Chaplain conroy let us pray. Eternal god to whom we see what we could be and what we can become, thank you for being giving us another day. Send your spirit upon the members of this peoples house to encourage them in their official tasks. Be with them and with all who labor here to serve this great nation and its people. Assure them that whatever their responsibilities, you provide the grace to enable them to be faithful in their duties and the wisdom to be conscious of their obligations and fulfill them with integrity. Remind us all of the dignity of work and teach us to use our talents and abilities in ways that are honorable and just and are of benefit to those we serve. May all that is done this day be for your greater honor and glory, amen. The speaker pro tempore the chair has examined the journal of the last days proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. Pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1 the journal stands approved. The pledge of allegiance will led by the gentlewoman from kansas, ms. Jenkins. Ms. Jenkins i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The speaker pro tempore the chair will entertain up to five requests for oneminute speeches on each side of the aisle. For what purpose does the gentlelady from kansas seek recognition . Ms. Jenkins mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. Ms. Jenkins i rise today to congratulate Mars Chocolate North America on the grand opening of the stateoftheart facility in topeka, kansas. This is the first mars Chocolate Factory built in the u. S. In 35 years. Mars has invested more than 270 million to build this facility, bringing hundreds of jobs to the topeka area. We will be manufacturing snickers as well as 39 million individual mand ms per day. I m ms per day. I want to thank them for attracting world class jobs. They reviewed 80 potential sites, access to key infrastructure and positive business environment, all made topeka the best choice. Thank you, mars, for making topeka home in the heartland and welcome to kansas. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Mr. Mcnerney i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Mcnerney thank you, mr. Speaker. I stand here today mr. Lone that will thank you, mr. Speaker. I recognize multiple sclerosis month. M. S. Is a debilitating, chronic disease that attacks the Central Nervous system and makes it difficult with balance and coordination and impaired mobility. One of my most trusted and longterm district staff members, ms. Robin mccray, whos been with me many, many years, first when i was in the California State Legislature and now in congress, has a son, ian, who is now 42 years of age who has m. S. Ian was diagnosed at the age of 29 at the most productive time in his life. He was avid snowboarder, an outdoorsman and practiced masonry. M. S. Has stolen these things from him. There is no cure for m. S. Which is why we need advocates to help fight this terrible disease. Ive seen, through robin and ian, how m. S. Not only affects the individual but the entire family. Today i speak for ian, but i advocate for the 400,000 americans diagnosed with m. S. Thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition . The gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, i rise to recognize national myeloma month. Mr. Higgins it is a cancer of the bone marrow which ranges from bone pain to failure. Over 22,000 new cases will be diagnosed and 11,000 deaths will occur due to myeloma this year. While myeloma is not curable, its treatable. I thank my colleagues, congressman bachus and rangel for drafting a resolution to establish march as multiple myeloma month and the International Myeloma foundation for raising awareness of the disease year round. Additionally, as Congress Begins to develop a budget, i encourage strong support for medical research, increasing funding to the National Institutes of health to 32 billion. Finally, i urge the house leadership to bring the cancer drug coverage parody act to the floor, a bill i introduced to make sure that patients with myeloma and other cancers who are prescribed oral chemotherapy by their doctors will have the Insurance Coverage they need to treat their illness and to get healthy. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition . Good morning, mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Barrow thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise to shed light on issues facing medicare recipients across the country, including more than 300,000 seniors in my home state of georgia. Medicare advantage provides care and support to the constituents of every member of this body, and it reduces the need for hospitalization and reduces Health Care Costs by focusing on prevention and disease management. The centers for medicare and Medicaid Services recently proposed a 5. 9 cut to this program which will reduce benefits and increase premiums by 35 to 75 per month for beneficiaries all across this country. This month, dr. Bill cassidy and i led an effort with over 200 members of this body to urge the centers for medicare and Medicaid Services to prevent these devastating cuts to this program. I urge this body and our friends in the senate to do all we can to preserve this critical program. We simply cannot place this countrys Financial Burdens on the backs of seniors by undermining Medicare Advantage. With that, mr. Speaker, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition . Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today to recognize dr. Rank kitamoto. Mr. Kilmer he was forced from his home during world war ii and taken to a War Relocation Center in california. In total, 12,000 japanese american washingtonians were forced out of their homes for the duration of the war. Dr. Kitamoto returned here and began an oral history project. He traveled the country to educate others about japanese American History and forced relocation during world war ii. He served as president of the banbridge island for more than 25 years, and he also played and integral role in the Bainbridge Island exclusion memorial. Mr. Speaker, our nation owes a debt of gratitude to him to ensuring that the stories of this difficult period in American History are told. Im pleased to honor his legacy in the United States congress today. Thank you, mr. Speaker. And i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition . I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with all the questions surrounding Health Insurance today, it is vital that seniors can keep the Health Care Coverage on which they depend. I remain committed to working in a bipartisan manner to address the longterm drivers of our debt, but i also understand we must consider the impact the decisions we make we have on real americans, recent efforts to bring Medicare Advantage payments in line with traditional medicare makes sense if the think of the budget solely as numbers on a spreadsheet, but we are seeing these cults resulting in Smaller Networks of doctors, cuts to addon benefits and higher outofpocket limits. Shifting the cost and burden onto our nations seniors on fixed incomes. The Medicare Advantage cuts proposed for 2015 would be short sided and counterpro shortsighted and counterproductive if it led to Hospital Readmissions and, worse health outcomes. I add my voice to the growing bipartisan chorus calling for no more cuts to seniors on Medicare Advantage. I urge the administration to keep the rates flat for this year, protecting seniors continued access to Health Care Choices that they have earned after a lifetime of hard work. I yield the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to clause 12a of rule 1, the chair declares the house dentcam. Org. Washington journal continues. Congressman lee terry represents the Second District in nebraska, including omaha. Lets begin with the keystone xl pipeline, which would cut through part of your state. I want to share with the audience a clock that points out congressen 2015 days has been looking at this pipeline and still no action. It is very frustrating. When you talk about 2015 days to 2015nto perspective days, to put it into perspective world war ii was less. Lets talk about what we heard from the state department earlier this year. The Department Said what you go said what . Guest they finalized the environmental report and said what would hold us up is negligible. That is the fifth report that has concluded the environmental impacts are negligible. State kerryary of says he will remain neutral. Do you believe him . Guest he cant. His duty is to make a recommendation to the president. I dont see how that is mutual how that is neutral. The president can do just nothing. T let me share with you spendingillionaire money on climate issues. He said guest i think the environmental studies would show that they are easier to clean up because they are heavier than the lighter crude. Not sure he is the most sincere guy because he is invested in his portfolio and the success of the pipeline taking the sands and exporting it through canada. The map. s look at it is the area where the oil would originate from come heading down across the u. S. To the coastline. As you look at this, why does it need to go to the west . Why not travel across canada . Have tots going to does in refineries that are contracting with that oil. Refineies need oil to and we buy that oil. Venezuelaby from because it would offset the oil that they have to purchase. Thats whats coming to our refineries. The Oil Refineries are buying that oil to process into gasoline, diesel and a variety of other products. More than 2000 days waiting for a decision. How long will these businesses weight . Guest thats a good question. Canada is already saying that theyre not going to a. They have already provided or obtained all of the Eminent Domain properties to do a pipeline to the west. They are reverse engineering a pipeline that already exists to the east. That is also part of the in my mental study and the impact study. This crude oil is going to be used somewhere around the world, whether it is within the u. S. Or just china and other places. Host which is a question from honor of years. Why cant canada build its own pipeline and refinery . Guest they can. These are u. S. Businesses that are contracting for their product, which is gasoline and other Oil Products Good host what does the president have to focus on . Onst i would liken to focus the Keystone Pipeline and follow the environmental studies. His decision is a yes or no at some point in time. He can say yes or no today, despite john kerry being neutral. And go forward with the project. It hosthost environmentalistst want to see this bill, so they are putting pressure on the white house. Guest that is exactly why there has been no action. Because of the in my mental fossilthat are against fuels. They know this will be a game changer. , its energyis security. If we can offset all the oil that we import from venezuela, that makes us more secure. Host i want to get our viewers and listeners. How long can these investors in canada weight . Is it the next couple of weeks or months . What type of timeframe . Giving us are not timeframe. They are Going Forward with their east and west pipelines. At some point, they will have