Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, says he was "shocked" to learn this morning that President Bush is saying he will veto the bill to fund the program that provides insurance to low-income kids.
Harkin says Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and others had worked to create a compromise on the bill. Harkin says he was going to hold his nose and vote for the bill as it only includes $35 billion and he wanted $50 billion in the bill.
Harkin says at the least the $ 35 billion would get them through, "and now the administration has come out and says they’re going to veto that… Boy, that’s pretty amazing, that’s all I can say."
The program is called the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or "S-Chip."
Harkin says it appeared the compromise would have support from everyone. "I thought that we had overwhelming support for fixing the S-chip bill….if we don’t get this done, this is going to be pretty bad for Iowa, because the thing runs out at the end of September," Harkin says.
Harkin says he had a good meeting with the president Wednesday evening to talk about the Farm Bill, but the S-Chip bill did not come up.