Three weeks after President Bush vetoed a bipartisan bill to expand a federal children’s health insurance program, the House on Thursday passed a similar measure that included a few minor changes aimed at attracting enough Republicans to override another veto.
The House did not alter the $60 billion price tag or the goal of the bill to expand coverage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to 10 million children. President Bush, who believes the proposal is too costly and too expansive, said if the new legislation ends up on his desk, he will veto it as he did the previous bill.
The legislation “has not addressed in a meaningful way the objections that caused the president to veto” the first SCHIP bill, administration officials said in a statement.
The Senate will take up the new SCHIP bill next week and is expected to pass it by a veto-proof margin. The House, however, still lacks the two-thirds majority needed to force the bill into law over Bush’s objections.
Like the earlier version, the bill passed by the House would increase the current $25 billion SCHIP program by $35 million over the next five years.
Bush has proposed a $5 billion increase over five years but has indicated he is willing to spend more money — up to $20 billion over five years — in an effort to strike a compromise with Congress.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday the president “has not made any overtures to us” about a compromise, though Bush administration officials Wednesday tried to persuade Congress to accept the $20 billion increase. Democrats rejected the offer, saying the money would not cover enough children.
The new bill includes a provision that would largely prohibit participation by families with incomes of more than 300 percent above the poverty level. The earlier version did not expressly block states from including families above that level.
The new bill also adds incentives for states to enroll children from the poorest families and adds language aimed at requiring states to verify that SCHIP participants are American citizens. Another added provision would phase out childless adults from the program within two years.
Pelosi said the new bill addresses the concerns of some of the Republicans who voted against the earlier version of the bill.
