Michael Burgess: “this week is a good week. The American College of Surgeons is in town visiting us in our offices on Capitol Hill, and so…”

“this week is a good week. The American College of Surgeons is in town visiting us in our offices on Capitol Hill, and so it is of some note that we passed again a measure for liability reform last week in this House. We did that a year ago and unfortunately got stalled over somewhere by the rotunda. I hope this year it can indeed go forward because, Mr. Speaker, it is so important for people to realize and for my friends at the American College of Surgeons to realize that right now we have got a President who will sign major medical liability reform. We have a candidate running for that office who has either voted ``no'' or been absent when that vote has been taken in the other body. We can no longer afford the crippling costs of defensive medicine that are layered upon our existing health care system. Mr. Speaker, it is time for Americans to sit up and take notice of this problem. Our professional people and our patients are indeed in peril.”