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[Page H10025]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUPPORT IMMIGRATION REFORM FOR FARMWORKERS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
California (Mr. Costa) for 5 minutes.
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the Farm Workforce
Modernization Act.
Let me first thank Chairperson Zoe Lofgren and Ranking Member Dan
Newhouse for their hard work in forming this bipartisan compromise.
Farmworkers are some of the hardest working individuals you will ever
meet. I know. As a farmer's son, I have done that work. It is hard, but
it is skilled work. It is simply wrong that they are subject to living
and working in the shadow of uncertainty and fear of deportation.
Just last month in the city of Madera in my district, I met with
members of the United Farm Workers organization to tell them of the
promise of this bill. I spoke with these hardworking men and women and
their young children who work to put food on America's dinner table
every night.
I could see the hope in their eyes, hope for a normal life free from
the dread of possible family separation and deportation that hangs over
them every day when they leave to go work and hope for a chance to
change their reality and reshape their story.
We owe it to these individuals who do so much for us. This
monumental, bipartisan compromise is a unique opportunity to provide us
with the first meaningful reform in the immigration system in over four
decades.
Many of us would like comprehensive immigration reform for our
Dreamers and to fix our broken immigration system. For now, that is not
possible, but this legislation that would provide legal status for
seasonal and year-round farmworkers is.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand with me and support the
Farm Workforce Modernization Act that we will vote on later today.
Lower Drug Costs Now
Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I also rise to support the Elijah E. Cummings
Lower Drug Costs Now Act.
Americans want Congress to tackle issues that they care most about,
and spiraling drug costs is one of the most important issues.
Passing H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, will
help lower prescription drug prices and hold drug companies accountable
for unfair price hikes.
Prescription drugs in the United States we all know are four times
higher than what they charge for the same drugs in many other
countries. The soaring cost of insulin is one example of the way we see
gouging, quadrupling over the last decade.
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Diabetes is an epidemic in our country, affecting over 30 million
people in the United States and costing Americans more than $100
billion a year to manage.
In Fresno County, one of the counties I represent in my district in
the San Joaquin Valley, it is estimated 68 percent of the adults
between the ages of 55 and 69 have diabetes.
These Americans need insulin to manage their condition, but these
high prices are causing them impossible choices. The question is: Do
they pay for medication or do they put food on their dinner table,
making sacrifices that are simply unacceptable?
Democrats are committed to putting the healthcare of American people
first and stopping this unfair practice. So far this year, we have sent
multiple bills to the Senate to reduce healthcare and prescription drug
costs. Silence. Silence is the only answer we get from the Senate.
Tomorrow, we will pass another bill, H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now
Act, and this aims to stop drug companies from gaming the system
unfairly and raising prices on American families. That is what we are
trying to do.
This bill also builds on the Affordable Healthcare Act by adding $10
billion a year for expanding community health centers, which have been
instrumental in my area and throughout the country in increasing
healthcare and access to healthcare in rural America.
In my district, 400,000 people would benefit if we passed H.R. 3 and
it is signed into law. My constituents who rely on prescription drugs
are depending on us to act to ensure that medications are affordable,
and I intend to do that by voting to support this legislation.
It will also save Americans over $500 billion over the next 10 years.
So now is the time to act, and it is the time for the Senate to do
their job.
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