Chuck Grassley: “to quote Yogi Berra: It feels like deja vu all over again. Here we are again debating the State children's health…”

“to quote Yogi Berra: It feels like deja vu all over again. Here we are again debating the State children's health insurance bill, or SCHIP as we all know it by. I know colleagues are tired of this issue and frustrated by the process. I do think, though, we have an opportunity to move forward and to bring this issue to closure. I think my colleagues should be aware of many of the improvements that have been made to the bill that has passed the Senate twice. These improvements were negotiated in a bipartisan manner with the Senate and the House in order to help persuade Members who have indicated a willingness to support the SCHIP bill. A lot has been said about who is or is not negotiating the bill. Some have been critical because they have not been part of those discussions. To them I would say: Stop trying to kill the bill if you want to be a part of the negotiations. It makes no sense to negotiate with Members who have said they are never going to vote for the bill. So we have been trying to figure out a way to make the bill better. Here is where we are so far: There is more of an emphasis upon poor kids. Everybody has been saying: We ought to emphasize getting kids under 200 percent of poverty into the program. We have rewritten the bill to make that more certain. It is probably still not satisfactory to some people so far, but we will continue to work on that.”