Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I wanted to make a few observations on the pending amendment, the McConnell amendment, before the vote. What we are trying to do here in this amendment is to refocus SCHIP toward low-income children. This amendment would close loopholes that allow States to use SCHIP funds to cover both adults and children in higher income families.

What has happened here is some States have drifted off in the direction that was not the original intent of the measure, which was supported on an overwhelming bipartisan basis, and written by both Republicans and Democrats in the 1990s.

So the goal of the Kids First amendment, upon which we are about to vote, is to refocus the program on low-income children, and to take the funds that are being diverted to high-income families and put them back in to cover low-income children, and it probably would cover up to 2 million additional low-income children.

So if you are in favor of putting kids first and focusing the SCHIP program as it was originally intended, I would recommend strongly that you support the amendment upon which we are going to vote here shortly.

I yield the floor.

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