Frank Pallone: “I am just amazed at what's going on here on the Republican side of the aisle because I know how difficult it's going to…”

“I am just amazed at what's going on here on the Republican side of the aisle because I know how difficult it's going to be to get the votes to override the President's veto. Last year at this time, we had all the State health officers coming here, many of them from Republican States, you know, where the Governor was Republican, demanding the fact that we needed to provide more money for SCHIP in order to expand coverage because they did haven't the funds. They were taking kids off the rolls, and so we responded. We put together this bill to try to increase the number of kids to 10 million at a cost and paid for it with what I consider a very reasonable way to go about funding the program. Now, a year later, we're still hearing Republicans on the other side saying, well, we don't need this; it's not necessary. And the situation is only getting worse. The economy's on a downturn. I'm hearing more and more every day from my Governors, my Governor and Governors on both sides of the aisle, about what the economic downturn is going to mean that more people are unemployed. They need Medicaid, they need SCHIP, because they're not going to have health insurance for their kids. So the demand is even greater. Whatever problem existed last year that we were trying to address with this legislation, and it was dire, is going to be aggravated even more over the next few months and the next year.”