House Passes Emergency Supplemental With Funding for Kids’ Health Care

Action in Senate is Needed to Avert Funding Crisis for SCHIP in 14 States

Alexandria, VA –The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the emergency supplemental appropriations bill and provided a lifeline to children whose health coverage is threatened by budget shortfalls affecting the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

“Millions of children in America’s working families depend upon the State Children’s Health Insurance Program for basic, cost-effective care, and today’s vote helps protect this vital program,” said First Focus president Bruce Lesley.

First Focus organized a sign on letter issued this week by faith leaders, public health champions, and youth-serving advocates urging congressional leadership to include SCHIP funding in the supplemental appropriations bill. Organizations signing the letter included the National Association of Community Health Centers, the National Council of La Raza, the faith-based PICO National Network, the United Way of America, and the YMCA of the USA.

This stopgap funding is needed to maintain the federal commitment to 14 states (Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin) whose SCHIP programs face a combined shortfall of $745 million. Without congressional action, that shortfall will force some of these states to curtail coverage or divert scarce state resources from other critical priorities. The House included $745 million in the supplemental appropriations bill to cover the shortfall. The bill now heads to the U.S. Senate.

With the SCHIP program set to expire later this year, First Focus also is working with congressional members on both sides of the aisle to include an adequate five-year allocation for SCHIP reauthorization in the 2008 congressional budget resolution. First Focus organized a letter to House Budget Committee leadership that drew 76 signatures from an influential group of congressional moderates: the Blue Dog Democrats and the Republican Main Street Partnership. Last week, the Senate Budget Committee drafted a budget resolution that provides $50 billion in additional funding for SCHIP over 5 years. The House Budget Committee is expected to complete its deliberations this week. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has indicated that additional funding for SCHIP will be a priority in the House budget.

A First Focus-funded analysis released last week by the Urban Institute showed that the share of federal domestic spending on children has decreased significantly since 1960. That research, which was also funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is available online athttp://www.firstfocus.net.

“By averting the funding crisis for kids’ health care this year and providing adequate money for the next five years, Congress can help strengthen our investments in children,” said Lesley.