[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 163 (Thursday, October 25, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H12093-H12094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1730
 H.R. 3963, CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 
                             2007: PART II

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, for the second time we have overwhelmingly 
and on a bipartisan basis passed a bill to provide health insurance for 
10 million American children by reauthorizing the State Children's 
Health Insurance Program.
  This legislation presents another opportunity for President Bush to 
show the American people that he values the well-being of our Nation's 
children. After all, the President has often said that he is a 
``compassionate conservative.''
  Well, he failed the first time, and I was hopeful that the House 
could override his ill-advised veto. But, unfortunately, we came up 13 
votes short.
  So we are here again today passing a revised bill that sufficiently 
addresses the stated concerns of those who opposed the earlier bill. 
Those concerns really amount to little more than empty rhetoric.
  Rather than complain, House leadership compromised on phasing out 
health care insurance for childless adults from 2 years to 1 year. The 
bill we passed today clarified that CHIP will focus first on enrolling 
low-income children by capping the enrollment level at 300 percent of 
the poverty level, or $62,000 for a family of four.
  We also added language to clarify that CHIP does not cover illegal 
immigrants by requiring States to obtain further documentation of 
citizenship that cannot be confirmed by the Social Security 
Administration. And in addition to doing those things, creating new 
options for States to develop and expand premium assistance programs 
designed to keep children and their parents in an employer-sponsored 
plan, the new bill contains a provision adding premium assistance 
programs to the list of things a State can do to receive bonuses. It 
will also now require all States to develop plans and implement 
recommended best practices for minimizing crowd-out.
  Let me be clear, Mr. Speaker. None of these fixes were necessary 
under the original CHIP bill, which already contained provisions 
addressing these very issues. But these were concerns raised by some 
Members and the President; so we clarified the language for them. There 
can now be no question as to whether this bill should be supported.
  In addition to addressing the concerns that have been raised, it 
contains several excellent provisions for our children. It insures 
dental coverage and mental health parity, including guaranteed dental 
benefits that I offered in response to the death of Deamonte Driver, a 
12-year-old Maryland boy who died when a tooth infection spread to his 
brain.
  It also provides $100 million in grants for new outreach activities 
to States, local governments, schools, community-based organizations, 
safety-net providers, and others. And it improves a new quality child 
health initiative to

[[Page H12094]]

develop and implement quality measures and improve State reporting of 
quality data.
  A recent national poll from CBS News finds that 81 percent of the 
American people support this bipartisan legislation, including large 
majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans.
  I have heard many of my colleagues say that they wanted more time to 
review the bill, but we have already debated the issue more than was 
necessary. We are acting expeditiously because the short-term fix CHIP 
expires on November 16 and we cannot allow the 6 million children who 
are currently enrolled in the program to lose their coverage because we 
cannot make up our minds.
  When it comes to health of our children, there is no time for 
uncertainty. That is why I am glad that we were able to pass the 
legislation a few minutes ago. And I strongly urge the Senate and 
President to follow suit with a great sense of urgency. This urgency is 
needed because there are 10 million very good reasons why we should 
support this legislation. As I have often said, our children are the 
living messages we send to a future we will never see. I think we ought 
to be about the business of urgently making sure that we send children 
into the future who are healthy.

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