One of the reasons U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., has given for his opposition to a bill that would expand a children’s health insurance program is that it would allow undocumented immigrants to receive government-funded medical care.
It’s an assertion three of Pearce’s colleagues in the New Mexico delegation say is false, and one that prompted a Democrat seeking the GOP congressman’s seat to call him a liar.
Pearce and other House Republicans who recently voted against the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill are coming under increasing pressure as Democrats and moderate Republicans work to secure enough votes to overturn the president’s veto of the bill. The proposal would expand the program by $35 billion to cover another 4 million children, and fund it through an increase in the federal cigarette tax.
There are enough votes in the Senate to overturn the veto, but supporters of the bill in the House are some 20 votes short of that goal. House Democrats are preparing another push on the bill late next week.
Pearce held a tele-town hall meeting on SCHIP last week – a conference call involving residents who answered the phones and opted to participate. According to a news release from Pearce’s office, tens of thousands of people across the Second Congressional District were called. Those who didn’t answer received a voice mail that included this statement from Pearce:
“I support providing assistance to low-income children, but I oppose expanding those benefits to adults, people making up to $80,000 per year and illegal aliens, all of which this proposal would do,” said Pearce, New Mexico’s only lawmaker in Washington who voted against the bill.
Doña Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley, one of two Democrats running for Pearce’s seat next year, pointed to a provision in the bill titled “No federal funding for illegal aliens,” which states that “nothing in this act allows federal payment for individuals who are not legal residents.”
“First, Steve Pearce became the only New
Pearce spokesman Brian Phillips pointed to the section in the bill that states that, to qualify for the program, a person must provide a social security number that has to be verified by the Social Security Administration.
“Since it only requires you show a Social Security number, and we all know how easily those documents can be faked, the majority is not serious about keeping illegal aliens out of the program,” Phillips said. “There is no way to verify if the documents are false, no way to verify if the person is who they say they are, and no way to verify if they are in this country legally. It’s more than a loophole. It’s an express lane.”
Others say bill would implement stronger checks
Enrique Knell, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., said Phillips is wrong.
“That’s actually completely not true and it’s more of a smokescreen, really, to defend a vote against children’s health insurance,” Knell said.
He said two years ago, a report found that states were lax in verifying citizenship for Medicaid qualification, and Congress responded by requiring states to verify Social Security numbers with the Social Security Administration. While it’s easy to create false documents that have fake Social Security numbers printed on them, it’s nearly impossible to obtain a number from the administration in a fraudulent manner, he said.
The current bill would apply the new Medicaid standard to the SCHIP program for the first time, so it actually strengthens requirements of citizenship verification for the program, Knell said.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who helped author the SCHIP bill in the Senate, agreed.
“This bill expressly does not cover undocumented immigrants, and in fact it specifically sets in place a rigorous system for verifying Social Security numbers provided as proof of citizenship,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said the requirements in the bill “will ensure that the Social Security Administration checks to make sure that… benefits go only to those who qualify under the law.”
“The simple fact is that lawmakers were given a choice between providing health care to children and not providing health care to children,” he said. “Opponents of the bill want to talk about immigrants because they don’t want to talk about that simple choice.”
The office of U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., did not respond to a request for comment.
Social Security Administration weighs in
Phillips pointed to a letter a Social Security Administration official wrote to U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La. in September in response to questions the congressman raised about the SCHIP bill. The official stated that the requirement to verify the number with the administration would not “prevent an illegal alien from fraudulently using another person’s valid name and matching SSN to obtain Medicaid and SCHIP benefits,” and it “would not identify individuals who have illegally overstayed a work visa permit.”
Though the system is an improvement for those who want greater checks on citizenship because it requires states to verify social security numbers and prevents the use of fraudulent numbers, it doesn’t put foolproof checks in place to ensure people aren’t fraudulently using valid numbers that aren’t theirs. Identification is required to ensure that the person using the social security number is the person to whom the number was issued, but driver’s licenses, for example, can be faked and, in
Still, three Republican senators, Orin Hatch of
If a bill increases funding to a program that could be fraudulently accessed by lawbreakers, but puts greater checks in place to ensure that doesn’t happen – even if they aren’t foolproof checks – is that “expanding” benefits to undocumented immigrants, as Pearce claims?
Phillips said the Social Security Administration’s responses to McCrery’s questions show that the bill does allow undocumented immigrants to obtain SCHIP benefits. So what requirements would Pearce want added to the bill?
“One proposal would require the REAL ID-type standards to apply,” Phillips said. “Anything would have been better than the meaningless window dressing in the SCHIP bill that does nothing to address the real problem.”
The READ ID program, which will take effect in December 2009, sets federal standards for obtaining state driver’s licenses, the most controversial being proof of citizenship.