Political Quotes

“I rise this afternoon to talk about the Children's Health Insurance Program and, particularly, the reauthorization of that program. By reauthorization I mean taking action to continue a program that is not just worthy but battle-tested now for almost a quarter of a century nationally, at least 20 years. In States like Pennsylvania, it is more than 20 years, more like 25. The unfortunate reality, though, is this isn't done. This program should have been reauthorized at the end of September, and it is not done yet. It has gone from unacceptable to inexcusable. We should not leave this week without either having it reauthorized or having a game plan that would guarantee it will be reauthorized in the very early days of 2018, literally, the early days of January. In just the last 2 weeks, I met with families across Pennsylvania and even families that came from beyond Pennsylvania here to Washington to talk about what the Children's Health Insurance Program means to them. CHIP provides health insurance to some 9 million American children each year, including over 342,000 children in Pennsylvania, if you look at it over the course of the year. As you might recall, when the CHIP program expired on September 30, there were a lot of indications or promises made that it would be reauthorized rather soon, but that was 81 days ago. Whether you want to express it in days or months--81 days or 2\1/2\ months or more now--that is inexcusable.…”