[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 10, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H91]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 LET'S TAKE CARE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN

  (Mr. CICILLINE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, there is no greater responsibility that 
we have than the health and well-being of America's children. The 
Children's Health Insurance Program has been a huge success. In just a 
few weeks, funding for this program will run out in my home State of 
Rhode Island.
  This is a program that has provided health insurance to 9 million 
children from working families in this country, 27,000 children and 
pregnant women in my home State of Rhode Island. It has always been a 
bipartisan issue. This program has been a huge success. It brought the 
rate of uninsured children down from almost 14 percent when the program 
began to 4\1/2\ percent today.
  And why haven't we reauthorized this program yet that ensures the 
health and well-being of America's children?
  We just passed--or the Republicans just passed--a $1.5 trillion tax 
cut for the richest people in this country, the biggest corporations, 
unpaid for. But we can't manage to find money to reauthorize the 
Children's Health Insurance Program?
  I urge the Republican leadership in this Chamber to bring a clean 
reauthorization bill to the floor so we can reauthorize this effective 
and important program and take care of America's children.

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