[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 618-619]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 GIVE CHILDREN A CHANCE AT A HEALTHY FUTURE: OVERRIDE THE PRESIDENT'S 
                               SCHIP VETO

  (Ms. TSONGAS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. TSONGAS. Madam Speaker, today I will proudly vote to override the 
President's veto of a bill to expand the Children's Health Insurance 
Program, for the second time. This bill provides coverage to children 
whose families cannot afford private insurance and would expand access 
to health insurance to 10 million children nationally, 200,000 of whom 
live in Massachusetts.
  I was thinking of our children when I first voted to override the 
President's veto of this bill on October 18th, the same day I was sworn 
into office. Tens of thousands of people from my district and millions 
more across the country, both Republicans and Democrats, have made 
their support for this program abundantly clear. However, the Bush 
administration refuses to hear their message.

[[Page 619]]

  This program is especially important to my State of Massachusetts, 
where the program was first developed, and remains critical to 
sustaining the universal Massachusetts Health Care Program.
  I stand with a strong bipartisan majority ready to give our children 
a chance at a healthy future, and I urge my colleagues to again 
override the President's veto.

                          ____________________