Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR-03) released the following statement today in response to the passage of the CHAMPIONING HEALTHY KIDS Act, H.R. 3922:
"The CHAMPIONING HEALTHY KIDS Act would reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Community Health Centers (CHCs), and other expiring public health initiatives. I support the permanent reauthorization of CHIP and CHCs, whose authorizing authority expired over a month ago, on September 30, 2017.
Congress should never have let this critical safety net funding lapse in the first place, and while H.R. 3922 would extend these programs, it would do so by cutting the Prevention and Public Health Fund, sabotaging the Affordable Care Act, and raising Medicare premiums for Seniors.
These are false tradeoffs, and I voted "no' on H.R. 3922.
This, of course, occurred a day after Congressional Republicans introduced a tax plan that would raise the deficit by $1.5 trillion. The GOP's actions this week are simply a disgrace; cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations while holding children's health care and our safety-net hostage. We can and we must do better."