FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 31, 2007
CONTACT: Matt Mackowiak
Sen. Hutchison Calls SCHIP Vote “Political Gamesmanship”
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Chairman of Republican Policy Committee (RPC), released the following statement on her vote against cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3963, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization bill:
“Today, the Senate leadership forced a cloture vote with no regard for passing a bill the President can sign. I will focus all of my efforts on working out a bipartisan compromise which reauthorizes the program, protects Texas’ CHIP funding, and extends SCHIP in its mission of providing insurance to poor children.
“Regrettably, today’s procedural vote in the Senate was on SCHIP legislation that was passed by the House, without any collaboration with the President. Some in Congress have chosen to play politics with this issue, rather than sit down and negotiate a bipartisan compromise.
“On October 18, I sent a letter, which was cosigned by all 18 Republican Senators who supported the SCHIP bill, urging the House and Senate leadership to sit down with the President and work out their differences so we may reauthorize this vital program.
“Since the motion to proceed passed, I will again vote for the bill. But I urge the Democrat leadership to abandon this political gamesmanship and work toward a bill the president will sign.”
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