House Votes to Expand SCHIP

Oct 25, 06:46 PM

Current Headlines: The U.S. House of Representatives Thursday passed a revised version of a vetoed bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

The vote was 265-142 -- seven short of the votes necessary to override a presidential veto, The New York Times reported. Forty-three Republicans voted in favor of the measure and 26 members did not vote.

The bill still calls for a $35 billion expansion of the healthcare program for children in poor and working poor families, as the earlier bill did, but it makes some apparent concessions to President George W. Bush, who vetoed the measure this month.

Among the concessions is a provision making illegal immigrants ineligible for coverage, and another that eases adults out of the program in one year rather than two, as in the original bill, The Washington Post reported.

However, Democrats still fund the expansion with a 61-cent per pack tax on cigarettes, which Bush has opposed.

The vote came one day after the White House indicated Bush could accept legislation that would expand the program by about $20 billion over five years. That's four times the original cap Bush had called for, the report said.

The House voted 273-156 on Oct. 18 to sustain Bush's veto of the earlier bill.