Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I rise today because this is a great country. In fact, I would call it the greatest country in the world.

Throughout my life's history, although we have traveled mountains and low valleys, I have been equal and unequal in this Nation. Yet today I feel as tall as the pine trees because our Supreme Court shed itself of diverse and sometimes divisive bickering and upheld the Constitution of the United States.

It granted to the American people affordable health care. It granted to the sickest of the sick the opportunity to be covered by insurance. It granted to seniors who fall into doughnut holes and who have to choose prescription drugs over food a relief line. It granted to hospitals that take in indigent patients who may otherwise die on sidewalks in America an opportunity to take care of those patients. It gave children with preexisting diseases an opportunity to live fully in this country.

So now the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land. We have been vindicated. Every single, single vote of those Members who have lost and of those who have won, we've been vindicated. Thank God for the United States Supreme Court.

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