ICYMI: Sen. Coons op-ed in The News Journal: “Republican proposal is not about health or care”

WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) published an op-ed in The News Journal on the Senate Republicans’ health care bill. 

The News Journal: Republican proposal is not about health or care

By Chris Coons

There was a lot of talk in Washington this week about the Senate Trumpcare bill. Thousands of Delawareans made your voices heard by calling and writing my office, with 20 times more callers opposed to the bill than supportive of it.

It was because of your efforts – and the efforts of Americans across the country – that the Senate didn’t have enough votes to pass the bill this time. 

But we have to remember that this fight is not over. The Senate will be back after July 4, and instead of working in a bipartisan way to make constructive improvements to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there’s a good chance some version of the Senate Trumpcare bill will get a vote instead. 

We have to stay engaged and keep fighting because this “health care” bill isn’t about health or care. The Senate Trumpcare bill is essentially a tax cut for the wealthiest handful of Americans paid for by massive cuts to health care services for everyone else.

Don’t take my word for it. On Monday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its assessment of the Senate Trumpcare bill. CBO found that this bill would kick 15 million Americans off of their health insurance next year, with 22 million Americans losing coverage by 2026, while giving the wealthiest Americans more than $500 billion in tax cuts over 10 years. A review of the Senate Trumpcare bill by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that it would give Americans who make more than $5 million a tax cut of almost $250,000. 

Where does all the money come from for these tax cuts? In large part, it’s from taking back the money that’s been used to give millions of Americans access to health care – often for the first time.

Gustavo, a self-employed barber in Newark, is one of the thousands of Delawareans who now has health insurance for the first time in his life because of the Affordable Care Act. Before the ACA, Gustavo’s heart condition made it prohibitively expensive for him to afford health insurance or the surgery he needs to treat his heart condition. Today, as long as he budgets carefully, Gustavo is able to afford insurance and get the treatment he needs.

My staff and I have heard from countless Delawareans who’ve found themselves in situations like Gustavo’s – living with a preexisting condition that made it either impossible or too expensive to afford health insurance. These Delawareans are among the millions across our country who’ve gained health insurance because of the ACA – and who would lose that coverage under the Senate Trumpcare bill.

In recent days, I’ve been visited by patients, nurses, doctors, advocacy groups, and hospitals from up and down our state who make it crystal clear that the Medicaid cuts in the Senate Trumpcare bill would be devastating for seniors, children, students, and more. Across the United States, Medicaid covers or helps cover nearly half of all births and more than 60 percent of nursing home residents. In Delaware, Medicaid covers 84,000 children, which is almost half of our total Medicaid population, and almost 60 percent of nursing home care. 

These are the Americans whose Medicaid coverage would be cut by hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for new tax cuts for the rich. 

That’s not all. Trumpcare would also cut tax credits for Americans purchasing health care on the individual market, meaning they would see their monthly health care costs get even more expensive. If the Senate Trumpcare bill were to become law, average deductibles would almost double, and premiums would go way up. Rather than addressing the high premiums that some Delawareans face because of a lack of competition in the marketplace, the Senate Trumpcare bill would make it even more expensive. 

That’s in part because Trumpcare would allow insurers to charge older people up to five times more for their premiums, compared to a three-to-one limit today. For example, a 60-year-old Delawarean making $42,000 a year would be forced to pay $12,610 more in premiums every year under the Senate Trumpcare bill for the same coverage they’re getting right now. 

It gets worse. Even for those who manage to find a health care plan they could afford, most people would pay far more than they would under the Affordable Care Act – while getting far worse coverage. 

That’s because the Senate Trumpcare bill allows states to gut the ACA’s essential health benefit requirements, which mandate that all insurance plans cover basic services like emergency care, maternity and newborn care, prescription drugs, pediatric services, hospitalization, and mental health and substance use disorder services (in other words, the reasons many people purchase health insurance in the first place). In the middle of an opioid epidemic that took the lives of more than 300 Delawareans last year, the Senate Trumpcare bill threatens to make the epidemic that much worse. 

More than 150 million Americans, including nearly 500,000 Delawareans, already get their health insurance through an employer. Because the Senate Trumpcare bill allows states to eliminate the essential health benefit requirements that the ACA put in place, under this bill many employer-sponsored insurance plans would provide less coverage and shift more out-of-pocket costs to families. 

While Senate Republicans may claim that their bill covers pre-existing conditions, insurance under this bill would be worth far less since it wouldn’t cover what you need to treat your pre-existing condition.

The Senate Trumpcare bill would impact almost every single American. Unless you’re one of the wealthiest Americans in the country looking for another tax break, that impact won’t be good for your health or your wallet. 

Since I came to the U.S. Senate, I’ve heard countless stories of lives saved by the ACA. But I’ve also heard that some individuals and small business owners in Delaware are frustrated by increased costs they’ve seen under the ACA. That’s why I’ve been trying to work with Republicans to fix the parts of the Affordable Care Act that need fixing, from increasing tax cuts for small business that help them offer insurance to their employees, to finding new ways to increase marketplace competition and bring down premiums and deductibles for individuals and families. 

But instead of trying to find areas of agreement that build on the ACA’s progress, the Senate Trumpcare bill throws out the entire law and replaces it with bigger tax cuts for the wealthy, paid for on the backs of the most vulnerable among us.

That’s why we have to defeat the Senate Trumpcare bill.

In the days and weeks to come, I hope all Delawareans will stay active, stay engaged, and stay the course against this cruel and cynical bill. This fight is not yet over. 

Chris Coons has represented Delaware in the U.S. Senate since 2010. 

###

ICYMI: Sen. Coons, Brennan Center op-ed in TIME: “The Threat to American Elections You Don’t Know About But Should”

WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Nicole Austin-Hillery, Director and Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, published a joint op-ed in TIME on the importance of fighting voter suppression and protecting access to the ballot box. 

TIME: The Threat to American Elections You Don’t Know About But Should

By Chris Coons and Nicole Austin-Hillery

Over the past several months, we’ve heard a lot about the Russian government’s interference in our 2016 election, and rightly so. But we’ve heard less about another threat that has nothing to do with Vladimir Putin but is just as destructive and just as effective at undermining the integrity of our democracy: a decades-long assault on voting rights. This campaign is nothing less than a sustained attack on American democracy from within.

