Subcommittees

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment, delivered the following opening statement at today's hearing titled Chemicals in Commerce: Legislative Proposal to Modernize America's Chemical Safety Law, Strenghten Critical Supply Chains, and Grow Domestic Manufacturing.

Subcommittee Chairman Palmer’s opening statement as prepared for delivery:

“Good afternoon and welcome to Ranking Members Pallone, Tonko, my colleagues, and to our witnesses for this hearing of the Subcommittee on the Environment.

“Today we will be examining a legislative proposal to modernize the Toxic Substances Control Act – or TSCA.

“First enacted into law in 1976 with broad bipartisan support, TSCA provides the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with broad authority to regulate chemicals that pose an unreasonable risk to human health and the environment.

“Forty years later, Congress made several improvements to TSCA with passage of the bipartisan Lautenberg Amendments in 2016.

“As we heard at our hearing last January, chemicals are central to many aspects of modern life, and a strong, U.S. chemical industry is key to our economic prosperity and national security.

“The 2016 law authorized EPA to collect user fees to help provide resources and funding but in the decade since the Lautenberg Amendments were passed, it has become clear that this important law is still not working as Congress intended and that further changes are needed to ensure chemicals are reviewed in a predictable and efficient process without undermining safety.

“The process for reviewing new chemicals – which was a significant focus of the 2016 effort – is broken. As we heard in January and will again hear from witnesses today, EPA does not meet the 90-day review deadline for the vast majority of all new chemicals submitted for EPA review. This regulatory uncertainty makes it difficult for the chemical industry to bring safer alternatives or new technology to the market in the U.S. and impacts human health and the environment by slowing the transition to safer alternatives.

“To be clear: The draft would not scrap the safety protections enacted in the 2016 Amendments and is not reopening up TSCA as a whole.

“The bill would reauthorize the fee provision for another 10 years and require increased transparency and accountability in how fees are used by EPA.

“The draft also makes targeted changes to modernize section 5 and section 6 concerning the review and regulations of new and existing chemicals, including requiring increased coordination between EPA and other agencies and prioritizing chemicals that are essential to critical manufacturing supply chains.

“Our witnesses today are: Dimitri Karakitsos, a partner at the law firm Holland & Knight who worked on the 2016 Amendments as a Senate staffer; Dr. Kimberly Wise White of the American Chemistry Council, John Carey of DSM-Firmenich, an international chemical manufacturer with significant operations in the U.S., and Professor Tracey Woodruff of the University of California, San Francisco.

“The legislation we are considering today is a discussion draft. It reflects input the Subcommittee received at our January hearing and in the months since.

“Majority staff also met with their counterparts on the minority staff half a dozen times to discuss ideas and language for this proposal, and several changes were made to the text based on input from minority staff.

“We look forward to getting additional feedback in the weeks after this hearing and hope to continue discussions with the minority on areas for bipartisan cooperation as we work on an updated draft, prepare legislation for introduction, and plan for a future markup to advance this important legislation.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Morgan Griffith (VA-09), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, led a hearing titled Lowering Health Care Costs for All Americans: An Examination of Health Insurance Affordability, featuring witness testimony from the biggest health insurance plan CEOs in the United States. During the hearing, Committee Republicans held health insurance plans accountable in their role of increasing health care affordability challenges impacting all Americans and discuss how Democrat policy failures in Washington D.C. have warped the American health care system and hurt patients access to high-quality health coverage options.

“Many patients have fewer plan choices than they did before Obamacare was enacted. Therefore, Obamacare coverage is not translating to patient or taxpayer affordability,” said Chairman Griffith. “We owe it to patients to have a health system that offers real choices, transparent prices, and coverage that fits their needs, and I look forward to seeing how today’s conversation presents solutions to make health care more affordable for all Americans.”

Watch the full hearing ** here **.

Below are key excerpts from today’s hearing:

Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02): “Experts, including the Congressional Budget Office, estimated that the expiration of the temporary Obamacare enhanced COVID Credit is projected to increase premiums by anywhere from 4 percent and 8 percent, depending on the market. Yet, many areas for 2026, insurers requested and were approved for premium increases of 30 percent, 40 percent, even 50 percent. So, Mrs. Boudreaux, you’re in Kentucky. The average Elevance Obamacare plan increased its premium by roughly 24 percent. Despite what Democrats would have the American people believe, the temporary COVID Credit does little to actually lower underlying Obamacare premiums and the American taxpayers are footing the bill. So, Mrs. Boudreaux, by your best estimation—even if the Democrats’ temporary COVID Credits were extended—would Obamacare plan bids in my state of Kentucky increase or decrease between 2026 and 2025?” Mrs. Boudreaux: “Well, thank you very much for the question, Congressman. You know, as we’ve shared, premiums reflect the underlying costs...” Chairman Guthrie: “So, they would have increased, right?”

