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Joe Barton, R-Texas, said: ''We're not really having a debate on whether exchanges are good or bad. The debate today is, should the secretary of Health and Human Services have the ability to obligate, without any constraints by the Congress, such sums as necessary to empower and fund these health exchanges.''
John Garamendi, D-Calif., asked Republicans: ''Have you got a problem with competition? Apparently so. You want to do away with the exchanges. Apparently what you really want to do is to hand the entire game over to the insurance companies, removing all of the controls, removing all of the necessity for them to compete.''
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
North Dakota: Berg, R, voted yes.
South Dakota: Noem, R, voted yes.
School-based
health clinics
Voting 235 for 191 against, the House on Wednesday sent the Senate a bill (HR1214) to defund a program in the new health law that finances the construction of preventive-care clinics at schools. These wellness clinics are intended to provide primary care, dental services and mental-health care for youths who otherwise would not receive early medical attention, and thus cut healthcare costs in the long run. The new health law provides $200 million over several years in mandatory spending for the construction program, about $100 million of which has been obligated. This bill would block release of the remaining $100 million and use the savings to pay down the national debt. About 350 school-based clinics in 46 states have applied for construction funds to date.
Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said ''providing mandatory spending, forced spending, to construct facilities without adequate safeguards is irresponsible. We are the people's House. It is our obligation to oversee the money that is spent on behalf of the people of the United States.''
Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said: ''This is a program that creates jobs, helps kids, provides for their well-being and their health. These projects have to be shovel-ready in order to be funded. So we're talking about money that's going to be immediately spent to put these centers together and to renovate them.''
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
North Dakota: Berg, R, voted yes.
South Dakota: Noem, R, voted yes.
Offshore
energy drilling
Voting 266 for and 149 against, the House on Thursday passed a bill (HR1230) setting deadlines for the administration to auction certain Outer Continental Shelf leases for oil and gas exploration that were delayed for environmental and safety reasons after last year's BP-Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The bill requires leases in the central and western Gulf of Mexico and Virginia to be auctioned within one year of enactment or sooner.
Tom McClintock, R-Calif., said; ''By opening up these resources, we assure energy abundance for the next generation. We begin to arrest the ruinous increase in prices at the pump. We assure productive, high-paying jobs, not only for the thousands of American workers directly employed in the industry but for many times more the employees in support and spin-off jobs.''
Rush Holt, D-N.J., said: ''This is the first in the Republican 'amnesia acts' that ignore what happened last year in the Gulf of Mexico ... in addition to being silent on safety concerns, this prohibits any further environmental review in the Gulf based on the lessons learned from Deepwater Horizon last year.''
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
North Dakota: Berg, R, voted yes.
