Thank you for yielding. Today’s life expectancy rate in our nation is at a historic high, which is great news, and it means we need to be doing all we can to ensure that Americans have access to quality, timely services which allow them to live in their homes as long as possible. This hearing will help us better understand what might be done to ensure the law is aging as well as the people it serv... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. Thank you also, Mr. Chairman, for helping to make this a bipartisan bill. You and I have spoken several times over the past few weeks as the bill before the committee this morning has taken shape. When our roles were reversed, we worked closely in a similar fashion to produce, to report, and ultimately to pass much-needed bipartisan reforms to the Juvenile Justice Act and t... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. Organized labor has a long history in the American workforce. Their early advocacy for fairness and decent treatment left an important legacy, one unfortunately that the modern labor movement has appeared to have abandoned. I grew up in a union household. My father was a machinist and union organizer for part of his career, and upon graduating from high school, I went to wo... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. Thank you, Secretary Acosta, for coming before the Committee today. It’s a pleasure having you here to talk about the Department of Labor’s policies and priorities on the heels of such excellent news about the booming U.S. economy. With record-low unemployment and a job seekers’ market, it’s a good time to be an American worker. The Department of Labor is responsible for ke... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. And thank you for convening today’s hearing to talk about the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The issue of segregation in schools deserves our full attention, and I welcome this opportunity to discuss how the turning point of Brown v. Board has shaped the last 65 years for students across the United States. Thanks to the relentless courage ... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. Thank you, Secretary DeVos, for being here today. Today’s hearing will provide Members of the Committee with a chance to hear about the Department’s priorities and what Department leadership is doing to provide greater opportunities to students at every level of education. Committee Republicans are deeply committed to ensuring that all programs under the Department’s jurisd... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. It is unfortunate that you chose not to consider fully this committee’s interest and important stake in the House Democrat version of the Violence Against Women Act before it made it to the House floor last week, and before that H.R. 1, you’ve deemed this one-sentence Democratic attack on the administration worthy of the full committee’s consideration without a hearing on t... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. I want to add my welcome to all the witnesses for being here today. You have quite the task ahead of you. This is the first hearing this Committee, which has a referral on H.R. 5, has scheduled on the bill, and it’s being considered a legislative hearing. That means we’re supposed to talk about the bill itself. However, we skipped the step of holding a hearing on the underl... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. A postsecondary education has long been one of the surest pathways to a good-paying job and lifelong success. Attending college is a dream for so many Americans and we’ve made great strides in reducing barriers to making that dream a reality. This is something we should celebrate but unfortunately as student access has improved, program accountability and completion of coll... Read more »
Thank you for yielding. The high and rising cost of health care is a significant worry for families, workers, and employers across the country. Concerns about high premiums, high deductibles, and drug prices are known and well-documented, but the issue of surprise billing has rapidly risen to the forefront of peoples’ worries when it comes to health care. Surprise billing, sometimes called balance... Read more »
