White House stands firm as House SCHIP vote nears

The battle between President Bush and majorities in both chambers of Congress over the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is intensifying, with the legislation headed toward House passage Tuesday and the White House formalizing its threat to veto the bill.

{mosads}In a Statement of Administration Policy issued by the Office of Management and Budget, the White House said Bush would not accept the $35 billion SCHIP expansion crafted after painstaking negotiations between House and Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans. The upper chamber is slated to vote on the legislation, H.R. 976, later this week.

“If H.R. 976 were presented to the President in its current form, he would veto the bill,” the statement says.

Bush objects to the scale and reach of the bill, which he says would permit states to enroll children from families with incomes far in excess of the federal poverty level.

The president, administration officials and congressional Republicans also have strongly rejected the 61-cent cigarette tax increase used to finance the SCHIP bill, though the White House statement does not refer to the issue.

“It is urgent that Congress complete its work and send the President a bill he can sign before the program expires September 30, 2007, or at a minimum to pass a clean, temporary extension of the current SCHIP program that he can sign by September 30th,” the statement says.

The current five-year authorization for SCHIP expires on Sunday. Given Bush’s stalwart opposition to the House-Senate compromise bill, Congress is expected to enact an extension of the current authorization, likely as part of a continuing resolution to keep the government in operation. The White House and congressional Democrats also are at an impasse over federal appropriations. The fiscal year ends Sunday.