those abilities and then it becomes irrelevant. Host lets go to jackie from santa clara, california. Good morning. Ive been following the keystone and i would like to know, why not build the pipeline on Government Property where you could . Aquifer . Ypass the guest two good questions. I guess, fortunately, the government does not own all of montana,rty oklahoma, texas theres not enough Government Property to do it. To put it on Government Property. The other side of that question building and across canada. They already going to build it across canada. They already have their domain through all of the land. They can go ahead and do it. On the jobown creation and economic moment that they have in the United States. Host this tweet from our viewers. Isnt it true that the u. S. Gets none of the oil for our use . Its only for export. Guest that is one of the greatest myths. It is very frustrating. This oil is going to u. S. Refineries. We do know that the gasoline is going to be used in the u. S. That gives us a great amount of security. There will be some products that will be produced and exported. Forever. Been therell be other oil products that come out of it, such as lubricants that would also be exported just like they always have been. Gasoline is the most important issue to consumers. That is a u. S. Product that will stay in the u. S. Host there are no guarantees in life. Are there assurances that this pipeline is safe to the environment . Guest that comes back to the previous question on the safety. That is the whole focus. Pipeline safety. Engineering this pipeline to prevent leaks. There is no way you can have a perfect pipeline. You can have a perfect whatever. You cant have a perfect whatever. ,f there is a perfect pipeline how will the league be controlled and can be cleaned up . This comes back to jackies question on the aquifer. , ituse its a heavier crude. S easier to clean up the aquifer is not one massive lake that is flowing. It is a rocky formation that captures water. So its easier to clean up. Host lets go to herald an alabama. Harold in alabama. Caller the refineries on the , that is what government does not have. Oil they are refining will not stay in the u. S. It will go straight to other countries. There has never been a pipe built that has not busted. That is why the engineering of this is the most incredible Pipeline Engineering that we have seen. It far surpasses all the current standards. 59 extra made concessions to make sure it is the most secure pipeline that can be built today. You wereeries if putting the oil on a barge, it would not make any sense to then ship it to a refinery to just be to someunproduced tanker and go through the panama canal. Lot easier for candidate that was the goal. To send it to their east or west pipelines. Ask you about your colleague. Trying to figure out a way to get more of u. S. Energy throughout europe. This is a tweet from the reviewers. You think the u. S. Should make export toort to europe . Guest yes. I really do. We have, because of the new technology, getting out the natural gas, a plethora of natural gas. One third of natural gas being weed today in the u. S. Dont have a big enough market. Why dont we take that third and use it for our geopolitical purposes in providing some security in europe so they dont have to be reliant on russia for their natural gas . The ukrainian issue is important to europe because the natural gas Pipeline System goes through ukraine. Ukraine, itkes over puts pressure on your. Providese that we can security to our friends. Host we cant ship it overnight. How do we do that . You take the natural gas and turn it into liquefied natural gas and put it on ships and send it over and then they deal with it. Rts built around the world to do that. For us as we have to permit that process. It takes time from the department of energy. It takes a couple of years to build it. Delay the permitting process, you can start the construction. The same argument with the pipeline. We focus on a number of issues that he is working on, including the keystone xl pipeline. We will turn our attention to gm in just a moment. Max is on the line from indiana. Good morning. Caller i just want to preface this by saying i mess constitutional of a conservative as a person can be. I agree with obama on virtually nothing. Pipelineking and this it has not brought my natural gas bill down one nickel. Unless you can guarantee that this big ugly pipeline crossing our country is going to reduce the price of fuel for americans, i dont see destroying our country is a good idea. All, withst of natural gas, we have the cheapest natural gas in the world. We are about four dollars per cubic feet. The rest of the world is 1114. We are already seeing the low prices. The low prices for natural gas in the u. S. From fracking is leading to a job creating manufacturing expansion. Especially for those industries fertilizer, chemicals we rely on. Natural gas as their feedstock. That has offset the labor differentiation between us and china. Backre moving jobs because of the cheaper natural gas. With a cold winter, we had a spike in costs. It was still half of the world price. Host we welcome our listeners on cspan radio. On the web at cspan. Org. Our guest is congressman lee terry. Your committee will have a lot of questions for jim officials about this ignition problem. What are you looking for . Guest what really happened. Its not just gm. We want to know if our Transportation Safety agency in charge of investigating if theres any defects and automobiles that are leading to injuries and deaths it looks to me that there was failures on both parts. We