ms. stabenow: before the distinguished majority whip leaves, what is being talked about here is like having a hole in the roof of your house, and instead of patching it, they want to burn down the house. what we are not willing to participate in is burning down the house. we are more than happy and in fact have proposals and anxious to work with the majority to improve health care, not rip it athe part and take tens of millions of people's health care away, but improve it. before asking a question of the majority whip, i want to indicate for all those listening, we have the bill and we can read pretty quickly. it has been out. and even though it is considered a rough draft, we have it, we are analyzing it. what our leader -- the democratic leader -- indicated is that we have read in the discussion draft, which is not only the same, but it is worse for seniors, for those in nursing homes, for children in emission, and a -- for children, for those in -- for children in michigan. i ask the m

ms. a more stable insurance market. assistance for low-income families. more flexibility to contribute to health savings accounts. increased flexibility for states to meet the needs of their medicaid populations. more funding for hospitals that provide care to low-income south dakotans. relief from obamacare taxes. and for the first time ever, for the first time ever, 37,000 south dakotans living below 100% of the federal poverty level will have assistance in getting health insurance on the individual market. this bill will give south dakotans and all americans access to better and more affordable health care. mr. president, the better care act is the product of weeks of dialogue and collaboration among the members of our conference, and i'm particularly grateful to senators alexander and enzi and hatch who had helped provide outstanding leadership throughout this process. mr. president, as i said earlier, republicans made the american people a promise. we promised that if we would provid

ms. stabenow: thank you, mr. president. i want to first thank my friend and colleague from minnesota, the senior senator, senator klobuchar. she is a very important part of our senate agriculture committee, provides tremendous leadership and we both come from great m states. it's always great to have an opportunity to be part of sharing remarks on such an important topic. and i'm also pleased -- i know that senator heitkamp will be joining us today as well from another very important rural state. michigan's small towns and rural communities embody really much of our state's way of life and drive our economy forward. i grew up on one of those small -- in one of those small towns in claire in northern michigan, and i believe that towns like mine should be celebrated and strengthened. we want young people to go to college and feel that there's a future to come home, either back to the farm or small business or participating in the community or maybe working at the local hospital, but being part of continuing this important way

ms. stabenow: before the distinguished majority whip leaves, what is being talked about here is like having a hole in the roof of your house, and instead of patching it, they want to burn down the house. what we are not willing to participate in is burning down the house. we are more than happy and in fact have proposals and anxious to work with the majority to improve health care, not rip it athe part and take tens of millions of people's health care away, but improve it. before asking a question of the majority whip, i want to indicate for all those listening, we have the bill and we can read pretty quickly. it has been out. and even though it is considered a rough draft, we have it, we are analyzing it. what our leader -- the democratic leader -- indicated is that we have read in the discussion draft, which is not only the same, but it is worse for seniors, for those in nursing homes, for children in emission, and a -- for children, for those in -- for children in michigan. i ask the m

ms. stabenow: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: thank you, mr. president. first, i want to thank the senator from nevada. we are, first of all, so pleased that she is here and her voice is so strong for the citizens of nevada, and appreciate very much her comments this evening. mr. president, i'm rising this evening to talk about an issue that affects every single person, every single family in michigan and all across the nation, and that's health care. and i feel very confident that i can say that each one of the 48 members of the democratic caucus, each and every one of us would love to be on this floor working with republican colleagues across the aisle to lower the cost of prescription drugs, to lower the out-of-pocket costs of health care, to create more competition, more insurance choices for people in the insurance pools that are there, to basically fix the problems. but we're here, and i'm proud to be with colleagues tonight, because we are not willing to support anything that unravels the health care system, rais

ms. stabenow: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: thank you, mr. president. first, i want to thank the senator from nevada. we are, first of all, so pleased that she is here and her voice is so strong for the citizens of nevada, and appreciate very much her comments this evening. mr. president, i'm rising this evening to talk about an issue that affects every single person, every single family in michigan and all across the nation, and that's health care. and i feel very confident that i can say that each one of the 48 members of the democratic caucus, each and every one of us would love to be on this floor working with republican colleagues across the aisle to lower the cost of prescription drugs, to lower the out-of-pocket costs of health care, to create more competition, more insurance choices for people in the insurance pools that are there, to basically fix the problems. but we're here, and i'm proud to be with colleagues tonight, because we are not willing to support anything that unravels the health care system, rais

ms. stabenow: madam president, as a senior member of the united states senate finance committee which held more than 50 hearings, round tables and walk threws on health reform, we spent eight days just marking up the bill in committee who considered more than 130 amendments, more than two dozen republican amendments being agreed to at that time in the committee, a committee that posted their legislation online for six days before the original committee markup, a committee that spent then with the senate 25 consecutive days in session, 25 consecutive days in session on health reform, the second longest consecutive session in the history of the united states senate. in total the senate spending more than 160 hours considering the health care reform legislation. based on that, madam president, i would ask unanimous consent that no amendments be considered in order to calendar number 120, h.r. 1628, the american health care act until the bill is referred jointly to the committee on finance an

quorum call: ms. stabenow: mr. president, i ask suspension of the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. stabenow: thank you very much, mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: i just want to take a moment because we have all been so focused and there has been so much concern about what is going to happen in terms of health care in this country, and so many people have called me concerned about whether or not they are going to be able to continue their cancer treatments or whether their child's going to be able to get the operation that they need or whether their mom with alzheimer's is going to be able to continue to get nursing home care and so on, and i want to thank everyone who has told their story. we spent six months. this debate, this fight isn't over yet, but it started the day after we were all sworn in in this chamber in january, on january 4, a process that was set up intentionally to be a partisan process that took just 51 votes, and instead of the regular committee process and working togeth