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WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to President Bush’s second veto of legislation to reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) yesterday, Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) President Marian Wright Edelman made the following statement:

“While this bill would only have provided health coverage to one-third of the more than nine million uninsured children in America, it was a good bipartisan first step toward covering all of our nation’s children.  President Bush has yet again jeopardized the well being of millions of children, particularly children of color, with this shameless and senseless veto. President Bush appears ignorant of what nearly every American citizen understands: in the richest nation on earth, no child should be allowed to go without the basic human right of health coverage.

“Congress must take immediate action to pass a long-term continuing resolution that would provide states with the $1.6 billion in federal funding needed to maintain current enrollment and eligibility levels in SCHIP and prohibit implementation of a rule issued by this Administration in August 2007 that would be extremely harmful to vulnerable children.  The need for this urgent stopgap measure is further evidence that we need a real solution before even more children become uninsured and are left behind: all children in America should have access to health coverage that is affordable, seamless, and comprehensive.”

For more information on CDF’s Healthy Child Campaign to provide health coverage to every child in America, visit www.childrensdefense.org/healthychild

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The Children’s Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind^® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.