Pete Domenici: “Mr. President, let me just read this amendment: The Bipartisan Budget Agreement of May 15, 1997, as implemented in the…”

“Mr. President, let me just read this amendment: The Bipartisan Budget Agreement of May 15, 1997, as implemented in the resolution, would spend $16 billion over five years (to provide up to 5 million additional children with health insurance coverage by 2002). The funding could be used for one or both of the following, and for other possibilities if mutually agreeable: (1) Medicaid, including outreach activities to identify and enroll eligible children and providing 12-month continuous eligibility; and also to restore Medicaid for current disabled children losing SSI because of a new, more strict definition of childhood eligibility; (2) A program of capped mandatory grants to States to finance health insurance coverage for uninsured children. The resources will be used in the most cost-effective manner possible to expand coverage and services for low-income and uninsured children with a goal of up to 5 million currently uninsured children being served.”