On Monday, the Congressional Black Caucus delivered remarks during a special hour about potential Medicaid cuts.
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00:00The gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Clyburn, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
00:11Mr. Speaker, I ask you now that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks
00:18and include inextraneous material on the subject of this special order.
00:24Without objection.
00:25Mr. Speaker, it is a great honor that I rise today to co-sponsor to anchor this CBC special order
00:36along with our distinguished colleague, Representative Jennifer McClellan.
00:44For the next 60 minutes, members of the Congressional Black Caucus have an opportunity to speak directly
00:51to the American people on the issue of minority health, an issue of great importance to the
01:00Congressional Black Caucus, Congress, the constituents we represent, and all Americans.
01:08Now, Mr. Speaker, I rise along with several colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus
01:18who you will hear from tonight.
01:23We're here to discuss the timely issue of health disparities as we approach the end of 2025 minority
01:33health month.
01:34There's a long storied history of poor health outcomes in minority communities.
01:44African Americans have lower life expectancy, higher rates of infant mortality, increased instances
01:53of maternal mortality, higher rates of chronic illnesses, and more frequent cancer diagnosis.
02:01Every American deserves to have access to quality, affordable health care, and life-saving prescription medications.
02:14This is our first day back after spending time in our congressional districts conducting face-to-face interactions
02:26with our constituents.
02:29As is often the case, our just-concluded district work period encompass the sacred observances of
02:39Passover and Easter.
02:44For those of us who celebrate the Easter side of that equation, we tend to profess pride in being
02:52Matthew 25 Christians, and we often express adherence to verse 45 that admonishes, and I quote,
03:04whatever you did not do, for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.
03:12Now, Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of lessons to be found in the 25th chapter of Matthew, long
03:24before one gets down to the 45th verse.
03:28Lessons on the importance of being prepared, the importance of providing service, and utilizing
03:38good judgment.
03:41Ours is a great country, and among the things that make us great is our system of health care.
03:53Speaking at a 1968 health care conference, Martin Luther King Jr. observed, of all forms of inequality,
04:05injustice in health is the most shocking and inhumane.
04:13Many of these inequalities are in part attributable to the disparities to access to health care.
04:25Disparities in health outcomes were starkly apparent during COVID-19 pandemic.
04:34Disparities of color experienced higher rates of fatality and were often as increased risk
04:43for the comorbidities that led to more serious illnesses from COVID-19.
04:51My Democratic colleagues and I, in partnership with the previous administration, wrote and passed legislation
05:01like the bipartisan infrastructure bill to expand access to broadband and provide telehealth services to rural and underserved communities.
05:15We also passed legislation to cap the out-of-pocket costs of insulin at $35 for seniors through the Inflation Reduction Act.
05:29We also passed legislation to cap the annual costs of co-payments for Medicare recipients to $2,000 per year.
05:41My late wife was a four shots a day diabetic.
05:48She battled that chronic disease and its byproducts for over 30 years.
05:55I know what a serious financial strain essential diabetes medication can be for those families that are fortunate to have insurance.
06:10But what about those among us who are less fortunate?
06:15In the last several years, we have made significant progress towards making one of those greatnesses of this country,
06:24health care, more accessible and affordable for all.
06:30But that progress is now in jeopardy and will be dismantled and derailed by the budget being proposed by my Republican colleagues.
06:43Sadly, neither the President nor my Republican colleagues seem willing to consider the harmful impact of pausing these programs
06:54programs or the harm that steep cuts to programs like Medicaid will have on both the economic well-being and health outcomes of millions of American families.
07:11They are steadily moving toward with their plan to stash these forward crucial programs by billions of dollars,
07:23while at the same time proposing big tax cuts to those who can afford to pay for quality health care and life-saving medications.
07:38On July 3, 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law the Social Security Amendments of 1965.
07:54Those amendments established Medicare, a health insurance program for the elderly,
08:01and Medicaid, a health insurance program for people with limited incomes.
08:10Today, nearly 80 million Americans receive health care through Medicaid,
08:17which provides critical care throughout all stages of life.
08:23It covers childbirth and nursing home care and everything in between.
08:32In my congressional district, there are 180,678 people on Medicaid.
08:42And in South Carolina, it is called Healthy Connections.
