[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 158 (Thursday, October 18, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H11732-H11733]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  HOUSE REPUBLICANS SHOULD JOIN US IN OVERRIDING THE PRESIDENT'S CHIP 
                                  VETO

  (Ms. WATSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. WATSON. Madam Speaker, 10 years ago, the Children's Health 
Insurance Program was created in a strong bipartisan fashion to ensure 
more low-income children have access to quality health care. Today, 
thanks to CHIP, 6 million children who would otherwise be uninsured can 
see the doctor of their family's choice any time they want.
  For the first 8 years of the CHIP program, the number of uninsured 
children fell significantly, but that changed 2 years ago, and the 
trend continued last year when 700,000 more children joined the ranks 
of the uninsured. That was simply unacceptable to many of us here in 
Congress, and that's why we crafted a final bipartisan agreement that 
not only continues to provide health care access to 6 million kids who 
are already in the program, but also to 4 million others who are also 
eligible for CHIP. If the President had

[[Page H11733]]

his way, the number of uninsured children would go up by at least 
800,000 over the next year. That is why we need to override his veto 
today.

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