Tag Archives: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

The Senate re-Convenes at 2pmET 2/28/2011

Following the prayer and pledge, Senator Isakson will deliver Washington’s Farewell Address.

Following the address, there will be a period of morning business until 3:30pm, with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

At 3:30pm, the Senate will proceed to the consideration of S.23, the Patent Reform Act of 2011.

The following amendments are pending to S.23:

– Leahy amendment #114 (Title amendment)

– Vitter amendment #112 (Debt Limit)

– Bennet amendment #116 (small business fast track)

– Bennet amendment #117 (regional PTO offices)

– Lee amendment #115 (to express the sense of the Senate in support of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution)

At 4:30pm, the Senate will turn to Executive session to consider the following nominations:

– Amy Totenberg, of Georgia, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia; and

– Steve C. Jones, of Georgia, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia.

The time until 5:30pm will be equally divided and controlled in the usual form. At 5:30pm, senators should expect a voice vote on the Tottenberg nomination and a roll call vote on the Jones nomination.

The Senate is in a period of morning business.

This evening, Senator Reid moved to proceed to a house vehicle for a short term continuing resolution (HR359) and filed cloture on the motion. If necessary, this cloture vote would occur on Wednesday morning.

Votes:

26: Confirmation of Steve C. Jones, of Georgia, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia; Confirmed: 90-0

Unanimous Consent:

Confirmed Amy Totenberg, of Georgia, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia, by

Adopted S.Res.78, relative to the death of former U.S. Senator James McClure.

Adopted S.Res.8, Women in the US Armed Forces

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CURRENT HOUSE FLOOR PROCEEDINGS

LEGISLATIVE DAY OF FEBRUARY 28, 2011

112TH CONGRESS – FIRST SESSION

8:11 P.M. –

The House adjourned. The next meeting is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on March 1, 2011.

On motion to adjourn Agreed to by voice vote.

Mrs. Christensen moved that the House do now adjourn.

7:23 P.M. –

SPECIAL ORDER SPEECHES – The House has concluded all anticipated legislative business and has proceeded to Special Order speeches.

7:11 P.M. –

ONE MINUTE SPEECHES – The House proceeded with further one minute speeches.

7:10 P.M. –

Mr. Price (GA) asked unanimous consent That it may be in order at any time on Wednesday, March 9, 2011, for the Speaker to declare a recess, subject to the call of the Chair, for the purpose of receiving in joint meeting The Honorable Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia. Agreed to without objection.

H.R. 368:

to amend title 28, United States Code, to clarify and improve certain provisions relating to the removal of litigation against Federal officers or agencies to Federal courts, and for other purposes

7:09 P.M. –

Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 396 – 4 (Roll no. 150).

7:03 P.M. –

Considered as unfinished business.

H.R. 347:

to correct and simplify the drafting of section 1752 (relating to restricted buildings or grounds) of title 18, United States Code

7:02 P.M. –

Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 399 – 3 (Roll no. 149).

6:55 P.M. –

Considered as unfinished business.

H.R. 394:

to amend title 28, United States Code, to clarify the jurisdiction of the Federal courts, and for other purposes

Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 402 – 0 (Roll no. 148).

6:33 P.M. –

Considered as unfinished business.

6:32 P.M. –

UNFINISHED BUSINESS – The Chair announced that the unfinished business was the question of adoption of motions to suspend the rules which had been debated earlier and on which further proceedings had been postponed.

6:31 P.M. –

Mr. Woodall filed a report from the Committee on Rules on H. Res. 115.

ADJUSTED WHOLE NUMBER OF THE HOUSE – Under clause 5(d) of rule 20, the Chair announces to the House that, in light of the resignation of the gentlewoman from California, Ms. Harman, the whole number of the House is 433.

The House received a communication from Representative Harman wherein she resigns as a member of the House of Representatives effective at 6:30 p.m. on February 28, 2011.

6:30 P.M. –

The House convened, returning from a recess continuing the legislative day of February 28.

2:45 P.M. –

The Speaker announced that the House do now recess. The next meeting is subject to the call of the Chair.

H.R. 347:

to correct and simplify the drafting of section 1752 (relating to restricted buildings or grounds) of title 18, United States Code

2:44 P.M. –

At the conclusion of debate, the Yeas and Nays were demanded and ordered. Pursuant to the provisions of clause 8, rule XX, the Chair announced that further proceedings on the motion would be postponed.

2:37 P.M. –

DEBATE – The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 347.

