Forbidden Donut

House Defies Bush and Passes Insurance Bill
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 — Once again defying a veto threat from President Bush, the House on Thursday passed a bill to provide health insurance for 10 million children. But supporters did not have enough votes to override the promised veto.

The bill was approved by a vote of 265 to 142, less than the two-thirds needed to override a veto.

Last week, when the House considered a similar bill vetoed by Mr. Bush, supporters fell 13 votes short of the number needed to override. The roll calls are not directly comparable because several lawmakers were absent on Thursday, many of them helping constituents cope with the California wildfires.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the latest vote was “a step forward” toward the goal of insuring millions of children from low-income families.

But the gains were not immediately evident in the roll call. Of the Republicans who voted against the bill last week, none voted for the new version. And one Republican who supported the old bill, Representative Vernon J. Ehlers of Michigan, voted against the new one, citing concerns that the measure had been brought up on short notice, without enough input from Republicans.

Senate Democrats said they expected to take up the new bill and pass it next week. The House majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, said it was at least conceivable that the bill could be amended in the Senate, to meet some Republican concerns.

If some version of the new bill is approved by Congress and vetoed by Mr. Bush, and if the House again sustains his veto, Democrats said they might extend the existing children’s insurance program through next summer. They could then schedule a vote on the issue in September or October, in hopes of inflicting maximum political damage on Republicans just before the 2008 elections.

The bill passed on Thursday by the House, like the one vetoed by Mr. Bush, would add $35 billion to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, providing a total of $60 billion over the next five years.

Ms. Pelosi said the bill was a test of the nation’s values and priorities. “To be a great nation,” she said, “we have to take care of the health of our children. It should almost go without saying, but it doesn’t. There is every compassionate, humanitarian, motherly, fatherly and family reason to be for this legislation. It also makes good economic sense.”

Healthy children become productive adults, the speaker said.

Supporters of the new bill said it addressed all the major concerns that prompted Republicans to oppose the earlier version. The measure, they said, would end coverage of childless adults, ban coverage of illegal immigrants and generally prohibit states from covering children in families with incomes above three times the poverty level — $61,950 for a family of four.

Ms. Pelosi said the restrictions on adults, illegal immigrants and high-income families were clear in the first bill and “are even clearer in the second bill.”

But Mr. Bush said his concerns had not been addressed “in a meaningful way.” He derided the new bill as “more of the same,” and many Republican lawmakers said the changes were insignificant.

“The new bill puts lipstick on a sow,” said Representative Thomas M. Reynolds, Republican of New York. “Today is raw politics — trotting out a vote just for the sake of a vote.”

The House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, said, “This is nothing more than a political game, getting ready for the next election.”

Representative Ginny Brown-Waite, Republican of Florida, said the child health program would still be a “magnet for illegal aliens.”

Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan, said children from affluent families could still qualify for benefits because states, in determining eligibility, could ignore or disregard part of a family’s income.

Democrats said such concerns were unwarranted.

In general, the bill says, federal money cannot be used to cover children in families with incomes above three times the poverty level. New Jersey, the only state that now covers children in such families, would be allowed to continue doing so for three years — and perhaps longer, if it also covered more of its poorest children.

Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, hailed this provision, saying it was needed “because of the high cost of living in the state.”

The child health program is intended for families who have too much income to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private health insurance. It now covers 6.6 million children, and the new bill, like the original one, would add nearly four million children to the rolls.

Throughout the day, House Republicans urged Democrats to put off a vote on the new bill to next week. Ten of the 26 House members who did not vote Thursday are from California, and 8 of those 10 are Republicans.

Mr. Hoyer said the absent lawmakers would not have changed the outcome of the vote.

Forty-three Republicans voted for the bill; one Democrat voted against it.

Besides complaining about the timing of the vote, Republicans voiced several other objections.

Representative Tom Price, Republican of Georgia, said the bill still called for “a massive tax increase.” The federal excise tax on cigarettes would be increased to $1 a pack, which is 61 cents more than the current levy.

And Representative Pete Sessions, Republican of Texas, said that under the new bill, as under the old one, two million people would lose or drop private health insurance coverage and enroll in the expanded federal program.