Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007 -- Veto Message From the President of the United States

Floor Speech

CHILDREN'S HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2007--VETO MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES -- (House of Representatives - October 18, 2007)

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Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the vote to override the President's veto of H.R. 976, the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. While the bill vetoed by President Bush was a watered down version of the bill passed by the House, it was at least a step in the right direction.

The SCHIP bill that Congress sent to the President was a bipartisan effort that renews and improves the Children's Health Insurance program, providing health care coverage for 10 million children. This bill preserves coverage for the 6 million children currently covered by SCHIP and expands coverage to nearly 4 million more uninsured children.

Madam Speaker, two-thirds of Americas' uninsured children are currently eligible for SCHIP or Medicaid but are not enrolled for various reasons. This bill gives states the resources and incentives to enroll, those children.

The President's budget proposal would have increased SCHIP by $5 billion over the next 5 years. This increase fails to cover the costs of simply maintaining the current SCHIP enrollment of 6 million children. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, over the next 5 years, the President's budget would result in over 1 million children losing their SCHIP coverage.

Madam Speaker, the SCHIP reauthorization is supposed to be a bill to expand coverage, not reduce it. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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