Joe Barton: “We have talked a lot today on the floor about the children's component of this bill, the S-CHIP. It is a good program.…”

“We have talked a lot today on the floor about the children's component of this bill, the S-CHIP. It is a good program. It covers about 45 percent of the low-income children in Texas. It is a very worthwhile program and needs to be reauthorized and funded. I also want to talk about the community health centers. In Ennis, Texas, there is the Nell Barton Hope Clinic Annex. Nell Barton was my mother. The Joe Barton Family Foundation purchased a building for the Hope Clinic, which is a federally funded health center that is primarily located in Waxahachie, Texas. Every day, several dozen low-income people go to the Nell Barton Hope Clinic. Over the course of the year, several thousand people go to the Hope Clinic in both Ennis and Waxahachie. This bill reauthorizes those health centers for 2 years. Now, my friends on the Democratic side, I am not sure what they are complaining about. This is a program that funds healthcare for children and for low-income people through the community health centers. It is fully offset, and funding is increasing, Mr. Speaker, not decreasing, but it is doing so in a way that it is offset. What is the big offset? I hope we vote for this bill when it comes up for a vote later today. {time} 1000”