Eliot Engel: “Mr. Speaker, the reauthorization of State Children's Health Insurance is unquestionably one of the most important bills…”

“Mr. Speaker, the reauthorization of State Children's Health Insurance is unquestionably one of the most important bills we will pass this year. This bill will protect six million kids currently covered by SCHIP and provide coverage for an additional five million children. This bill provides aggressive outreach to enroll children by simplifying enrollment procedures and awarding States bonuses for finding more children. This is important since two-thirds of the uninsured children in our Nation are actually eligible but not enrolled in Medicaid or SCHIP. What is the response of our Republican friends? Block the bill from coming up in our committee; create phony issues because they're against insuring children. Illegal amnesty? Give me a break. No hearings? We've had seven hearings on this bill. Eligible for private insurance? 93.5 percent of the children we cover in this bill would have no private insurance without this bill. What is the President's response? Under the President's plan, this program would see its funding cut from last year; and, worse, the amount allocated for its reauthorization would be less than half of the amount required to maintain coverage for current beneficiaries. He says he will veto this bill because it covers too many children. This is unconscionable. Sixty-one national advocacy groups devoted to improving children's health request that we fund the SCHIP program at 60 billion additional dollars.”