Volume 6, Number 9
In this Issue:
--House Democrats Force Quick Vote on New SCHIP Bill, Fail to Produce Veto-Proof Majority
--Prevention Appropriations Advance in Congress
--Help Build Congressional Support for Home Visiting Legislation
House Democrats Force Quick Vote on New SCHIP Bill, Fail to Produce Veto-Proof Majority
The House passed a revised SCHIP reauthorization bill (H.R. 3963) on October 25th by a vote of 265-142, once again failing to reach the two-thirds majority needed to override another likely presidential veto. This vote came just one week after the House attempted to override the President’s veto of the initial House-Senate compromise bill and fell 13 votes short of the number needed to accomplish that.
House Democratic leadership had hoped that they could produce a bill with changes substantial enough to draw new Republican supporters, while not compromising on the bill’s overall spending level (approximately $35 billion in additional funding over 5 years) or the funding source for the program’s expansion (a 61-cent increase in the federal tobacco tax). However, the 265 votes in support of the new bill included only 43 Republicans, two less than the 45 Republicans who had supported the legislation when it was passed by the House in September. The two Republican votes lost were those of Rep. Don Young of Alaska, who was absent for the vote, and Rep. Vernon Ehlers of Michigan, who stated that he was disappointed with the way in which the vote was forced quickly and without opportunity for negotiations.
Several leading Republican supporters of the legislation echoed the concerns raised by Representative Ehlers. Republicans had requested that the vote be delayed for another week in order to give them sufficient time to look over the changes, as well as in consideration of several Representatives from areas of southern California affected by the devastating wildfires who were in their home districts at the time of the vote.
Changes Included in the New Bill
Changes have been made with the intention of addressing three primary issues that had been targeted in criticisms of the previous version of the bill:
- Income eligibility limits. The new bill would set an income eligibility cap at 300 percent of the federal poverty level, whereas the previous version of the bill would have allowed states to cover children from families with income above this level if they had remaining funds after covering eligible lower-income children. However, opponents of the new version of the bill say that it still contains a loophole through which certain types of income could be disregarded in order to make more families meet the eligibility requirements.
- Coverage of adults. The new bill would require states to phase out coverage of childless adults in the program within one year, as opposed to the two-year period proposed in the previous legislation.
- Enrollment of illegal immigrants in the program. While the previous bill already would have under all circumstances prohibited coverage of illegal immigrants in the program, the new version of the bill highlights this more explicitly. It also would require applicants to show proof of citizenship if the Social Security Administration cannot verify their status using only a Social Security number.
Next Steps
The Administration confirmed through a Statement of Administration Policy that the President does not feel the new bill sufficiently addresses the issues that prompted his veto of the previous bill, and that he indeed will veto the bill if presented to him in the form passed by the House. It is not yet apparent how Democrats will proceed from here. One option identified is to make further changes to the bill in the Senate in another attempt to gain additional Republican support when the bill returns to the House floor, and send a veto-proof bill to the President. Alternatively, the bill may go to the President’s desk as it stands, setting the stage for another presidential veto and another vote to override that veto. A third possibility would be to pass another temporary extension of funding for the program, possibly extending all the way into fall of 2008.
Prevention Appropriations Advance in Congress
On October 23rd, the Senate passed their FY 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education appropriations bill (Labor-HHS) with a proposed discretionary funding level of $149 billion. Labor-HHS is the largest of the domestic spending bills that Congress passes each year, and provides funding to a range of child abuse prevention services. There will be a House/Senate conference committee in order to reconcile the differences between the Senate’s bill and the one passed by the House in July. Funding levels and spending priorities will likely be the key issues grappled with by the conference committee. The House bill provided $151 billion in discretionary funding, $2 billion more than the Senate. Additionally, the House bill provides more funding for education priorities while the Senate provides more funding for health priorities, including NIH and community health centers. Both bills provide substantially more than the President’s request of $141 billion in discretionary spending.
Regardless of whether Congress ultimately goes with the Senate funding level, the House level, or somewhere in between, the President is still expected to veto the bill. The President has issued veto threats on both the House and Senate bills, citing the overall funding level as his primary concern. Democrats have indicated that they will likely attempt to override a presidential veto, though it is not clear whether they will have strong enough bipartisan support to do so. While the Senate passed its bill with a veto-proof 75-19 vote, the House will need to draw approximately 15 more votes in support of their bill in order to reach the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.
Even though the fiscal year began October 1, Congress has yet to send any of its 12 FY 2008 appropriations bills to President Bush. In fact, neither chamber is likely to vote on a FY 2008 appropriations conference report until the week of November 5th. Programs are currently operating under a continuing resolution (CR) that is funding programs at a FY 2007 level. The CR expires November 16th. House and Senate leaders are considering a plan to send the Labor-HHS-Education bill to President Bush by Veteran’s Day, November 12th.
Help Build Congressional Support for Home Visitation Bill
TAKE ACTION
Your help is needed to garner additional cosponsors for the Education Begins at Home Act (EBAH, H.R. 2343, S. 667). EBAH would establish the first dedicated federal funding stream to support parents with newborns and young children through quality, voluntary home visitation. Our congressional champions are helping us identify ways to pass EBAH this Congress, but we need your help.
Passing federal legislation can be a long, unpredictable process with variables such as public will and political climate impacting the timeline. One of the best ways to demonstrate public will is by compiling a long, bipartisan list of cosponsors. Prevent Child Abuse America has created a sample e-mail asking members of Congress to cosponsor EBAH. We encourage you to personalize the e-mail with local information before sending it on to your Senators and Representatives.
A regularly updated list of EBAH cosponsors for the 110th Congress is available at: http://thomas.loc.gov/. If your member of Congress is listed as a cosponsor please thank him/her for the support.
WHAT EBAH WOULD DO
If enacted, EBAH would extend to a broad range of families the opportunity to benefit from home visiting programs like Healthy Families America. Of the $500 million authorized in EBAH, $400 million would be provided to states on a formula basis to expand and enhance home visiting programs, while the remaining $100 million would be divided between two competitive grants to reach military families and families with English Language Learners. | |
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