Statement by the Press Secretary: President Bush Looks Forward To Signing A Clean Extension of SCHIP Later This Week

The President strongly supports health care for children. His reauthorization proposal for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) expands funding by 20 percent yet maintains a focus on covering children in poor families.

Unfortunately, the House of Representatives today passed SCHIP legislation that pushes many children who now have private coverage into a government-run system, part of the Democrats' incremental plan toward government-run health care for all Americans. The bill also moves SCHIP away from its original intent of covering poor children by providing insurance to kids in some families making as much as $83,000 per year. As a result, the President will veto this legislation.

However, the President looks forward to signing a clean extension of SCHIP later this week. This extension will keep the program running while the President works with Congress on a responsible, bipartisan SCHIP bill he can sign on behalf of the poor children SCHIP was designed to help.