Dave Camp

Mr. CAMP of Michigan

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished whip, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt).

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes. Madam Speaker, House Republicans strongly support the SCHIP program, and, as many speakers have said, this program was created on a bipartisan basis 10 years ago. We are advocating that the program remain what it was intended to be, and that was a program that helps low-income children who cannot otherwise get health insurance. Had we been able to sit down on a bipartisan basis anytime over the past 9 months, I am convinced that we could have come to an agreement that reauthorizes this important program without turning it into a massive expansion of government-controlled health care. Instead, the majority first produced a massive expansion of SCHIP, partially paid for by cuts to Medicare. Madam Speaker, fundamentally, the majority chose to shortchange the most vulnerable members of our society, seniors and the disabled, in order to force middle and upper middle-class families out of private health insurance and into a government program. Then the majority was confronted with the reality that Members of the other body would not cut Medicare, so they passed the Senate's version of SCHIP. That bill, instead of cutting government funds for seniors and the disabled to expand SCHIP as a middle-class entitlement, raised taxes on the working poor to expand SCHIP. Now the majority is again forced to face reality. In order for a bill to become law, it must be signed by the President of the United States, and this President's position is clear: SCHIP should help low-income kids first. Before you expand coverage to families earning $62,000 or $83,000 a year, 300 or 400 percent of the poverty level, you need to cover children in families earning less than 200 percent a year. That is about $42,000 a year. That is just common sense, and is true to the original bipartisan spirit of the SCHIP program. I hope we will be able to come to an agreement and not have the majority just simply roll over our legitimate concerns about this legislation. We need to sit down together to help low-income children, to fix the loophole that makes it easier for illegal immigrants to get government benefits, and to ensure that the SCHIP program is funded on a sound and honest basis. I look forward to that discussion.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, this bill clearly isn't about helping low-income children. If it were, it would have support from both parties and the President would be eagerly waiting to sign it into law. This is a missed opportunity. Virtually everyone supports providing health insurance to low-income children. But when a Federal health program for children starts covering not only families, but childless adults making three and four times the poverty level, it has clearly lost its focus. It is clear that Democrats want taxpayers to fund, and the Federal Government to directly provide, health care benefits to millions of more Americans, even for those families making over $80,000 a year. They are using SCHIP as a vehicle and the children it is intended to cover as a shield to get one step closer to total Government control over our health care system. The current plan to expand SCHIP is in dire need of a second opinion. Instead of moving further and further away from the core mission, we should be reforming the program to ensure it is truly helping America's uninsured children. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office stipulates that the proposed expansion would cover an additional 5.8 million Americans at a cost of $35 billion. Alarmingly, more than one out of every three individuals already has private insurance. The bill before us does little more than move children and upper-income families from private insurance plans to taxpayer-funded plans. That is a prescription for the type of government largess that stifles economies and unduly burdens taxpayers. It is not a prescription for reducing the number of uninsured Americans. State's and children's advocates should take a second look at this bill. Because of shoddy funding sources, this bill is likely to harm more States and health care programs than it helps. A Heritage Foundation study showed that as many as 28 States, including Michigan, stand to have a net loss of $10 to $700 million in revenue. This bill is designed poorly, funded poorly, and will do little to help lower-income Americans obtain health coverage. The President should veto this bill. Congress should work in a bipartisan fashion, as we did nearly 10 years ago when the program was created, to make certain that children in America have access to a health care system.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Madam Speaker, I would like to recognize Lt. Col. Raimund Winzer for his long and faithful military service to the United States of America. Lt. Col. Winzer honorably retired from service in the United States Army Reserve. After federal military retirement, Lt. Col. Winzer volunteered for the Governor of Michigan's National Security Task Force where his continuing contributions to national security and military administration earned him promotion to the rank of colonel. Col. Winzer retired from the Midland Public Schools where he was a teacher of the German language. He won the accolades of his students and their progeny for his unique, self- developed, German-language teaching methodology. Col. Winzer is the epitome of the citizen-soldier that has made major contributions to the defense of the United States of America.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Madam Speaker, our Nation is sustained by men and women who so willingly risk their lives to defend our liberty and our way of life. Private First Class Charles T. Heinlein was one such soldier, and he gave the last full measure in service to his country and to his fellow citizens. Today, I want to recognize on the floor of the United States House of Representatives the life of Charles T. Heinlein. In saluting heroes like Charlie, we remember him with undying gratitude. And we resolve, though we cannot repay the debt we owe him or his family, to live our lives in such a way as to be worthy of their sacrifice. Charlie joined the United States Army to become ``a better person,'' but it is his heroism in battling back tyranny and terror halfway around the globe that has helped build a better America and a better world. His actions on the field of duty will forever stand as a reminder that America remains the land of the free and the home of the brave. May God keep Charlie; may God watch and comfort his family; and, may God continue to grant this Nation with the courage to defend life and liberty.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Madam Speaker, our Nation is sustained by men and women who so willingly risk their lives to defend our liberty and our way of life. PFC Charles T. Heinlein was one such soldier, and he gave the last full measure in service to his country and to his fellow citizens. Today, I want to recognize on the floor of the United States House of Representatives the life of Charles T. Heinlein. In saluting heroes like Charlie, we remember him with undying gratitude. And we resolve, though we cannot repay the debt we owe him or his family, to live our lives in such a way as to be worthy of their sacrifice. Charlie joined the United States Army to become ``a better person,'' but it is his heroism in battling back tyranny and terror halfway around the globe that has helped build a better America and a better world. His actions on the field of duty will forever stand as a reminder that America remains the land of the free and the home of the brave. May God keep Charlie, may God watch and comfort his family, and may God continue to grant this Nation the courage to defend life and liberty.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, this bill is a missed opportunity. In Michigan, where the average price of gas is 12 cents higher than the national average, energy prices are a sore subject. Gas prices are too high, the U.S. is too dependent on foreign oil, and yet the majority party refuses to allow expanding our domestic supply of energy sources. This bill misses the mark. H.R. 2776 is certainly creative in how it spends taxpayer dollars. Under this legislation, $6 billion will be given away to States for just about any project that has the word ``energy'' in it. Republicans in the Ways and Means Committee debated this new spending scheme at length during the bill's markup. During that debate, we found out that States could use taxpayer money to buy hybrid Lexuses for State employees, construct indoor rainforests, distribute complimentary copies of Al Gore's ``An Inconvenient Truth'' in every classroom, or hand out energy-efficient light bulbs. In my view, the new tax credit bond programs this legislation creates will fail to do anything to secure our Nation's energy independence because there is no requirement that they reduce greenhouse gases or increase energy production. The bill, however, does have a few bright spots. It includes measures I have supported on plug-in vehicles, solar energy and energy-efficient programs for appliances and homes. I believe these initiatives have the potential to have significant impact on energy conservation. I am disappointed the underlying bill does nothing to promote hybrid and advanced-technology diesel vehicles. In 2005 the Energy Policy Act was enacted. It included legislation that provided tax credits to consumers for the purchase of a new hybrid and advanced-technology diesel vehicle. With this tax credit, Americans can knock hundreds or thousands of dollars off the sale price of a clean fuel car or truck. This bill does nothing to help consumers better afford hybrid or advanced technology diesel vehicles. In closing, I urge my colleagues to reject this flawed bill.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake).

