WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords today urged Congress to override President Bush’s veto of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007.
The act, which recently passed both the House and Senate with strong bipartisan support, extends and expands a 10-year old program created to provide health care coverage for children in families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance. An estimated 6.6 million children are now enrolled in the program, including more than 64,000 in Arizona, where coverage comes through the KidsCare program.
The text of Giffords’ statement on the floor of the House of Representatives is below. Click here to see a clip of her delivering it.
Thank you Madame Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the President’s veto of the KidsCare bill, known as the SCHIP bill here in Washington. His refusal to provide funding to the 82,400 uninsured children in the state of Arizona is simply unconscionable.
Today in my state, one out of every five kids currently has no health insurance. We rank among the five highest states in the entire country.
By vetoing the KidsCare bill, this President proves that his priorities are not in line with the American people, are not in line with the people from my home state of Arizona.
I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to continue to support this fiscally responsible legislation passed by Congress with bipartisan support. It is critically important that the President does not fail the kids of Arizona, the kids of our country, and hence, fail our future.