The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 1 minute.

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, Well, the gentlewoman was energized in talking to her constituents and encouraged by it, but I guess she didn't talk to any seniors about Medicare part D.

I have the unfortunate privilege of probably representing the first victim in the United States of America of the so-called donut hole. You don't know what the donut hole is? They wanted to pretend that you could preclude Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices, subsidize the pharmaceutical and insurance industries, and do all this for $400 billion. Of course, it turns out it will be more like $800 billion; but in order to get there, they had to create this weird construct. After you pay your payments, your premiums, and all that, you get to a certain point, around $2,000 or so, where you have to pay everything for the next $2,850.

This constituent doesn't have $2,850. The pharmaceutical companies eliminated the compassionate drug programs because they said, hey, these people can get this great Federal benefit. This means, in all likelihood, if we can't get this woman some help, she will die. Medicare part D. I guess she didn't talk to her constituents about that.