President Obama will sign an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) today at 4:30 p.m., according to the White House, enacting legislation that has been a top priority for congressional Democrats since the 110th Congress.
The House passed an SCHIP extension today 290-135, sending it to Obama’s desk. The bill reauthorizes SCHIP for the next four and a half years at higher funding levels.
The House passed a previous $35 billion expansion in 2007, which President Bush vetoed. Democratic leaders tried and failed to override the veto in October of that year.
“This is the beginning of the change that the American people voted for in the last election and that we will achieve with President Barack Obama,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has led the Democratic crusade for SCHIP expansion, said on the House floor today. “We look forward to this afternoon when the President of the United States will sign this legislation.”