Congressman John Joyce, M.D. (PA-13): “Since the passage of the ACA, we have seen costs across all markets continue to increase. One of the key issues driving this is the medical loss ratio, or the MLR, that requires plans to spend either 80 percent or 85 percent of your premium dollars on health care expenses. The MLR created multiple perverse incentives for insurance companies to dramatically consolidate both vertically and horizontally. The companies that you lead today are not just involved in insurance. You own PBMs, you own specialty pharmacies, you own retail pharmacies, you own GPOs, you own physician groups and practices. In some cases, you own hospitals, and you own drug manufacturing companies. And at least one of you owns a bank! This has led to alleged cases of self-dealing, as your companies work to circumvent the [multi-level marketing] requirements.”

Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01): “The largest PBMs—CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and Optum—have created rebate contracting entities, or PBM group purchasing organizations, which are adding to the complex and opaque nature of the medicine supply chain. My first PBM reform bill on transparency was in 2019, as an Iowa state senator. PBMs claim these entities provide them and their clients with greater bargaining power to lower costs, but recent investigations by Members of Congress, industry experts, state attorneys general, and federal oversight agencies suggest the opposite may be true. We have a graph up here. Let’s start with the left. The drugmaker pays rebates directly to the PBMs and PBM GPOs to ensure their drugs are included on their health plan formularies—meaning the drugs are covered by insurance. Then, these PBMs and their PBM GPO subsidiaries collect the rebates, which they promise to pass through to their patients and health plans. Can any of you tell me what percentage of rebates are passed through to the patient, who is paying a higher drug cost because the rebates are added to the price of the drug?” Top Health Insurers: “...” Congresswoman Miller-Meeks: “Is it zero?” Top Health Insurers: “...” Congresswoman Miller-Meeks: “You don’t even know that you’re not giving these patients back a rebate for paying higher drug prices.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.– Congressman Morgan Griffith (VA-09), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, delivered the following opening statement at today’s hearing titled Lowering Health Care Costs for All Americans: An Examination of Health Insurance Affordability.

Subcommittee Chairman Griffith’s opening statement as prepared for delivery:

“Today we will discuss health care costs and patient access challenges by examining affordability across the entire health insurance marketplace.

“This hearing builds on work Republicans have done this Congress to address health care affordability.

“We plan to have future hearings with other leaders and experts across the health care continuum to understand the root causes of rising health care costs.

“Specifically, this hearing will focus on the role insurers play in the delivery of care.

“The insurance market is dominated by a handful of Fortune 50 corporations that control the majority of the national market.

“In some states, a single insurer may even control 80 or 90 percent of a particular market.

“The biggest health insurers today often manage several facets of the health care supply chain, such as owning the pharmacy benefit managers; the group purchasing organizations; multiple provider groups; and specialty or mail-order pharmacies.

“Even with owning those, complicated benefit designs, narrow networks, prior authorization requirements, and opaque coverage decisions often leave patients feeling like they are paying more for less.

“The market also lacks transparency and is not easily navigable.

“One contributor to health insurance unaffordability for millions of Americans is the so called ‘Affordable Care Act,’ also known as Obamacare, that was signed into law in 2010.

“When Democrats passed Obamacare, without Republican support, they sold the bill on the promises that premiums would fall, competition would rise, and ‘if you like your insurance plan, you will keep it.’

“Instead, Obamacare has increased health care costs, warped incentives, federalized benefits, restricted plan design, and limited access to care.

“Many patients have fewer plan choices than they did before Obamacare was enacted. In fact, a constituent told me recently that his family only has one provider option. Therefore, Obamacare coverage is not translating to patient or taxpayer affordability.

“Unfortunately, employer-sponsored insurance is also becoming unaffordable, and, each year, more American small businesses choose not to offer health insurance because it is too costly.

“This impacts the ability for a small business to be competitive and attract talent.

“We know two things are true:

“Competition is essential for patient access! Lack of competition and consolidation within the insurance marketplace has led us to higher health care costs as a whole.

“The health care system needs to work for patients.

“That means empowering individuals with real choices, transparent prices, and coverage that fits their needs.

“We must strive to have more competitive plan options that reward quality and focus on affordability, access, and outcomes.

“Our discussion today is meant to move beyond politics and spur debate about how we can work toward delivering meaningful, innovative solutions for the Americans that we serve.

“We owe it to patients to get to the root causes of the challenges we see across the health sector, and I look forward to hearing from our witnesses.”