Reid looks to buy time on SCHIP

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday he would be willing to delay consideration of a children’s health insurance bill in a bid to give supporters more time to woo wayward Republicans in order to obtain a veto-proof majority in the House.

{mosads}The push to delay action, perhaps until next week, came after closed-door meetings between House Republican leaders and key Senate supporters of legislation that would expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). At press time, Reid and GOP leaders were still working out the details of a deal that would delay the vote.

GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Orrin Hatch (Utah), two architects of the SCHIP bill approved by the Senate, launched the behind-the-scenes effort to win over House Republicans. On Tuesday, they held meetings on the Senate side of the Capitol with House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) also attended.

“I think we got a good process started, and that’s probably the best way to describe this,” Blunt said after the meeting between Senate SCHIP supporters and House GOP leaders.

After the group agreed that more time was needed to negotiate a deal, Reid reluctantly decided to change the chamber’s schedule to take up the SCHIP bill after floor debate on a broad overhaul of the nation’s farm policies. That could delay a vote on SCHIP for some time, as the farm bill is expected to take up more than a week of the Senate’s time.

“This isn’t an idea I came up with — Republicans came up to me and said they needed more time,” Reid said. “I don’t know how we can be more reasonable.”

A vote to proceed to the SCHIP bill had been expected as soon as Tuesday. Reid warned that floor time was tight and that an agreement had to be reached after the farm bill debate because the chamber was trying to clear up time to take up bicameral appropriations bills to send to Bush’s desk.

Separately, House Democratic leaders also met with GOP lawmakers to try to win more votes on a final SCHIP bill.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) on Monday met with GOP Reps. Judy Biggert (Ill.), Jeff Fortenberry (Neb.), Ginny Brown-Waite (Fla.) and Joe Knollenberg (Mich.). Those meetings were expected to continue this week.

Supporters of the measure in the House fell 13 votes short of overriding Bush’s veto earlier this month. House Democrats since then have drafted and pushed through the House a new bill with some minor revisions. That bill was approved, but with support well short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

Amid last week’s vote, House Republicans criticized House Democrats for playing politics and not working with them on a possible SCHIP compromise. President Bush has criticized House Democrats for their tactics, and on Monday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched ads in several GOP districts attacking members for their votes against the expanded SCHIP bill.

Meanwhile, House Democrats cited a letter sent to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) from Peter Orszag, the Congressional Budget Office director, aimed at bolstering their arguments that illegal aliens won’t benefit from the new SCHIP bill.

Orszag’s letter stated that almost all of those rejected for enrollment in Medicaid are American citizens who lack proper documentation. He also told The Hill that neither SCHIP nor Medicaid has a problem with undocumented workers enrolling in the programs.

 Republicans have argued that they are opposed to the current bill — even though they support the overall program — because of its weak provisions that would let undocumented workers enroll in SCHIP.

The revised SCHIP bill, however, would make it easier for individuals to enroll in Medicaid. Since July 1, 2006, under the GOP-passed Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, Medicaid applicants currently have to provide a passport, birth certificate or driver’s license as proof of identification and citizenship.

Not only did enrollment in Medicaid fall, but almost all of those who were denied approval were American citizens.

“Even before the Deficit Reduction Act, we did not believe there was any significant problem with unauthorized immigrants in either program,” Orszag said.

In the legislation, states have a choice. They can abide by the requirements spelled out in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 or ask the Social Security Administration (SSA) to verify an individual’s name and Social Security number.

Orszag wrote that enrollment in Medicaid would jump if states use the Social Security numbers to verify citizenship. An additional 500,000 individuals would enroll in Medicaid in fiscal 2008 and 200,000 new enrollees would be added in subsequent years.