combat unacceptable claims backlogs". His district includes nearly 150,000 senior citizens. Higgins introduced related legislation, House Resolution (HR) 3997, in February 2014. The bill aims requires the Social Security Commissioner to submit an estimated annual budget, and to submit the estimated budget to Congress before submitting it to the President; prohibits the closing or limitation of field offices and hearing offices without justification; and mandates particular procedures related to closings, consolidations, and/or public limitations. Abortion In the New York State Assembly from 1999 to 2002, Higgins supported certain anti-abortion measures, but since 2003, he has identified himself as pro-choice. In 2006, Higgins was given a rating of 9% by the NRLC, which indicates a pro-choice stance. Higgins received a score of 100% (a perfect score) from Planned Parenthood in 2012, and from NARAL Pro-Choice America in 2011. Health care Higgins voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as "ObamaCare". In June 2012, Higgins said he believed that health care providers will have to embrace "Accountable Care Organizations, comparative effectiveness research — which studies various treatments to determine what works best — and other changes". He believed that this should have been done decades ago. On his congressional website, Higgins has stated that "there is no question that [the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act] was needed". He added that it is a beginning of health care reform in the United States. Higgins strongly believes in a national health care program, with a "public option", whereby the government provides health insurance that would compete with other businesses' plans. A letter Higgins signed from a group of representatives to Senator Harry Reid, then the Senate Majority Leader, stated: "As the Senate continues to work on health reform legislation, we strongly urge you to consider including a public option." The American Public Health Association gave Higgins a perfect rating of 100% in 2009. Stimulus spending It was reported that Higgins was "proposing something unprecedented in this era of $1.3 trillion annual deficits: a $1.25 trillion, five-year plan to rebuild the nation's roads, bridges, railroads, ports, and airports". Higgins's website gives the cost of these endeavors as $1.2 trillion. The bill, the Nation Building Here at Home Act, based on research by the New America Foundation, would cost significantly more than Obama's $787 billion stimulus package. Higgins said that he wants to rebuild the US, "as we've rebuilt other countries