We have no doubt that voter suppression laws have been “passed with racially discriminatory intent,” as federal courts have recognized. We also know that others were passed with an unacceptable tolerance of discriminatory effects. In 2013, those who seek to discriminate were empowered by the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act, the landmark law that was one of the greatest achievements of the modern civil rights movement. These days, discriminatory barriers to the ballot box often hide behind seemingly benign objectives of “fighting voter fraud” and “protecting election integrity.”

But as we discussed earlier this month at an event hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice, there’s more to the story of why these laws have proliferated in recent years. We believe that those of us who oppose these voter suppression efforts have failed to raise awareness about what they actually do. 

Read the full op-ed here.

###

ICYMI: Sen. Coons celebrates Pride month in Lambda Legal keynote: “The remarkable progress we’ve made so far must give us hope… to face the obstacles ahead.”

WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, earlier this month, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) gave the keynote speech at a reception celebrating the opening of the Washington, D.C. office of Lambda Legal, the national organization fighting for full recognition of the civil rights of LGBT individuals and those with HIV. In his remarks, Senator Coons also honors U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.), the recipient of Lambda Legal’s first “Courage in Action” Award. 

The complete text of Sen. Coons’ remarks is below. Click here to watch the video. 

SENATOR CHRIS COONS
REMARKS AS DELIVERED AT LAMBDA LEGAL’S WASHINGTON, D.C. RECEPTION

JUNE 15, 2017

I wish you could see from here what I see — a motivated, an engaged, an empowered army of resistance. A group of men and women, lawyers from across our country and our community, who know what this [Pennsylvania] Avenue does. It connects the Capitol to the White House, it goes by the Department of Justice, and it continues onto the Supreme Court.

This is a route which we must tread together. This is a path that deserves your leadership and your work. In Sharon McGowan, you’ve picked a great champion. From her time at the ACLU to her leadership at the Department of Justice to her service with you, we are going to make a difference together. Thank you, Sharon. Thank you, Rachel [Tiven, CEO of Lambda Legal]. Thank you to Karen [Dixon, a member of the Lambda Legal executive committee], thank you to the board, thank you for everything that Lambda Legal is doing. 

And I also have to thank, at the outset, the folks who make it possible for me to do the sorts of things you describe [in the introduction], whether at a Neil Gorsuch hearing or in events that I engage in overseas, and that’s Erica and Andy. These are my lawyers, who are your lawyers.

Now, folks, I know I’m the appetizer, and we’ve got an entree about to come up here. You may have seen Cory scoot in late, right before the event started. I turned to Sharon and I said, “You know the thing about Cory, he’s always late for the big event, but when it comes to delivering justice, he is right on time.” So you’re going to have to suffer through me for about 10 minutes, and I’m going to scamper off to Delaware, and you’re going to get to hear from the main man, the person who tonight is being honored with an award he well deserves.

I don’t know how your January went, but I’ll tell you I took a fabulous train ride home to Wilmington, Delaware, with Joe Biden. It was great to be with him as we took that Amtrak home. We celebrated and welcomed him in fine Delaware fashion, and then Tom Carper, my senior Senator, tapped me on the shoulder and said, “You know, we do have to go back.” And go back we do.

How do we channel our frustration? How do we channel our despondency? How do we channel even our anger into action?

How do we take the feelings of the last six months and move it into defending equality, defending our democracy, defending our rights — the nation that together we have built? Which is, literally, the greatest nation on earth, not just for human rights broadly, but specifically for the LGBT community. How do we defend this, together, and how do we resist?

I cannot think of a better investment of time, of resources, of energy, for anyone to make than to support a civil rights organization like Lambda Legal, which isn’t just helping inspire a resistance, but is charting and chaptering and leading a resistance, and that deserves a round of applause.

This fight is more urgent than ever. You know what’s happened in the last six months. We’ve seen behavior normalized that we thought was long past. We’ve seen hateful rhetoric. We’ve seen differences and fears manipulated to set people against each other. We’ve seen the rolling back of positions, policies, and rights we thought were firmly settled. 

Lambda Legal isn’t just watching this happen. Lambda Legal isn’t just cheering from the sidelines. It is helping drive the bus. And you can count on allies like Cory Booker and me in the United States Senate, and like the great members of the House of Representatives who are here.

There is no doubt the road ahead is daunting. There’s no doubt the months and years ahead include major fights. We have more critical nomination fights. You heard the description about how I pressed Justice Gorsuch on his restrictive, his cramped, view of personal liberty, and what that means in our courts, what that means if that’s allowed to become the majority opinion of our Supreme Court.

But our fight for equality doesn’t end with Justice Gorsuch, or even with the Supreme Court. There are nominees for dozens of circuit court vacancies and district court vacancies that will play a critical role in either protecting or undermining the constitutional rights that are the bedrock of equality.

That means protecting marriage equality. That means protecting intimacy, rooted in a due process clause understanding that gives full force to the meaning of equal protection, and opposing the transmogrification of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into a weapon that would allow federal law to be used to condone discrimination. 

Our courts have to continue to be a place where the legal rights of the LGBT community under due process, equal protection, Title VII, and Title IX, can be vindicated. These are the principles that will direct how I examine and how I vote on the judges and justices who come before the Judiciary Committee.

I will also fight for legislation that delivers on, that makes real, the promise of equality. It’s about making steady, determined, relentless progress towards things that today seem out of reach, but so too was marriage equality just a few short years ago. The Equality Act must become a part of the laws of our nation — an act that bans discrimination on the basis of orientation and identity.

I’m also a cosponsor of the Repeal HIV Discrimination Act, which also needs to be advanced in order to end the stigma, the stereotypes, and the discrimination that we all believed would soon become part of the past of our brothers and sisters living with HIV. We need legal protections.

And we need to be relentless in challenging the executive orders that come out of this White House and that lay the groundwork for discrimination under the guise of “religious liberty.”

We also have to demand that federal agencies actually protect the civil rights of all Americans. During Attorney General Sessions confirmation hearings, I expressed my view that throughout his entire career, on too many occasions — a young man who grew up outside of Selma, Alabama; who was alive when a march that began the successful march to pass the 1965 [Voting] Rights Act — when he had had an opportunity to join that march of justice, to move forward our commitment to justice in this nation — instead, had stood on the sidelines, had watched history pass him by, or had actually sought to block it.

