March 15,2007

Baucus Comments on Senate Budget Plan

Finance Chairman intends to renew, expand Children’s Health Insurance Program

Washington, DC – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) today commented on the Senate budget proposal for providing funds to the expiring Children’s Health Insurance Program. Baucus’s committee has jurisdiction over CHIP. He has called for $50 billion in funding to maintain coverage for the six million current CHIP recipients and to extend the program to six million more children who are eligible for public health programs but not enrolled.

“The Budget Committee has set the bar at the $50 billion needed to double the reach of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and I’ll work with my colleagues to find the best way to get it done,”Baucus said. “We have a historic opportunity to change the lives of six million more American children who ought to have health coverage today. We can’t miss this chance to fulfill CHIP’s promise to American families.”

Baucus’s committee has jurisdiction over U.S. tax policy as well. He praised the budget’s provision of tax cuts for America’s working families, along with efforts to close tax law loopholes that lose the Treasury money every year. Baucus also applauded the recognition that American families need to be protected from the alternative minimum tax. He introduced a bill on the first day of the 110th Congress to repeal the “stealth tax” of the AMT altogether, to keep it from snaring millions more middle-income families who are already struggling to make ends meet.

“The Finance Committee will work to provide important tax relief for American families, including protection from the AMT while we find a way to get it off the books for good,” Baucus said. “The constraints of pay-go won’t be easy. But working together, we can restore some stability to American families’ finances and some sanity to this country’s fiscal situation.”

# # #