have to dive in and find out why these were allowed to be thered by both gm and agency. Host one of the questions is the culture inside gm back in 20002010 before this issue became something metastasized within the company what do you think . Why would the company let this happen . The ultimates question. Seems pretty clear that there were at least 12 deaths related to the faulty ignition switch. Airbags,turn off the brakes and steering. Why they ignored it is going to be the ultimate question to gm. Had a storyws yesterday indicating that some of those who lost their lives cannot file a lawsuit because of the restructuring of gm. Can you explain . Guest it was part of that manufacturing bankruptcy that occurred that led to the bailout of gm. Your liabilities are wiped out in a bankruptcy. There will be enough of a question left of whether the particular liability for the ignition switch is because it was hidden. It could have been discharged. There are still a legal question. The reality is, you can use bankruptcy to discharge your liabilities. Ethically, does gm have a responsibility to help those families who lost loved ones in accidents . Guest different question. I do think, yes. If they had a defective product id it is proven defective, think they absolutely have a responsibility. Host we will be covering the house energy and Commerce Committee as jim officials and others testify on the recall of that ignition device and the death of at least one dozen to 2002. Ting back phoebe from pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller good morning. I guess i disagree with you. When the towna blew up when the train went through. I dont like taking oil by train. I dont like taking it by pipeline. Geothermale have oil without getting the out . The oil is a problem. It is dirty and dangerous. It is destroying the environment. Or, why cant the canadians build their own and maybe theere oil would come to the states . They will type it all out and sell it to china. Once again, the oil that comes to the Keystone Pipeline goes directly to u. S. Refineries where u. S. Workers refine it into a product that will be used in the u. S. House is gambling and to begin their legislative day, taking up two bills. One dealing with medicare payments to physicians here in the other, expressing support for ukraine. Live coverage of the house now on cspan. E taken later. For what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition . Mr. Pitts mr. Speaker, i move to suspend the rules and pass h. R. 4202, the protecting access to medicare act of 2014. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk h. R. 4302, a bill to amend the Social Security act to extend medicare payments to physicians and other provisions of the medicare and medicaid programs, and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Pitts, and the gentleman from new jersey, mr. Pallone, will each control 20 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Pitts mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and and insert remarks extraneous materials in the record on the bill. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Pitts mr. Speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Pitts mr. Speaker, i wish i was getting ready to vote on a bill that would permanently repeal and reform the Sustainable Growth rate. In the chamber we passed a bill that would do that and that would fully offset the cost of the repeal by delaying a provision of the Affordable Care act that the Administration Just keeps delaying themselves. In fact, it was partially delayed again just yesterday. Unfortunately, we have reached another doc fix deadline. I believe that we must act to protect americas seniors and ensure that they can continue to see the doctors they know and trust and that is why i have introduced legislation that represents a bipartisan, bicameral agreement that would give us additional time to work out our differences and pass permanent repeal. We are closer than ever to reaching that goal. We have an agreement on policy. We need to overcome our differences about the responsible way to pay for those new policies. I hope that we can act before we reach the new deadline of march 31, 2015. In fact, we should try to reach a bicameral agreement before the end of this congress. Im glad that Speaker Boehner has offered his continuing support to this effort. With the house having acted, we hope that the senate can also pass an s. G. R. Repeal that has real payfors. Then, we can begin the process of working through our differences in a conference committee. Im sponsoring this bill today because it is my earnest hope that this is the last patch well have to pass. I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill and i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Pallone thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman virginia tech. Mr. Pallone mr. Speaker, im sorry but i simply cannot support yet another temporary s. G. R. Patch. This bill is bad for seniors and its bad for doctors. We want to achieve a permanent solution to this ongoing problem. This bill does nothing to achieve that goal. In fact, it sets back months and months of hard work. What we should be considering today is a bipartisan, bicameral agreement that my colleague and i developed. That bill is what doctors groups and patient groups support. That bill can also be offset without robbing one provider to pay another provider. Whats before us today doesnt fix the problem. It exacerbates t we had a true opportunity to finally accomplish what our constituents have asked us to do for a decade, and thats pass a permanent repeal