October 9, 2007

California State PTA Action on SCHIP

Congress approved bipartisan legislation that would increase federal contributions for the State Children's Health Insurance Program spending by $35 billion over five years, paid for by a 61-cent cigarette tax increase. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the $35 billion increase would allow 4 million children who would otherwise be uninsured to be covered by 2012. The current program enrolls nearly 6.6 million children nationwide from low-income families not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. In California alone approximately 800,000 children need medical insurance.

Following the President's veto of the bipartisan legislation on October 3, the California State PTA has undertaken the following:

• Issued a PRESS RELEASE on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 expressing disappointment in the President's veto.
• Issued a LEGISLATIVE ALERT and call for action on Friday, October 5, 2007. PTA members throughout California have been contacting Senators Boxer and Feinstein and their local Congressman by phone, fax, letter and email.
• Mailed and faxed 40 letters under California State PTA President Pam Brady's signature to the California Congressional delegation members thanking them for their support of the bipartisan legislation with a request that they support the action to override the veto.
• Mailed and faxed 15 letters under President Pam Brady's signature to the California Congressional delegation members that did not support the bipartisan legislation with a strong request that they support the action to override the veto.
• Developed a Letter to the Editor submittal under PTA Leader signatures to newspapers throughout the State.

The House of Representatives will consider the action to override the veto on October 18, 2007.

Many of the materials in this Web site are available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. The Acrobat reader is a free download from Adobe Software.