Political Quotes

“I first thank our chairman of the committee for his passion in caring for children, always keeping us focused as we brought together a bill that truly is a compromise in the best sense of the word. It is as we should be doing in the Senate, coming together with a number of perspectives and coming up with a final product. I thank the chairman for leading us in that effort and working with the ranking member. Together they have been a great team on this legislation. The chairman has constantly said to us: It is about the children. It is about the children. Keeping us focused on what this is really about will allow us to come together in a very strong bipartisan vote for a very important bill. I also thank Senator Rockefeller for his passion in caring about children and his leadership in creating the children's health program. He and Senator Hatch have been a critical part of getting us to this point as well. This is a step forward, and as with any compromise, it always involves give and take. I come from a State that has received 1 of the 15 waivers to cover some adults in our State. That is being phased out. That is not my first preference, but it is a compromise. It is a way to recognize this is a children's health program, and we are all coming together and coming to the middle to work together to get a product that the vast majority of the Senate can support. We are talking about a program for uninsured children, 78 percent of whom live in working families.”