Dave Camp: “Thank you, Madam Speaker. This Congress has already passed an 18-month extension of the Children's Health Insurance…”

“Thank you, Madam Speaker. This Congress has already passed an 18-month extension of the Children's Health Insurance Program to March of 2009, and in that bipartisan extension an additional $800 million was provided to States to make sure that they could continue to provide health insurance to those already enrolled. We have debated this many, many times on the floor, this flawed proposal. This so-called compromise bill did not have one hearing. I have great respect for this House as an institution, and part of that respect is the regular order of bringing bills to subcommittee, having hearings and giving people an opportunity to be heard on them so the public is aware of what is happening. This bill didn't have one hearing. It was given to the minority the night before the vote. I think that kind of partisanship and politics, combined with the overreaching included in this compromise, it doesn't address the problem of illegals receiving SCHIP funds, it doesn't address the issue of adults in the program and focusing the program on children, it causes almost 2 million children to lose private coverage, and, not only that, has unstable funding by assuming that 22 million new smokers are going to be found over the next few years.”