[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20561-20562]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM

  Mr. BROWN. Yesterday, Madam President, a bunch of Members of 
Congress, with healthcare paid for by taxpayers, went to the White 
House and celebrated a handout for corporations that sends jobs 
overseas--companies that shut down in Mansfield, in Zanesville, in 
Lima, and Toledo moved to Wuhan and Sheshan and Shanghai and Guangzhou.
  Families here in America, at the same time--I am still incredulous 
about this. Families in this country, at the same time--in this State 
of Virginia, just a few miles from here--are getting letters in the 
mail saying their kids are about to be kicked off their health 
insurance through something that was bipartisan and never interrupted 
for 20 years since Chairman Hatch and Senator Rockefeller and Senator 
Kennedy wrote this bill to create CHIP--and a number of us worked on it 
in the House of Representatives--because Congress hasn't done its job.
  Think about that. Because Congress hasn't done its job, we are about 
to go home for Christmas--most of us--and those who don't celebrate 
Christmas are about to go home for the holidays and celebrate the new 
year. My grandchildren are coming from Columbus, and another one is 
coming from the Virgin Islands with his father--our son and his 
daughter-in-law. We are going to go home, and our families have health 
insurance, but Members of Congress who get good health insurance paid 
for by taxpayers are willing to leave here and not reauthorize, not 
continue the Children's Health Insurance Program. To make it worse, 
several States, including Virginia--Ohio is in a little better position 
because there is a little more money left over to take care of this--
but letters are going out in State after State after State to parents 
saying: Sorry, the health insurance for your children is going to 
expire. The health insurance for your children will no longer be there.
  Imagine you are a parent, and you get this letter. You are just 
vaguely aware that Congress is fighting about something. You are 
vaguely aware of the hard-heartedness of a whole lot of people in this 
Congress. You are vaguely aware that a bunch of politicians--
privileged, elected officials who make good salaries and make good 
benefits--are going to turn their backs on you. You don't really think 
much about that. All you know is, you take this piece of paper, tear 
open this envelope, and you start reading this letter, and you see, oh, 
my gosh, the insurance for my children.
  Now, overwhelmingly, these parents are people who are working. They 
are earning $8, $10, $12, $15 an hour. They are not making enough that 
they can afford insurance for their families. They are not working at a 
job where insurance is provided as part of the compensation your 
employer is paying you. So that is why the Children's Health Insurance 
Program is so important.
  A new report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and 
Families reports that 1.9 million children could lose coverage in 
January--1.9 million children. Almost all of them have a mother or a 
father who will open a letter and see that, oh, my gosh, the insurance 
for my daughter, for my son is about to expire. That is 1.9 million in 
January and another 1 million will lose insurance by the end of 
February.
  Parents will panic, parents will be confused, and parents, to be 
sure, will have their Christmas ruined by this. Think about those 
families getting that letter. It should be a joyful time of year for 
families, spending time with family, enjoying the holidays. Imagine 
checking that mailbox and kind of thinking maybe this is a Christmas 
card and opening it and finding out it is that letter. Imagine telling 
your daughter: I am sorry, honey. Santa is not going to bring much this 
year. We don't make a lot of money--you know that--but we will not have 
any presents under the tree. Then you have to look into your children's 
eyes--you have to look into your son's eyes, you have to look into your 
daughter's eyes, and you hope they don't see the worry in your eyes 
because you just got this letter. Now you are wondering how you will 
afford to take him or her to the doctor if he or she gets sick. These 
are often families with two working parents who, as I said, aren't 
lucky enough to work for an employer who provides insurance.
  These are often families with children who have special needs. Like 
Crystal Lett and her son Noble, a first-grader in Dublin, OH, which is 
a suburb just west and northwest of Columbus. Crystal and her son 
Noble--I met them. This is obviously Noble. I met Noble and his mother 
Crystal in Washington this spring when they came all the way from Ohio 
to talk about what CHIP means to their family.
  Noble was born with a rare genetic disorder. He needs three therapy 
sessions a week. He needs daily hormone injections to treat his 
condition. His medications run about $1,500 a month.
  I talked to Crystal again at the end of last month. She and her 
family are scared to death about what will happen to them if Congress 
doesn't save CHIP. She said CHIP is ``the difference between living a 
middle class lifestyle, or being part of the poverty line.'' It is the 
difference between a middle-class lifestyle or being part of the 
poverty line.
  Over the last several weeks, Congress was busy. Congress had the time 
to hand out massive tax cuts to the richest Americans and the biggest 
corporations but didn't have time to help these families. Some of you 
may have been in this Chamber a few nights ago when I pointed down the 
hall to Senator McConnell's office, the Senate Republican leader, and 
described the lobbyists who went in and out of his office to get these 
tax breaks. It was the lobbyists from the oil companies and from the 
oil industry. There were lobbyists walking in and out of Senator 
McConnell's office, the leader's office, from the tobacco companies. 
The lobbyists from the big drug companies and the lobbyists from Wall 
Street were going in and out of his office.
  When you look down the hall to Senator McConnell's office, do you 
know who didn't come out of his office? There were no lobbyists for the 
Children's Health Insurance Program because, you know what, children 
like Noble don't have lobbyists. They can't hire lobbyists. Parents are 
just hoping to keep their head above water because they have a child 
who needs medical attention, and any child obviously can need medical 
attention. That is the importance of CHIP.

