Austin Scott: “what a great day this is, to be able to finally, finally, pass this much-needed bill. Madam Speaker, we have over…”

“what a great day this is, to be able to finally, finally, pass this much-needed bill. Madam Speaker, we have over 300,000 Georgia young people and children who desperately need this legislation. We worked hard in the past sessions to be able to get this bill passed, but to no avail. But now we will be able to get this passed, and hopefully it just might be the very first bill that our new President, President Barack Obama, will sign. But let me just tell you the improvements on this bill and what we have so the American people will know. It will eliminate the 5-year waiting period for low-income people insured to be part of the program. It will add 4 million new additional uninsured low-income children, to bring that total up to 11 million. There will be a 4 rac{1}{2} ext{-year reauthorization period that extends all the way through 2013. It will add dental and mental health parity, which is so greatly needed, because so many of our health needs and diseases and challenges come when the teeth are not there. Madam Speaker, it is a great day. I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings) for his leadership on this and urge passage.”