Cornyn Again Urges Bipartisan Agreement on SCHIP Reauthorization

Press Release

Cornyn Again Urges Bipartisan Agreement on SCHIP Reauthorization

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn spoke on the Senate floor this morning in support of reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and once again called on the Democratic leadership in Congress to negotiate a bipartisan compromise that the President can sign into law immediately.

Last Thursday, Sen. Cornyn sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging them to reconsider their decision to shutdown negotiations on SCHIP. Senator Cornyn wrote, in part, "If you believe that covering low-income children in Texas and across the country, requires more than the 40 percent funding increase that Republicans have introduced, I am more than willing to work with you to find a reasonable, bipartisan solution. But, reauthorization of SCHIP is too important to be used as a political pawn for campaign purposes."

On Thursday, the House is scheduled to vote to override the President's veto of the Democrats' original proposal. That vote is widely expected to fail.

Below are excerpts of Sen. Cornyn's remarks on the Senate floor this morning:

"There are those who object—and I'm one of them—to a radical expansion of this program to cover adults in 14 states and to go up to 400 percent of the poverty level for a family of four making $83,000 a year. And at that level, for every two people added one of them will receive government subsidized health care, by dropping their private health insurance which is an unhealthy development to say the least. And here again, Congress is up to its old tricks—this plan depends on an unsustainable funding stream—a regressive tax that hits low-income Americans the hardest and a budget gimmick that will demand that either Americans' taxes be raised by 2012 to continue the program or individuals will be dropped from the program.

"What I would hope that Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi would do, would be to sit down with Republicans and sit down with the President, and try to work out our differences. As I said, everybody supports continuation of this program. I'm willing to predict without equivocation that this program will continue. It will continue to help poor children, and it should, on a bipartisan basis.

"What we shouldn't do is a have a game of chicken where as Senate Majority Leader Reid said recently, ‘If the President says let's sit down and talk about it, that is something that's not going to happen.' (CongressDaily, 9/28/07)

"And so what we're looking at here is more political theater and partisan point scoring as opposed to working together to try to find ways to resolve this impasse. We can do it but it's strictly a matter of political will, and frankly, I think it's what the American people want us to do. They're sick and tired of Congress being dysfunctional when it comes to meeting the very clear needs of the American people….At least we could try to work out this SCHIP impasse in a way that is fiscally responsible and meets the intended goals of this important children's health insurance program."

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