Pallone Blasts Health Care Cuts in Partisan Government Funding Bill
"Rather than voting on this partisan bill, we should be working together to lower costs and expand access to health care, like the bipartisan agreement we had in December... Unfortunately, Republicans walked away from that agreement because Elon Musk opposed it."
Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) delivered the following remarks on the House floor today in opposition to H.R. 1968, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act of 2025:
Mr. Speaker, one of my colleagues on the Republican side earlier asked what Democrats are fighting for—and I want to say, I’m a proud Democrat fighting for America’s health care. And I want to stress that this partisan Republican bill cuts American health care.
This bill slashes funding for our Community Health Centers, which provide care for millions of people as well as our nation’s teaching hospitals, which train the next generation of doctors.
It fails to reverse the Medicare physician pay cut, which endangers access for seniors, especially those in rural and underserved communities.
It also does nothing to stop Republicans’ planned catastrophic cuts to Medicaid.
Rather than voting on this partisan bill, we should be working together to lower costs and expand access to health care, like the bipartisan agreement we had in December. That bill provided long-term certainty and funding increases for our Community Health Centers, for our Teaching Health Centers. It lowered drug costs by taking on unfair PBM practices, and addressed the Medicare cuts to physicians. Unfortunately, Republicans walked away from this agreement because Elon Musk opposed it.
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