of the s. G. R. , but the Republican Leadership sletting that opportunity slip away. And i respect my colleague from pennsylvania, but i dont believe that if we pass another patch that we are going to go back and do a permanent fix. My fear is by doing this we will lose the opportunity to do the permanent fix, and it simply slipsway. Two weeks ago republicans brought to the floor our agreement, but they added a poison bill offset that they knew the president and the senate would never accept, a delay of critical Affordable Care act provisions. All that accomplished was wasting time. And has led us to this scenario, spending another nearly 20 billion on a patch. Meanwhile, this bill includes Health Policies that have never seen the light of day. Some have been used as offsets. Others as sweeteners to get members to vote for it, but im not falling for t that is no way to govern. The senate is actually poised to vote on our bipartisan agreement that is fully offset. It does so without cutting from the health care system. That is the bill we should be considering here today. Seniors do not want us to kick the can again for another year. The Doctor Community spoke loud and clearly yesterday, no more patches. So i ask my colleagues, lets not go down this road again. Instead, lets come together and pass a permanent solution. Lets get the job done. Vote no on this bill. I reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Mr. Pitts mr. Speaker, at this time im pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from florida, an important member of the health subcommittee, mr. Bilirakis. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from florida is recognized for two minute. Mr. Bilirakis thank you, mr. Speaker. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The s. G. R. Cuts would reduce doctors compensation for treating compare patients by 24 . Seniors and physicians cannot afford that and congress cannot let it happen in five days. The legislation before us would patch the s. G. R. For a year. I support this legislation. Of course reluctantly. Two weeks ago the house passed a permanent repeal and replacement of the s. G. R. That was fully paid for. The fix provided doctors who treat medicare patients with certainty. Thats what they need. And incentivized and rewarded doctors to keep seniors healthy. The senate needs to negotiate, mr. Speaker. If they dont like the house pay for, come up with one. Lets come together and get this done. A patch isnt the best solution, we can replace the s. G. R. But the senate has to work with us. Again, lets get this done, lets Work Together and get it done thank you very much, i yield back, mr. Chairman. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from pennsylvania reserves. The gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Pallone mr. Chairman, mr. Speaker, i now yield to the gentleman from washington, mr. Mcdermott, three minutes. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from washington is ecognized for three minutes. R. Mcdermott mr. Speaker, Winston Churchill apparently once said, americans will always do the right thing. But only after they tried everything else. Then again, churchill never tried to fix the doc fix in the United States congress. For 10 years we have been trying to fix the Sustainable Growth rate in medicare. For 10 years we have kicked the can down the road for 17 different shortterm passed votes. The protecting access to medicare act of 2014 is a mixed bag of some important , some problematic provisions, such as the end renal stainl disease polcy, and some provisions that have never been vetted in front of the congress, in front of committees at all. And more importantly this bill represents our 18th failure to rebuild the bedrock of the medicare program. Our 18th failure to provide american seniors with the safety and security of a permanent fix to the s. G. R. Thats why the a. M. A. Is voting no on this bill. Thats why most physicians groups are strongly opposed to this bill. Last night my office was flooded with messages from various physician groups. I, for one, still believe in finding a way to do whats right. I, for one, am dedicated to the principle of seizing the moment and accomplishing big things on behalf of the american people. We thought we were going to do it this time. So when it comes to this mix bag piece of legislation, cooked up in the dead of night, put on the web at two minutes before 12 a couple days ago, revised several times since, not much more than 48 hours ago this stuff started. I vote no. Enough with trying everything else. Its time to do whats right. A permanent doc fix. Argued, debated, and agreed upon is what our seniors need, its what our doctors need to help them manage their practices. Its what our nation needs and deserves. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from new jersey reserves. The gentleman from pennsylvania. Before i mr. Speaker, yield to the chairman of the energy and Commerce Committee, it we have groups in support, who express support for this bill, the American Clinical Laboratory association, American College of radiology, easter seals, Family Research council, juvenile Diabetes Research foundation, medical imaging and technology alliance, Pennsylvania Partnership for children, zero to three, National Center or infants, toddlers and families, among others. And i would urge members to seriously consider this. At this time im pleased to yield whatever time he may consume to the gentleman from michigan, the chairman of the energy and Commerce Committee, mr. Upton. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from michigan is recognized for such time as he may consume. Mr. Upton thank you, mr. Speaker. I thank the distinguished chair of the health subcommittee. I have a statement for the record which ill ask unanimous consent to submit for the record. Mr. Speaker, here we are at the very end of when the doc fix expires, march 31. Thats next week. We have tried in a very responsible way for many months to try and resolve this issue, and i commend my friend, mr. Waxman, and others and we passed our bill out of Committee Last summer, 510. Speaker boehner said he didnt think we could honor Mother Teresa for sainthood with a vote like that. I commend my good friend, mr. Camp from michigan, and sandy levin, the gentleman from michigan, on the floor now, as we Work Together and work with the senate as well to actually lock in place a bill on literally the last day that chairman baucus was in the United States senate to resolve thflt and we knew all along we were going to have to have a pay for. And here in the house a couple weeks ago we passed a bill. Some on partisan lines, not 100 on either side, but we passed a 10year fix with a pay for. Great ninth grade civics teacher, no longer with us, hes with the lord. But i tell you as i sit down with my students as i did this week, a lot of them are here in town, and speak to my high schools and colleges, they know theres never such a thing maybe as a perfect bill. One of the first lessons in civics is that you pass a bill in the house, you pass a bill in the senate. They are always different. You go to conference, you work out the differences, it comes back. Nobody wants this expiration of the doc fix. Nobody. It hurts our physician community. They care about the folks that they treat. Literally they are going to have almost a 30 reduction caught in the services that they provide as early as next week. But lets think about our most vulnerable, too. Our seniors. Theyve got those doctor appointments. They want to be there. And maybe with a 30 cut those physicians will say, gosh, we just cant do this. That appointment is canceled. We are going to just stop serving medicare patients, period. Those over 65. We dont want that. We dont want that hurting our most vulnerable. So we passed here in the house a couple weeks ago a 10year bill. Response from the senate is, nothing. Yes, we have had some discussions. A former member of our committee, hes diligently trying to get something done, but theyve got no bill ready for passage on the senate floor that either matches what we did to go to conference. Theyve got nothing. Theres a lot of talk about maybe just doing a bill without a pay for. Some phony savings. Thats not what this house is about. Its a lot of money. And we have some rules in the house we got to you got to for it. Ay thats the real difficulty in trying to get things done. So, here we are the end of the week, the cuts come in, next tuesday, april 1, so we are sending trying to send another offer to the senate. Youre not going to take the 10year fix, lets try a oneyear fix. It is paid for. Its about 20 billion. A number of little provisions in there that i think are important. Again working with all sides. Last night we were somewhat surprised a number of groups came out against it, but the alternative is the door gets shut. We dont have a backup plan, all right. This is the bill. D if we can get 290 votes, everybodys here, 2 3 vote, thats great. Well send yet another offer to the senate, and they can choose either one. They can take our 10year bill, they can take a oneyear bill, they could pass Something Different and we can come to conference. And i must say that this bill, its a oneyear bill, it doesnt stop us from still trying to negotiate something for a permanent fix, because thats what every one of us wants. It doesnt stop us from getting that done. But at least it stops what otherwise will be the denial of services to the most vulnerable. Our seniors who may not understand whats happening. It continues the process to move forward. So weve got a couple options that we are teeing up. Obviously we have to pass it today here with a 2 3 vote and let the senate key side decide which alternative or pass something else, but pass something so that we can go to conference. The f that happens, then c fix is not fixed and for however long that period is, the cuts come into play. So it would be nice if we could actually pass this by voice. What do you think . It will get us off the dime. And again well toss it to the senate to try and get it done. No one wants it to expire, but without one of these two bills, it expires. And we dont want that to happen. I would urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, my friend, mr. Pallone, my friend, mr. Waxman and others, yes, we need to get this thing done. It is the best that we can do right now. And theres not a plan b for next week. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from pennsylvania reserves. The gentleman from new jersey. Mr. Pallone mr. Speaker, i yield three minutes to the gentleman from oregon, mr. Blumenauer. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from oregon is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Blumenauer thank you, mr. Speaker. Thank you, mr. Pallone. I cannot express my disappointment with the proposed additional temporary patch o the Sustainable Growth rate, the s. G. R. , the doc fix. Its morphed no an annual ritual, disrupting the provision of medical medicine in this country as the physicians plead with us to not do something crazy. Its simply today an accounting sleight of hand. Its a power play and a fundraising tool, to be sure, that disrupts the practice of