1. 1 billion over 20192017. Now, we have already said what the Congressional Budget Office had reported earlier, that if we dont pass Something Like the alexandermurray proposal, this is what happens. If the if the if the costsharing payments are not made, it will go up. Our proposal would take them down. The federal debt will increase by 194 billion over ten years if we dont passion our proposal pass our proposal due to the extra cost of higher premiums and up to 16 million americans may live in counties where theyre not able to buy any insurance in individual markets. Now, there are 350,000 tennesseans in individual markets in tennessee and they will be terrified by the prospect of not being able to have any insurance to buy by the skyrocketing premiums. So i thank senator cornyn follow allowing me to interrupt and make a brief statement. But let me go to the bottom line once more. The president has said repeatedly, senator murray has said repeatedly, i have said repeatedly the alexandermurray amendment, the short term, bipartisan plan to reduce premiums and avoid chaos must not bail out Insurance Companies. Weve written language to make sure it does not. Now the Congressional Budget Office says it does not. It does not bail out Insurance Companies. It does benefit consumers. It does benefit taxpayers to the tune of 3. 8 billion. Thats very important information. Im encouraged by the president s comment yesterday. He thanked me at our luncheon for working in a bipartisan way on this. Encouraged senator hatch and have introduced a bill recognizing the importance of continuing costsharing. The ball is in the hand of the white house. They have our recommendation. They made some suggestions as to normal legislative process, but im hopeful that something that has this kind of analysis, that it doesnt bail out Insurance Companies, that avoids a big increase to the federal debt, that makes certain people will be able to buy insurance for the next couple of years, that begins to lower premiums, that almost all democrats want and that republicans in the house have all voted for once this year when they voted for their repeal and replace bill, Something Like that, mr. President , sounds like something that might become law before the end of the year. And i believe the sooner the better. I thank the president. I thank senator cornyn and senator shaheen. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from New Hampshire. Mrs. Shaheen well, mr. President , im delighted to follow senator alexander and was very pleased to hear the news from the c. B. O. That this alexandermurray proposal not only doesnt bail out Insurance Companies as we all agree we should not do. We want to make sure savings go to consumers. But also that it will save taxpayers 3. 8 billion. This is a bipartisan agreement. I applaud the work of senator alexander and senator patty murray to craft this bipartisan agreement to address the challenges we have in the short term with health carol. Senators alexander and murray have given us a template for bipartisan negotiations not just on health care but on other critical matters that are going to come before the senate. Tax reform, reauthorizing Community Health centers and the Childrens HealthInsurance Program, reaching an agreement on the 2018 budget. These are all major issues facing this country and issues that we should be working on in a bipartisan way because the senate is at its best when we observe regular order, when we follow the committee process, when we work across the aisle and make principled compromises to get things done for the American People. I believe thats exactly what this Health Insurance bill does. And a senate thats nearly equally divided between republicans and democrats, this is the only productive way forward for us to address the challenges that face this country. And too often we have seen people view bipartisan negotiations as a last resort, but partisanship should be the senates first resort, not the last resort. It should be the foundation of our work in this body. This is how the great majority of americans want us to conduct the senates business. When i travel around New Hampshire, this is the consistent comment that i hear everywhere i go. Why cant you all Work Together to get things done for this country . This is especially true on matters Like Health Care and tax reform which affect families throughout the country. Im encouraged that the alexandermurray bill has earned strong bipartisan support and has senator alexander said, it has 24 original cosponsors. That number is equally divided between republicans and democrats. And this is a balanced agreement thats been negotiated by both parties over many months, and i think its our best bet for stabilizing marketplaces in the short run so we can continue to work on longterm issues around health care. Im especially pleased that this agreement provides for the continuation of costsharing reduction payments for two years. These payments are necessary to keep premiums, deductibles, and copayments affordable for working people. Without these payments the cost of coverage will skyrocket. Insurers will leave the marketplaces. And millions of people will lose their Health Care Coverage. Ive been working on this issue of cost saving reduction payments since earlier this year when i introduced a bill that would permanently appropriate funds for the c. S. R. s. As the c. B. O. Said, the language in the alexandermurray bill ensures that these c. S. R. s are not a bailout to Insurance Companies, that they are a way to help people with the cost of insurance. They are orderly payments, payments that are built into the law that would go directly to keeping premiums, copays, and deductibles affordable for lower income americans. Both democrats and republicans recognize that these payments are an orderly, necessary subsidy that keeps down the cost of Health Coverage for everyday americans. And as senator alexander said, we saw that these payments were in the bill that the house voted for around health care, and they were also in the senate bill earlier this year. Now, in recent months, ive heard from hundreds of people across New Hampshire about the enormous difference that Health Care Reform has made in their lives. Were a small state. We have just about 1. 