In just the first few months of this new administration, we’ve already seen the Department of Justice and the Department of Education rescind guidance that was a protection for transgender students. You know, I’d advocated for this very guidance and I was moved by former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s commitment to see, to stand with, and to protect the transgender community in this country. We have to be vigilant for that vision to once again be restored to our Department of Justice, for that vision and set of priorities to once again lead our nation.

As you heard in the introduction, I also serve on the Foreign Relations Committee. I hope you have a sense of what a beacon of hope our nation is around the world. We have to speak out against the hateful regime of Vladimir Putin, and what’s happening in Chechnya, where there are people being kidnapped and tortured because of their orientation.

Sometimes, when I ask myself, “Can any of us in Congress make a difference in the face of things happening around the world?” I’m reminded of a woman with whom I met in my office tearful and joyful that I’d been able to play some small part in helping her secure refuge and asylum here in the United States. She and her young child seemed peaceful, joyful, optimistic — it seemed hard to believe the deposition that had some to my office, the pleas that had come to my office, letting me know that this beautiful, capable woman, a Zimbabwean, had been imprisoned, had been tortured, and was seeking asylum in the United States. We must never forget that LGBT rights are human rights, and that human rights should be inextricable from American foreign policy.

If we are not the place, if we are not the nation, where our politics, our values, and our laws commit our society toward openness and love, we’ve lost what it means to be Americans.

We have shared values that commit us not just toward personal liberties, not just to tolerance, not just to inclusion, but to celebration — to celebration of the differences in how we love, who we love, and how we celebrate and affirm that love. I can’t think of anyone who fights harder on social media — or in the halls of the Senate — day-in and day-out, week-in and week-out, than my friend, my brother, Cory Booker.

When Cory was trying to decide whether to take on a run for the United States Senate, he called me. And for the first year he came here, he cursed me for having helped talk him into joining one of the most dysfunctional legislative bodies in human history because the transition from a mayor — who spent years successfully fighting for better housing, for better education, for equality, for criminal justice reform; a creative and successful and compelling mayor — had to trade in that role as mayor, and had to take on a role as a senator. 

That was not initially the most satisfying transition he’s ever undergone. But I’ll tell you that as we sat on the floor of the [House of Representatives] next to each other, and listened to Barack Obama give his last address, his last State of the Union, he [Sen. Booker] turned to me and he said, “You know, you actually undersold how great this job really is.”

It’s not every day you hear a member of Congress talk about how their job is, but Cory believes it, and we’re better for it. He’s the one senator who could testify against a colleague’s nomination — not out of animosity towards that individual, but out of respect, even love, for his country. And Cory did that when he took the stand and testified against our colleague, now Attorney General, Jeff Sessions.

He [Sen. Booker] is a friend; he is a partner in the fight for civil rights; he is a zealous defender of this country’s promise and a campaigner for love. Cory, tonight’s Courage in Action Award is truly well deserved.

I can’t think of a month that more symbolizes the challenges and the pain, the progress and the hope, than Pride Month. June symbolizes remarkable celebrations and moments of pain and difficulty. It was just this week that we are mourning the anniversary of the senseless deaths of those killed at the Pulse Nightclub. But June is also the month the Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of our land.

And I think that juxtaposition of tragedy and celebration reflects what we experience in our nation now, as we face an administration that thrives on division and fear. The remarkable progress we’ve made so far must give us hope, must give us heart, to face the obstacles ahead. 

We’ve been inspired, we’ve been challenged, and we’ve ultimately succeeded. If you think about the trajectory from Stonewall to Obergefell; if you think about how lives have changed and how hope has blossomed in this country, we cannot be daunted by what seems, at the moment, the unconquerable challenge of the current administration.

This weekend, I will be at home in Delaware, and I will have a chance to speak to the Stonewall Democrats in Rehoboth. I’m hopeful I will once again visit with a couple I’ve come to be good friends with in my years in the Senate. They confided in me during the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” that they had together spent 50 years in service to our nation in our military and intelligence communities — the entire time living lives that were privately joyful but publicly lies, denying who they were in order that they could be faithful to our country while still being faithful to the love they had for each other.

Today, we live in a nation where their sacrifice, their service for freedom, can be recognized through their marriage and their enjoyment of full civil rights. 

So, folks, the arc of history is long, and it does indeed bend toward justice, but only if we work to bend it. This progress did not happen overnight. It happened through enormous work and sacrifice, as you know well, as you know better than anyone. 

There is a country on the coast of west Africa called Gambia where just in the last few months — a country that had sweltered under the harsh hand of an authoritarian, hateful, anti-LGBT ruler for 20 years — turned him out through a peaceful, democratic election.

If we think about what we have to do to advocate for rights both at home and abroad, to continue to be that beacon around the world and to continue to have optimism for our prospects here at home, I encourage you to remember what Justice Kennedy once wrote: “the nature of injustice is that we may not always see it end in our own time.” But we have to remember that our Founders understood this, and entrusted, as Justice Kennedy said, “to future generations a charter protecting the right of all persons to understand liberty and to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning.”

Folks, Lambda Legal is on the front lines of not just observing history, not just learning what liberty means, but of shaping history and defining what liberty means in the interests of all Americans.

Thank you for who you are, thank you for what you do, thank you for the love that you share with our nation and the world, and thank you for the honor of having the opportunity to resist alongside you.

###

[VIDEO] Sen. Coons commends Army Corps of Engineers on Delaware River deepening project & funds for Port of Wilmington

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today delivered remarks at the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee hearing on President Trump’s funding request and the budget justification for the Corps of Engineers and the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation. Following his opening remarks, Senator Coons questioned Lieutenant General Todd Semonite, Commanding General and Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Mr. Douglas Lamont, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works). 

“I very much appreciate the reprogramming of funds for the Port of Wilmington after they were initially left out of the FY 2017 workplan,” said Senator Coons. “Those funds are critical for dredging our port this summer.  I am also pleased to see that the FY 2018 budget includes sufficient funding for two dredge cycles for the port so we can continue having 6 million tons of cargo delivered and shipped every year.” 

“I was also glad to see the FY 2017 workplan allows the completion of the Delaware River deepening from 40 to 45 feet as well as funds to renourish some of our critical beaches,” said Senator Coons. “I understand the bids for the last major phase of the deepening project are out this week, and our region is very much looking forward to having that deeper channel.”

Full audio and video of Senator Coons’ remarks and questioning are available here.