Considered under suspension of the rules.

Mr. Lungren, Daniel E. moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.

H.R. 368:

to amend title 28, United States Code, to clarify and improve certain provisions relating to the removal of litigation against Federal officers or agencies to Federal courts, and for other purposes

2:28 P.M. –

DEBATE – The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 368.

Considered under suspension of the rules.

Mr. Lungren, Daniel E. moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.

H.R. 386:

to amend title 18, United States Code, to provide penalties for aiming laser pointers at airplanes, and for other purposes

2:27 P.M. –

Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.

On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote.

2:19 P.M. –

DEBATE – The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 386.

Considered under suspension of the rules.

Mr. Lungren, Daniel E. moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.

H.R. 394:

to amend title 28, United States Code, to clarify the jurisdiction of the Federal courts, and for other purposes

2:18 P.M. –

2:14 P.M. –

DEBATE – The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 394.

Considered under suspension of the rules.

Mr. Smith (TX) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.

The Speaker announced that votes on suspensions, if ordered, will be postponed until a time to be announced.

2:13 P.M. –

The House received a communication from Daniel J. Strodel, Chief Administrative Officer. Pursuant to Rule VIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, Mr. Strodel notified the House that he had been served with a subpoena for documents issued by a grand jury in the County of New York and that after consultation with the Office of General Counsel, he had determined that compliance with the subpoena was consistent with the privileges and rights of the House.

2:03 P.M. –

ONE MINUTE SPEECHES – The House proceeded with one minute speeches.

2:02 P.M. –

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – The Chair designated Ms. McCollum to lead the Members in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

The Speaker announced approval of the Journal. Pursuant to clause 1, rule I, the Journal stands approved.

2:01 P.M. –

Today’s prayer was offered by Reverend Gene Hemrick, Washington Theological Union, Washington, DC.

2:00 P.M. –

The Speaker designated the Honorable Robert E. Latta to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.

The House convened, starting a new legislative day.

~ Recent Post

Changes in the Distribution of Workers’ Hourly Wages Between 1979 and 2009

02/17/2011 Nativegrl77

http://www.cbo.gov/

This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study, which was prepared at the request of the chairman and former ranking member of the Senate Committee on Finance, documents changes in the level and distribution of hourly wages received by workers in the United States between 1979 and 2009. It also reviews the leading explanations for changes in the supply of, and demand for, workers with different sets of skills as well as the role of labor market institutions in affecting wages. In keeping with CBO’s mandate to provide objective, impartial analysis, this study does not make any recommendations. A related CBO study published in October 2009 analyzed trends in the distribution of annual earnings (Changes in the Distribution of Workers’ Annual Earnings Between 1979 and 2007); a forthcoming CBO study will examine trends in the distribution of household income between 1979 and 2007.

http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12051

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Jon Wants to Talk Facts, Not Tone — Watch Now!

01/19/2011 Nativegrl77

Tonal Recall

Jon thinks the health care bill doesn’t actually kill jobs and

that calling it a “job killer” is like calling sleep an “awake killer.”

Watch Now!

http://email.comedycentral.com/a/hBNNeEUBAhkQSB8Xd1CNsfnhM.B8U2fbOg/video

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

HEALTH CARE:Repealing Progress

01/18/2011 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

This week, conservatives in the House and Senate plan to push to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care reforms that President Obama signed into law last March. By repealing this legislation, these lawmakers plan to make good on a major campaign promise that they championed during the election season. But the truth is that repealing the legislation would undermine these same lawmakers’ stated goals of fostering job growth and slashing the deficit. Most importantly, repealing the legislation would remove access to health care for millions of Americans, and continue to lead to the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of people. Furthermore, while the right may claim that Americans want to see the legislation repealed in favor of a more free-market approach to health care — which has no history of working anywhere — the truth is that more Americans want to see the law made more progressive, not less.

