Baucus: CHIP Fight Far From Over

Press Release

BAUCUS: CHIP FIGHT FAR FROM OVER

Finance Committee Chairman To Huddle With Leaders Following Close House Vote

Although he came up just shy of the two-thirds majority vote needed to override President Bush's veto, Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said today the fight to provide Montana's low-income kids with health insurance is far from over.

"This fight is so far from over, the fat lady isn't even warming up," Baucus said. "Of course I'm disappointed the House failed to override Bush's veto. But that doesn't mean we're going to back down in the least. We'll try and try again. It just means we need to regroup and bring more people to the table. It means we need to tweak the bill slightly while making sure it does what we need it to do - cover more uninsured kids."

As chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, Baucus was the Senate's lead author of the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, bill which provides health insurance to children from low-income families. The bill, which received wide support from both Democrats and Republicans as well as governors and advocacy groups, was vetoed by President Bush earlier this month.

In order to override a Presidential veto, a 2/3 vote in both the House and the Senate is needed. When the bill was voted out of each chamber, the Senate had a veto proof majority, gaining 67 votes. The House today fell short of the override by only 15 votes.

The bill, which Baucus helped broker between House and Senate leaders, would provide an additional $35 billion for CHIP over the next five years, covering and additional 3.3 million kids across the country, including 12,000 in Montana.

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