Senator Coons’ opening remarks, as delivered, are below:

Lieutenant General Semonite and Mr. Lamont, thank you for being here today, and thank you to the Army Corps of Engineers for all you do for our country and, particularly, for what the Army Corps does for my home state of Delaware.  And Lieutenant General Semonite, given your time in New York City as Commander of the North Atlantic Division (NAD), I am pleased that you are familiar with the Delaware River deepening project and the importance of strong coastal infrastructure. 

I very much appreciate the reprogramming of funds for the Port of Wilmington after they were initially left out of the FY 2017 workplan.  Those funds are critical for dredging our port this summer.  I am also pleased to see that the FY 2018 budget includes sufficient funding for two dredge cycles for the port so we can continue having 6 million tons of cargo delivered and shipped every year. 

I was also glad to see the FY 2017 workplan allows the completion of the Delaware River deepening from 40 to 45 feet as well as funds to renourish some of our critical beaches.  I understand the bids for the last major phase of the deepening project are out this week, and our region is very much looking forward to having that deeper channel. 

Finally, I want to take a moment to thank the Philadelphia district of the Corps, who have been wonderful to work with.  I particularly want to express my gratitude for the service of Lieutenant Colonel Mike Bliss, who is about to leave command, and I am looking forward to working with Lieutenant Colonel Kristen Dahle, his successor.  Lieutenant Colonel Bliss has been absolutely terrific. The men and women of the Philadelphia district are creative, responsive, and greatly appreciated in my office. 

###

[VIDEO] Sen. Coons on Trumpcare: “This fight is not over”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) delivered remarks on the Senate floor about the Senate Republicans’ health care bill.

“I urge everyone watching and listening to remember: this fight is not over. The Senate will be back next month, and Republicans will be doing everything they can to make tweaks or shaves or changes or amendments to the bill to get it passed this body,” said Senator Coons. “We need the engagement, persistence, and even the resistance of Delawareans and Americans across the country to make sure the Senate Trumpcare bill never becomes law.”

“Since I came to the Senate seven years ago, I’ve said more times than I can count that I want to work with Republicans to fix the parts of the Affordable Care Act that need fixing. Let’s simplify the reporting requirements that unnecessarily burden small businesses and increase the tax credits that help them offer insurance to their employees. Let’s find ways together to increase competition and expand the tax credits to bring down premiums and deductibles on the individual market,” said Senator Coons. “Let’s explore new mechanisms that control health care costs by incentivizing reforms and produce healthy outcomes, rather than more tests and services. Sadly, the Senate Trumpcare bill does none of those things.”

Full audio and video are available here.

Senator Coons’ remarks, as delivered, are below:

M. President, I’ve come to the floor tonight to join my colleagues in opposing the Senate health care reform bill, what I’ll call the Senate Trumpcare bill.

I’m also here to thank the thousands of my constituents, the thousands of Delawareans who’ve called and emailed my office to express their opposition to this bill that is neither about “health” nor “care.” It’s because of your efforts – and the efforts of thousands of Americans across the country who have made their voices heard – that the Senate doesn’t have enough votes to pass this Trumpcare bill.

I urge everyone watching and listening to remember: this fight is not over. The Senate will be back next month, and Republicans will be doing everything they can to make tweaks or shaves or changes or amendments to the bill to get it passed this body. We need the engagement, persistence, and even the resistance of Delawareans and Americans across the country to make sure the Senate Trumpcare bill never becomes law.

This is as urgent now as ever because of how fundamentally heartless this bill is. As many nonpartisan organizations, including the Congressional Budget Office, have pointed out, this bill is essentially a massive tax break for the wealthy paid for on the backs of some of America’s most vulnerable citizens.

Many of my colleagues have already discussed the devastating impact this bill would have over time on millions of Americans. This Senate bill would make hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid. It would slash tax credits that help Americans buy health insurance on the individual market. It would force 22 million Americans off of their health insurance, and drive up costs for many millions more. 

If that’s not bad enough, the Senate Trumpcare bill does all of this slashing and cutting just to give another tax break for our wealthiest citizens. If this bill becomes law, the very richest Americans will get an extra $700 billion in tax breaks over the next 10 years.

Now, if the Senate Trumpcare bill only affected the millions of Americans who depend on Medicaid or who purchase insurance on the individual market, this bill would be unconscionable. But it’s even worse.

Let me explain. Many of our constituents don’t realize that even Americans who get their health insurance through their employer, the 150 million Americans who get insurance through their employer, have benefited from the Affordable Care Act.

In fact, I think in some ways, the consumer protections put in place by the ACA is the most important accomplishment of that bill. A core requirement of the ACA was that all health insurance plans cover what are known as “essential health benefits.” These are basic services like emergency care, maternity and newborn care, prescription drugs, pediatric services, hospitalization, health care for the mentally ill, and substance use for the addicted. To put it more succinctly, these are the reasons many people want health insurance in the first place.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, almost every insurance plan in the country today has to carry these core services. That includes the more than 150 million Americans – and half a million Delawareans – who get health insurance through their job.

The Senate Trumpcare bill would allow states through waivers over time to gut these essential health benefit requirements, gradually making many Americans’ health insurance less and less valuable and less and less protective for their health and their families.

That provision of the Senate Trumpcare bill would also allow states to waive the ban on insurers imposing annual and lifetime limits on essential health benefit coverage. That means that even if you get insurance, good insurance, through your employer, if you have an unexpected development, such as the birth of a child prematurely who develops serious medical challenges or a terrible diagnosis that requires expensive and repeated surgery, you either come up with the money on your own – or you’re forced into bankruptcy once you hit the lifetime cap.

Let me demonstrate with an all-too-real example. About 1 in 10 newborns have to spend time in the neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, after they’re born. According to the American Medical Association, in the NICU, quote, “it is not unusual for costs to top $1 million for an extended stay.” That means even a baby born to parents with great insurance coverage through their employer could hit their lifetime insurance cap before they leave the hospital for the first time.

And as Americans are scrambling to find ways to pay for their astronomical out-of-pocket costs under the Senate Trumpcare bill, wealthy Americans and corporations will be given huge tax breaks. 

Moreover, while Senate Republicans may claim that their bill does still cover pre-existing conditions, insurance under this bill would be rendered meaningless if it doesn’t cover what you need to treat your pre-existing condition through these essential health benefits.

So, M. President, let’s briefly recap the Senate Trumpcare bill. Millions of Americans lose health insurance. Those who manage to keep it end up paying more but getting less coverage. And the wealthiest Americans get yet another a tax break. That’s a painful, even cynical political calculation.

