[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 27]
[House]
[Page 36193]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              A COMMITMENT TO PASSING A GOOD SCHIP PROGRAM

  (Ms. SHEA-PORTER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. SHEA-PORTER. Madam Speaker, I first want to thank Speaker Pelosi, 
Majority Leader Hoyer and all the Members who are so committed to the 
SCHIP program. This Congress sent the President very good legislation 
that would have ensured that millions of low-income children of 
hardworking Americans could keep health coverage, and it would allow 
States to enroll millions more who qualified for the CHIP program but 
aren't covered because the States have not received enough funding. We 
also had a way to pay for this.
  But each time, the President has vetoed that legislation, and here in 
Congress a number of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle 
continue to stand with the President blocking the way for this vital 
program to reach more children. We wanted to insure 10 million 
children. The President and the Republican leaders only want to insure 
6 million children. And that is the crux of the problem here.
  Today, we will extend the SCHIP program through March of 2009, but an 
important aspect of these earlier bills is not included. This past 
August, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a 
directive to State SCHIP directors effectively informing them that they 
would no longer be able to insure children in families where incomes 
exceed 250 percent of the poverty level, $43,000 for a family of three. 
This is a tragedy, and we will fix it.

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