Jay Rockefeller: “Again, if I am taking a flight to Fargo, which I have done--I have not been invited back, but I did it once--and let us…”

Without congressional action, I say again, CHIP will run out of funding next fall, placing at risk the well-being of hundreds of thousands of children and pregnant women.

This, I have to say without sentiment, will be the last Health Subcommittee hearing that I chair.

Just as a follow-up to the question of funding which was addressed, CBO actually has come out with an estimate on what all of this would cost. It is not $20 billion; it is in the area of zero up to $10 billion over that period of 4 years.

We simply cannot afford to take this major step backwards and jeopardize the future of generations by allowing CHIP to expire.