WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL-14) is standing up for her neighbors against Congressional Republicans' and President Trump's cruel cuts, kicking people off their health coverage, hitting families' wallets with higher electric bills and costlier health care and much more included in their big, bad budget bill.

"Tony McLaurin is a spirited seven-year-old from Wesley Chapel, Florida – a part of the world that my colleagues Gus Bilirakis and Laurel Lee know very well – North of Tampa. He is an athletic kid. He loves to play and watch football with his father, Ronnie. Loves math and playing video games. He's sweet and respectful. But last December, his mother noticed that Tony didn't have the same energy, and on the morning of his football championship banquet, she took him to the emergency room, where, after several blood tests, he was diagnosed with leukemia.

"Since then, Tony has been in and out of St. Joseph's Children's Hospital for chemotherapy, where he will be undergoing treatment for the next two years. Pauline, his mom, is a fifth-grade teacher, and she had to quit her job when Tony was diagnosed.

"Now, it is a real struggle for them to pay their bills on Dad, Ronnie's, electrician salary. When Pauline was forced to quit her job to take care of Tony, the family lost their health insurance that was tied to his mother's teaching employer. But thankfully, St. Joe's helped them enroll in Medicaid, which covers the whole family and helps provide all the chemotherapy that they need. Pauline feels hopeless, scared, and uneasy about the prospect of losing Medicaid. She said, 'It's not like I have a second option. Medicaid is the second option.'

"Medicaid insures one out of every three children diagnosed with cancer in the United States, and without consistent Medicaid coverage, some children with cancer likely will die. Even a gap in coverage or costly red tape requirements will cost lives. Studies have shown that children who experience interruptions to health coverage before or during their cancer diagnosis are less likely to survive.

"There is a new worry, though, for Pauline and Tony and the family, because the priority of the President and Republicans in Congress is to give a massive tax giveaway to Elon Musk and billionaires that's going to be paid for with Medicaid cuts. It's outrageous, and at a time of so much uncertainty driven by what the President has done and Elon Musk's heartless actions. When the cost of living is so high, when cancer research is under attack, the last thing a parent with a child diagnosed with cancer needs is to worry about affordable health care.

"Musk already torpedoed a bipartisan piece of legislation at the end of the year that would have helped children diagnosed with cancer by speeding the development of new drugs and treatments. Do he and all his billionaire buddies really need more in their bank accounts, while kids and the vulnerable and families across this country must deal with them ripping coverage away? Let's not be the Committee that makes it more difficult for our neighbors to get medical care for children battling cancer, forcing them to make an impossible choice between paying for treatment, food, utility bills or housing. The bill before us today is heartless, cruel, and costly, and I will not stand for it. Let's be the Committee that supports Pauline, Tony, and their entire family—affordable, consistent health coverage is the least we can do for a family going through such an unthinkable hardship."

There are approximately 432,000 children who rely on Medicaid and CHIP in the Tampa Bay area – children with complex medical conditions like cancer, children who need school-based services, military-connected children, and children who just need to visit their pediatrician. Medicaid is their lifeline.

Watch the Committee livestream here.

Watch Castor's opening remarks below: