Roy Blunt: “I yield myself 2 minutes. As I have returned to a more active role in the Energy and Commerce Committee, Madam Speaker…”

“I yield myself 2 minutes. As I have returned to a more active role in the Energy and Commerce Committee, Madam Speaker, in this Congress, I will say I was surprised not to have a markup of this bill. We don't have to reauthorize this program until April. Certainly I'm for, as almost all the Members are for, a reauthorization of the current program and even for discussing how we can make that program better. But we didn't have a markup. We didn't see the bill, at least I haven't seen it, until today. And I have concerns about this bill. Certainly there are several reasons to look at this bill and think we could have improved it, bring it to the floor. Poor kids first, poor children first being served was the reason to have SCHIP, for children whose families couldn't afford insurance. This bill doesn't require the States to meet any kind of threshold standard that would ensure that States were doing everything they could to find kids who needed insurance before they begin to spend money to find kids who may not have the same need. Under the bill several thousands of American families would be poor enough to qualify for SCHIP and have the government pay for their health care, but they'd be rich enough to still be required to pay the alternative minimum tax. The bill changes welfare participation laws by eliminating the 5-year waiting period for legal immigrants to lawfully reside in the country before they can participate in this program.”