WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, delivered remarks during today’s executive session to formally organize the HELP Committee for the 119th Congress. This is the first executive session that Cassidy will chair and is the traditional first step before the Committee considers other business.
Click here to watch the executive session.
Cassidy’s speech as prepared for delivery can be found below:
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will please come to order.
Welcome everyone to the first HELP Committee meeting of the 119th Congress.
It is an honor to lead this Committee, which has a rich legislative history. And surprisingly, I am the first physician to chair the Senate HEALTH, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
I want to acknowledge Senator Sanders, who previously chaired this Committee. We disagree often, I have no doubt that will continue. But when we work together and commit to the process, good things happen. It is my hope we can build upon previous efforts, finding new ways to collaborate this Congress.
I also welcome new members: Senators Hawley, Banks, Crapo, Blackburn, Kim, Blunt Rochester, and Alsobrooks. We are excited to have you back, and excited to have all the other members.
Working closely with the Trump administration, and with members across the aisle, the Committee has the real potential to tackle a broad range of issues facing American families.
One issue where Republicans and Democrats can find common ground is addressing the high cost of prescription drugs. Last Congress, we passed out of this Committee the PBM Reform Act, reforming misaligned incentives for PBMs and ensuring 100 percent of drug discounts are passed to the patient. We also passed legislation bringing lower-cost generic drugs quicker to market, so Americans can access these drugs at an affordable price.
Unfortunately, these did not pass last Congress, but we will continue to advance them this Congress.
When it comes to solving the nation’s education woes, the Committee must look at the severity of declining child literacy and its long-term effects.
Two-thirds of US public school students are unable to read proficiently in fourth grade; 40 percent are essentially nonreaders. Students who cannot read are less likely to graduate from high school and more likely to be incarcerated. Without a literate workforce, we cannot fill the over 8 million jobs currently open. We cannot adequately staff the military. By the way, a passion of mine related to this is the issue of dyslexia. It does not affect intelligence but impacts a child’s ability to read. Research shows it impacts 1 in 5 Americans.
The Committee must examine this, and work with local and state partners to improve literacy nationwide and address dyslexia.
We also need to address rampant antisemitism on college campuses, which led to attacks and harassment of Jewish students.
I assure you this will be a priority in the new Congress.
We must also empower and protect the rights of more than 27 million gig workers nationwide. The Biden-Harris administration attempted to erode the flexibility of independent workers, threatening their ability to provide for their families. Thankfully, the Biden-Harris anti-worker agenda is over.
Finding ways to protect gig flexibility while increasing workers’ access to portable benefits like retirement and health care is an area of interest of mine. I hope both sides of the dais join me on this.
Lastly, the Committee must take a hard look at our retirement system, specifically the failures of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Because of HELP Committee Republican oversight over PBGC last Congress, $375 million in taxpayer funds were prevented from being wrongfully paid to union pension funds. As we look at how to make the government function better, reforming PBGC is crucial to ensuring Americans can depend on their pension and have a secure retirement.
Thank you again to all of our members. I look forward to the debates we’ll have and hopefully the policy solutions that will be better for these debates.
Now I recognize Senator Sanders for his opening statement.
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