[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 143 (Tuesday, September 25, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H10761]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 SCHIP

  (Mr. WELCH of Vermont asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. WELCH of Vermont. Mr. Speaker, we have 47 million Americans 
without health insurance. Today, we are going to have an opportunity to 
vote on providing 10 million children with continued health care 
coverage that they are going to need. This is, as in the spirit of many 
of the good things we have done, bipartisan. The Governor of Vermont, 
Republican, supports it. Republican Senators Hatch and Grassley support 
it, done a tremendous job. The response from the President, 
unfortunately, is to veto this legislation.
  It is hard to understand how it is that, when the cost of this 
program is the equivalent of 2 weeks' spending on the war in Iraq, we 
can't find it in our capacity to spend that money to make certain that 
parents, when they go to bed at night, know their kids, when they need 
a doctor, will have access to the health care that they need. Our 
opportunity here in this House is to send the President a message, in 
the hopes that he will do the right thing and sign this bill, with an 
overwhelming bipartisan bill that reflects the bipartisan work and 
bicameral work that was done to bring it to the floor.

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