Political Quotes

“tonight I rise to speak about two matters. The first is the issue of community health centers, which, of course, is a major issue for States across the country. Millions of Americans get their healthcare through community health centers. I will mention it more than once--800,000 of them are in the State of Pennsylvania. As we come closer to working out bipartisan agreements on a whole range of issues that are ahead of us literally in the next 2 to 3 weeks, I hope there will be a strong consensus to provide a funding plan and funding certainty to community health centers across the country. These community health centers provide access to healthcare through education, rehabilitation, preventive services, and direct care. These centers focus on meeting the very basic healthcare needs in a community. They provide critical services, especially for people in both urban areas and rural areas, where there are often limited options for primary care and prevention clinics. Despite the critical importance of these health centers, Congress failed to act to extend the majority of funding for community health centers before it ran out on September 30, 2017. After funds expired, the health centers were facing a funding reduction of between 60 percent and 70 percent of their funding. Last December, Congress passed a continuing resolution that included $550 million in funding for community health centers. That is nowhere near what they need to get through even 1 year.…”