[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 25554]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                 SCHIP

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, yesterday this House passed a conference 
committee report on SCHIP that will give health care for over 4 million 
children, something we long should have done.
  Forty Members of the Republican Party joined with us, but many 
Members of the Republican Party, just like the previous speaker, sensed 
that something was wrong with the bill because it was, quote-unquote, 
an earmark. That alleged earmark, not really an earmark, was in my 
district. It says that the States of Mississippi and Arkansas can pay 
for the health care that their people receive at the Charity Hospital 
in the City of Memphis, Tennessee that is losing $20 million a year and 
more treating people from Mississippi and Arkansas who are indigent.
  That is not an earmark. That is allowing a State the option to pay 
for care received by their citizens that they otherwise wouldn't 
receive and that another county taxpayer group or city people are 
paying for. It is equity. It is long due. It wasn't an earmark. And I 
hope my colleagues will refrain from continuing to refer to this in 
such a way. It is a calumny that shouldn't be repeated on this House 
floor.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank this House for passing that conference committee 
report and correcting an inequity in health care.

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