08:47This number includes 105,256 children under the age of 19 and 20,000 seniors over 65.
09:06And this is just my district.
09:10Over 1 million South Carolinians are enrolled in Medicaid.
09:19In South Carolina, Medicaid covers 4 out of every 9 children, 5 out of every 8 nursing home residents,
09:333 out of every 10 working age adults with disabilities,
09:39and 1 out of every 6 adults ages 19 through 64.
09:48These individuals are at risk of losing their health care under Republicans' budget plans.
09:56My Republican colleagues have been directed to cut $880 billion from the Energy Commerce Committee,
10:09which oversees Medicaid.
10:13Please understand that $880 billion is just the floor.
10:22Some of them want to cut more.
10:27The only way they can reach their goal is to gut Medicaid.
10:32No matter what they may say to their wavering members to secure their votes
10:39and to their vulnerable constituents to prevent them from objecting,
10:45this plan will cut taxes for the rich, bankrupt the middle class, and shortchange the poor.
10:57Earlier, I quoted scripture taken from the book of Matthew.
11:04But as one might imagine, my favorite book in the Bible is the book of James.
11:11Not just because of my given name, but because of its lessons.
11:17In James' epistle, he writes that when people are hurting and in need,
11:27it is not enough to offer platitudes like thoughts and prayers.
11:35We have a moral obligation to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and provide shelter for the homeless.
11:48I believe that if James were writing his epistle today,
11:54he would decry the shocking injustices in healthcare,
11:59suffered by our most vulnerable and the friction that suffering often engenders.
12:09My father was a fundamentalist minister who often used secular thoughts to teach life lessons to his three sons.
12:24I thought about one of those lessons at the town halls I held during our Passover and Easter work period.
12:34The lesson came to us one day when my two brothers and I were accompanying my dad to a,
12:47well, let's call him an automobile mechanic.
12:51Back when I was growing up in the little town of Sumter,
12:55everybody had a neighborhood mechanic.
12:58And everybody knew who that mechanic was
13:01because he was a guy with the china berry tree with a pulley hanging out of it.
13:08And on this particular day, as my dad waited to have his car worked on,
13:18Mr. Singleton, the mechanic, hooked the pulley to the front end of that car and began to raise it so he could get under it.
13:30And get it running for another week.
13:35And just as he started to lift the car,
13:40my two brothers and I started playing near the car.
13:46My dad said to us, sons, I have no idea how strong this chain is.
13:53Why don't you all go across the field and play?
13:56This chain may pop and one of you might get hurt.
14:01Well, we did go across the field to play.
14:06And we got, weren't gone long before, before we got into a little discussion.
14:13Now, some people looking at it might call it a fight, but it was a physical discussion.
14:21And we didn't know it.
14:24But my dad was watching us.
14:27And after he thought that discussion had gone on long enough,
14:31he called the three of us over to him and stood us in front of him.
14:35And he had in his hands a piece of cord string.
14:40My dad gave that piece of cord string first to my youngest brother, Charles.
14:44He said, Charles, I want you to pop this string.
14:47Charles struggled and he couldn't pop it.
14:50He then took it and gave it to my brother, John.
14:53He said, John, I want you to pop this string.
14:56You're two years older.
14:59You're stronger.
15:01You pop it.
15:03John struggled and he couldn't pop it.
15:06He then took it back and he gave it to me.
15:08He said, James, you're the oldest.
15:11You're the strongest.
15:13You popped the string.
15:15I struggled.
15:16I couldn't pop it.
15:18He then took it back and he placed it in the palms of his hands
15:23and he began to rub his hands together.
15:26And the more he rubbed, the more friction he created.
15:31And the more friction he created, the more unraveled that cord string became.
15:38And it was not long before that cord string was in three pieces.
15:44I then took those three pieces, gave one to Charles, one to John, one to me.
15:50And he said, now, sons, pop the string.
15:55And with little effort, all three of us popped the strings.
16:02He said, now, sons, I want this to be a lesson to you for as long as you live.
16:08Don't you let the little disagreements that crop up among you cause so much friction until it separates you.
16:17Because if you do, the world will pop you apart and you may never know why.
16:24I thought about that lesson as I went to these town hall meetings.
16:29The actions that are being taken by my Republican colleagues and this administration
16:35are providing all kinds of opportunities for friction to be created among us.
