ICYMI: Congresswoman Simon Testifies Against Republican Reconciliation Bill, Offers Two Amendments to Protect Americans’ Health Care and Benefits

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Today, Congresswoman Lateefah Simon (D-CA-12) testified against the Republican budget reconciliation bill in the House Rules Committee. Congresswoman Simon joined Democratic Members in a marathon debate session opposing the Republicans budget bill and delaying the bill. 

She also offered two amendments to the reconciliation bill to protect Americans’ benefits:

(1) An amendment that would prohibit cuts to reproductive health services—including counseling, birth control, and prenatal, pregnancy, and postpartum care—by requiring the Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to certify that the budget bill would not decrease access to or coverage to all of these services.

(2) An amendment that would protect access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and federal employee benefits by mandating that if the Trump administration cuts SNAP’s budget or benefits to recipients by even $1.00, the provisions in the budget bill that would cut federal employees’ salaries, pensions, and labor protections would immediately expire.

You can watch Congresswoman Simon’s full remarks here, and find an excerpt of her remarks below:

“The consequences, the deep, profound consequences of this bill, and what the real-life consequences will have on families – families in my district and across the nation are devastating. My amendments are about (1) protecting reproductive rights and health care, and (2) protecting our social safety net and our federal work force…

“Being a new Member of Congress, what has hurt me, what has hurt me the most,  the most as someone who was a teen mom who took my child every day on the bus to child care, and I got support – I then as a transit-dependent person took a bus once a month took an hour and a half long bus to get $26 dollars worth of food stamps – then I would go to college, then my day job, then pick my baby up again. That baby is an attorney now, she passed the Bar on her first time. How dare we cut benefits of hard-working Americans…

“If you haven’t been poor, don’t legislate for the poor. Let’s step up and protect Americans who are working with their full bodies, their full spirits. Instead, you are putting forth a bill that pathologizes the folks that need us most.

“Lastly, Madam chair, I ask every Republican in the Conference to walk with me after you vote. This weekend, after you vote, come with me to the Children’s Hospital in Oakland and you tell the BMT (Bone Marrow Transplant) nurses, you tell that mother who has a child with Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (TMP) in her nose that that child may in fact die. Come with me and walk with me and walk with me – like I did when my husband died at the social security office, begging for a $600 dollar death benefit. Walk with me. You all have an opportunity to vote your conscience, your spirit. Vote for the people, vote for the real people of this country who keep the tapestry moving.”

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