Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1852, ``The Children's Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act of 2011,'' would amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize payments to children's hospitals operating training programs that provide graduate medical education. These payments would be made to hospitals for both direct and indirect costs related to graduate medical education. Americans across our nation need care, and the Children's Hospital GME (CHGME) program has been utilized by hospitals across our country to train doctors who can provide that care. I represent the 18th District which is home to the Methodist Hospital System, one of the largest medical institutions in the world. In 2010, the Methodist Hospital System graduated sixty-nine doctors from the resident CHGME program. That is 69 additional doctors who will meet our growing health care needs. H.R. 1852 will allow Houston to continue to recruit and train so many talented doctors. Overall, freestanding children's hospitals have increased their medical resident training programs by 35 percent since 1999. If CHGME is allowed to expire we will lose the gains we have made in this field. There is no reasonable argument for allowing this program to expire as it provides a great benefit at a marginal cost. For this fiscal year, the program has spent .0085 percent of the federal budget.…”