Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank him for his work as the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee that deals with funding public health as well as medical research. I heard some comments about extension of the funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program at the beginning of the debate, and I wanted to come to the floor and remind people that the Energy and Commerce Committee did do its work as far as continuing the funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program. It completed its work. We delayed a little bit at the request of committee Democrats, we delayed a little bit at the request of the ranking member of the full committee, but we did deliver a product the first part of October. That product passed the floor of this House late October, early November. It passed with, of course, almost every Republican vote and over two dozen Democratic votes. It was, indeed, a bipartisan effort. It funded the Children's Health Insurance Program for 5 years, which was the Democratic request; the funding levels were requested by the Democrats; and it was offset in a responsible way. That bill is pending over in the United States Senate, and I, frankly, do not understand why the Senate minority leader will not release that bill for a vote by his Senators because it is, after all, Democratic Senators who represent States around this country that are going to suffer as a consequence of not passing this bill.”