There is no way, none, that Congress is going to tolerate a situation where persistently there are counties in this country where people cannot buy insurance on the individual market.

Ultimately, in my State the business community came together, for instance, and supported Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act...

I made clear at Tuesday's hearing, and I want to repeat, that I am not in any way proposing that we change the patient protection guardrails already written in Section 1332...

When Senator Murray decides that we're going to get a result, we usually do.

So let's keep in mind also that even if President Trump wanted to extend the cost-sharing payments, the courts might not allow him to do that, unless we act.

I hope that we also then move on to a discussion about how we continue to get our country healthier, lowering costs...

If you're not going to come in and provide the basic services and the networks that you're there to do, you're going to have issues, I don't care what State you're in.

Every single person counts. That's the basic foundational principle of our democracy, and that means every single person has to be able to get health care.

Without cost-sharing reductions, as has been pointed out by several senators, the Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation, and our witnesses have said that premiums will increase an additional 20 percent in 2018.

State innovation is a part of our solution, and I look forward to working with Senator Murray.

Our goal is to see if we can come to a consensus by early next week so that we can hand, Senator Murray and I can hand, with hopefully the support of several Republicans and Democrats...

We came very close. We missed by a very small margin of votes.

I rise to speak about the pending NDAA. In particular, I rise to speak about an amendment that has been previously discussed on the floor that is being offered by the Senator from Kentucky, Mr. Paul, that deals with the current…

sexual assault is a major issue on our Nation's college campuses. Too many young people are sexually assaulted while in school. Alarmingly, the majority of these crimes will go unreported. The consequences of these crimes are often…

Let me be clear. Like any worthwhile compromise, I know we will not agree on everything at the outset.

A lot of the reason for that is, I think, because of the volatility you described.

The stakes are existential for us to get this right because, frankly, the last 8 months, the American public has just been assaulted with words like 'repeal,' 'implode,' 'sabotage.'

The combination of a discussion about repeal with an Administration that, frankly, has rooted for an implosion has people very, very frightened in the most important area in their life.

The stakes could not be higher.

Healthcare is the most important expenditure anybody ever makes with a dollar in their pocket.

Who outside this building cares about that? We are talking about health care and we ought to come up with something that can effectuate the flexibility promise of these two waiver provisions and not needlessly gum them up.

I want to emphasize that because democrats will reject any effort to this discussion if it erodes the guardrails and protections that so many patients and families rely on.

Some of these solutions are very short term, though, and we need some longer term help from all of you.

You cannot fix health care just with one party.

I rise to speak briefly about the news this week that the President is terminating the Executive action protecting DACA recipients--Dreamers as we know them--but also putting the burden on the shoulders of this body, the article I branch…