Transcript of Dingell Comments Following CHIP Vote

Press Release

Transcript of Dingell Comments Following CHIP Vote

Washington, DC - Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI15), who introduced the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization of 2007, made the following comments today after the House's unsuccessful attempt to override President Bush's veto of the bill:

"I could only say what a privilege and a pleasure it is for me to have worked with my very dear friend Charlie Rangel, who has done such a superb piece of work on this very outstanding piece of legislation. I want to commend our Speaker and Steny Hoyer and the leadership here. They are great and they have done a superb job.

"Well, it isn't over. We're going to keep fighting to get those 10 million kids covered. They need it. They deserve it. It's in the best interest of the country. It is a wonderful investment. It is a great shame that we aren't going to be covering 15 million, because that is the number that in fact we have eligible.

"I grieve greatly that we did not prevail today, and I also grieve that the President was apparently misled by bad advice by bad advisers. I will observe to you that if you look you will find almost every single complaint without exception that the administration brought forward about this bill was in fact not correct and not factual.

"We're going to see to it that we cover the kids. We are going to try and see to it that we address the problems of getting this legislation into law, and we are going to try and see to it that it is a good strong piece of legislation enacted at the earliest possible minute. And we will start the process immediately when we conclude this meeting.

"Having said that, I will just tell you, this was a great piece of legislation. It did not cover illegals. It did things which were very, very important in terms of adding new kids to the list. It saw to it that there were no families which were left out. And I would observe one thing which is important: they made the point that this was going to cover well to do kids and that it was going to do away with existing health care coverage under the private system. Those statements are false.

"I would observe to you that anybody who is not covered, such as illegals or persons of greater means, is covered either by inaction and poor administration or by waivers which have been granted by this administration. So if there is a complaint, call 456-1414 and complain to George Bush, because he is the guy who is responsible for these things.

"Having said this, we are going to start, we're going to get the kids covered, and we are not going to be delayed or deterred from writing a good bill because of a very unfortunate veto which was unwisely sustained by a very unfortunate and partisan vote."

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