16:45Providing tax breaks to the wealthy while cutting billions of dollars of life saving health care from millions of Americans.
16:55Americans will cause undue friction in our health care system and only serve to divide us.
17:06Mr. Speaker, our health care system is by no means perfect.
17:12We have a great deal of work to do to improve the system for everyone and to reduce disparities.
17:23But we must start by following what we call or often call the Hippocratic Oath.
17:30And first, do no harm. Do no harm to Social Security. Do no harm to Medicare. Do no harm to Medicaid and the other bedrocks of our public health system like the Affordable Care Act.
17:52Most Americans want more than promises. They want results. They want everyone to have access to affordable housing, reliable energy, adequate education, and yes, quality health care.
18:13All those things that make this country a great country.
18:21I'm now pleased to yield to my distinguished colleague from Illinois, Robin Kelly.
18:36Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Minority Health Awareness Month.
18:40I'd like to thank my colleagues, Congressman Clyburn and Congresswoman McClellan, for holding this special order hour to bring attention to our country's health disparities.
18:50As chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Brain Trust, I'm familiar with the adverse statistics that face black and brown communities.
18:58Black women are three times more likely to die due to pregnancy-related causes than white women.
19:03Black people about twice as likely to die from diabetes than white people.
19:08On the south side of Chicago, where I represent, black people are expected to die 11 years earlier than white people living on the north side, and sometimes it's higher than that.
19:18And let us not forget gun violence, a public health crisis and emergency in our country.
19:24Black people die from gun violence at 2.7 times the rate of white people.
19:29While guns have been the leading cause of death for all children and teenagers since 2020, guns have been the leading cause of death for black children since 2006.
19:39These statistics are horrifying, but we cannot forget the faces and stories behind the numbers.
19:46When I was first elected to Congress, a constituent called me and said her friend's daughter-in-law died in child labor.
19:54That baby had to grow up without a mother.
19:56It is because of her and her baby that I continue to fight for black mothers and maternal health.
20:02I've heard countless stories from parents who have turned their pain into purpose after losing a child to gun violence, determined not to let another family go through the same grief.
20:13I continue to fight to end gun violence because of these families.
20:17Even now, I stand firm amid attacks against public health.
20:21House Republicans want to slash Medicaid by $880 billion.
20:26Their budget is an attack against millions of Americans who depend on Medicaid for health care.
20:32Over 300,000 of my constituents are at risk of losing health care if House Republicans get their way.
20:40More constituents stand to see their health premiums increase by over $1,000.
20:46Again, it's more than just the numbers.
20:49I heard from parents who won't be able to provide the life-saving medication and treatment their son needs.
20:55If they can't afford health care for their son, they will first sell their home.
21:00If that doesn't work, they actually talked about giving up custody of their son to the state.
21:05I heard from a mom whose son has autism and is terrified for his future if he does not have health care and specialized education.
21:13I've heard from another mother whose entire family relies on Medicaid for life-serving care.
21:19As House Republicans attack Medicaid, Elon Musk and his unqualified team at Doge have slashed 20,000 jobs at the Department of Health and Human Services.
21:29Their staff cuts and restructure and have targeted the offices of Minority Health at CMS and SAMHSA.
21:36How can we honor Minority Health Month if the institutions dedicated to closing health disparities are being eliminated?
21:44For over a decade in Congress, I've worked with the CDC, HRSA, and NIH to reduce pregnancy-related deaths.
21:51I've introduced legislation to help diversify clinical trials so medical breakthroughs can reach the patients who need treatment the most.
21:59President Trump's agenda, however, is determined to drag us backwards.
22:04He's declared an end to the so-called woke research and programs.
22:08These programs are meant to help women, veterans, black people, members of the LGBTQ plus community, frankly, all of us.
22:17In the middle of our country's maternal mortality crisis, Trump and Doge find that people dedicated to finding and implementing solutions mothers desperately need.
22:26Only three government data sources report maternal death in the U.S., and they are all in dire risk with the current recognition plans or reorganization plans at HHS.
22:38These cuts to Medicaid and our country's health care infrastructure are simply cruel and will leave all Americans' health in limbo.
22:47I refuse to go backwards.
22:48I am determined to continue to march forward, arm-in-arm with my CBC colleagues and allies to fight for our health care.