M. President, since I came to the Senate seven years ago, I’ve said more times than I can count that I want to work with Republicans to fix the parts of the Affordable Care Act that need fixing.

Let’s simplify the reporting requirements that unnecessarily burden small businesses and increase the tax credits that help them offer insurance to their employees.

Let’s find ways together to increase competition and expand the tax credits to bring down premiums and deductibles on the individual market. 

Let’s explore new mechanisms that control health care costs by incentivizing reforms and produce healthy outcomes, rather than more tests and services.

Sadly, the Senate Trumpcare bill does none of those things.

It is my hope that after today’s developments, after the next few weeks, after hearing from their constituents and returning in the next month, that my colleagues will recognize that, if we work together, we can address the broken parts of the ACA and sustain the best of what it’s done to expand insurance and health care for millions of Americans.

Let me close with a story I shared on the steps of the Capitol earlier today.

This is Kerry Orr. Kerry is from my hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. Kerry is a massage therapist and yoga instructor. Like many Americans, she considers the Affordable Care Act, quote, “nothing short of miraculous.”

Kerry signed up for health insurance in 2014 thanks to a subsidy provided through the ACA. She’d had some nagging abdominal and lower back pain, but didn’t think much of it, considering she had no family history of disease and, “had never even had stitches before.” 

But, that next year, in January 2015, a routine procedure covered by her new insurance, which she told me she wouldn’t have even gone for if it hadn’t been covered by her new health insurance, revealed that Kerry in fact had stage 3 colon cancer. She had surgery a week later, followed by six months of chemotherapy, and she ultimately faced no out of pocket expenses and was fully in remission.

Kerry’s cancer has now been in remission since September 2015. As she wrote to me earlier this year, quote, “The ACA came along at the last possible moment to save my life. I am certain that without it, I would have continued to live with the discomfort and try to self-treat until the cancer was too advanced to be successfully treated.”

I’m opposing the Senate Trumpcare bill for Kerry, and for the thousands of Delawareans and millions of Americans just like her.

I’ve heard stories from Delawareans about things that need to be fixed in the Affordable Care Act, and I hope I get the chance to work across the aisle to do that.

But, I’ve also heard from hundreds of Delawareans whose lives have been improved or, in cases like Kerry’s, saved by the Affordable Care Act, and I will not yield on defending the best parts of the ACA that have saved the lives of Americans across this country.

In the days and weeks to come, I hope all Americans will stay active, stay engaged, and stay the course so that we can push aside this cruel, cynical bill and find an opportunity to work together on a bill with real heart. This fight is not yet over and I will not yet yield.

Thank you, M. President. I yield the floor. 

###

[VIDEO] Sen. Coons: “We’re forgetting about the very people whose lives are at stake, whose health is at stake, as we’re fighting over this health care law”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, yesterday joined Wolf Blitzer on CNN to discuss the Senate Republicans’ health care bill and recent developments in Syria. 

“I think the same thing was happening in Republican Senate offices that was happening in my office this week: I got thousands of phone calls from Delawareans concerned that proposed deep cuts to Medicaid over a long period of time would leave them or their loved ones behind and concern that the protections they had come to rely on with the Affordable Care Act in terms of the quality and affordability of health care would be taken away by this bill,” said Senator Coons. 

“My concern is that we’re getting lost in the partisan game of who is up, who is down, which party is helped, which party is hurt, and we’re forgetting about the very people whose lives are at stake, whose health is at stake, as we’re fighting over this health care law,” said Senator Coons. 

Full audio and video available here.

Excerpts from the interview:

Senator Coons on the Republicans’ health care bill: I think the same thing was happening in Republican Senate offices that was happening in my office this week: I got thousands of phone calls from Delawareans concerned that proposed deep cuts to Medicaid over a long period of time would leave them or their loved ones behind and concern that the protections they had come to rely on with the Affordable Care Act in terms of the quality and affordability of health care would be taken away by this bill. My hunch is that as more and more Americans finally got a look at the secret bill that was crafted without public hearings, and after they got to learn from the CBO score about just how much of a cut was in store for them for Medicaid over the coming decade that their offices were also flooded with calls and concern. I think that’s why this vote is being delayed today. As Republicans go home for the Fourth of July recess, it’s my hope they’ll hear further from their constituents and think about returning after the recess and sitting down with Democrats, finding a way forward that we can, in fact, deliver what President Trump was calling ‘a plan with a heart,’ and that would be Obamacare fixed and improved through bipartisan work.

More on health care: An important short-term middle ground would be to stop the sabotage of the Affordable Care Act. I sat down with the CEO of the one company that’s left providing health insurance in the Delaware exchange just this past week, and he said the reason they have raised their rates this year is because of instability and uncertainty about the path forward. We need to work in a bipartisan way to stabilize the marketplace while we work together over the next couple of months to address some of the issues that haven’t yet been solved in the Affordable Care Act. Many of us in the Democratic Caucus are perfectly willing to work across the aisle to address the challenges with the Affordable Care Act. But Republicans first need to abandon a path that includes big tax cuts and long-term reductions in Medicaid as the vehicle for this conversation. 

More on health care: That’s right, and part of the reason they were leaving was the lack of reliable reinsurance. There is a bill that my senior senator, Tom Carper, and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia have introduced that would provide for the sort of reinsurance guarantee for insurance companies that was adopted years ago that stabilized Medicare part D. The fact there is an unreliability as to whether the Trump administration is going to continue to provide cost sharing and a guaranteed issue, the individual mandate, which ensures a certain marketplace, the absence of that certainty combined with some of the challenges the Affordable Care Act faced last year made Aetna decide they should pull out. We can address this, but we have to do it in bipartisan way.

More on health care: My concern is that we’re getting lost in the partisan game of who is up, who is down, which party is helped, which party is hurt, and we’re forgetting about the very people whose lives are at stake, whose health is at stake, as we’re fighting over this health care law. Earlier, the Democratic senators came to the steps of the Capitol to show pictures of actual individuals from their home states. I talked about Kerry Orr from Delaware. I’m going to talk about her more later tonight on the floor of the Senate. Her life was literally saved by the Affordable Care Act. I recognize Republicans have legitimate concerns about the cost and affordability and the rollout of the Affordable Care Act that we have to address. But we also have to recognize that I have real stories of actual Delawareans whose lives have been saved by the Affordable Care Act and there are thousands more behind them. Meeting in the middle, finding a path that will actually help us address the needs of Americans, that’s what we ought to be focused on, not what party is up today or tomorrow. 

