Liberal members warn Dem leaders on SCHIP

Some liberal House Democrats are warning leadership officials that they are going too far in seeking to strike a deal with Republicans on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

Leading black, Hispanic, Asian and progressive lawmakers sent a letter on Tuesday to Democratic leaders objecting to making further compromises that they say would make proof-of-citizenship requirements more stringent and cut funds to minority outreach programs.

{mosads}“We are deeply concerned by the continued compromises that we may be asked to make on behalf of our communities; such compromises cause us to question our support for the overall package,” the eight liberal Democrats wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.).

The Democratic lawmakers who signed the letter include Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Carolyn Kilpatrick (Mich.), Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Joe Baca (Calif.) and Asian Pacific American Caucus Chairman Mike Honda (Calif.). The three chairmen, however, were not representing thier caucuses in the letter. The other five Democratic lawmakers were Reps. Barbara Lee (Calif.), Hilda Solis (Calif.), Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) and Dels. Donna Christensen (Virgin Islands) and Madeleine Bordallo (Guam).

Democratic whips huddled on Thursday to discuss how a compromise bill would affect the support of the various factions within the Democratic Caucus.

Some Democrats argued that even if they make changes to mollify a half-dozen Republicans, Democrats could lose support from 15 of their members.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) expressed his skepticism about further negotiations with House Republicans at the whip meeting, according to a Democratic official in the room.

One school of thought in Democratic circles is to stop negotiating and pass a bill that would extend the program until October 2008. That would force Republicans opposed to the program to vote for or against another SCHIP measure one month before the election.

Negotiations to find common ground to pass a third, veto-proof version of an SCHIP bill limped along this week as negotiators reconvened on Thursday afternoon. They met until 1 a.m. Thursday morning without reaching an agreement.

“They’re doing a good job of framing the issues,” Rep. Joe Barton (Texas), the senior Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said. “They talk an issue to death [and then come back to it] and assume agreement.

“That’s one way to negotiate,” he added jokingly. But he did say Democrats were listening.

It appears that a deal could elude the negotiators because there are several parties with different goals taking part in the negotiations. Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) are trying to find agreement with a group of House Republicans who have been involved in discussions to reach a compromise since President Bush vetoed an SCHIP bill last month.

(The House and Senate passed a revised version of that bill, but it did not attain a veto-proof majority in the House.)

Some GOP lawmakers and aides are upset that Bush has vowed to veto any bill if it is financed by a tobacco tax. The GOP alternative to the House Democratic bill called for an increase to the tobacco tax.

Barton said that even if the group could reach an agreement on the few remaining policy issues in dispute, he wants to renegotiate how the bill is paid for.

“This is an amorphous process,” Barton said. “Everything is still up in the air.”

Centrist Republicans, including Rep. Judy Biggert (Ill.), are not renegotiating how the measure is funded.

Republicans have requested the following changes, according to a Democratic document obtained by The Hill:

Starting on Oct. 1, 2009, a state must prove that it has enrolled 90 percent of children from families earning less than 200 percent of the poverty level before enrolling children in families earning above 200 percent of the poverty level.

Republicans are demanding a “hard income cap on SCHIP so that states would not be able to use income disregards to game the system.”

The program will be limited to children under the age of 19 and pregnant women.

No illegal aliens: Retain the citizenship provisions of the Deficit Reduction Act and apply those standards to the 16 states that have separate SCHIP programs.

Retain Health Opportunity Accounts, which President Bush proposed in his 2007 State of the Union address.

Negotiations broke up Thursday evening and it was unclear whether the lawmakers would reconvene.