Congress established the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, in response to mounting pressure to address the number of uninsured children in the United States. Proponents of the plan argued that CHIP would deliver health insurance coverage to half of the nation’s 10 million uninsured children by 2000. Through federal FY 2005, however, the CHIP program had never reached enrollment of even 4 million children at any given time.
Local Government
When Government Lobbies Itself: Why Texas Should Ban Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying
Texas local governments use taxpayer dollars to hire lobbyists to influence state legislation—creating conflicts of interest, distorting democratic accountability, and undermining the interests of Texas taxpayers. Key points: Taxpayer-funded lobbying expenditures more than doubled from the 85th to the 89th Legislature, now reaching as high as $111.5 million. Taxpayer-funded lobbyists consistently opposed legislation involving property...
April 6, 2026