Senator Coons on Syria: I supported the strike that President Trump initiated back in April to punish Bashar al-Assad for his chemical weapons attack against his own civilian population. Assad is a brutal murderer who has killed nearly half a million of his own people, and I’m encouraged by the engagement that President Trump has shown. I was reassured this afternoon by a senior administration official that this announcement late last night was indeed vetted through all the relevant channels in the administration. But I’m concerned that we still lack a clear strategy. On the Foreign Relations Committee we have not yet been briefed on the administration’s strategy with regards to Syria. We’re actively engaged in combat against ISIS. We have American troops both flying in the air and serving on the ground, and it’s a very conflicted battle space. As you showed in your clip, it’s the Russian military that’s really the guarantor of Assad. The combination of Russian, Iranian, and Syrian forces arrayed in defense of Assad makes this a very tricky moment. I think it’s vital and important that the Trump administration deliver a clear strategy to Congress so that we can hopefully come together and support the red line that he’s drawing and have some understanding of how he intends to handle this very difficult and conflicted space. 

More on Syria: We have had constructive conversations. We recently had a hearing on the Foreign Relations Committee about how to move ahead with the Authorization for Use of Military Force.  Americans are in combat in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, and we’re way beyond the scope of the 2001 and 2002 authorizations. Many members of the current Senate weren’t even serving when those were adopted. And our ongoing war on terror around world has taken on new challenges and new geographies. Unfortunately, there was no witness from the administration at that hearing in front of the Foreign Relations Committee, so I’ll just renew my call for the administration to come forward with a strategy that would justify our adopting an authorization for the use of force. Congress has that critical constitutional role. We should step up and do our job even though it’s difficult, but that requires a partner in the administration and a commander in chief who takes the responsibility of articulating our strategy, particularly with regards to Bashar al-Assad. 

More on Syria: No. We’re operating in a very difficult gray space where the previous administration used the 2001 AUMF to authorize a wide range of strikes. In every case, there was some connection to Al Qaeda or the perpetrators of 9/11 or to allied forces in some way. But a strike against the government of Bashar al-Assad is a new thing. President Obama came to the Foreign Relations Committee and sought an AUMF to attack Bashar al-Assad and received that vote from the committee. It was never brought to the floor of the Senate because President Obama chose not to carry forward an attack against Syria. President Trump has already attacked Syria, and I think he’s gotten support from many members of the Congress. But this is a very conflicted and difficult space given the role that Russia plays, given the threats we’ve received from Russia that they would attack American aircraft operating west of the Euphrates. I think it’s vital that we have both an authorization from Congress so that our troops and families know they enjoy their support and a strategy that justifies that authorization. 

###

[VIDEO] Sen. Coons’ “Brave Idea” at Aspen Ideas Festival: “Progressive values aren’t just secular values”

Sen. Coons on weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast: “It’s when two-dozen senators — conservative and Evangelical, Mormon and Protestant, Jewish and even Buddhist — gather together for an hour. We do two things that don’t exist in the rest of our weeks: we trust each other, and we listen.”

Sen. Coons: “Let me briefly share — as a progressive, Christian, and Democrat — that I think both parties, and mine in particular, need to realize that progressive values aren’t just secular values.” 

Sen. Coons: “The party that recognizes that the vast majority of Americans are people of faith is the party that will be able to propose solutions that address their big challenges and that hear them…At the end of the day, we have to make clear that we fight for things like civil rights, social justice, and the environment not in spite of our faith but, in many cases as Democrats, because of it.” 

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – As part of the opening session for the 2017 Aspen Ideas Festival, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) shared the following “brave idea,” urging progressives to work in tandem with faith communities to confront some of our nation’s most pressing challenges. 

Full audio and video available here.

Senator Coons’ remarks, as delivered, are below:

I’m U.S. Senator Chris Coons, and I’m a Democrat — and I’m an optimist. You know, some folks are despairing about our ability to hear each other, and to work together, and to actually tackle the problems that face our country. There’s good reason for that.

But I have an optimistic prediction that one of the unexpected outcomes of President Donald Trump’s administration will be to make the Senate great again.

Sometimes it’s really not shared values or shared experience that brings us together — but it’s an unexpected and shared opponent. I’ll give you a few quick examples. 

I’ve managed recently to successfully legislate with some of the most conservative Republican senators. Republican Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker and I have come together to introduce a bold bill that will reform U.S. food aid in the face of entrenched interests that keep it inefficient and overly expensive.

Orrin Hatch, the most senior Republican senator, and I worked together to defend America’s manufacturers and innovators from the theft of their trade secrets. We wrote, introduced — and President Obama signed into law — the Defend Trade Secrets Act. 

But the root of how we found each other and how we helped work to restore some of the checks and balances that are so essential to our society really might surprise you because it comes from what I view as the best hour every week in the Senate — and it’s not the hour that we all head home.

It’s Wednesday morning, first-thing, and to make it there I have to get on the train at 6:25 from Wilmington, Delaware. Every time I say, “why am I going to this one more time?”, I’m surprised and thrilled at what I hear — because that’s the hour of the Senate Prayer Breakfast. 

It’s when two-dozen senators — conservative and Evangelical, Mormon and Protestant, Jewish and even Buddhist — gather together for an hour. We do two things that don’t exist in the rest of our weeks: we trust each other, and we listen.

One Senator every week stands up and shares from his or her life and experience and background, and challenges the rest of us to understand them as people and to hear them — their suffering, their struggle, their purpose, their path, their values.

Out of that experience has come the greatest opportunities for bipartisanship and progress that I’ve had in seven years [in the Senate].

Let me briefly share — as a progressive, Christian, and Democrat — that I think both parties, and mine in particular, need to realize that progressive values aren’t just secular values. You can get to some of our most important priorities through two routes.

You care about welcoming immigrants and refugees? You can get there because you care about other people as an intellectual, as a humanist, as a principled matter. Or, you can get there relying on passages in Torah and Gospel, about welcoming the stranger.

You care about creating a new environment where we fight climate change? You can believe that because you have a scientific foundation, and you see the imperative for federally funded research and development, for clean energy, so our children and grandchildren can have a more positive environmental future. Or, you can say as I would, that God created the earth and gave us stewardship over it, and you can partner with our evangelical brethren and commit yourself to improving our world, rather than flooding our oceans with plastic garbage and pumping pollutants into the air.

