[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 177 (Wednesday, November 1, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H8309]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    WE NEED A BIPARTISAN SOLUTION TO REAUTHORIZE CHILDREN'S HEALTH 
                           INSURANCE PROGRAM

  (Mr. EVANS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, this year my colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle have wasted months in often misguided debate over repealing 
the Affordable Care Act. While this debate has raged within one 
political party, the Children's Health Insurance Program has expired.
  I received a letter last night from Governor Tom Wolf of 
Pennsylvania. He wants us to act to protect the hundreds of thousands 
of children in our Commonwealth who depend on CHIP funding to meet 
their basic healthcare needs.
  The GOP has failed to reauthorize CHIP over arguments of how to pay 
for it and the distractions of a failed effort to repeal the Affordable 
Care Act. That puts us in a tough spot in Philadelphia and the 
Commonwealth.
  I am convinced that something must be done because, as Governor Wolf 
points out, time is essential for our State and numerous others; yet 
300,000 kids are enrolled in CHIP, which will soon run out of money to 
pay for their care.
  The kids who rely on CHIP funding are some of the most vulnerable in 
our State, and, frankly, they need action now. The solution doesn't 
have to be partisan. Providing low-income kids and the hospitals that 
serve them isn't a Democratic or Republican issue; it is a commonsense 
issue. The failure to act is unacceptable, so I say now we need to do 
something.
  I urge my colleagues in the GOP to get to work on a bipartisan 
solution.

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