Hoyer Discusses Republican Efforts to Rush Their Repeal of the Affordable Care Act in Colloquy

Office of the Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer

March 10, 2017

Contact: Mariel Saez 202-225-3130

Hoyer Discusses Republican Efforts to Rush Their Repeal of the Affordable Care Act in Colloquy

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) engaged in a colloquy on the House Floor today with Majority Leader McCarthy, where he discussed how Republicans are not following regular order and are attempting to jam through their bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Below is a link to the video and a transcript of the remarks.

Go to: https://youtu.be/KQyUMCNqdV4 to watch a video of the remarks.

"To rationalize a procedure which has a bill introduced Monday night and is subjected to 26 hours straight of markup on the following Wednesday, less than 48 hours later, no matter how you dress it up, that is not, Mr. Speaker, regular order.

"What it is, is trying to jam through a bill before the American public has an opportunity to tell us what they think about the bill. What it is, is jamming through a bill and not allowing the providers, the doctors, the patients, the insurance companies, all of the stakeholders to have an opportunity to read that bill introduced about 72 hours ago now, little more than that, maybe close to 96.

"That, Mr. Speaker, is not regular order. And I will tell my friend for whom I have a great deal of respect, I think he puts the best face on it, but nobody believed the Republicans had a bill, Mr. Speaker, until Monday night. Well, actually, I believe they had a bill the last colloquy and I looked for it all over this Capitol and I couldn't find it. It wasn't posted. The Ranking Member on the Committee didn't have it. No Committee Democrat had the bill. They couldn't read it.

"So to pretend, Mr. Speaker, that hearings on some other bill at some other time in some other Congress suffices for regular order is something, Mr. Speaker, I cannot agree with. And if the situations were reversed, as I have experienced over the last 36 years, that side of the aisle would have torn this place apart. Why do I think that" Because I've seen it."