22:56Thank you, and I yield back.
22:59I thank the general lady for her comments, and Mr. Speaker, it is now my great pleasure to yield to my co-anchor for this special order, the general lady from Virginia, Representative McClellan.
23:16Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
23:17Thank you, Mr. Claiborne.
23:19I am honored to be here tonight on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus to commemorate National Minority Health Month, but I'm also here for personal reasons.
23:32Ten years ago today, I was 31 weeks pregnant.
23:37I was excited.
23:38I was expecting a girl.
23:40I had placenta previa, so I knew we were going to have to schedule a C-section.
23:45We had just scheduled it.
23:47She was due June 30th, but we had scheduled a date in early June because my doctor did not think it likely that we would make it to June 30th.
23:58I went to bed, still planning out, are we going to get to go on a babymoon before she arrives?
24:06I woke up the next morning, and my placenta ruptured.
24:11I started bleeding.
24:13I was panicked.
24:14My husband called the ambulance.
24:16He said I was as white as this piece of paper.
24:20We rushed to the hospital, and I remember hearing the doctor in the emergency room saying,
24:27everything looks fine.
24:29And then less than three seconds later, he said, we've got to go right now because both of our heart rates dropped.
24:37And I remember thinking, as the oxygen mask came on my face, please let me be asleep before my doctor starts cutting.
24:47And I was.
24:48And I woke up the next morning, or I'm sorry, a few hours later, and I had a baby girl.
24:56But I didn't get to see her until the next day.
25:00And as I waited those 24 hours to see if she would make it, I realized that I almost became one of the black women who are three times more likely to die due to pregnancy-related complications than white women.
25:17I was a state legislator at the time.
25:18I was a state legislator at the time.
25:19This was my second child.
25:20I was on the commission on health care.
25:26And I began to really look into the maternal mortality crisis that we have in this country.
25:33We have higher death rates for women than many other third world countries.
25:41And we started looking at the data of why women were dying.
25:46Many of these deaths were preventable.
25:49And there were differences.
25:52There were differences in the rate at which black women died compared to white women.
25:57And there were differences in the reasons.
26:00In Virginia, the data showed us that for white women, they were more likely to die due to postpartum depression leading to suicide or other mental health-related issues leading them to take their own life or to self-medicate and die of drug overdoses.
26:21But for black women in Virginia, their deaths were more likely caused by comorbidities, mostly cardiovascular issues.
26:33And many pregnant women, as I began talking to them, many black pregnant women had their first heart attack either while they were pregnant or shortly thereafter.
26:44And, oh, by the way, the disparities in cardiovascular care for black women and men are higher.
26:53The death rate is higher than for white men and women.
26:57So we began to look at how do we put policies in place that address the maternal mortality crisis as a whole, but the disparities in particular.
27:10We also noticed that many black women died within the first year of childbirth.
27:18Yet Medicaid, for many of these women, didn't cover the first year.
27:24So they didn't have health insurance when their first cardiac event or pregnancy-related event that led to their death occurred.
27:34So we looked at expanding Medicaid to cover the first 12 months after birth, which we did here at the federal level as well.
27:43We looked at expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and how would that address the maternal health crisis.
27:52We did expand Medicaid in Virginia.
27:54And we began to see that for many Medicaid expansion patients, they ended up healthier because they were connected to medical homes, getting treatment, getting regular checkups to catch things before they became deadly.
28:17So all of that now is under attack.
28:24As we approach April every year, I like to commemorate National Minority Health Month through some sort of round table.
28:36But I especially like to commemorate Black Maternal Health Week because as I started, that one's personal.
28:45So as I got ready for Black Maternal Health Week, I like to first figure out, is there a theme this year that we should focus our efforts?
28:54So as I got ready to prepare my social media posts, as I got ready to prepare the topics that I would have if I had a round table, I thought, well, the Office of Maternity Health,
29:10the Office of Minority Health, they usually announce a theme every year.
29:16So I went to the Office of Minority Health website.
29:19And sure enough, in January, they did announce a theme for 2025, Advancing Commitments to Eliminating Health Disparities.
29:29And then the January post on their Facebook page, they invited the public to join them all year as they shared resources to help address health disparities impacting racial and ethnic minority groups.
