WASHINGTON — Having failed to add a single Republican vote in their latest bid for a veto-proof margin on a children's health bill, House Democrats are trying a new tack: talking directly with the lawmakers whose support they need.
Democratic leaders are scheduled to meet Monday with a handful of Republicans seen as crucial to deciding whether more changes to the bill will give backers a two-thirds veto-proof majority.
Until now, House Democrats have largely avoided direct talks with these Republicans, who oppose the Democratic-drafted bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program but suggest they might be open to compromise. Instead, Democrats dealt this week with the few dozen Republicans who broke with President Bush from the start, counting on them to convert at least a dozen GOP colleagues.
The strategy dissolved intoacrimony Thursday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insisted on voting on the proposed expansion despite Republicans' pleas for more time to build support.
"Bridge Burners" was Friday's headline on a statement by the House Republican Conference. Pelosi's leadership team, it said, offers "no bipartisanship, no direction, no results."
Bush said from the White House: "After I vetoed their last SCHIP bill, I designated members of my administration to work with Congress to find common ground. Congressional leaders never met with them. Instead, the House again passed a bill that they knew would not become law."
White House spokesman Dana Perino went further, saying key Democrats are happy tokeep falling short so they can run campaign ads against Bush's allies.
"They want the issue," Perino said. "They don't want a solution."
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel - their party's second- and thirdranking House leaders - have agreed to meet Monday with several Republicans from a group of 38 considered central to the outcome. Lawmakers said Rep. Judy Biggert of Illinois would head the GOP group. Her office did not respond to several requests for comment Friday.
The 38 Republicans wrote a letter Oct. 18 to Bush outlining their priorities for renewing the children's health program. House Democrats used the letter as a guideline for changing the first bill, which Bush vetoed. The House fell 13 votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority when it tried to override that veto last week.
While often citing the 38 Republicans' concerns in revising the bill, top House Democrats did not meet with them until shortly before Thursday's vote. By then, many of the Republicans accused Democrats of paying them only lip service and making cosmetic, politically motivated changes to the bill. Some described the meeting, hosted by Hoyer, as loud and contentious.
Later that day, none of the 38 Republicans voted for the revised bill, and supporters again fell short of a two-thirds majority.
On Monday, Hoyer and Emanuel hope for a quieter, more productive meeting, lawmakers and aides said Friday. If the group can agree to a list of changes that might attract at least a dozen more Republicans, they said, members will ask the Senate to incorporate them as amendments when it votes on the health insurance measure next week.
"Not only did they not get more Republicans" in Thursday's vote on the revised bill, but "they alienated a lot of us who supported it before," said Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M.
Both versions of the bill would have added $35 billion over five years to the health program, which is designed to help working-class families obtain medical insurance. Addressing concerns raised in the Republican letter, backers revised the bill to reduce or eliminate participation by adults, illegal aliens and families earning more than$62,000 or so.
But Bush and House GOP leaders said the changes were riddled with problems.
"Incredibly enough," Bush said, "the Senate will take up the same bill next week, which wastes valuable time."
Front Section, Pages 3 on 10/27/2007