[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 9 (Tuesday, January 16, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H175-H176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            FUNDING THE CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Oregon (Ms. Bonamici) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I am a Member of Congress, but I am also a 
mom. And as a mom, I am puzzled and, frankly, dismayed because Congress 
has not found a bipartisan way to provide long-term funding for the 
Children's Health Insurance Program.
  More than 9 million children and pregnant mothers, including 
thousands in Oregon, receive basic health care through CHIP. In the 
past, this popular program has always had broad bipartisan support.
  We must do better than the stopgap Band-Aid that is forcing States to 
rely on short-term funding and, importantly, leaving vulnerable 
families with uncertainty and with distress.
  Recently, I met a wonderful family in Oregon that relies on CHIP for 
the health of their two kids. Their story pulled at my heart.
  This is David. David is 5, and his brother, Jacob, is 20 months old, 
and both children have neurological conditions. Both require long-term 
medical care. David battles a life-threatening form of epilepsy that 
requires expensive medications as well as regular physical and 
occupational therapy.

  Their mom, Renee, fears the worst. I spoke with her and their 
pediatrician, and she told me that, without long-term funding to 
support Medicaid and CHIP, she said: ``David could die. It's that 
simple.''
  Mr. Speaker, this is about real people, and their lives are on the 
line. Funding CHIP is a good investment. In

[[Page H176]]

fact, the Congressional Budget Office recently predicted that a 10-year 
reauthorization of CHIP would actually save the Federal Government $6 
billion. It turns out preventing illness not only saves lives, it saves 
money.
  There is no excuse for leaving CHIP unfunded. Working families like 
David and Jacob's family need to know that they will have health care 
when their kids need it. David and Jacob are children whose lives are 
at stake, but there are millions more like them in Oregon and across 
the country.
  Mr. Speaker, David and Jacob deserve better. All of our Nation's 
children deserve better. It is that simple, and we must not let them 
down.

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