Despite a considerable lobbying campaign by supporters, House Republicans blocked an effort to override President Bush's veto of a five-year, $35 billion funding increase for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that would have provided an additional 4 million uninsured children with health insurance. The final vote was 273-156, which fell 15 votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority. Only two Democrats voted to sustain the veto; the rest were Republicans. In the two weeks leading up to the override vote, advocacy groups, health care providers, labor unions, and many other organizations launched an extensive grassroots lobbying campaign to pressure members of the House to vote to pass the bill. Americans United for Change, MoveOn.org, Service Employees International Union, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, and Families USA sponsored a multi-million dollar paid-media campaign involving television, radio and print ads across the country. Other organizations, including members of the Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities held hundreds of grassroots rallies across the country, and tens of thousands of citizens phoned or e-mailed their congressional representatives in support of the SCHIP bill. Although the veto was sustained, there was improvement from the last time the bill was voted on earlier in October in the House. The previous vote on the same bill received a 265-159 vote. Had a two-thirds majority been achieved, the Senate would also likely have voted to override the veto, as it had previously approved the bill by the required two-thirds majority (69-30). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the House is preparing a new version of the SCHIP reauthorization. She said the new bill will provide insurance for the same number of children (10 million) as the last version but will contain different eligibility restrictions to address concerns raised by House Republicans. Opponents of the bill primarily argued that it offered insurance to families with incomes that were too high. SCHIP is a health insurance program for children in families who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough money to afford private health insurance. The SCHIP bill the president vetoed would have provided insurance for mostly low-income children. According to the Urban Institute, about 70 percent of the families whose children would have received coverage had an annual income of approximately $40,000 or less. The vetoed bill was a reauthorization of the SCHIP program, which expired on Sept. 30. The program's authorization was temporarily extended through Nov. 16 in the continuing resolution passed by Congress shortly before the fiscal year began on Oct. 1. According to CongressDaily, House leaders have said another continuing resolution may be necessary to keep the program going until Congress and the president can agree to a compromise five-year reauthorization. A temporary reauthorization will force Congress and the president to address SCHIP funding at least once more this session. Your Voice is Still Needed! Visit the OMB Watch Action Center to contact your representative to tell them to support the reauthorization of SCHIP!