[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 15 (Monday, January 22, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H611-H612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   DEMOCRATS ARE VOTING AGAINST CHIP

  (Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, this 3-day Senate 
Democratic government shutdown is wrong,

[[Page H612]]

and it is time for the Senate Democrats to do their job.
  They voted against a noncontroversial continuing resolution that 
fully funded the Children's Health Insurance Program for 6 years. This 
is perplexing because, for the past several months, nearly every 
Democrat has cited CHIP as one of their most important priorities--but, 
apparently, it is not more important than playing politics.
  Senate Democrats who voted against providing healthcare to 9 million 
vulnerable children need to be held accountable.
  The total number of children enrolled in the CHIP program in 
Pennsylvania in fiscal year 2016 was 342,268. That means that 12.8 
percent of children in Pennsylvania are at risk of losing healthcare 
because of Senate Democrats playing partisan politics.
  Putting politics before the well-being of kids living in poverty and 
financially distressed homes is flat-out wrong. I urge my colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle to call on the Senators who have been blocking 
funding the Children's Health Insurance Program to open the Federal 
Government.
  Mr. Speaker, nobody benefits from the politics of a government 
shutdown, and millions of children are being hurt.

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