Nick Lampson: “as a father and also a Member of this body, I rise to add my voice to those leaders of my party who yesterday called…”

“as a father and also a Member of this body, I rise to add my voice to those leaders of my party who yesterday called upon the majority to work in this session toward expanding health insurance for American children. When we know that 10 million American children have no health coverage, I wonder why the majority leadership of this body needs to be asked to make this pressing need for American families a priority. Mr. Speaker, our economy is changing and unfortunately too many new jobs do not offer health insurance for workers' families and workers' children. Ninety percent of these uninsured children's parents work. I was proud to participate in the introduction of the families first agenda last year when I was a candidate for this office. That agenda addresses the real needs of our families and if made into law would make health coverage available to those families. Those are the priorities of the people of the Ninth District of Texas and that they elected me to fight for. It may not be popular inside the beltway but if we want to rebuild the trust of the American people in this institution, those are the priorities both parties should share.”