REPEAL AND REPLACE? : The Republican-controlled House of Representatives was originally scheduled to vote for repealing the federal heath care law on January 13, but the measure was postponed due to the tragic shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and eighteen others. In order to repeal the law, House Republicans have introduced H.R. 2, the Repealing The Job-Killing Health Care Law Act. While one of the rallying cries of the Republican Party was that it planned to “repeal and replace” the health care law, their bill includes no replacement for the expanded coverage and protections found within the text of the recently-passed federal health care legislation. The Washington Post reports that, in the “absence of a plan, Republican leaders nevertheless are eager to convey that they have ideas about health care,” yet the only resolution they have drafted to accompany the repeal legislation simply lays out “broad, long-held GOP health-care goals, but no specifics.” This lack of specificity about what exactly the Republicans will be replacing the bill with irked Dan Fonte, a constituent of Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH), who confronted his representative during a recent town hall meeting. “Why don’t you make a replacement plan before you repeal it so we can look at it?” he asked, receiving applause from the audience. “Let’s think about this before we jump and do whatever we wanna do.” Renacci had no response for Fonte. Of course, those pushing for repeal may not seriously be thinking about fixing the American health care system at all, considering they know that their repeal push will likely not make it past the U.S. Senate or the president’s veto pen.

THE COSTS OF REPEAL: What would happen if the conservatives actually succeeded in repealing the health care law without replacing it with any meaningful legislation? For one, many of the GOP’s own campaign promises of growing the economy and lowering the debt would be undermined. While House Republicans have given their legislation an Orwellian title that suggests that the health care law kill jobs, the opposite is actually true: repealing the bill would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs. “The claim has no justification,” said Micah Weinberg, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation‘s Health Policy Program, of the GOP’s job-killing claims. As CAP’s David M. Cutler notes in his report “Repealing Health Care Is A Job Killer ,” repealing the law would slow annual job growth by “250,000 to 400,000 jobs annually.” Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that repealing the bill would increase the deficit by $230 billion over the next ten years. Even more importantly, repealing the new law would cause 32 million Americans to lose health care coverage and put insurance companies back in charge by allowing them to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. This would be particularly tragic when looked at in the light of a new Health and Human Services study released this week that finds that nearly half of the population under the age of 65 has one or more pre-existing conditions. Additionally, as Richard Kirsch of the Roosevelt Institute writes, repealing the new law would lead to the death of 32,000 Americans every year simply because they couldn’t afford to get the health care they need to live.

NOT WHAT AMERICANS WANT : The right often claims that it has a wide mandate from the American people to repeal the health care law and pursue a right-wing ideological approach that leaves more individuals to fend for themselves in the private market. Yet the most recent polling on the subject shows that this simply isn’t true. An Associated Press-GfK poll released yesterday found that “only about 1 in 4” Americans support repealing the health care law (the strongest support for repeal is from Republicans, where 1 in 4 actually want to keep it). Meanwhile, polling suggests that Americans actually either support the law or want it to be made more progressive, not less. A CNN/Opinion Research poll published last month found that 56 percent of Americans either favor the law or want it to be more “liberal.” A recently released Marist poll finds that more Americans want to change the law “so it does more” than want to “change it so that it does less” and that more Americans want to keep the law than replace it. Indeed, a large majority of Americans support progressive policies like adding a Medicare-style public option and allowing re-importation of drugs from Canada. What is clear from all this polling is that Americans are ready to fix our broken health care system and want to continue to make progress, not repeal the law and force the country down the old path with more than 50 million people uninsured and a health care system that is bankrupting Americans and causing thousands to die simply because they can’t afford to live.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

First Test …

01/05/2011 Nativegrl77

One week from today, the new Republican House Majority will attempt to take a giant step backwards for our nation by holding a vote to repeal the health reform law that protects Americans from insurance company abuses.

This is our first test of how grassroots Democrats will respond to the Republicans’ disgraceful attempt to roll back our progress for America’s middle class families. We must hold House Republicans’ feet to the fire for taking government funded health care for themselves while voting to deny it to American families.

That is why we urgently need your support to raise $100,000 in grassroots contributions to hold Republicans accountable before their shameful vote on Wednesday.

Contribute $5, $10 or more today to help us respond to the Republicans’ shameful vote to take away quality, affordable health care from the American people and put insurance companies back in charge.

In the weeks since last November’s election, grassroots Democrats have not missed a beat in our effort to regain the Majority in 2012. Thanks to you, we surpassed our December grassroots goal by raising over $250,000. I cannot thank you enough.

Now we need your continued support to hold Republicans accountable for their misplaced priorities by voting to repeal health care reform rather than focus on creating jobs for America’s middle class. Every dollar you contribute will be used to keep the pressure on Republicans through hard-hitting ads, fact-checks, petition drives, Rapid Response efforts, and so much more.

The world is closely watching our commitment to protecting all of our historic progress for America’s middle class families. Let us begin right now by holding the new Republican majority immediately accountable for trying to repeal health care reform.

Nancy Pelosi
Democratic Leader