Children's Health Inscurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007
Floor Speech
Children's Health Inscurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007
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Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about a very important amendment I have filed to the SCHIP legislation that passed the House and was sent back to the Senate. Unfortunately, the majority leader has decided not to allow any Republican amendments to this very important legislation. But I wish to take the opportunity, nevertheless, to discuss my amendment which is filed which is at the desk. It is very straightforward.
It simply says American citizens only are eligible for SCHIP and that no funds will be used to expand health care benefits in SCHIP to illegal immigrants and others.
The legislation we are considering, as written, will do just that. It will expand the program enormously without any regard for focusing on American citizens, and it is very clear that in that expansion, the benefit would go to many illegal aliens because of glaring loopholes that exist in present law and in this legislation.
Congressman Jim McCrery of Louisiana has been looking into this issue for several weeks. On September 21, he wrote the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record Congressman McCrery's letter to the Social Security Administration.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS,
Washington, DC, September 21, 2007.
Commissioner MICHAEL J. ASTRUE,
Social Security Administration, Office of the Commissioner, Baltimore, MD.
DEAR COMMISSIONER ASTRUE: As Congress prepares to debate the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), I am writing to request your assistance in clarifying an issue raised by a provision in the Senate passed bill. Specifically, I would request that the Social Security Administration provide technical assistance to explain the impact of Section 301 of H.R. 976, which was passed by the Senate on August 2, 2007.
Concerns have been raised that the implementation of this provision could make it easier for illegal aliens to qualify for government funded healthcare programs including SCHIP and Medicaid. In order to better assess the accuracy of these claims, I would request that you provide answers to the following questions by no later than the evening of Monday, September 24, 2007.
1. If implemented as written, would the name and Social Security number verification process in section 301 of the Senate SCHIP bill allow the Social Security Administration (SSA) to verify whether someone is a naturalized citizen?
2. Would Section 301 require SSA to perform any verification of a person's status as a naturalized citizen?
3. Would the implementation of this provision detect and/or prevent a legal alien who is not a naturalized citizen (and therefore generally ineligible for Medicaid), from receiving Medicaid?
4. Would the name and Social Security number verification system in Section 301 verify that the person submitting the name and Social Security number is who they say they are?
5. Would the name and Social Security number verification system in Section 301 prevent an illegal alien from fraudulently using another person's valid name and matching Social Security number to obtain Medicaid or SCHIP benefits?
6. Would the name and Social Security number verification system in Section 301 prevent an individual who has illegally overstayed a work visa permit from qualifying for Medicaid or SCHIP?
7. Based on the accuracy of your database, please comment as to the volume of false positives or false negatives that could occur under the Social Security number verification process in section 301 of the Senate SCHIP bill.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. If you should have questions about any of the requests in this letter, please contact Chuck Clapton of the Ways and Means Committee Republican staff.
Sincerely,
Jim McCrery,
Ranking Member.
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, Congressman McCrery laid out seven very simple and straightforward questions that go exactly to this point: Is there any reliable way to ensure that this program is reserved for American citizens, not illegal aliens in the country?
Unfortunately, the answers--all seven of them--came back: No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the Administrator's responses.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
If implemented as written, would the name and Social Security number verification process in Section 301 of the Senate SCHIP bill allow SSA to verify whether someone is a naturalized citizen?
No, the name/SSN verification process only indicates whether this information matches SSA's records. Our understanding of Section 301 is that it would provide States with the option of using a match as a conclusive presumption that someone is a citizen, whether naturalized or not. Since we have no data specific to this particular population, we have no basis for estimating how many noncitizens would match if this language were passed by Congress.
2. Would Section 301 require SSA to perform any verification of a person's status as a naturalized citizen?
Section 301 would not provide for verification of citizenship but would create a conclusive presumption based on less reliable data that a person is a citizen. As we read Section 301, it would not require use of DHS data to make a verification of citizenship.
3. Would the implementation of this provision detect and/or prevent a legal alien who is not a naturalized citizen (and therefore generally ineligible for Medicaid), from receiving Medicaid?
No. Our current name/SSN verification procedures will not detect legal aliens who are not naturalized citizens.
4. Would the name and Social Security number verification system in Section 301 verify that the person submitting the name and Social Security number is who they say they are?
No.
5. Would the name and Social Security Number verification system in Section 301 prevent an illegal alien from fraudulently using another person's valid name and matching SSN to obtain Medicaid or SCHIP benefits?
No.
6. Would the name and Social Security number verification system in Section 301 prevent an individual who has illegally overstayed a work visa permit from qualifying for Medicaid or SCHIP?
The name/SSN verification system in Section 301 would not identify individuals who have illegally overstayed a work visa permit.
7. Based on the accuracy of your database, please comment as to the volume of false positives or false negatives that could occur under the Social Security number verification process in section 301 of the Senate SCHIP bill.
Due to a lack of data specific to this particular population defined in section 301, we have no basis for projecting how many ``false negatives'' or ``false positives'' would be produced by enactment of Section 301, but they will occur.
Mr. VITTER. Mr. President, the responses are very clear:
..... we have no basis for estimating how many noncitizens would match if this language were passed by Congress.
Section 301 would not provide for verification of citizenship. .....
Our current name/SSN verification procedures will not detect legal aliens who are not naturalized citizens.
They will not detect illegal aliens who have gotten Social Security numbers fraudulently.
The ..... verification system in Section 301 would not identify individuals who have illegally overstayed a work Visa permit,
And on and on.
The record is perfectly clear, including from the Social Security Administration Commissioner, that there is nothing in the SCHIP legislation to prevent this fraud, to prevent these very significant costly benefits coming from the Federal taxpayers from going to illegal aliens in the country.
Again, this is a glaring problem with this legislation. It is a glaring problem with many existing Federal benefits that we should address head on. Absent a solution to look at this carefully in the context of this legislation, I do not think it should move forward.
Again, it is truly unfortunate that we have no ability to vote on this amendment on the Senate floor. This is a significant issue, this is a significant bill, and yet no Republican amendments, either this amendment or any other, can be considered on the Senate floor given the procedures the majority leader has used to shut out debate, shut out amendments, move forward, ignore a very serious concern of the American people. I think that is unfortunate. I also think it is reason not to move forward in passing this SCHIP legislation--one significant reason among others.
Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
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