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn).

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland).

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to a distinguished member of the Ways and Means Committee, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady).

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 2 minutes to a distinguished member of the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Tiberi.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, how much time is remaining?

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania, a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time remains?

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. At this time, Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to a distinguished member of the Ways and Means Committee, the gentleman from California (Mr. Herger).

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence). (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. I withdraw my reservation of objection. Mr. SPEAKER pro tempore. The reservation is withdrawn. The Chair will note that the gentleman from California will yield his \1/2\ minute to the Speaker. The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) has 6\1/2\ minutes remaining. The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Camp) has 3\1/4\ minutes remaining.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/4\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Whitfield).

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes. First, I would like to make one point perfectly clear. Republicans support health care for low-income children. We support reauthorizing the program we passed in 1997. And that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. After all, it was the Republican majority that created the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and we did it in a bipartisan manner. Today, sadly, we do not have a bipartisan bill before us. When we talk about insuring the Nation's needy children, we should talk about it in a bipartisan way. And if the majority had crafted a bill that was just about helping low-income children, we would stand here today ready to overwhelmingly approve that legislation. Unfortunately, this bill doesn't focus on low-income children. Instead, it draws scarce resources away from these needy children in order to take a giant leap toward universal, government-controlled health care. Worst of all, this dramatic step comes at the expense of Medicare, seniors' health insurance, in order to give middle-class and even upper middle-class families a new Federal health benefit. These are not minor cuts in senior health care. The majority's bill cuts or eliminates many Medicare benefits and services: $157 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage, which are health plans that offer additional benefits to low-income seniors like disease management, vision, dental, and hearing benefits, and improves the quality of care they receive; billions in cuts to hospitals; billions in cuts to home health care services, to wheelchairs, to patient rehab facilities, to nursing homes, to dialysis patients, and to oxygen treatment. And because of a new insurance tax on every insured American, health costs to seniors and all Americans will go up. I don't know about you, but I can't look a 75-year-old widow in the eye in my district and honestly ask her to give up her benefits so that a 45-year-old couple making $80,000 a year or more with a 21-year-old can receive government health care. This bill did not have to be this way. It should not be this way. I urge my colleagues to vote against this bill, and I urge the majority to bring us back a bill that focuses on helping low-income children. That is a bill we can all support.

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. At this time, Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis).

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson).

Mr. CAMP of Michigan. I just have one speaker remaining, Mr. Speaker.