Congress is back to square one in its effort to pass a federal children’s health insurance bill that President Bush will sign.
Senate talks aimed at writing a compromise bill collapsed Thursday after GOP leaders refused to allow more time to negotiate.
Instead, the Senate voted 64-30 to pass a House-designed measure that President Bush has already promised to veto. The bill is nearly identical to legislation cleared by Congress, then vetoed by Bush last month.
The bill would increase the cost of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program from $25 billion to $60 billion over five years and expand the SCHIP rolls from 6 million children to 10 million. President Bush said the plan is too expensive and edges the program toward socialized health care.
Democrats said negotiations over a possible compromise were cut off by GOP leaders in the House and Senate.
“Republicans don’t want a deal,” said Brendan Daly, spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Republicans called those charges “ridiculous,” saying they sent legislative language and proposed changes to the Senate last night “and have not received any feedback whatsoever,” according to Kevin Smith, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Those proposals included adding provisions that would exclude all adults from the program and ensure that children earning twice the federal poverty level are covered before those from families with higher incomes.
Republican leadership aides said compromise talks would continue, even though Democratic leaders have decided to move ahead with the House bill Bush opposes.
“If they are going to send veto-bait to the president and waste time, that’s poor decision-making,” said Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Congress has been unable to come up with a new proposal because Bush keeps coming up with new objections.
“Whether it’s the president making up phony excuse after phony excuse to oppose SCHIP or Republican leaders repeatedly using procedural delays, it is obvious that there are some who will do anything to stand in the way of enacting this bill,” Reid said.
