Jon L. Christensen: “I rise today for one main reason: the 10 million low-income children in this Nation whose health, health care and…”

“I rise today for one main reason: the 10 million low-income children in this Nation whose health, health care and wellness are very much at stake. This is especially true today as the House votes on whether to override the President's inhumane, unethical and irresponsible veto of the Children's Health Insurance Program. We honored the promises we made to this Nation when we not only passed the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act, the CHAMP Act, but when we exercised the art of compromise and passed a bipartisan CHIP bill that, though more modest than the CHAMP Act, still represented a respectable step in the right direction. In fact, the CHIP bill that so many of us stood behind would have provided health insurance coverage to nearly 4 million currently uninsured, low-income children. Unfortunately, despite our tireless efforts, the President opted to veto the bill that would have reduced the number of uninsured children in this Nation by nearly half. Madam Speaker, we can and should do better, not only because we promised to, but because this Nation's children deserve it.”