3 million people. And nearly 94,000 granite staters have gotten individual Health Coverage through the marketplaces. Nearly 50,000 have gotten coverage thanks to the Medicaid Expansion program in New Hampshire. That has been a bipartisan effort with a Republican Legislature and a democratic governor to get that program in place. And it continues to enjoy the support of the Republican Legislature and the republican governor. Now, because of the Affordable Care acts increased access to care, we also have nearly 11,000 granite staters who have Substance Use disorders who have been able to get treatment for the first time. New hampshire has the second highest rate of Overdose Deaths from the heroin and opioid epidemic. Having treatment available through the expanded Medicaid Program has made a difference for thousands of people in New Hampshire and their families. Hundreds of thousands of granite staters with preexisting conditions no longer face discrimination resulting in denial or sky high premiums. These are important achievements and this legislation will allow us to continue down that road to make sure people have Health Care Coverage that they can afford. For people across New Hampshire and across this country, Health Care Coverage is often a matter of life or death. Its also about being able to take a sick Family Member to a doctor. Its about knowing that a serious illness will not leave a mountain of debt. So i am very pleased to be able to join in the bipartisan efforts led by senators alexander and murray to strengthen the parts of the Health Care Law that are working and to fix what is not working. The other provisions in this legislation would allow states more flexibility through the 1332 waiver process. The alexandermurray agreement expedites waiver approvals so states can implement smart fixes to stabilize their marketplaces. For instance, by establishing a statebased reInsurance Program. The agreement also includes a restoration of funding for open enrollment outreach and educational activities. And it protects core protections related to insurance affordability, coverage, and plan comprehensiveness. All of these changes are positive steps forward, steps that i hope will set us on a bipartisan path, strengthening elements of the Affordable Care act that are working well, and to fixing elements that need to be changed. Im hopeful that the alexandermurray agreement can gain the bipartisan support it needs to pass in congress, that it can gain the president s signature, and i was encouraged by senator alexanders comments about the president s comments yesterday because we need to restore certainty and stability to the marketplaces. Instead of partisan efforts to undermine the law and take Health Insurance away from people, we should embrace the spirit of the alexandermurray agreement. Lets Work Together in a goodfaith, bipartisan effort to build a Health Care System that leaves no american behind. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. Mr. Cornyn mr. President . The presiding officer majority whip. Mr. Cornyn mr. President , i know people watching and perhaps reading the newspaper and watching cable tv, listening to talk radio think that nothing ever happens here in washington, d. C. , and they would be wrong. Now, certainly we can always do better and i am disappointed that we havent been more successful. But there are some measures we can make in the right direction and important pieces of legislation that make a very profound difference in peoples lives. And today i want to talk about a problem that thanks to a bill passed by the senate on monday were helping to solve. And this has to do with the untested rape kit backlog in our country. Years ago thanks to a courageous woman named debbie smith, i became a lot better informed about the nature of this problem. Rape kits, forensic evidence that was taken in Sexual Assault cases but which remained in evidence lockers at police stations untested or which was sent to laboratories and never processed. And at one point it was estimated there were as many as 400,000 untested rape kits in our country. Now, as the presiding officer knows, this is powerful evidence because of d. N. A. Testing. We can literally almost say with certainty whether theres a match between the d. N. A. Of a suspect and that in a rape kit, this forensic evidence thats collected following a Sexual Assault. Similarly, we can decide and determine whether there is no match whatsoever and, frankly, exclude somebody who is a potential suspect from being the guilty party by using the same powerful forensic evidence. Its also important not just to solve the crime at hand but also to get sexual predators off the streets because we know that this type of offender is likely to strike time and time and time again. And the