Chairman Cassidy Delivers Remarks Before HELP Committee Vote on Bills Improving American Families Access to Quality, Affordable Health Care

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered remarks during today's consideration of several bills to make health care more affordable and accessible to American families.

Click here to watch the full hearing.

Cassidy's opening remarks as prepared for delivery can be found below:

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will please come to order.

I think a lot about health care; how to lower costs, promote innovation, and improve care.

Americans expect us to find answers; not to shout insults back and forth, or waste time on political games. It is our responsibility to make their lives better; make their lives easier.

We have eight bipartisan bills before us today. Bills that help Americans get a life-saving organ transplant; increase access to affordable drugs; and support mothers and babies through healthy pregnancy.

Many of these should be easy bills to move through the Committee quickly.

Unfortunately, Senator Sanders wants to sabotage all of that, introducing irrelevant partisan amendments to some of these bills. Amendments he knows will prevent these bills from passing the Committee and the Senate.

It's a messaging stunt. It's a temper tantrum. It's grinding this Committee to a halt rather than passing simple, commonsense bills that help people.

How can we debate complex policies if we can't even get past today's markup on these bills?

It's no wonder Americans are frustrated with congress. I'm frustrated!

This is not what our founders intended. And we shouldn't accept this as our new reality.

As Chair, I have provided members of this Committee a forum to discuss topics of importance to them, and to move legislation on multiple occasions. When Democrat priorities were not being elevated to me for consideration through my discussions with the Ranking Member, this Committee held the first ever Member Day hearing in the Senate. The Ranking Member may not be aware since he missed the hearing, but colleagues in this room and other Senators raved about how much they enjoyed this. Now we are trying to act on ideas that came out of that hearing and we've got a list of partisan, poison pill amendments to consider. We have other bills that Republican and Democrat members have identified as priorities that I want to mark up in July. But if we can't get through this markup productively, then we're never going to get that markup.

I'll just remind my colleagues briefly of remarks from the late Senator Mike Enzi's farewell address. He believed in the 80-20 rule and it's how he ran this Committee. No Senator got everything they wanted all of the time, but bills got passed. Laws were made.

I've told Senator Sanders that we will continue to work together on his priorities. We have talked about them extensively. We have some disagreements, but we can work through those disagreements. The public health extenders that are of great importance to him are also of great importance to many bipartisan senators. We just recently increased and extended these programs. They have not lapsed, and this Committee is not going to finish this year without addressing them. I'm hopeful we can address them next month.

Democrats have a choice to make. Support the Ranking Member no matter what; blow up the bills THEY want, the BIPARTISAN bills that they have called me about and deny themselves the opportunity for future markups and to help their constituents get what we all know they need.

Or put aside partisanship and do what is best for the American people.

To my Republican colleagues, do not take the bait of these political poison pill amendments. Doing so only empowers this bad behavior.

Policy differences are fine. They are part of the process. Hostage-taking theatrics is not.

It's up to the Members of this Committee to allow us to function as a normal Committee. It's up to you to deny one member the ability to blow up a bipartisan markup because he didn't get what he wants when he wants it.

Let's do our job as legislators and legislate.

With that, I recognize Senator Sanders.

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