January 24, 2008
House Fails Again to Override Veto of SCHIP
 
Trying again to get a reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) through Congress, the House of Representatives yesterday failed by 15 votes to override President Bush’s veto of a bill that would have added $35 billion to the popular state/federal program over the next five years. This was the second veto, and the second time a veto was sustained, since the original SCHIP authorization expired last year. The 260 to 152 vote, in which all House Democrats and all but 42 of Republicans voted to override the President's veto, left the House 15 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to overcome a veto. Democratic leaders cited a current “sour turn” in the economy as an added reason to support the SCHIP expansion, and they vowed to bring the SCHIP reauthorization up again in this session of Congress. SCHIP is currently funded through March 2009 under emergency legislation passed by Congress last year.