July 19, 2007

 Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada made the following statement today after the Senate Finance Committee approved by a bipartisan vote of 17-4 the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act, which would expand coverage to more than three million children and maintain coverage for the 6.6 million children currently in the program:

“Today we came one step closer to fulfilling the bipartisan Senate’s promise of improving the lives of millions of American kids.  By overwhelmingly approving a plan to renew and enhance the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee voiced our commitment to ensure low-income, uninsured children have access to health care.  This bill does not go as far as some of us would have liked, but it is a strong example of bipartisan compromise.

“Since CHIP’s enactment a decade ago, the number of low-income, uninsured children in America has fallen by one-third; this bipartisan bill would cover another third by providing health care to over three million more.  As hundreds of thousands of low-income children are scheduled to lose their healthcare in September unless this program is renewed, I call on opponents in the Senate not to block this compromise bill.  And I call on the President, who ran on the promise to enroll millions of more children in CHIP, to drop his irresponsible veto threat.”

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