Bruce L. Braley: “we have talked about the human face of this problem, and I just want to briefly talk about the numbers that affect a…”

“we have talked about the human face of this problem, and I just want to briefly talk about the numbers that affect a single congressional district. In my district, the First District of Iowa, 7,000 children are covered by the Children's Health Insurance Program. In the State of Iowa, there are currently 37,000 children who benefit from this program. This bill will allow 26,400 additional children to have the benefits of health care. But if we don't act, 37,000 children could lose the opportunity in my State to have the type of coverage we're talking about. And one thing we can't do is we can't turn our back on those kids. We can't collectively fail to have that smile from doing something right that we all believe in, taking care of the most vulnerable people in our society, making sure they have their basic needs met. That is a responsibility we all have as parents. That is a collective responsibility we have as a Nation to the children of this country.”