Chris Dodd for President

Senator Chris Dodd today released the following statement regarding President Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, his seventh veto in seven years.

"Having spent my life bringing people together to improve the health and well-being of children and families, I find President Bush's veto of the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program shameful. It puts hundreds of thousands of children at risk of losing coverage that governors and leaders across the nation have worked hard to secure on a
bipartisan basis.

"The SCHIP program is virtually the only success story in health care for working families since universal health care failed in 1994, providing coverage to 6.6 million children. The bill passed overwhelmingly by the Senate and the House doesn't cover parents, it doesn't cover undocumented workers. What it does do is get kids covered - from kids in extreme poverty
to those in homes where parents work two jobs. What a sad state of affairs when the President of the United States cannot bring people together to provide health care to children from working families.

"I'll keep fighting to make sure SCHIP gets renewed - to bring people together on a bipartisan basis to solve big problems as I have throughout my career. But if ever there were a time for a President who could get results for change—results that make families stronger and more secure—this veto makes clear: it's today."

For more info on the SCHIP veto, read FireDogLake, Shakesville, and Brilliant at Breakfast.

Today, Senator Dodd called on the chair of the National Governors Association (NGA) and the governors of all fifty states to defy the Bush Administration's recent ruling restricting the number of children covered by the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). In a letter to Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), who chairs the association, Dodd called the Bush ruling "unconscionable," calling SCHIP "the only success story in health care for working families since the failure to pass universal health care in 1994."

"The idea that George Bush—someone who's never had to worry about health care himself—would take health insurance away from thousands of children shows how little he understands and sympathizes with what working families face every day. While he reportedly plans to call for up to $200 billion to continue a war that his top general can't even say is making the country safer, George Bush is rejecting the idea that we would spend less than one third of that amount for the health of America's children.

"That says all that needs to be said about this President's priorities."

Dodd is a senior member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) and the Chairman of its subcommittee on Children and Families. A longtime advocate for children's health care, introducing bills including the Better Pharmaceuticals for Children Act and the Pediatric Medical Devices Safety and Improvement Act, he is strong supporter of SCHIP reauthorization.

Text of the letter is included below the fold: