NEWS RELEASE

Committee on Energy and Commerce
Rep. John D. Dingell, Chairman

Republicans Refuse to Participate in Committee Markup

Minority Members Attempt to Block Healthcare for
Needy Kids, Seniors

Washington, D.C. - For nearly 18 hours, Republican Committee Members, used obstructionist procedural tactics to attempt to derail a legislative package that commits $50 billion to reauthorize and improve the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and makes critical investments in Medicare to protect the health of senior citizens. Minority members required a reading of the 465-page bill text of H.R. 3162, the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP Act).

GOP tactics ultimately failed, as the CHAMP Act is likely to be considered on the House floor next week.

CHIP was created with broad, bipartisan support and must be reauthorized by September 30. If Republicans continue to oppose legislation that reauthorizes this highly-successful program:

• The 6 million children enrolled in CHIP will lose health coverage;
• Millions of children won’t get the preventative care they need and will likely receive care in a more costly environment - emergency rooms;
• Our healthcare safety net will become even more strained from the pressures of the uninsured; and
• More families will face bankruptcy and foreclosure due to medical debt.
  

The CHAMP Act’s Medicare provisions are designed to help low-income seniors afford healthcare coverage. The bill would ensure that Medicare beneficiaries, not HMOs, reap the program’s benefits and also prevent a scheduled cut to physicians that treat Medicare patients.

Although President Bush highlighted his support for CHIP while running for re-election in 2004, he has threatened to veto Democrats' CHIP reauthorization legislation. Congressional Republicans are proposing to under-fund the program significantly, causing millions of children to lose coverage.

The CHAMP Act is now expected to go before the full House for consideration.

Before ending the markup, Dingell issued the following statement:

“The Chair notes that we are about to have a series of votes on the floor of the House. These will be the last votes of the day.

“The Chair has a few remarks and observations.

“Next week we will observe the 40th anniversary of Medicare. In those rare instances in which we have engaged in substantive debate the last two days, I have been struck by the similarities between the arguments against Medicare and the arguments against the CHAMP Act. Yet the indisputable facts are that both Medicare and the children’s health insurance program – the two programs that rest at the core of the legislation this Committee has attempted to act upon – are unqualified successes.

“With profound regret the Chair has listened to our Republican colleagues complain, for almost 18 hours over the last two days, that they have not been part of the process for writing the legislation that has been before us. They have used that time to guarantee that they will not be part of the process. Time that could have been used for discussion, debate and deliberation was instead, by the choice of our Republican colleagues, devoted to distraction and delay.

“By refusing roughly 50 requests for unanimous consent to proceed to work on the bill, our Republican colleagues willingly deprived themselves of their ability to shape it. (By the way, that works out to almost one request per Member of this Committee.)

“That is most unfortunate, because our Republican friends had before themselves a tremendous opportunity to provide health care to as many as twelve million kids, and to guarantee that senior citizens could continue seeing their own doctors. There are many other good provisions in this bill. Our minority also passed up an opportunity to change provisions in the bill not to their liking. Regrettably, our Republican colleagues have chosen to render themselves irrelevant.

“With great sadness, the Chair announces that the Committee stands adjourned.”

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