29:43That's a great, that's exactly what I want to do during National Minority Health Month and Black Maternal Health Week.
29:51So I went to the webpage, expecting to pull down those resources that I could share with the communities that I represent.
29:58File not found.
30:00So then I thought, well, maybe the Office of Minority Health at CMS has something.
30:12File not found.
30:13File not found.
30:14File not found.
30:15Well, maybe the National Institutes on Minority Health has something.
30:20Page not found.
30:24In the very month that we are supposed to renew our commitment to addressing health care disparities that cause black women to be three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women.
30:37I could go down the entire list of the statistics.
30:46You heard some of them earlier today.
30:48In the very month, we are supposed to reaffirm our commitment.
30:53File not found.
30:58While I shouldn't be surprised, because with the President's war on diversity, equity, and inclusion,
31:04Doge going through and finding every webpage that had certain words without actually looking at what are those webpages doing,
31:13that they would take these pages down.
31:17But imagine my dismay when I discovered that the Office of Minority Health at both HHS and CMS are now gone.
31:30The very employees who collect the data, who look at the underlying causes of why these women are dying anyway, let alone at three times higher rates than white women, they're gone.
31:49Well, at least we can continue to fight for the policies.
31:54Well, I'm on the Energy and Commerce Committee that was told in a markup on March 7th, find $880 billion worth of cuts.
32:04And the Congressional Budget Office says, can't do that unless there are cuts to Medicaid.
32:10And I've heard some of my colleagues say, well, we're not going to address vulnerable populations.
32:15And they include pregnant women in that.
32:19But the health care disparity doesn't start the day you get the positive pregnancy test.
32:26It starts when you aren't getting access to the care that you need to address diabetes or hypertension or the cardiovascular issue that's bubbling.
32:42And so as we see Medicaid expansion at risk, all of the progress we began to make to address these disparities is at risk.
32:58And Mr. Speaker, this is not politics.
33:03This is not theoretical debates over the role of the federal government.
33:09This is people are dying.
33:12And our declaration of independence that we will celebrate the 250th anniversary next year says that all men, and I would add women, are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.
33:32Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
33:34Life is number one.
33:36Life is number one.
33:38And when the federal and state and local governments work together with the private sector, our research hospitals, the nonprofit community,
33:50when we work together to identify the reasons for the disparities and put policies in place that address them, people's lives are saved.
34:01And when we strip those policies away, when we strip away the very workforce implementing them, people will die.
34:12And that is why I'm proud to stand here as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and say we will fight to protect those policies that save our people's lives.
34:26and tomorrow when my daughter turns 10 and I think back how I almost became that statistic
34:36but how we're also coming up on the one-year anniversary of when her uncle became the
34:43statistic of a black man more likely to die because of a heart attack. I am going to follow
34:50the theme of the 2025 National Minority Health Month advancing commitments to eliminating
35:00health disparities and I'm going to fight any effort by our president or my colleagues on the
35:08other side of the aisle to put barriers in our way and to remove the very policies that helped
35:15save lives to begin with. Thank you and I yield back. I thank you gentlelady for comments and it's now
35:23my pleasure Mr. Speaker to yield time to the gentlelady from Massachusetts Representative Presley.
35:34Thank you Mr. Speaker. It's an honor to be here to mark Minority Health Awareness Month and to do so
35:42shoulder-to-shoulder with two of my esteemed colleagues Mr. Clyburn, Congresswoman McClellan.
35:51Thank you. Thank you both for the strength of your convictions. Mr. Speaker today in America the
35:59color of your skin and the zip code you're born into are critical determinants of health. I represent
36:06the Massachusetts 7th congressional district we're in a three-mile radius from Cambridge to Roxbury
36:11the blackest part of my district. Life expectancy drops by 30 years. Now some have tired of hearing
36:18these sobering statistics but I will enumerate them time and again until they change. If you are tired of
36:26hearing them imagine how tired people are of living them. These health disparities persist despite the fact
36:33that we in Massachusetts are home to some of the finest hospitals and brightest minds in health care
36:40worldwide. Congressional Black Caucus we are daily organizing and legislating towards a different
36:48vision. One of true health care justice. A vision where black men can grow old. Where birth is safe and sacred.
