Political Quotes

“I thank my friend and mentor, the gentleman from South Carolina, for his kind words and for yielding. Mr. Speaker, we deal with important issues every day in this House, but there are few issues as meaningful to so many lives as the Children's Health Insurance Program. At this time the divisions in this House mimic those in our nation. And on many issues, those divisions can be challenging to bridge. One of my top priorities as a new Member of this body is to help bridge those divides, instead of widening them. I hope that my colleagues--both Democrats and Republicans--will tell me if I fall short on that commitment. One of the few things that does not divide us is the importance of children's healthcare and the CHIP program. When it was signed into law 20 years ago, this landmark legislation meant so much to me. First, as a mother of then 9-year-old, Alyssa, and 11-year-old, Alex I deeply understood the fear a parent could feel with a sick child and no insurance. But also because at that time, I was the Deputy Secretary of Health & Social Services for Delaware. And I had the honor of helping implement the law and seeing thousands of children who had never had healthcare get the coverage they deserved. From the 600,000 children across the nation who were the program's first enrollees in 1998 to the nearly 9,000,000 children in 2016. Kids across this country owe their yearly check-ups, their immunizations, and their doctor's office lollipops to this program.…”