April 7, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 67 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E354]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          MIDDLE CLASS HEALTH BENEFITS TAX REPEAL ACT OF 2019

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                               speech of

                           HON. BRAD SHERMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 27, 2020

  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, over 122,000 cases of coronavirus, 
otherwise referred to as COVID-19, have been confirmed in the United 
States since the inception of the outbreak, including more than 5,000 
confirmed cases in my home state of California alone. More than two 
thousand Americans have died as a result of the virus, and many more 
stand to do so if we do not act quickly to mitigate its spread and 
address the myriad of medical challenges.
  While Congress has passed several measures to provide significant 
amounts of money for research activities at federal agencies, this is 
not enough. I am disappointed that H.R. 748 does not adequately fund 
nor provide incentives for, research and development into treatments 
and vaccines that leverage the expertise of the public and private 
sectors. Chiefly, the CARES Act fails to adequately support research on 
the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus and at clinical research 
institutions across the country to pursue all reasonable avenues to 
develop treatments for the coronavirus, including diagnostic tests, 
therapies and vaccines. The NIH should have significantly more than 
$945 million to carry out COVID-19 related research and should also be 
directed to focus primarily on those possible treatments that are not 
subject to a patent and thus are not the focus of U.S. pharmaceutical 
companies.
  Finally, the Trump administration uses this must-pass relief bill to 
advance their anti-reproduction rights agenda. The bill gives the Small 
Business Administration broad discretion to exclude Planned Parenthood 
affiliates and other non-profits serving people with low incomes and 
deny them benefits under the new small business loan program. 
Additionally, the bill attaches a harmful Hyde Amendment provision to a 
state stabilization fund for state, local, and tribal governments 
providing coronavirus relief. Reproductive health care is essential 
health care, and Planned Parenthood health centers are a critical 
component of the health care system. Attempting to limit access to 
reproductive health care services during a pandemic will only worsen 
the public health care crisis.

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