On the recordNovember 3, 2017
I am so proud to serve on this great committee under the chairman's leadership. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this important bill, which incorporates my bill, the Community CARE Act, which reauthorizes funding for community health centers for the next 2 years. Community health centers have a proven track record of providing high-quality, cost-efficient healthcare to approximately 25 million Americans, including 7 million children, and 300,000 veterans each year. There are over 100 million coordinated and integrated patient visits through the 1,400 community health centers across the country. {time} 0945 This bill will reauthorize CHIP for the next 5 years. This program is vital for the roughly 360,000 children on CHIP in Florida alone. Additionally, this bill provides clarity for CHIP buy-in programs, such as the one we have in Florida. This sets the rules of the road and will ensure that 12,000 children in Florida's CHIP buy-in program will continue to have access to CHIP. Mr. Speaker, let's get this done now for our children. I urge passage of this important piece of legislation.
