[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 204 (Thursday, December 14, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8030-S8031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Children's Health Insurance Program

  Madam President, just a few remarks rather quickly about a major 
program we are also debating; that is, the Children's Health Insurance 
Program. We know CHIP expired on September 30. It is a total failure of 
the government to allow that to happen. It is hard to comprehend that 
even as some are debating about the size of a corporate tax break, 
which will be permanent, there is uncertainty, and any uncertainty 
about the Children's Health Insurance Program is also an insult to the 
country. Nine million children and their

[[Page S8031]]

healthcare and the security of their families is on the line. So we 
need to get the Children's Health Insurance Program passed.
  The tragic irony is, the Finance Committee, of which I am a member, 
passed a bipartisan bill: The Keep Kids' Insurance Dependable and 
Secure Act, the so-called KIDS Act of 2017, reauthorizes the CHIP 
program for 5 years. There is no reason why--no reason whatsoever--that 
KIDS Act could not be voted on and passed on the floor of the Senate 
this afternoon or tomorrow or Monday without any impediment to getting 
that done, but it is being held up, I guess, as a negotiation tactic or 
as a way to get a deal on something else.
  Children's healthcare should not be subject to any deal or any 
leverage or any engagement on other issues. We should get it done. If 
people can spend hours and hours and days and now weeks giving big 
corporations a permanent tax cut that exceeds $1 trillion, we ought to 
make sure an existing, effective, bipartisan program for children gets 
reauthorized.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Strange). The Senator from Louisiana.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to speak for a few minutes on two 
subjects. I don't have prepared remarks so I am going to speak from the 
heart.
  Let me talk first about the CHIP program. One of my favorite people 
in the U.S. Senate is my colleague from Pennsylvania, Senator Casey, 
and he just spoke very eloquently about a program called the Children's 
Health Insurance Program, which is part of our Medicaid Program. It 
provides health insurance for the children of America who are too poor 
to be sick.
  That bill will pass. The Children's Health Insurance Program will be 
renewed. I want to look the American people in the eye right now and 
tell them: Do not worry. Do not worry.
  This is an extraordinarily able program that has served the people of 
this country and our country well, and I don't want anybody to be 
unnecessarily frightened at Christmas. If you are a mom or a dad or a 
child or concerned citizen out there today and you hear that CHIP is in 
danger, with all the respect I can muster, I want to say it is not. 
Don't believe it. The CHIP program will be renewed.