WASHINGTON — After hours of partisan warfare and delay, the House easily approved a new version of legislation to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program on Thursday, but the vote failed to get any more Republicans to override another promised veto from President Bush.
The 265-to-142 tally included 43 Republicans, two fewer than the version that passed Sept. 25. Democratic leaders made some changes to answer Republican criticism, tightening rules to exclude illegal immigrants from the program, adding incentives for states to drop families earning more than 300 percent of the poverty line and driving adults from the program faster.
But Republican leaders rallied their wavering troops around a new issue: whether the vote should have taken place when much of Southern California was on fire and nine House members were touring the disaster zone. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insisted she had no choice but to move forward and give the Senate a chance to send the measure to Bush next week.
“If Republicans believe in SCHIP as they say they do … then they won’t be looking for an excuse to vote against the bill,” Pelosi said, infuriating even her closest Republican allies on the issue.
“Everything from baptisms to bar mitzvahs, we’ve put off votes for here. But they won’t do it for the people of California,” said Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill.
An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showed the new version of the children’s health-insurance bill did have some substantive changes that Republicans had demanded. Under both versions, the combined average monthly enrollment in SCHIP and Medicaid would be about 34.1 million people, according to the CBO. But there is a shift toward serving poorer children, a key Republican demand. In the new bill, Medicaid enrollment alone would be about 400,000 people higher than under the vetoed bill, while SCHIP enrollment would be about that much lower, according to CBO documents.
Almost half of the 3.9 million uninsured children projected to gain coverage under the revised bill would be covered under Medicaid, of whom about 80 percent live below the poverty level, said Genevieve Kenney, an Urban Institute health economist.
Republican supporters of the insurance bill feared the day’s events had so poisoned the atmosphere that they would never persuade the dozen or so Republicans they need to override a Bush veto.
Republicans accused the Democrats of calling the quick vote just so a new round of political ads could blast swing-district Republicans over the weekend.