experts tell us when opportunities dont provide themselves for sexual offenders to go after adults that frequently they will even go after children. So this is very, very important evidence. And as we know, theres typically a statute of limitations where after a period of time you cant prosecute a case, but its really important for the reason i mentioned to continue to test as many rape kits as we possibly can to get serial offenders off the streets and to determine whether somebody has been charged or suspected of a crime and is in fact innocent. We have thanks to courageous people like debbie smith for whom we have named the debbie smith act as well as great bipartisan cooperation here in the senate, we have provided funding for testing of rape kits at the state and local level which has been supplemented by the Texas Legislature and other state legislatures. In houston, though, a few years ago our mayor felt so strongly about this, they took this on as a citywide project with incredible results. They found a number of hits of previously unsolved crimes. And they were able to, i think, bring peace of mind to a lot of people who had been living under a cloud of unsolved crime when they processed these unprocessed rape kits. Nationally the problem is still big with as many as 175,000 rape kits that still havent been analyzed. This is something we need to be able to continue to attack. Down from 400,000 at one point was the estimate, down to 175,000 but still unacceptable. Victims of Sexual Assault cant afford to wait and the funding is not for funding that is easier to come by. They need their stories to be heard and the evidence to be tested and the results expedited. Federal, state, and local officials owe them those things. If we dawdle, those cases go cold and theyre the ones that bear the scars and the pain of these had unresolved crimes. Thats why the Sexual Assault forensic reporting act, called the safer act, is so important. Thats the bill i mentioned a moment ago that we passed in the senate on monday. It reauthorizes the program created in 2013 which has helped Law Enforcement reduce the National Rape kit backlog, and i thank my friend and colleague, representative ted poe in the house for sponsoring the house version. The original legislation increased the amount of funds spent on untested kits by 35 and allowed 5 to of them to be used on ought 5 to 7 of they will to be used on audits. These audits uncovered tens of thousands of uncovered kits across the country each with evidence that could be used to bring an offender to justice. The new bill passed the senate this week and assures that pediatric forensic nurses are available for training so theyre better equipped to respond promptly and appropriately to children suffering from abuse. Finally, the bill extends the sunset provision of the Safer Program which will ensure the longevity of the program with a proven history of success. Im grateful to a wide range of bipartisan support, including the senior senator from minnesota as well as the senior senators from nevada and colorado, who are original cosponsors. This is a good example of legislation that is bipartisan and that makes progress toward solving a very real problem in our country. But, as so often we find the case, theres not much reporting on it, much attention paid. But its worth noting here on the senate floor that bipartisan progress on important legislation that helps peoples lives become better is being done here in the senate. I also want to bring up another important piece of legislation i reintroduced this last week, the corrections oversight recidivism reduction and eliminating cost to taxpayers in our national system. Let me call it the corrections act for short, because thats a mouthful. Im grateful to my democratic cosponsor, the junior senator from rhode island, senator whitehouse, for joining me on what is is like the safer act significant bipartisan legislation. My home state of texas has a welldeserved reputation for being tough on crime, but weve also learned over time that its important to be smart on crime, too. Weve successfully implemented statewide criminal Justice Reforms that help lowrisk offenders become productive members of society, once they reenter Civil Society from prison. And the state is focused on the Important Role that rehabilitation can play. I am not naive enough to think that every person whos been convicted of an offense is going to take advantage of an opportunity to right their path and get on with their life. But some will, and given the proper assessments and incentives, we found that this sort of approach works. The corrections act that senator whitehouse and i have introduced builded off of the state models that have worked in rhode island, in georgia, in texas, louisiana, and elsewhere, and it requires a bureau of prisons to provide programs and partner with faithbased and communitybased organizations that better prepare these men and women to become lawabiding and active members of society. I hope the senate can follow texas lead and implement these commonsense bipartisan reforms. This bill achieves a number of objectives which i will mention briefly. First, it requires the department of justice to develop riskassessment tools to evaluate the recidivism potential of all eligible offenders. It refocuses resources on those offenders most likely to commit future crimes and allows lowerrisk inmates to serve their sentences under less restrictive conditions, thus reducing prison costs so the taxpayer wins, too. The bill expands p