Joe Barton: “I want to compliment Congresswoman Lowey of New York for working to include the 60 percent fix for the rehabilitation…”

“I want to compliment Congresswoman Lowey of New York for working to include the 60 percent fix for the rehabilitation hospitals. I wasn't aware that that was in the bill. I'm very pleased that that is. I would like to, I guess, compliment my friend from California, Chairman Stark, for at least agreeing that this bill is worthy of coming to the floor. I would like to point out that the whole purpose of SCHIP is to cover low- and moderate-income kids. That was the original intent. There are many of us on this side of the aisle that still think that should be the intent. If you want to go to some of the larger numbers of coverage of children that are currently not covered, you have to go above 250 and, in some cases, above 300 percent of poverty. You also are covering right now six to 700,000 adults. There are those like myself that don't think adults need to be covered by SCHIP because those same adults can be covered by Medicaid, which is the coverage for low-income Americans, regardless of how old they are. I would like to point out the obvious. When you're in the minority, the only way you can get anything passed is to work with the majority. That's self-evident. When you're in the majority you can pass things in the House just by yourself, but if you want them to become law, you normally have to work with the minority.”