CONGRESSMAN BISHOP OPPOSES BILL THAT AGAIN FAILS TO ADDRESS HEALTHCARE CRISIS AND FALLS SHORT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’S NEEDS

WASHINGTON – Yesterday, Congressman Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA-02), a senior member of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, opposed the passage of H.R. 5371, a partial, temporary funding bill. During debate on the bill, Congressman Bishop noted the bill left behind millions of Americans facing the imminent, drastic increase in their health insurance premium costs as well as the ongoing attacks by the administration against nutrition programs that benefit farmers and families.

“While this bill included some bipartisan work to provide investments in agriculture and rural America, the rest of the bill does more to harm Americans than to help them. As such, I had to oppose this bill,” said Congressman Bishop. “This summer, the big ugly bill made drastic cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP. While it made tax breaks for billionaires permanent, it let ACA tax credits that millions of hardworking Americans rely on to get affordable healthcare expire. Now, millions of Americans have seen their premiums skyrocket and, for over a month, Congressional Republican leaders refused to negotiate with Democrats to avoid this fiscal cliff and lead us out of this shutdown.

“I have heard, first-hand, from so many Georgians in the Second Congressional District that this is a matter of life and death,” noted Congressman Bishop. “Families should not have to choose between putting food on the table or going broke because of medical bills. We cannot afford to have hospitals and nursing homes cut services or close outright.”

Congressman Bishop concluded, “Since January, this Administration has used DOGE and executive orders to illegally deconstruct programs, eliminate federal workers, and withhold funds required by law. Even when challenged by the courts, the Administration has either refused to comply or dragged its feet in doing so. During the shutdown, this continued when the White House refused to distribute emergency SNAP funds that were available and required to be used, by law and court order. Even though today’s bill passed, how can we trust that the President will respect this law?”

The Congressman spoke in opposition to the bill during the debate. You can watch his remarks on his website and the transcript of remarks, as delivered, follow:

Thank you, Ranking Member DeLauro.

As Ranking Member of the Agriculture, Rural Development, and FDA Subcommittee, I rise to oppose this bill. Though it does represent, for the most part, solid bipartisan work to provide investments in agriculture and rural America, I am disappointed that the rest of it falls far short of the needs of most Americans.

Healthcare providers and patients are frustrated and frightened by the imminent skyrocketing of healthcare costs caused by the loss of the ACA tax credits and cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and lifesaving biomedical research.

My constituent, Angela Hoomes, is unable to walk without debilitating pain. She is worried that, without the tax credits, she won’t be able to afford health insurance to complete the multiple back surgeries she needs.

For many Georgians, healthcare is a matter of life and death.

Our Republican colleagues could have corrected this in the Rules Committee, but they rejected an amendment last night that would have lowered health premium costs.

To me, that is unconscionable.

So are the Administration’s actions during the shutdown.

As a Christian, I am outraged that USDA used the shutdown to illegally withhold SNAP from 42 million Americans. USDA had the chance to do the right thing and use designated contingency funds but rejected it. And, when ordered to do so by the courts, they fought all the way to the Supreme Court to keep hungry families from receiving food.

America produces the highest quality, safest, most affordable, and abundant food, fiber, and medicine anywhere in the world.

To that end, this bill provides many welcome investments.

It fully funds SNAP and WIC, replenishes the SNAP and WIC contingency funds, and fully funds cash value vouchers for fruits and vegetables for women and children.

It also helps rural America by providing $1 billion in single family direct home loans – $120 million over the House level – and funding water and wastewater programs at $446 million, both issues that Democrats tried to address in full committee.

The bill provides $1.8 billion for the Agricultural Research Service and $1.6 billion for NIFA—protecting farmers, small businesses, and families against President Trump’s budget request to eliminate land-grant university research and extension activities across the country.

I am pleased to see the bill language requires the USDA to notify Congress before cancelling grants over $1 million.

The agriculture portion of this bill does make positive steps in the right direction.

The bill discards many of the harmful policy riders in the House bill, yet it does not go far enough to negate House language falsely questioning the safety of Mifepristone and encouraging the FDA to explore liability protections for certain infant formula manufacturers, over which the agency has absolutely no jurisdiction.

And while the overall funding package may reopen the government for a month or two, this bill does not address the breach of trust this Administration has demonstrated since January.

They failed to follow the law, and we cannot trust that they will even execute this bill if we vote on it today.

They cut SNAP by 20% in the big ugly bill this summer, dismantled and defunded federal programs, fired federal workers, and illegally ignored court orders.

This bill fails to address the healthcare crisis, and bipartisan outrage has erupted over language in this bill to pay millions of dollars, taxpayer dollars, to a handful of Senators whose phone records were subpoenaed in relation to the January 6 investigation.

It is a bad bill. Oppose it.

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