[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 11 (Thursday, January 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S277-S278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, constituents of mine are hearing today 
that there is a looming government shutdown--Friday at midnight; that 
if Congress hasn't passed a spending bill, it is possible the 
government could shut down. That would be a big mistake. Government 
shutdowns do not make sense.
  We have legislation called End Government Shutdowns, by the way, 
which says that when Congress doesn't do their appropriations bills on 
time--which is never or rarely--that there should not be a shutdown; 
rather, continue the spending from the previous year, but ratchet it 
down over time to give the Appropriations Committee and Congress and 
the Senate an incentive to get the job done. But let's not shut down 
the government. When we do that, it doesn't help anybody. It doesn't 
help us as taxpayers because we end up coming back and paying people, 
and the inefficiencies of it create more costs. So I hope we are not 
even talking about that.
  In the so-called continuing resolution, which is a short-term 
spending bill--which, again, is not the best way to govern, but that is 
what our choice is--in that continuing resolution to keep the 
government from shutting down, there is also, as I understand it, going 
to be something that is very good for our country. So, one, shutting 
down doesn't make sense, but two, let's be sure that the short-term 
spending bill that we do pass includes something very important--
important to about 219,000 children in my home State of Ohio and 
millions of families around the country who depend on a program called 
the Children's Health Insurance Program, CHIP.
  CHIP has traditionally been a bipartisan program. It is supported by 
Democrats and Republicans alike. In fact, the reauthorization of the 
Children's Health Insurance Program, CHIP, came out of the Finance 
Committee with a vote that was unanimous--Republicans and Democrats 
alike. Again, that doesn't happen often. It happened because people 
believe it is important to have that safety net program for our kids 
and for those families.
  Right now, that program is really on life support. We are told that 
if we do not extend that program, some States will begin running out of 
money even in the next few weeks. One of those States could be Ohio, we 
are told. The numbers are not exactly accurate, I don't think, because 
nobody knows. That makes it very unpredictable and uncertain for those 
families and children. We know there are States running out of money 
right now.
  By the way, the program ended in September, and since September 30, 
it has been given these short-term authorizations. That doesn't make 
sense.
  My understanding is that the House of Representatives is going to 
actually put into the continuing resolution that they are going to send 
over here a longer term extension of the Children's Health Insurance 
Program--in fact, a

[[Page S278]]

6-year extension, which would be the longest extension ever. I think 
that is very important.
  I heard from some families last week in Ohio who are wondering: Are 
you guys going to actually provide us with the certainty that our kids 
can continue to receive the treatment they are getting?
  These are children who have serious health problems and who need that 
kind of care and rely on CHIP to provide it.
  For all the disagreements we have in this Chamber--and there are 
plenty of them--there will be healthy and spirited debate on lots of 
issues later today, I am sure. This is one on which we can come 
together and agree that children should have that basic healthcare.
  I came to the Senate floor last month--back in December--to strongly 
urge my colleagues and the leadership on both sides of the aisle to 
take the politics out of this and get CHIP done, get the long-term 
authorization done, in the last spending bill. That was not done. In 
fact, it was just a short-term extension of CHIP that basically 
coincides with the spending bills. That was disappointing. I said so at 
the time. It was not done last time. That was a mistake. Now we have 
the opportunity to do it. Let's take that opportunity. I am here to 
once again say, let's act to provide that long-term stability in the 
program.
  Again, I am encouraged by what I hear--that the House of 
Representatives is likely to include that stability to ensure that 
children everywhere can receive adequate and affordable healthcare. The 
House 6-year extension would also return CHIP to a traditional Federal-
State partnership, which has been a bipartisan effort, and provide 
additional protections for low-income children and more flexibility for 
the States.
  There are some changes to the program and some reforms to the program 
that have been bipartisan through committee, and I am hopeful that will 
be part of it as well.
  The House bill that includes this CHIP extension--it would be the 
longest extension since the creation of the program more than 20 years 
ago. Instead of these short-term ones, we are going to have a long-term 
extension, if we can pass this. By doing it long term, the 
Congressional Budget Office says we will actually save taxpayers $1 
billion. Having that predictability and certainty--not having the 
start-and-stop nature of CHIP--saves taxpayers money.
  Is this CR perfect in terms of healthcare? No. There are other things 
we should do as well. We can do that with regard to the longer term 
spending bill we will probably be doing a couple of weeks from now or a 
few weeks from now or whenever we come to the end of whatever the 
continuing resolution is tomorrow.
  We do need to find long-term funding solutions for community health 
centers, for instance. Again, that has been bipartisan in the past. 
These centers have been very effective in dealing with issues that 
relate to our communities, health issues, such as opioid addiction. 
Community health centers have been very helpful in providing treatment 
to people, particularly in rural areas that don't have access to other 
healthcare treatment centers. We should provide them with that long-
term funding and certainty.
  I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will vote to 
extend these important health insurance programs for our children. 
Again, CHIP stands for Children's Health Insurance Program. It should 
not be a bargaining chip for other political purposes. Let's get that 
done. This is a chance for everybody to ensure that we have that 
certainty for our children and help them to live up to their God-given 
potential in life.

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