By Crystal Swann
October 22, 2007

After a two-week vote delay, the House on October 18 failed to gather the necessary votes to override President Bush’ s veto of the bipartisan compromise bill to reauthorize the popular state children’s health program. The final vote, 273-156, fell thirteen votes short of the two thirds needed to override the President’s veto. The House leadership has signaled that they will send the bill back to the President in next months with some “minor” changes.

After the vote, Conference President Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer expressed strong disappoint that the veto was not overridden. “This is not just a political failure. This is a moral failure from the highest levels of government impacting children all across this country,” said Palmer. “The decision of a few legislators has undermined a bipartisan effort of both the House and the Senate to provide critical help to children who don’t have health insurance. This is unacceptable. Just a few weeks of funding for the war in Iraq could cover the cost of healthcare for millions of children in our country,” Palmer added.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “In the next two weeks, we intend to send the President another bill that provides health care for ten million children.” That goal, she said, is “not negotiable.”

Prior to the vote, mayors, Governors, child advocates and many more across the United States sent letters and made calls to Capitol Hill urging their members to override the veto. While the House failed to galvanize enough votes, the political pressure placed on those members who voted against the bill has mounted to a fever pitch that shows no sign of subsiding until a bill passes Congress.

In recent polls, 70-80 percent of the American public favored Congressional override of the President’s veto. As leaders begin negotiations, the American people, particularly those in working families whose children would have been served by this bill, are left wondering: what about the children?

SCHIP is currently being funded under a continuing resolution through November 16. The bipartisan compromise children’s health bill would have increased spending on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program by $35 billion, bringing the total to $60 billion over the next five years. It would have provided coverage for nearly four million uninsured children, while continuing coverage for 6.6 million already on the rolls.