The party that recognizes that the vast majority of Americans are people of faith is the party that will be able to propose solutions that address their big challenges and that hear them. My party is one that needs to see that we can solve the real problems of our country by trusting each other, by listening to each other, and by allowing for both pathways to get us to the promised land.

At the end of the day, we have to make clear that we fight for things like civil rights, social justice, and the environment not in spite of our faith but, in many cases as Democrats, because of it. 

Those of us who come at these principles from a secular perspective have to recognize that we can make common cause in a way that respects the best in America and allows us to be the republic that is the hope of the world. Thank you.

###

[VIDEO]: Sen. Coons: “Who do we value? What do we value? That’s what’s on the floor this week.”

Sen. Coons: “It’s hard to look this right in the face and not be angry at my Republican colleagues.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today joined Morning Joe to discuss recent developments in the Middle East and the Senate Republicans’ health care bill.

“The hundreds of thousands of Delawareans who get their health insurance through their employer might face the loss of the consumer protections, the essential health benefits that are guaranteed through the ACA. Across the country, 150 million Americans have higher quality insurance because of the ACA. I think we don’t talk about that enough,”said Senator Coons. “The preexisting condition protection, the ban on lifetime caps, the ban on discrimination based on gender, keeping your kids on health care through 26. That affects 150 million Americans, and those would be swept away through a series of state waivers in the Senate Republican bill.”

“It’s hard to look this right in the face and not be angry at my Republican colleagues. I have an extended family member, my cousin’s brother, who has been a quadriplegic for most of his adult life. His family could never afford his care. Medicaid has made his care possible, has sustained his life for decades, and has given him a quality of life that could be impossible otherwise,” said Senator Coons. “Every day I am mindful of the Delawareans, of people I know across this country, who rely on Medicaid. The idea that we are going to see a bill come to the floor here in the Senate that would cut hundreds of billions of dollars out of Medicaid over the next decade when President Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would not cut Medicaid, this is a very important moment for the values of this country. Who do we value? What do we value? That’s what’s on the floor this week.”

Full video and audio available here.

Excerpts from the interview: 

Senator Coons on Syria:This was a surprising development, and I haven’t been briefed on it, but it’s a reminder of the ongoing turmoil and challenges in the Middle East. We’ve got American forces on the ground and in the air in the campaign against ISIS in the Raqqa area and continuing operations against ISIS in Mosul, in Iraq. Frankly, this threat of renewed action against Assad for his potential use of chemical weapons again against his own people is a reminder that we are still waiting for a strategy from President Trump about how we’re going to conduct both the war against ISIS and whether he will conduct any further strikes against Assad. 

More on Syria: I don’t know where this statement exactly came from and where the decision to threaten Assad with an additional attack came from. I did support the previous strike against Assad’s regime. After years of brutality against his own people, in violation of international norms, the continued use of chemical weapons. I’ll remind you, shows that Russia’s actions in which they said they guaranteed that Assad had given up all of his chemical weapons were not fully truthful. Assad continues to brutalize and murder his own people with the support of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Iran, but if we’re going to take another action against Assad, we need to know who is responsible for it. At the end of the day, Trump is the commander in chief, and he can’t simply outsource important national security decisions like taking a strike that might release chemical weapons against an entire community. 

More on Syria: Well, it certainly suggests to me that they are preparing for another strike against Assad and that this was designed to be a red line statement. That’s exactly the sort of thing that can be irresponsible or even dangerous if you make a very bright line statement without having laid out a strategy for backing it up and without consulting with congressional leaders. I do think President Trump would get support from many members of Congress for striking Assad’s chemical weapons forces, but to do so would require careful planning and a clear strategy. I’ll remind you, if you strike the bunkers where chemical weapons are stored, you risk releasing them into the whole atmosphere in the area and causing more harm than good. Assad is obviously strongly backed by Russia and we risk escalating the conflict in Syria by taking a strike without the understanding and support of the American people. 

Senator Coons on whether the White House is preparing an attack: That’s just my reading of the statement. I have received no other briefing of any kind. 

Senator Coons on the statement: I continue to be uncomfortable with foreign policy decisions made by tweet, and frankly, candidate Trump said that he would be unpredictable in foreign affairs, and President Trump has certainly delivered on that. When I’ve gone to regional security conferences with the North Atlantic community, I just returned from one with Senator McCain in the Asia Pacific, I hear that our allies and our opponents are deeply unsettled by the unpredictability of President Trump. We here in Congress are focused this week, especially in the Senate, on the health care bill. This is a reminder that there are lots of other developments in the outside world, but this is the week where we either are or are not going to see Republicans move forward. The bill that they developed in secret that would take away health care from 22 million Americans; I suspect most Americans watching this show this morning aren’t expecting an escalation in the conflict in Syria. 

Senator Coons on Afghanistan: Yes. The commander in chief is responsible for making important strategic decisions. I understand a desire to allow combatant commanders to make week-by-week decisions, tactical decisions, but a decision that changes our trajectory in Afghanistan by reinserting thousands of American troops and asking our vital NATO allies to continue to shoulder the burden along side us of fighting in Afghanistan, that’s a commander in chief decision. We in the Foreign Relations Committee both Democrats and Republicans have been asking for an administration witness to come forward and testify about their strategy in Afghanistan and ISIS. That’s the president’s responsibility. 

Senator Coons on the Senate Republicans’ health care bill: My read is that we have roughly 30,000 Delawareans who get health care through the exchange where the Affordable Care Act made it possible for them to get a quality affordable care for the first time. They would be at risk of losing access to health care. More importantly, the hundreds of thousands of Delawareans who get their health insurance through their employer might face the loss of the consumer protections, the essential health benefits that are guaranteed through the ACA. Across the country, 150 million Americans have higher quality insurance because of the ACA. I think we don’t talk about that enough. The pre-existing condition protection, the ban on lifetime caps, the ban on discrimination based on gender, keeping your kids on health care through 26. That affects 150 million Americans, and those would be swept away through a series of state waivers in the Senate Republican bill. 