36:59Where every baby has clean air to breathe and safe water to drink. Where health equity is a given
37:08and not an afterthought. Where black pain is believed. As we head down working towards that vision the status
37:18quo is stark. In 2023 the Boston Public Health Commission reported that diabetes mortality for black women was
37:26three times that of white women. The same report detailed that our Hispanic and Latino neighbors were
37:31four times more likely to end up in the emergency room for asthma emergencies compared to white residents. And our black
37:39neighbors nine times more likely than our white residents. And the disparities don't end there. They persist for cancer,
37:48heart disease, life expectancy, and more. The work to address these injustices is urgent. It is a matter of life and death. And
37:59meanwhile, we have a Trump White House threatening to gut and defund essential health programs. They are gutting
38:07Medicaid, tearing away school lunches. They are coming for Planned Parenthood. They are cutting regulations, poisoning the air we breathe, and the
38:17water we drink. The cruelty is the point. I recently returned from rural Louisiana where my colleagues and I went
38:25behind the wall at two remote detention facilities. These facilities have a history of unjust and unsafe
38:33conditions. And behind the wall, as co-chair of the House's Reproductive Freedom Caucus, I met women who were
38:40pregnant, entering the latter months of their pregnancy and being denied routine prenatal care. I spoke to a
38:47woman diagnosed with cancer who has pleaded to anyone she can reach to spare her life and to deport her.
38:54And while that may put her safety at risk, she said at least if she is deported, she may be able to get
38:59cancer treatment and fight for her life. Mr. Speaker, what the other side wants is for us to harp on our
39:06differences and to get distracted. But let me say this. A threat to one of us is a threat to all of us.
39:14A cage is a cage. At a for-profit prison or at a detention center, everyone deserves to live free from
39:23fear. Policy is not abstract. It is not a dusty document on a shelf. Policy determines who lives.
39:33Policy determines who dies. Policy determines who survives. Policy determines who thrives.
39:43These disparate outcomes are the results of policy choices. There is no deficit of resource in this
39:51country, only a deficit of empathy. I will tell you this every day. I will use each tool I have to fight
39:59for the lives of my constituents, my neighbors, and families across this nation that I've never met.
40:04Lives depend on it. Our greatest wealth as a nation is the health of our people. And black health
40:14matters. I yield. I thank you, gentlelady, for her comments. And it's my pleasure, Mr. Speaker, to now
40:23yield to the gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Figgis.
40:27Thank you, Representative Clyburn. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on an urgent issue
40:43that affects the health and well-being and the prosperity of black families, not just across
40:49the state of Alabama that I call home, but across this country. The staggering health care disparities
40:54that persist across this country and across too many counties in districts like mine, the 2nd
41:00Congressional District of Alabama. Let me be clear at the outset. I do not subscribe to the notion that
41:05health care is a luxury, that health care should be available to those who can afford it, that health care
41:13should be dependent on where you come from, where you were born, the zip code that you reside in. I believe that
41:18health care is a basic human right. We know Jesus gave it for free. And I subscribe to the notion that no
41:27one should be left without access to a doctor, without access to a hospital, without access to an ambulance,
41:33simply because of where they're from. And the disparities should not be as drastic as they are
41:42for people of color. And yet, in places like Barber County and Washington County and Conecuh County,
41:51across my district, the data tells a devastating story about who has access to care and who has
41:57historically been left behind. And I know this is not just unique to Alabama. We see it in South
42:01Carolina. We see it in Massachusetts, as my colleague just spoke about. We see it in Mississippi
42:07and Georgia and other places as well, where black residents face higher rates of those chronic
42:14preventable diseases and illnesses, such as hypertension, diabetes. They suffer disproportionately
42:20from things like stroke and heart attack. And too often they live miles from the nearest hospital
42:26or clinic, particularly in rural, these rural areas, these rural parts of America, where hospitals,
42:31we're seeing them close. We're seeing them shut down. We're seeing it more difficult for them to even
42:36access basic care. We see in places across Alabama where maternal mortality rates for black women are
42:43more than double that of white women. And look, I'm proud to be from the state of Alabama, but I'm not
42:50proud of all of its health statistics. In fact, I'm not proud of most of them. Alabama is America's worst
42:58state for maternal mortality. More women die after childbirth in the state of Alabama than anywhere else in
43:03America, period. And that's not just black women, that's women in general. And so the disparity for
43:10black women is alarming, more alarming in that context. And it's just unacceptable. We are seeing across the
43:18state of Alabama, particularly in our rural counties, which if you know anything about the South, those rural
43:23counties in the South typically have higher black populations. Going back to the historical role and the
43:29historical place that they were for slavery and the descendants, they stayed there. And we're seeing
43:36hospitals in these rural communities shut down, shut down. And this leads to cuts in just general health
43:44care services. And they create health care deserts, forcing folks to drive in some cases literally hours
43:51for basic care. In some cases, literally well over an hour to be able to get to a hospital. And just in my
43:59home state alone, in this district that I'm running in, we saw several hospitals, that I ran in rather,
44:05we saw several hospitals closed just across the 13 districts, the 13 counties that represent,
44:10that compose my district, just while I was running for office. Just while I was running for office,
44:15we saw at least four shutter. Four. And we are on pace in my district alone to see every single hospital
44:26close within the next several years that are not located pretty much in just Mobile or Montgomery.
