Senate Finance Committee Fails to Move SCHIP Before July

This week, leaders in the U.S. Senate Finance Committee failed to come to an agreement that would move legislation to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Without reauthorization, SCHIP will expire on September 30th, 2007.

Catholic Charities USA continues to urge the Senate and the House to move forward quickly in reauthorizing the program. We continue to call for significant improvements to the program, including simplifying the application processes, providing coverage for eligible but not enrolled children, and removing restrictions to legal immigrant children and pregnant women. In a joint letter from Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Health Association, and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Catholic leaders urged the Senate Finance Committee to fully utilize the $50 billion provided for SCHIP reauthorization in the budget resolution, both to maintain coverage for children currently in SCHIP and allow states to enroll six million uninsured children who are eligible for SCHIP or Medicaid.

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to move aggressively on SCHIP reauthorization after the July 4th recess.  On the House side, staff has indicated that the Energy and Commerce Committee will start discussions during the second week of July.  In July, please look for critical opportunities to take action as the Senate and House move forward on legislation.