Niki Tsongas: “today I will proudly vote to override the President's veto of a bill to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program…”

“today I will proudly vote to override the President's veto of a bill to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program, for the second time. This bill provides coverage to children whose families cannot afford private insurance and would expand access to health insurance to 10 million children nationally, 200,000 of whom live in Massachusetts. I was thinking of our children when I first voted to override the President's veto of this bill on October 18th, the same day I was sworn into office. Tens of thousands of people from my district and millions more across the country, both Republicans and Democrats, have made their support for this program abundantly clear. However, the Bush administration refuses to hear their message. This program is especially important to my State of Massachusetts, where the program was first developed, and remains critical to sustaining the universal Massachusetts Health Care Program. I stand with a strong bipartisan majority ready to give our children a chance at a healthy future, and I urge my colleagues to again override the President's veto.”