44:31And that is unacceptable because it creates conditions that make it tougher for black people
44:38to be able to receive care, for all people to be able to receive care. But the disparities
44:42in access we know are well documented. So we know that that burden will disproportionately hit
44:48the African-American community. And this is places that have contributed so much to this nation.
44:53Places like Tuskegee, Alabama that gave us so much. Places like Troy, Alabama that gave us John Lewis.
44:59Places like Montgomery, Alabama where their largest hospital is in bankruptcy right now. And so we have
45:06to be cognizant of the impact that this is going to continue to have on the African-American community.
45:11And we have to be have to be focused on on solutions. But we also have to understand how we got here.
45:19This is not just something that we stumbled upon. It's not that the data didn't show us that this was coming.
45:26This is the result of historic underinvestment and the direct result of policy choices historically
45:33and policy decisions that we continue to make to this day. I'm in Alabama. We're one of just 10 states that has
45:41not acted on the common wisdom of expanding Medicaid. And that is exacerbating the issues that we have
45:50from a health care standpoint. We haven't expanded Medicaid. This is in a state that for all intents and
45:55purposes has pretty much the lowest life expectancy in America. I think we're technically third by some
46:00decimal points. So congratulations. We live by a few more weeks longer in the state of Alabama than,
46:07say, West Virginia and Mississippi. Nothing to really be proud of. We're at the bottom of the barrel.
46:14And yet we haven't expanded Medicaid, which is one of the reasons that the first piece of legislation
46:19that I joined when I was fortunate enough to be sworn into this body was the Cover Now Act,
46:25which would allow counties and cities to be able to get Medicaid expansion funding directly and get
46:32through the resistance that the state has put up now for well over a decade. But we got to do better
46:39than that. We can continue to ring the alarm, but we have to do better. We have to. We have to address
46:47the underlying causes and the underlying issues here. We have to understand that these counties where these
46:52hospitals have been closing, that insurance remains out of reach because the jobs aren't there.
47:00We have to understand that preventative care in many of these places is also just a dream
47:07because the conditions of the communities don't warrant practitioners, healthcare practitioners,
47:12setting up shop there or staying there. And I don't care who you are. I come from Alabama. We, we,
47:18we treat Nick Saban and rightfully so as the greatest college football coach of all time. But I can tell
47:23you one thing about this. Nick Saban could not close a recruiting pitch to a business
47:30to come relocate in a county that does not have a hospital.
47:37I don't care who you are. Businesses don't want to relocate there. Hell, businesses don't even want to
47:42remain there. How do you get retirees to want to come back home where they grew up and set up shop
47:48and you tell them we don't have a hospital. We don't have a geriatrician. Seven of the 13 counties in my
47:53district don't even have a pediatrician. So we have to get serious. We have to get serious about
48:03addressing this issue in the community. It is an existential threat. It truly is.
48:07And we know the other statistics, right? Black Alabamians are more likely to suffer from diabetes
48:15and the amputations that result from them or to die from untreated cancers or undiagnosed cancers or
48:20lately or late diagnosed cancers and experience preventable complications from just general chronic
48:26illnesses. When it comes to kidney disease and dialysis access, and this is, this is, this is
48:32alarming. Last time I was home, you know, people in the state of Alabama have been trying to get me to
48:38come visit as many healthcare facilities as possible to shed light and to give more context behind what's
48:46really happening in the healthcare system in the state of Alabama. And so the dialysis community
48:55brought me in for a tour last weekend in Montgomery, Alabama at the DaVita, the DaVita Center. And you
49:04walk in there and you see these nurses and technicians that are doing God's work and keeping people alive.
