U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette on Monday called for a stop to the “hyperpartisan” politics she says are fueling the GOP health care bill that — along with President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts — would slash money from programs that help more than half a million Colorado children.

“This is going to jeopardize the welfare of so many children,” the Denver Democrat said at a news conference at Denver’s Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children. “We can’t sustain this ongoing assault to our health care.”

Her comments come as the U.S. Senate is working on its version of the U.S. House-passed American Health Care Act, Republicans’ response to the president’s promise to repeal and replace Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Congressional Democrats have lambasted their GOP counterparts for not holding hearings on the bill, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has said he hopes to have passed before the Senate’s July 4 recess.

DeGette said Senate Republicans have been “working under the cover of night” on the legislation and that she’s extremely concerned about what it could mean for Coloradans’ health care coverage.

Specifically, DeGette spoke Monday morning about the estimated $834 billion in cuts to Medicaid and a few billion dollars in cuts to the Children’s Health Insurance Program proposed by the House-passed AHCA bill and Trump’s budget cuts.  

Read the full story at The Denver Post.

This 2014 file photo shows U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette meeting with reporters at the Westin in Denver. Photo by Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post.

This 2014 file photo shows U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette meeting with reporters at the Westin in Denver. Photo by Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post.