More on health care: You know, I’m someone who tries very hard to be bipartisan, to work across the aisle, to move forward legislation. This is very hard. It is very hard. I sat on the floor behind Senator Hirono, a close friend, as she gave that speech yesterday. It’s hard to look this right in the face and not be angry at my Republican colleagues. I have an extended family member, my cousin’s brother, who has been a quadriplegic for most of his adult life. His family could never afford his care. Medicaid has made his care possible, has sustained his life for decades, and has given him a quality of life that could be impossible otherwise. Every day I am mindful of the Delawareans, of people I know across this country who rely on Medicaid. The idea that we are going to see a bill come to the floor here in the Senate that would cut hundreds of billions of dollars out of Medicaid over the next decade when President Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would not cut Medicaid, this is a very important moment for the values of this country. Who do we value? What do we value? That’s what’s on the floor this week. 

Senator Coons on President Trump’s travel ban: Well, I think it reflects the Supreme Court’s long deference to the Executive Branch in matters of national security and immigration. I’m troubled by a number of the decisions that were released yesterday showing a conservative trend in the Court, but I think on this particular issue we’ll have to wait until oral argument and a full decision in the fall. 

###

ICYMI: Sen. Coons discusses GOP health care bill at Aspen Ideas Festival

Sen. Coons: “This is no way to pass a bill that will affect a sixth of our economy, that will change access to health care for tens of millions of Americans, that will affect the quality of health care for more than a hundred million Americans, and that will change the trajectory of Medicaid.” 

Sen. Coons: “In my view, it will make health care harder to access, harder to afford, and harder to deliver for millions of Americans; in particular, those with disabilities, those who have addiction challenges, those who are seniors particularly in residential care, and those who are low-income.”

Sen. Coons: “We are making a sweeping change in a way that doesn’t show the best of our ability to legislate together in a thoughtful way.”

WASHINGTON – This past weekend, as part of the Aspen Ideas Festival’s “Spotlight Health,” U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) engaged in a one-on-one conversation with New York Times health care reporter Margot Sanger-Katz ahead of the upcoming vote of the Senate Republican health care bill. Watch the full conversation here.

Health Legislation in the 115^th Congress: Interview with Senator Christopher Coons (D-DE)

Aspen Ideas Festival

Congress is engaged in vigorous debates about health reform, the federal budget, and other sweeping policy changes that could have a potent impact on health. The future of Obamacare and the possibility that Medicaid may be significantly restructured or cut back dramatically are very much in play. The level of funding for the biomedical research and public health activities of the NIH, CDC and FDA are uncertain. Foreign-aid decisions are certain to influence major HIV initiatives and pandemic surveillance worldwide. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) offers an insider’s look at the policy and political implications of possible congressional actions. 

###

Senators Coons, Ernst, Grassley, and Reed introduce bipartisan bill to expand and support teacher leadership opportunities

WASHINGTON- U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Jack Reed (D-RI) today introduced the Teachers Are Leaders Act, which would create partnerships between colleges and high-need schools to develop and support innovative teacher leader roles.

Teachers are one of the most important factors in student achievement. Unfortunately, high teacher attrition rates, which have neared 8 percent in recent years, mean that quality teachers are leaving the classroom every year. Teacher attrition rates are highest in our lowest-performing schools, where students have the greatest need for high-quality teachers.  

Read the bill text here.

Read a one-pager on the bill here.

The top reasons for teachers leaving the classroom often include a lack of administrative support, professional learning opportunities, and decision-making input. Teachers desire and deserve a variety of career advancement opportunities to lead in their school without having to leave the classroom. Recognizing this, innovative districts and states such as Delaware and Iowa have created “teacher leader” roles, wherein classroom teachers take on additional responsibilities to address unique school needs. 

To support these efforts, this bill would support locally-designed teacher leader development programs that would create teacher leader roles that directly address demonstrated school needs, which could range from peer coaching to developing new dual enrollment courses. The bill would ensure that the continuum of teacher preparation and development extends beyond the first few years of teaching and would offer a practical way for higher education to address teacher recruitment and retention challenges.

“Teachers invest so much of themselves in their students, so it’s critical that we invest in them to ensure they have all the resources they need to make sure every child can receive an excellent education. Teacher leadership is a promising investment that offers teachers new learning and leadership opportunities, which have been shown to improve teacher job satisfaction, and more importantly, to increase student achievement,” said Senator Coons.

“Across our nation, educators play an important role in not only the development of our students, but in the community as a whole,” said Senator Ernst. “Unfortunately, for many rural school districts, such as those in Iowa, attracting and retaining teachers remains a challenge. Investing in our state’s teachers is investing in our future leaders. I am pleased to partner with my colleague Senator Coons on the bipartisan Teachers Are Leaders Act to allow for greater flexibility for states to assist our educators in growing and developing their skills.”

“Iowa has a major teacher leadership initiative,” said Senator Grassley.  “This legislation will support efforts in states like Iowa to provide career advancement opportunities for teachers and improve student achievement by having the most successful teachers coach others.” 

“Teacher leadership is too often an underutilized resource for improving our schools, advancing student achievement, and strengthening the teaching profession,” said Senator Reed.  “I’m proud to help introduce this legislation to develop this vital resource and foster new opportunities for growth for both students and teachers across the nation.”

“The nation’s expert teachers know that teacher leadership is critical for solving important challenges in education today, including teacher retention and recruitment.  We salute Sens. Coons, Ernst, Grassley, and Reed for their leadership in establishing this priority,” said Katherine Bassett, President and CEO, National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY).

“Teach Plus is thrilled to endorse the Teachers Are Leaders Act. The 30,000 teachers in the Teach Plus Teacher Leader Network understand that teacher leadership is a smart investment that yields gains in student success.  We applaud the bill’s attention to improving preparation, and its innovative approach to differentiated career paths that will foster new opportunities for professional growth,” said Alice Cain Johnson, Executive Vice President, Teach Plus.

“Fostering teacher leadership is critical to extending the reach of expert teachers and offering them opportunities to grow professionally without leaving the classroom. The Teachers Are Leaders Act will establish pathways and opportunities for teachers to build their leadership voice in schools and districts,” said Peggy Brookins, NBCT, President and CEO, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS).

The Teachers Are Leaders Act is supported by: NNSTOY, NBPTS, Teach Plus, Alliance for Excellence in Education, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), Delaware State Education Association (DSEA), Educators 4 Excellence, International Literacy Association (ILA), National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), National Education Association (NEA), National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET), National Parent Teacher Association (PTA), National Writing Project (NWP), New Leaders, Third Way, University of Delaware, Wesley College.

###