Michael Burgess: “I thank the chairman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I do rise in support of H.R. 1217. The bill, as we have already heard…”

“I thank the chairman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I do rise in support of H.R. 1217. The bill, as we have already heard, repeals the public health slush fund that was included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was passed just a little over a year ago. This fund, called the Prevention and Public Health Fund, is almost $18 billion, which accounts for the next 8 fiscal years, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services gets to spend this money on any program that he or she deems worthy. What the money will be used for and how it will be used are, essentially, unknowns. Neither this Congress nor subsequent Congresses have any earthly idea. It is yet, once again, an abdication of our authority here in the United States Congress. It is an abdication of power in deference to the executive branch. If that's what people think we were sent here to do, to simply carve off greater and greater pieces of our authority and hand it over to the White House, then I hope I'm wrong in that; but over and over again, with the health care bill, with the financial reg bill, it seems like that is the mantra here. It does put way too much discretion in the hands of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. {time} 1530 We've got a predicted shortfall in the Nation's health care provider workforce. Some of this money is going to go for scholarships, but it sets up a big problem.…”