[[Page 20562]]

  So CHIP doesn't have a lobbyist. CHIP has people like Crystal Lett, 
who stands up for her family, who stands up for her children, but she 
can't come to Washington full time. She came here with a delegation 
from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.
  Congress had time to hand out these massive tax cuts, but they don't 
have time for Noble Lett. It is a disgrace. It is a program that was 
bipartisan, and it has always been bipartisan. It was voted out of 
committee bipartisanly, but I guess the right crowd of lobbyists hasn't 
visited Senator McConnell down the hall in his office. It is 
despicable.
  We passed a bipartisan CHIP extension out of the Finance Committee. 
It is ready to go. If Republican leaders would put it on the floor 
today, it would pass. I assume it would pass with at least 90 votes. 
There is no excuse for this delay.
  There is talk the House is going to pass a 3-month CHIP extension. We 
have never done that. We have extended CHIP 1 year, 2 years, 3 years. 
This is going to get a 5-year extension. That is what we ought to do. 
They are going to do a 3-month extension.
  Three months provides no certainty to the States that are running 
CHIP. It provides no certainty to Crystal Lett to take care of Noble 
and manage his healthcare. It provides no certainty to anybody. The 
Presiding Officer's State of Alabama is already taking steps to close 
down their programs and freeze enrollment. I know Senator Strange 
doesn't want that to happen, but I also know Senate Republicans need to 
talk to their leader to make this happen.
  States have to give families a heads-up so these parents have time to 
do what they can. Maybe some of these parents can find an alternative 
source of coverage, maybe they are going to fit in one more doctor's 
appointment before their coverage lapses. Think of that. You get this 
letter in the mail saying the insurance for your children is about to 
expire, so what do you do? You start dialing the hospital and dialing 
the doctor's office because you have CHIP coverage for another month or 
another 5 weeks or whatever, and you start scheduling any possible 
appointment you can, the Christmas season notwithstanding.
  Providing a 3-month extension doesn't solve this problem; it just 
makes the situation more complicated. This body can pass massive 
permanent tax cuts, but they can't give families certainty? I know the 
tax cuts are permanent for corporations, and I know they are temporary 
for individual people in this country. Of course, this Congress--as 
special-interest controlled as it is--first takes care of corporations, 
but it would be nice if they gave some certainty to these children's 
families.
  I want my colleagues to explain to the Crystal Letts in your State--
because every State has thousands of concerned parents who don't know 
what to do with the expiration of this. My State has 209,000 children 
who rely on this program.
  Senator Hatch said last month: We are going to get it done. Now we 
are hearing that Senator McConnell is only going to let us vote on a 3-
month extension.
  This is about whose side you are on. Do we work for corporations that 
send our jobs overseas, or do we work for families, such as Crystal 
Lett and her son Noble? Do we work for families who might wake up on 
Christmas morning without health insurance? I guess the answer is 
pretty clear: Most people in this body are working for large 
corporations that are getting huge tax cuts and that send their jobs 
overseas, and they are turning their backs on those families who need 
us to simply do our jobs and pass this extension of the Children's 
Health Insurance Program.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from New Hampshire.

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