Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) took to the Senate floor yesterday to dispel several tall tales about the administration's proposed rescissions, specifically those that pertain to the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
"Congress has been doing this every single year since 2011, as long as it can spend it on something else. Sixty-five Senators, including 40 of my Democratic colleagues voted to rescind $6.8 billion from CHIP, how long ago? In March. Of this year. A few weeks ago. Including $3.1 billion from the Contingency Fund."
"It's a big budget gimmick...buried somewhere in a thousand page appropriation bill every year, there's been a rescission, and the money has been shifted to something else. Over the last eight years, the amount of money that has been rescinded so it can be spent elsewhere has added up to $45 billion taxpayer dollars."
"I fully support the President's proposal that we fully fund CHIP, but stop with the dishonesty in our budgeting. Stop throwing a bunch of money at this category knowing that we are going to come back later and spend it somewhere else."
BACKGROUND:
Myth: The proposed rescissions cut the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Fact: The proposed rescissions do not cut any funding from children's health insurance. The proposal stops a gimmick by which Congress overfunds CHIP to allow the appropriators to take over $45 billion from CHIP and spend it on unrelated programs.
• Since 2009, over $45 billion originally dedicated for CHIP has been spent on unrelated programs. ("Federal financing for the State Children's Health Insurance Program," Congressional Research Service, September 29, 2017)
• Senator Toomey brought attention to this issue last October in the Senate Finance Committee. (See also: "Senate Committee Advances Children's Health Care Bill," Roll Call, October 4, 2017)
• In the recent bipartisan government funding bill, $6.8 billion was rescinded from CHIP. (Division H - Department of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2018, page 151)
Myth: The proposed rescissions jeopardize the Child Enrollment Contingency Fund, which is federal money set aside for states that have unexpected surges in enrollment.
Fact: The proposed rescissions keep five times more funding in the Child Enrollment Contingency Fund, to be available for the next five months, than states have used over the past nine years.
• Over the past nine years, $11.4 billion has been stashed in the Child Enrollment Contingency Fund. Only $108 million has been used.
• The proposed rescissions leave $500 million in the Child Enrollment Contingency Fund for use over the next five months alone. (Proposed Rescissions of Budgetary Resources, Office of Management and Budget, May 8, 2018, Page 17)
• Read the FactCheck on CHIP funding (May 10, 2018).
