S-CHIP

It appears as though Congress will reach a bicameral, bipartisan agreement on a final new S-CHIP bill. Earlier today the Senate passed a revised S-CHIP bill with the vote of 64 senators. Dodd, Clinton, Obama, and Wyden were all absent from that vote, so there were 68 votes for this version of the S-CHIP in the Senate. This is enough to override a Presidential veto.

However, the Senate is not going to send this version of the bill to conference with the House. There isn't any point because Bush will veto it and the bill does not represent anything like a compromise in the eyes of House Republicans. Interestingly, on a side note, in reiterating his threat to veto the bill, Bush today raised an objection to the idea of paying for an S-CHIP expansion with an increase in the tobacco tax. Democrats responded immediately by saying, "But that was how we were planning on paying for it along—why raise objection to it only now?" Reid described the sudden objection as a "blindside." To me, it signaled that Bush was signaling that he would find a reason, any reason, to veto S-CHIP unless Congress came much, much closer to his proposal.

Instead of sending their latest version of S-CHIP to the President, Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) is confident that lead Senate proponents of the bill are going to agree a final, third version of the bill. This version would withstand a Presidential veto by garnering 2/3 of House voters. It is unclear whether Bush would veto a bill that he knew would go on only to win the support of 2/3 of the House, this overriding his veto, something that he has not yet experienced as President.

Credit the agreement (or, if you like, castigate) leading Republican senate proponents of the bill such as Orrin Hatch (UT) and Chuck Grassley (IA). Grassley in particular has irritated the White House and House minority leaders by ignoring "chain of command" to negotiate details of a compromise bill with Republican representatives open to discussions.

Reid said that only "small changes" would need to be made to the second version of the bill. This agreement could be announced Friday but mid-to-late next week is more likely.

In the meantime, it's time for the Farm Bill.