49:10But one thing jumps out at you. One thing, you can't help but see that every patient in there looks like me.
49:22Every kidney dialysis patient looks like me. And so I ask, I'm like, is, is this, is this just a certain day? Or is this how it goes?
49:33And they had representatives from five or six facilities there. And all of them said the same
49:37thing. No, our patient roles are about 90% black. 90% black.
49:44And that is because this is impacting people of African American descent and black people in this
49:52country in ways that it's not impacting other races. And we have an obligation, we have a moral duty
49:57as a nation to figure out why. And that's why it cuts to things like NIH. It ain't productive.
50:06It's not helpful. It's harmful. If you ever want to be shocked, if you want your conscience to be shocked,
50:12walk into a dialysis treatment facility in probably any community in this country.
50:18And you do the statistics yourself and you ask yourself why that is. And why can't we figure that
50:23out? And why are we not investing more resources and more time and more attention and focus on trying
50:28to improve healthcare outcomes for black people in this country? We have to. We must. And so we must
50:37start this process by expanding Medicaid in states like mine in the state of Alabama. We must do that
50:43because nobody should have to choose between getting treatment and putting food on the table. There are too
50:48many people who should be able to go see a doctor who are not because they have refused to expand Medicaid.
50:55But we also have to invest in our healthcare infrastructure, particularly our rural healthcare
51:00infrastructure, bringing back those hospitals and clinics and bringing in telehealth hubs,
51:05leveraging every resource we have to improve healthcare outcomes. We have to increase funding for black
51:11maternal health initiatives because this is something that is, it is, it is, these are problems that we
51:16should not be having in 2025. In 2025. We should not be having nearly as many women die
51:26from childbirth complications and pregnancy related causes as we do. And when you look at the disparities
51:32racially, it is stark, it is shocking. And we have to get to the bottom of why that is. And we have to
51:41continue to address those environmental health threats in places like Alabama and across the country,
51:46where you see disproportionately higher rates of cancer in certain communities because they're located in
51:52certain places. We have to be serious about this. And so it is a privilege to be able to speak on the
51:59importance of this issue, especially under the leadership of Representative Clyburn. And I yield back.
52:05I thank Mr. Figures for his comments. And Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining?
52:15The gentleman has eight minutes remaining.
52:20Well, thank you very much. I want to take just a couple of minutes to thank
52:26all of my colleagues from the Congressional Black Caucus for
52:30being here this evening. And to reiterate a little of what we've heard here today, I represent
52:39a congressional district in South Carolina that includes zip code 29203.
52:55It happens to be the zip code that I live in, Columbia, South Carolina.
53:02My house in Columbia is about five or six minutes from the University of South Carolina's, the site
53:19of the new medical school of the University of South Carolina.
53:23I represent the medical university of South Carolina in Charleston.
53:31But the zip code I live in, the zip code that that new medical school will be located in, 29203 is
53:44the home of the highest percentage of amputations because of the late detection of diabetes.
53:59Now, there's a reason for that.
54:02There's a reason. And we all know what that region is.
54:07And we must, as a Congress, as a country, do the things that are necessary to remove these disparities.
54:24There's no reason for people living within the shadow of two medical schools.
54:33And some of the best hospitals.
54:41But because of the socioeconomic conditions, they cannot avail themselves of the services
54:54in these buildings that they live in the shadows of.
54:58We've got to make health care more accessible and more affordable for all of our citizens.
55:11It's a great system that we have.
55:15There are people I've traveled with on Kodals who will refuse to go to a doctor
55:22or even a dentist in another country waiting to get back home to avail themselves of this great
55:34health care system that we got in this country.
55:36But the problem is, it is not accessible to everybody, not affordable by everybody.
55:45And that is what we are to do something about.
55:50We have the ways to do it.
55:54I would hope that over the next several days and weeks,
56:00we will develop the will that is necessary to do so.
56:05And with that, I'll give you back.