Ron Wyden who chairs the Finance Committee, and I, have the Move America Act which would be a very good candidate to be part of the infrastructure package.

We thank Chairman Wyden and Senator Cortez Masto for the inclusion of Medicaid crisis care funding in the American Rescue Plan.

We urge both its enactment and the adoption of mobile crisis intervention services by Medicaid programs nationwide.

We are encouraged by Senate Finance Chairman Wyden's release of the 'Trade Preferences and American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act'.

We are laser-focused on this proposition of being able to out-compete China. We understand this is the economic challenge of our time.

This is going to take decisive action in two areas: one, the question of enforcement, and we are pleased... that you all came out of the gate so quickly on enforcing USMCA under the law that we authored.

In 2021, just about every major trade policy needs to be based on a straightforward proposition: out-competing China for jobs and economic growth.

The reality is, too often, the Chinese Government has feasted on weaknesses in the global trading system to the disadvantage of American workers.

We have to get on top of that.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for scheduling a very important hearing, and for your long history of going after these kinds of cases and trying to protect taxpayers.