Peter Welch

If enacted, H.R. 51 would admit the state of Washington D.C. but leave the Twenty-Third Amendment in place.

Thank you for all your years of leadership on this, Madam Chair. You have been an inspiration for us.

Congress and the states would not want the few residents of the reduced D.C. to have so much power over the election of the president.

It really is not acceptable.

I just want to register my outrage at that because so much of the people we represent need that coverage and don't want to be second-class citizens.

I believe it's a national scandal that they are able to charge these prices without any accountability for how they're raising it, why they're raising it.

I'm tired of those talking points and so is President Trump, and I just want to say, 'Amen.'

But, you know, the bottom line is, we are all in this together, and we have to have--politics is about trying to find ways where the things that are common problems, we can come up with solutions that work for all of us.

You're entitled to some anger at us because it's our job to make certain that these companies don't rip off the patent system.

I want to thank you. You know, every once in a while, we get an opportunity do something useful in Congress, not often, but today's one of those days.

The bottom line is, we are all in this together, and we have to have--politics is about trying to find ways where the things that are common problems, we can come up with solutions that work for all of us.

We passed some--you know, Mr. Cummings, of course, has been a leader on trying to get the prices down for years, and it's starting to make a difference.

It's for us to figure out how they're doing that.

It's outrageous. You shouldn't have to be contending with unaffordable medications.

You know, every once in a while, we get an opportunity do something useful in Congress, not often, but today's one of those days.

Justice requires we protect those preexisting condition protections.

I do believe that the access to healthcare is 100 percent a fundamental right.

This is us getting resources back to the people who sent it here in the first place.

So I view our role here federally fundamentally as getting the resources back to the communities.

This is us getting resources back to the people who sent it here in the first place.

I do just want to reemphasize the importance of your bill, that we get this money back to folks in the communities.

This decision to start going to opioids is just a decision of hopelessness, a lack of hope.

I think it's really tougher even in rural areas and urban, but it knows no boundaries, whatsoever.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will start with a man-bites-dog story.

I want to talk about battery storage technology.