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Republican Rep. Jeff Hurd of Colorado talks about the ongoing shutdown

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We've been speaking with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle since the start of the government shutdown 22 days ago. Today, we're joined by Republican Congressman Jeff Hurd of Colorado. Good morning, Congressman. Thank you for - so much for joining us.

JEFF HURD: Happy to be with you, Michel.

MARTIN: You're in your first term. Did you expect this when you ran?

HURD: No, definitely not. I felt like we had a really productive several months in Congress, and now things have unfortunately ground to a halt completely unnecessarily. But we are where we are.

MARTIN: Are you hearing from your constituents about this? What are they telling you?

HURD: Yeah. So my district is most of western and southern Colorado, and they're frustrated. They're frustrated by the - not just the politics, but also by the uncertainty. I've talked to ranchers and federal workers in places like the Colorado National Monument and families who rely on SNAP, and they are definitely tired of what they see as this Washington dysfunction. You know, and I - my response to them is, look, the House did its job weeks ago. We passed a commonsense bill to keep the government open. It's something that Democrats have supported before. And I tell them, please encourage your senators - reach out to them. Tell them the Senate needs to act and end the filibuster and end the shutdown. But fundamentally, Michel, folks in Colorado don't care about party spin. They just want government to function again.

MARTIN: Well, you know, I spoke with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries yesterday, and he talked about the expected increases, which are expected to be caused by the expiration of the ACA tax subsidies. Let's just play a little bit of what he said.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)

HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Costs may increase on a monthly basis by approximately $2,000 per month. That means that health insurance premiums could actually increase to over $24,000 a year. That's unaffordable. The average income of someone who receives an Affordable Care Act tax credit is around $63,000 a year.

MARTIN: Congressman, I understand that about 40,000 people in your district get their health coverage through this ACA marketplace. They could see premium increases between - what? - a hundred and forty and 330%, as I understand it, according to the - sort of your state officials' analysis. Are you hearing from them about this, and what are they saying about that?

HURD: Yeah, absolutely. People are concerned about the - you know, the cliff that they're facing when it comes to what they're paying for insurance on the premium market. Now, what I say is, listen, I'm on legislation that would extend the enhanced premium tax credits temporarily for a short term. It's something that's important to address the immediate cost increases that we're facing. But long term, we need to look at systemic fixes to the cost of health care.

But more fundamentally, I'm concerned about striking any sort of deal now and attaching those tax credit extensions to a shutdown bill. I just - I don't think it's good policy. It's governing by crisis, and it's incentivizing future threats of shutdowns every time somebody wants to leverage for their policy wish list. So I don't think that cutting a deal on enhanced premium tax credits in the middle of a shutdown is the right approach.

MARTIN: So here's the argument from the other side. Our - the Democrats say everybody knew that this cliff was coming. The bill that you mentioned passed, you know, months ago. So while Republicans are saying the Democrats knew this was coming, this was expiring, so did Republicans. Like, everybody knew that this cliff was coming. Their argument now is that they need to codify this because they don't trust the Republicans to stand by the deal, and they don't trust the White House to stand by any deal. What do you say to that?

HURD: Well, first, the expiration date was written into law when Democrats passed the last extension. They set this deadline. They had the ability to plan for it. They could have resolved it earlier this year in the budget, but I don't remember hearing them talking about this, and it's now being used as leverage for a larger funding fight. I just don't think that kind of brinksmanship is good for Colorado families.

MARTIN: Do the Republicans have a plan to keep insurance costs down for Americans? What is it?

HURD: Well, certainly. We need a couple things. I mean, the things that come to mind right away that are driving those health care costs are legal reforms. I mean, we have doctors that are practicing defensive medicine completely unnecessarily, ordering tests and procedures that drive up the cost of health care 'cause they're worried about legal fees and getting sued. Nuclear verdict is another concern. How about the cost of prescription drugs? We have a - we need to be addressing those.

The other fundamental issue that I see from my perspective is we have a health care system that pays for and rewards volume over value. We need to get to a system that incentivizes payers and providers and health care consumers to be utilizing health care efficiently and effectively.

MARTIN: OK. But the...

HURD: So, yes, there's a lot of change that needs to be done (ph).

MARTIN: ...Republicans control the White House and the Senate and the Congress. So - and so I think the question would be, where's the bill?

HURD: Well, I mean, listen, I'm on legislation - for example, on the enhanced premium tax credits - dealing with the subsidy issue. So I'm one of those people that's willing to be in that discussion. When it comes to the other reforms, there are other pieces of legislation that are out there. I am one of those Republicans that's willing to look at those underlying health care cost drivers and fix our health care system. This is something that's incredibly important to my district, both on the individual market side but - and small-group and large-group market, but also on the Medicaid and Medicare side as well.

So I'm one of those Republicans - like you mentioned, Michel, I'm a freshman, but I'm one of those Republicans that is willing to be part of those discussions. And we need to have them because this system that we have right now is simply not sustainable.

MARTIN: That's Jeff Hurd. He's a congressman. He represents the 3rd District in Colorado, and he's a Republican. Congressman, thanks so much for talking to us. I do hope we'll talk again.

HURD: Sounds good. Thank you, Michel.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE LITTLEST VIKING'S "LUMPY SPACE PRINCESS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Michel Martin is the weekend host of All Things Considered, where she draws on her deep reporting and interviewing experience to dig in to the week's news. Outside the studio, she has also hosted "Michel Martin: Going There," an ambitious live event series in collaboration with Member Stations.