Hoyer Statement on Children's Health Care Vote

WASHINGTON, D.C – Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) released the following statementafter the U.S. House fell 13 votes shy of the two-thirds supermajority needed to override President Bush's veto of legislation providing health insurance to ten million children through the Children's Health Insurance Program:

"The legislation providing health insurance to ten million children through the Children's Health Insurance Program is supported by strong majorities in the House and Senate, the majority of the states' governors, health care groups, and 81 percent of Americans.

"However, rather than listening to the American people, the President cynically vetoed this bill, going back on his own campaign promise to extend coverage to millions of children under the program. He then engaged in a misinformation campaign to justify his opposition, even as many members of his own Party turned against him and vowed their support for the bill.

"Today's vote is only the first chapter in the campaign to ensure our nation's most vulnerable citizens have access to quality health care. Democrats and Republican supporters of this bill will not stop until the ten million low-income children we are trying to insure receive the health care they need and deserve."

Watch video of Congressman Hoyer's floor statement.

Find more information on the CHIP bill to ensure access to health care for ten million children.

###