[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 173 (Thursday, October 26, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6832-S6833]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Healthcare

  Mr. FRANKEN. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the urgent 
need for action on the Children's Health Insurance Program and other 
vital safety net programs.
  On September 30 of this year, 3 weeks ago, funding for the Children's 
Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, expired, and funding for community 
health centers also expired, as did funding for the National Health 
Service Corps. These three cornerstone programs provide essential 
health services to hundreds of thousands of my constituents and to 
millions of people across the country.
  Although these programs have historically secured strong bipartisan 
support and, ostensibly, still do today, the Republican majority has 
not moved these bills forward toward passage, and it is really time to 
act.
  My home State of Minnesota is one of the first States to exhaust its 
funding for its Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, a program 
that covers 125,000 low-income children and 1,700 pregnant women.
  While the Federal Government has provided some emergency stop-gap 
funding, that, too, is slated to run out by the end of November. 
Minnesota has a long tradition of insuring coverage to vulnerable 
populations. So coverage for low-income children will continue, no 
matter what. However, over the next few weeks, if CHIP funding is not 
reauthorized, the State will have to decide whether it will take 
extraordinary measures and incur significant financial losses to 
continue providing coverage for vital services, like prenatal and 
postnatal care for the pregnant women, whose coverage is currently 
funded by CHIP. This is a terrible

[[Page S6833]]

choice that States shouldn't have to make, and it doesn't have to be 
that way.
  Minnesota is not alone. Five other States and the District of 
Columbia will see their funding dry up by December, and 25 more States 
will exhaust their funding by early next year.
  Pretty soon, thousands of families could receive notices informing 
them that their coverage will be terminated. Imagine for a second what 
that moment would feel like. You have a son or a daughter with a 
serious medical condition, and, perhaps, they are even in the hospital. 
You find out that their health insurance is going to be cut off because 
the Republican-controlled Congress couldn't get its act together to 
continue funding for a bipartisan program that has been in existence 
for decades. I would be livid. That is why we have to act now.
  For most of this year, the Republican majority has been consumed with 
destructive and counterproductive debates focused on repealing 
ObamaCare. They have done little else. That meant that not only did we 
blow past the funding deadline for the Children's Health Insurance 
Program, but we also blew through the funding deadlines for community 
health centers and the National Health Service Corps program. Now this 
critical reauthorization is on hold because Republicans can't agree on 
how to pay for it. This comes just a week after Republicans in the 
Senate endorsed the budget to increase the debt by up to $1.5 trillion 
over 10 years for tax cuts that will largely benefit the wealthiest 
Americans. In fact, the Tax Policy Center estimates that 80 percent of 
benefits of the Republican tax plan would go to the top 1 percent of 
income earners in this country.
  This is truly a case of the absurd. When it comes to providing 
healthcare for needy children and keeping Americans healthy, 
Republicans are saying they can't do it unless it is paid for, and, 
often, that means making cuts to other safety net programs in which 
vulnerable individuals rely. But when it comes to tax cuts for the 
wealthy, which costs many, many, many, many times more than the cost of 
providing children with health insurance, my Republican colleagues are 
perfectly happy to do that without demands for offsets and, instead, 
adding costs to the debt. This is not responsible budgeting, and it is 
not just kids that stand to lose under this type of budgeting approach. 
Let me tell you about the other programs at risk in my State of 
Minnesota.
  In Minnesota, there are more than 70 community health center clinics 
that receive a total of $27 million in funding to care for the 
uninsured and the underinsured in the State. If this funding is not 
reauthorized soon, these community health centers and the patients they 
serve are going to experience serious losses and not just financial 
losses.
  Take, for example, Sawtooth Mountain Clinic, which provides care to 
some of the most isolated and rural counties up in the northeastern 
corner of my State, in the Arrowhead. Sawtooth reports that it would 
lose up to $1 million, which would force them to cut back on staff and 
services, having a drastic ripple effect across the entire community.
  The CEO of the clinic in Grand Marais explains:

       We are the only clinic and providers in all of Cook 
     County--

  Parenthetically, that is a big county--

     and also one of the only providers serving the Grand Portage 
     band.

  That is the band of the Chippewa or Ojibwe.

       Since 1965, Congress has provided this stable and 
     critically important funding that supports our isolated and 
     rural communities. Congress needs to do its work and needs to 
     act now.

  Similarly, without funding for the National Health Service Corps--
this is what the program does. It provides financial support and loan 
repayment for clinicians who practice in underserved areas. I know the 
Presiding Officer must be interested in that, as Alaska has some 
underserved areas and needs providers to serve in those areas. Many 
providers, including those in greater Minnesota, will not be able to 
recruit or hire new staff.
  In a recent news article, the chief executive of a Minneapolis-based 
network of clinics stated that the National Health Service Corps Loan 
Repayment Program offered him a unique bargaining chip against the 
larger health systems. Without this program, he believes he wouldn't be 
able to successfully compete for providers.
  Look, I recognize how we got here and where the time and energy has 
been spent over the last few months, and I am proud that we were able 
to abide by the will of the people and successfully stop the effort to 
repeal the ACA and strip healthcare from millions of people. I would 
hope that we would recognize that we have here historically bipartisan 
legislation to reauthorize funding for children's health insurance 
coverage and other safety net programs. It is incumbent upon us to act, 
and act now. We have to reauthorize these programs so that Minnesotans 
and millions of the families across the country are not unnecessarily 
and unfairly harmed as a result of our inaction.
  In the same news story I referred to earlier, the CEO of NorthPoint 
Health & Wellness, another safety net clinic in Minnesota, stated:

       There is a high degree of anxiety for staff and for some of 
     our patients. . . . I think Congress understands that we are 
     vital to the safety net and they have to continue to support 
     the community health centers.

  Let's work together to pass this legislation so we don't let these 
clinics and the patients they serve down. It is time to act, and time 
to act now.
  Thank you very much, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.