October 19, 2007 – Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02) yesterday voted to sustain the President’s veto on the Democratic State Children’s Health Insurance bill, which would expand the current SCHIP program by $35 billion and include provisions allowing childless adults, illegal immigrants, and the more than 2 million children who already receiving coverage through private sector health care to receive SCHIP coverage.  The final tally was 273-156, or 13 votes short of the 2/3 majority needed to override the veto.

“Despite the divisive rhetoric surrounding this issue, voting to sustain the President’s veto reflected my commitment to protecting the truly innocent and needy while preventing drastic expansion of taxes and bureaucratic government programs.”  Congressman Franks continued, “The Democrats’ SCHIP bill is being significantly expanded and exploited for purposes the program was never intended to fill, and sadly, children are being used for political posturing in a way that disgraces our roles as public servants.

“To say that this bill is a giant stride toward ‘HillaryCare,’ or socialized health care, would be an understatement; and yet I believe the true abandonment of our duty to protect the innocent children of our society remains the deepest travesty of this entire debate.   The party who abandons pregnant mothers by fighting for an abortion-on-demand policy that causes thousands of innocent children in America to be slaughtered in their mothers’ wombs each day is the same party that is blatantly using children for political expediency in this SCHIP debate. It is both a paradox and tragedy that beggars my vocabulary.

“I hope my colleagues will consider the ramifications this bill will have upon our society, our families, and the futures of our children, and rise to the call of truly advocating for the poor, the defenseless, and the innocent children in our society by supporting a bill faithful to the original intent of the SCHIP program.”

The original State Children’s Health Insurance Program was crafted by the then-Republican-led Congress in 1997 specifically for the purpose of providing health care to low-income children.