Last night was a very historic moment. It brought to completion 15 months of work this Congress and years of work before that to ensure quality, affordable health care and to make college more affordable for all Americans.
Below are are my prepared remarks, but as you can see in the video, I got a little passionate and didn't always stay on script.
Madame Speaker, I rise today in support of this legislation, the last leg of a long journey to bring historic health insurance and student loan reforms to the American people.
Two days ago, President Obama made our first piece of groundbreaking health reforms the law of the land – a remarkable moment that will benefit Americans this year.
For the first time ever, all Americans will have access to quality, affordable health care.
In order to fully deliver on the change that generations of Americans have waited nearly 100 years for, the House also passed a companion measure to make significant and necessary improvements to this new law.
And, as has been said, this companion measure also makes college more affordable.
We are voting on this measure again because the Senate made two minor technical changes to the education section. But these changes do not alter the effect of our reforms.
Our bill stops wasting $61 billion on subsidies for banks and instead uses those savings to help students pay for college and helps reduce our deficit.
We invest $36 billion of those savings to make meaningful increases in the Pell Grant scholarship for years to come by linking it to rise with the Consumer Price Index.
The Senate parliamentarian found that two elements of the bill violated the Byrd rule.
The first was a conforming change to remove an obsolete part of the Pell Grant law.
The second was a safeguard to ensure that students’ Pell Grants would not decrease if we went through a deflationary period – if CPI fell below zero.
Removing these provisions has no substantive effect on students. The safeguard would not take effect until 2013, giving Congress time to correct this issue.
Overall, our reforms will finally make federal student aid work best for families and taxpayers, instead of for banks.
Our loan reforms also:
• Make student loan payments more manageable for new borrowers;
• Strengthen community colleges;
• Invest in Minority-Serving Institutions;
• Bolster programs to help students access and complete a college degree; and
• Reduce our federal budget deficit by at least $10 billion.
Today we are saying no more free rides for banks, at the expense of students, families and taxpayers.
Instead, we are using those savings as we promised: to help students pay for college, to prepare more workers for the global economy, to help keep jobs in America and to reduce our deficit.
There are many good things about the health insurance law and this reconciliation measure, but I would like to concentrate for the moment on the fact that Americans and small businesses will benefit from this law right away. Here’s how:
Within 90 days:
• Employers will have access to a new temporary insurance program to ensure affordable health benefits for their early retirees.
• Americans who have been denied insurance because of a pre-existing condition will have access to insurance through state pools.
After six months, in new plan years:
• Insurance companies can never again rescind someone’s coverage when they become sick.
• Young people will be able to stay on their parents’ insurance up to their 26th birthday.
• Health plans can no longer exclude children with pre-existing conditions.
• Insurers can never again place lifetime caps on coverage.
• New insurance plans will offer free preventive care, with no co-pays.
• There will be tighter restrictions on insurers’ annual limits on new plans.
• Consumers with new health plans will have a new, independent appeals process to challenge unfair insurance decisions.
And this year:
• Small businesses that choose to cover their workers will start receiving tax credits to make this coverage more affordable.
• Seniors who hit the prescription drug donut hole will get a $250 rebate.
• Seniors in Medicare will no longer have co-pays for preventive care.
• Health information offices will be set up for consumers in every state to help them file complaints and appeals.
These benefits respond directly to what we have heard from families and small businesses getting crushed by today’s health insurance costs.
Our reforms respond to what we have heard from millions of students and families working very hard to pay for college.
That’s what we are voting on today.
We have listened to the American people and we have voted for them, not for the insurance companies and the banks.
We are voting to restore faith in the American Dream, to ensure quality, affordable insurance to all Americans, and to invest in students and in the strength of our economy.
That’s what Democrats in Congress and President Obama are doing for the American people – this year.
I want to thank Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, Majority Whip Clyburn, and our entire leadership team for their tremendous effort to get this done.
I want to thank Chairmen Waxman, Levin, the dean of the House, John Dingell, and Reps. Rangel, Andrews, Pallone and Stark for their incredible contributions to this bill.
I also want to thank my counterpart in the Senate, Tom Harkin, for joining me in insisting on doing the right thing for students.
In closing, I want to say that in honor of my dear friend and mentor, Senator Ted Kennedy, whose life work was dedicated to health care and education, I have never been more proud to cast an aye vote.