Wednesday, October 17, 2007

U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Floor Statement on SCHIP
Remarks as Delivered on the Senate Floor

Mr. President, before the distinguished ranking member leaves the floor, I wish to acknowledge a couple of things--one, my appreciation for his hard work on the SCHIP program and my understanding of his frustration with some of the misunderstandings that have taken place in the debate on all sides. For just a couple of minutes of the Senate's time, I wish to discuss how we got where we are and how we need to get to where we are going to be. But before he leaves, again, I commend the distinguished ranking member on his effort on behalf of children's health insurance and his effort to clear the record in hopes that, in the end, it will be a foundation for all of us to clear the record of misunderstandings. There is fault enough to go around, starting with the administration and then taking both sides of the issue. But I commend the chairman for his hard work.

Ten years ago, I chaired the State Board of Education of Georgia when the SCHIP program was first authorized. I took it upon myself, in that capacity--the one that met closest with the children in need in Georgia--to initiate a broad program of registering and getting the information out so that every poor child in Georgia who was eligible could be covered by SCHIP, which in Georgia is known as PeachCare.

On the floor of this Senate earlier this year, I fought, along with Members from 17 other States, to get additional funding necessary on an interim basis because of the shortfalls that took place in the SCHIP program. I commend this Senate now on working to reauthorize SCHIP.

We are in a dilemma. There are differences of opinion on the eligibility. There are differences of opinion on the amount of money. There are differences of opinion on how it should be raised. There have been statements that have been made that are correct and statements that have been made that are wrong. But if the House sustains the veto of the President, we find ourselves in a position I would like to address for a second, a position where there are enough agreements for us to make to come back to the floor and pass a SCHIP bill that can be reauthorized and pass this Senate almost without objection.

Everybody in the Senate agrees SCHIP should be reauthorized. On the vote to extend the current program through November 16, on the continuing resolution, there was only one dissenting vote, and it was not about SCHIP. The questions are who should be eligible, how far the program should go, whether it should run in one direction or another, and how it should be funded. Just in the remarks made by the distinguished ranking member, as well as previous remarks made by the minority whip prior to Senator Grassley's remarks--both sent the signal that there is room in the middle.

I hope the administration will understand that a lot of the frustration with the current state of SCHIP has been the waivers--13 of them--that have been granted by this administration to expand SCHIP during the last 10 years, beyond what the Congress and beyond what the Senate intended it to be.

There is common ground in front of us, and it is the poor children of America. There is a good solution in front of us, and that is to see to it that SCHIP is what it started out to be. As Senator Grassley has said, the bill that went to the President and was vetoed did correct some of those waivers. As others have said, there are serious questions on the financing mechanism. But there is no question that this Senate should be ready and prepared, immediately when the veto is sustained, to go forward and find a compromise that works for the poor children of America.

It is critical to me, as one who started in Georgia 10 years ago to register those eligible children, to see to it that they continue to get the promise that was granted by the Congress of the United States. It is equally important to me to see to it that we do not expand that program beyond what was intended and ultimately end up compromising the very poor children we started out to help.

I commend the Senator on his remarks. I urge the administration to immediately aggressively pursue avenues of agreement so we can come together as a Congress before November 16 and unanimously pass a SCHIP bill that works for the poor children of America and is fiscally accountable to the taxpayers of the United States of America.