Children's Health Inscurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007

Floor Speech

CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2007

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Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007, H.R. 976. Reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program, SCHIP, before it expires is critical to ensure health care access for millions of our Nation's children.

My home State of New Mexico has a terrible problem with uninsured children. Recent reports have New Mexico at the bottom in the Nation for coverage of children. In 1997, while I was chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, I helped to create SCHIP as part of the Balanced Budget Act. The program has been a success. Over the past decade, SCHIP has helped reduce the number of children without insurance.

The bill we are voting on today is a compromise. In August, both the House and the Senate passed two very different versions of an SCHIP reauthorization. At that time, I came down to the floor and I said I did not like what the House of Representatives was doing. I did not support the massive increases in spending and eligibility proposed by the House and I did not want a reauthorization that included revisions to the Medicare Program. The conference committee listened to these concerns, and I am pleased that the bill before us today closely resembles the SCHIP bill passed by the Senate 68-31 in August.

My comment to children's health care remains firm today. I support the passage of the compromise SCHIP reauthorization. It is a good bill. It provides $35 billion in new resources to provide health coverage for millions more children in working families. It will strengthen outreach and enrollment efforts to make sure that all children who are eligible for the program get the services they need. It also makes improvements to the program by including language on mental health parity and dental health coverage.

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