WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House of Representatives failed yesterday to override President Bush's veto of H.R. 976, the bill passed by Congress to reauthorize and expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). The legislation would have authorized an increase in federal tobacco taxesincluding a 61-cents-per-pack cigarette tax hike to $1 per pack from the current 39 cents, as well as other tobacco tax increasesto pay for the expansion.
Most respondents to a Kraft/CSP Daily News poll earlier this week correctly predicted the outcome of the [image-nocss] override attempt. The poll asked, Will Congress succeedin overriding President Bush's veto of its legislation to expand [S-CHIP] by $35 billion through raising tobacco taxes? More than 78% of 208 respondents said no. About 22% said yes.
The House vote was 273 in favor of overriding the veto and 156 against overriding the veto, according to the National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO). This result fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto. Of the 273 representatives voting in favor of the override, 229 were Democrats and 44 were Republicans. The 156 representatives that voted to sustain the veto included 154 Republicans and 2 Democrats.
Click the Download Now button below to view NATO's roll call for the vote.
Even before [Thursday's] vote on the president's veto of the SCHIP bill, Congress passed and the president signed legislation to continue government operations, NATO executive director Tom Briant said in the group's latest E-News Bulletin. This 'continuing resolution' included a short extension of the SCHIP bill at its current funding levels with no tax increases until mid-November. Congress will likely consider a revised version of the SCHIP bill soon in order to keep the program running after the temporary extension expires.
Any compromise bill, however, could still contain an increase in federal tobacco taxes.
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