Tuesday, October 16, 2007

In This Issue

• Congress Seeking to Override SCHIP Veto Thursday
• Appropriations Update
• PTA, NEA, NCWO Announce Unprecedented New Children's Television Initiative

Congress Seeking to Override SCHIP Veto Thursday

The House and Senate will hold votes this Thursday in an attempt to override President George W. Bush’s veto of legislation to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Bush vetoed the legislation on October 3, saying that the legislation would expand the program beyond its initial intent. 

“The policies of the government ought to be, help poor children and to focus on poor children. And the policies of the government ought to be, help people find private insurance, not federal coverage. And that's where the philosophical divide comes in,” Bush said in a speech to the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lancaster, PA. “I happen to believe that what you're seeing when you expand eligibility for federal programs is the desire by some in Washington, D.C. to federalize health care. I don't think that's good for the country.”

The legislation, approved by the Senate on September 27 and the House on September 25, would increase SCHIP’s annual funding from about $5 billion to $12 billion annually for the next five years. Created 10 years ago, SCHIP is a state-federal partnership intended to provide health coverage for children from low-income families not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. The bi-partisan legislation approved by Congress would expand SCHIP spending through a 61-cent per pack cigarette tax increase. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the $35 billion increase would allow 4 million children who would otherwise be uninsured to be covered by 2012, adding to the 6.6 million children currently enrolled in SCHIP.

Many, including President Bush, have argued that the bill Congress adopted would expand the program to cover some middle-class families, including some with annual incomes as high as $83,000, while failing to cover some deserving children. 

PTA issued a statement calling on Congress and the President to reauthorize the SCHIP program.

While our schools work hard to improve academic performance and reach the goal of proficiency of all students, we are ignoring a key factor in students’ ability to learn—their overall health. PTA supports legislation to assist states and localities to develop and fund comprehensive child health care programs and provide access to quality, affordable health care. SCHIP does just that.

The SCHIP debate should not be about money or partisan politics. This debate must be about priorities. PTA urges Congress and the Administration to resolve their differences and arrive at an agreement on the reauthorization of this critical program.

Appropriations Update

Returning from a weeklong recess, the Senate is scheduled to begin debate tomorrow on the annual Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill. As of press time, the Senate has only adopted 5 of its 12 annual spending bills. The House adopted its 12th and final fiscal year 2008 spending bill August 5. None of the bills that have passed both chambers have been sent to President George W. Bush for his signature.

Further complicating the appropriations process is President Bush’s threat to veto spending bills if discretionary programs exceed $933 billion, $3 billion above the amount Bush proposed in February in his annual budget request to Congress (see This Week in Washington for May 15, 2007, “Budget and Appropriations Update”). Congress plans to spend $23 billion, or 2.5 percent more than the $933 billion in discretionary spending the administration requested.

Many on Capitol Hill do not expect Congress to complete its work on appropriations until December, likely through one or more omni-bus bills. An omni-bus is legislation that incorporates multiple measures into one. It is not clear, however, which of the spending bills will be included in the omni-bus.

On September 30, Bush signed legislation extending funding for all government programs through November 16, 2007, at fiscal year 2007 levels. With the 2007 fiscal year set to expire at midnight, the stopgap spending bill, approved by the Congress earlier that week, was necessary to prevent a government shutdown.

PTA, NEA, NCWO Announce Unprecedented New Children's Television Initiative

This morning, leading nonprofit organizations representing millions of American parents, teachers, nurses and children announced the formation of the Smart Television Alliance (STA) to promote quality television content for children. STA is being created under the combined leadership of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest professional organization with 3.2 million members; National Parent Teacher Association (PTA), the nation’s largest volunteer child advocacy association with 5.5 million members; and the National Council of Women’s Organizations (NCWO), a coalition of more than 200 organizations representing over ten million women.

“In today’s media saturated world, parents and caregivers need quality information from reliable sources that they can use to make smart choices about what is appropriate for their families,” said Jan Harp Domene, PTA national president and STA co-chair. “By uniting a diverse group of nationally recognized nonprofit organizations with a shared commitment to improving what kids watch on TV, we will help parents make informed choices about what television programming their families watch. We want to make screen time healthy and educational, gathering the best information from a variety of trusted sources, including children’s media experts, educators and parents.”

STA will encourage families to use information from trusted sources to identify shows that inform and educate children and to utilize technology to control what is on television and when it is watched. NEA members also will contribute information, as well as offering specific tips from educators for parents to use television as a learning opportunity.

Children’s television programming recommendations will come from nonprofit experts including Parent’s Choice Foundation, Common Sense Media, Parent’s Television Council, member organizations, as well as from parents and caregivers by means of an interactive Web site and Smart News, STA’s twice monthly free newsletter.

For more information on STA and to receive Smart News, please visit: www.smarttelevisionalliance.org.

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