For Immediate Release
July 24, 2007
For More Information Contact:
Ed Shelleby
(202) 662-3602
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman issued the following statement in response to President Bush’s threats to veto the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP):
“The health of children should not be held hostage to Washington politics. With his threat to veto the reauthorization of the popular, bipartisan SCHIP program, President Bush has shown once again that he is out of touch with what the American people want and need.
“While Congress is taking steps this year to expand and improve health coverage for some of the nine million uninsured children in America, the President’s proposal would actually be a step backward, leaving even more children behind and at risk of living sicker and dying sooner.
“Congress made a bipartisan commitment to provide $50 billion to expand and improve SCHIP. Members of Congress must not play politics with children’s lives they must pass a strong SCHIP reauthorization in the face of this veto threat and force the President to do what is right for children.”
For more information on CDF’s campaign to provide health coverage to all children, please visit, www.childrensdefense.org/healthychild.
For more information about the Children’s Defense Fund, visit www.childrensdefense.org.