On the recordNovember 2, 2017
We are here over a month late to reauthorize CHIP while the families of 9 million children are holding their breath to see whether their kids are going to have health insurance. We are bringing this up now because my colleagues on the other side of the aisle asked us to delay, and, in good faith, we did. Over 232,000 children in Georgia rely on CHIP for their health insurance. My constituents are asking why we delayed it. I am sad to have to tell them that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle decided to delay our efforts to pass the bill out of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and they then decided to delay bringing the bill to the floor for a vote. I would hope that they would have a good reason for these delay tactics, but the truth is that they opposed a provision that was requested by President Obama in his fiscal year 2013 through fiscal year 2017 budgets that has a minor impact on the highest earners under Medicare. This is politics at its worst, and I stand here today to say that enough is enough. The Energy and Commerce Committee's markup of this bill was stalled three times because our friends decided to oppose a policy that the previous administration supported. When the American people tell us that they are fed up with the partisan politics, this is exactly what they are talking about. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me today in putting the needs of 9 million children above short-term political interests.
