Key Votes
Final Passage of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
After over a year of diligent work crafting a budget reconciliation package that extends the successful 2017 tax cuts, strengthens border security and our military, and cuts waste, fraud, and abuse, I was proud to support the final passage of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
As a physician of over 30 years serving rural Eastern North Carolina, and as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, I vigorously advocated for a package that protects hardworking families, helps our country flourish, and preserves the fiscal viability of the United States. We achieved this and more while delivering on President Trump's and Republicans' vision to put the American people first.
The Medicaid system, as we now know it, is broken. It desperately needs reform so that it can be a strong program for those who are eligible to receive the benefits. Throughout the bill-making process, I engaged in innumerable dynamic and spirited conversations with the Trump Administration to protect rural patients, doctors, and hospitals. As the only individual in Congress who continues to see patients covered by Medicaid, I have firsthand knowledge of how this program impacts our communities.
This bill protects Medicaid benefits for those who are most vulnerable in our society, not able-bodied individuals capable of participating in the workforce, illegal immigrants, and those ineligible for benefits. The $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program, included in the package, ensures the sustainability of rural health providers with an immediate impact beginning next year. I look forward to working with President Trump and CMS Administrator Oz, as well as healthcare leaders across the beautiful State of North Carolina, on the successful implementation of this law.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has a difficult job and has proven to be wrong in its projections as often as it is right, overestimating the costs of tax cuts, while underestimating the costs of spending hikes. For example, the CBO scored the Inflation Reduction Act under President Biden with a net reduction in the deficit by $90-200 billion, however, its latest estimate has it increasing the deficit by $300-562 billion. The absurdly low, projected GDP growth of 1.8% the CBO used as an input in its assessment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) to estimate long-term deficit growth does not align with historical trends and thus most likely underestimates the 'growth greater than debt’ effects the OBBB will have.
H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Delivered:
- No tax on tips.
- No tax on overtime.
- Tax relief for seniors.
- Permanent lower tax rates and brackets, double Standard Deduction, and an enhanced Child Tax Credit.
- No tax on auto loan interest for vehicles made in America.
- Incentives for paid leave and childcare.
- Expanded 529 education and savings accounts.
- Permanent 20% deduction for pass-through entities
- Permanent enhanced death tax relief.
- Trump savings accounts for newborns.
- Permanently secure borders by finishing the border wall and hiring thousands of new ICE officers and Border Patrol agents.
- Unleashed American energy to drive down costs.
- Fiscal sanity by cutting $1.5 trillion in mandatory spending.
- Strengthened Medicaid for those who need it most.
- A modernized military.
- Golden Dome funding.
- An updated air traffic control system.
Introduced Bipartisan Legislation to Preserve Seniors’ Access to Critical Drugs
This week, I introduced the Protecting Patient Access to Cancer and Complex Therapies Act, bipartisan legislation to revert physician reimbursement for administering drugs under Medicare Part B to Average Sales Price (ASP) plus 6 percent, create an additional rebate paid by manufacturers, and hold patients harmless by basing coinsurance rates off the Maximum Fair Price (MFP).
Part B drug reimbursements to physicians will be crushed by the consequences of the IRA’s Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, and patient access to life-saving drugs will dry up. We have been witnesses to the decimation of private practice medicine because of the never-ending cuts to the Medicare fee schedule. These negligent cuts further threaten the viability of oncology, rheumatology, and neurology practices.
The short-sighted reimbursement formula established by the IRA for Medicare payments to physicians will be devastating, particularly for oncology patients and providers. This legislation provides a much-needed fix to ensure that patients have the continued access to care and critical drugs they need.
Read my press release here.
Selected to Serve as Commissioner on the United States Helsinki Commission
It is a great honor to be selected by Speaker Johnson to serve as a Commissioner on the United States Helsinki Commission. The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, is an independent commission of the U.S. Federal Government established by Congress to monitor compliance with the Helsinki Accords signed in 1975.
The agreement aimed to reduce Cold War tensions between the East and West by acknowledging human rights and freedoms and fostering economic, scientific, and humanitarian cooperation. The Helsinki Accords are nonbinding and do not have treaty status.
We live in a very dangerous world and in a very uncertain time. Cultivating our relationship with like-minded nations, especially those with which we share deep ties economically and culturally, is a powerful deterrent to bellicosity.
Read my press release here.
