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Campaign Update
Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Inside This Issue:

  1. President Bush Turns His Back on Children's Health; Californians for Healthy Kids Dismayed by Shameful Veto
  2. Take Action: There is Still an Opportunity for Congress to Override the Veto
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President Bush Turns His Back on Children's Health; Californians for Healthy Kids Dismayed by Shameful Veto

Today, President Bush vetoed the bipartisan State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization bill, denying health insurance to millions of children.

SCHIP has always enjoyed bipartisan support, and this year both parties worked very hard to put politics aside to forge a compromise. SCHIP currently provides health insurance to more than 6 million children—830,000 of whom live in California. The bill would provide $35 billion in additional SCHIP funding over the next five years, and the cost would be fully offset by a 61-cent tobacco tax.

Under the President's plan, 200,000 to 400,000 currently insured California children would lose coverage by September 2008. The President is out of step with Americans of all political parties, and now millions of children may go without the health care they need to grow up healthy and strong.

Read the press statement Californians for Healthy Kids sent today.
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Take Action: There is Still an Opportunity for Congress to Override the Veto

The House of Representatives is expected to vote on whether to override the President's veto as early as the end of this week. Based on the House vote tally on the SCHIP compromise bill, 25 Representatives need to change their votes in order to override a veto. Your advocacy efforts are paying off: Two House members—Representatives Bobby Jindal (R-Louisiana) and Dan Boren (D-Oklahoma), who did not supportthe legislationlast week have announced that they will changetheirpositions and vote to override the President's threatened veto. Let's add our California Representatives to that list!

Click here to find out how your Representative voted on the bill, and click here to find your Representative.

  • If they voted FOR children's health, call them and thank them—and ask them to vote to overturn the veto.
  • If they voted AGAINST children's health, tell them, as their constituent, how disappointed you are that they have risked the health of hundreds of thousands of California children, and urge them to "stand up for children not the President" and vote to override the veto.

For more information, please contact Krystal Moreno Lee at klee@childrennow.org or 916-443-1680.
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The 100% Campaign, a collaborative effort of The Children's Partnership, Children Now and Children's Defense Fund, was created to ensure that all of California's children obtain the health insurance they need to grow up strong and healthy.
www.100percentcampaign.org

The PICO California Project is the united effort of 20 California congregation-community organizations affiliated with the PICO National Network. Collectively, we represent 350 congregations and 400,000 families statewide and are actively organizing in over 70 cities in Northern and Southern California.
www.picocalifornia.org