Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the latest vote was “a step forward” toward the goal of insuring millions of children from low-income families.
Senate Democrats said they expected to take up the new bill and pass it next week. The House majority leader, Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, said it was at least conceivable that the bill could be amended in the Senate, to meet some Republican concerns.
If some version of the new bill is approved by Congress and vetoed by Bush and if the House again sustains his veto, Democrats said they might extend the existing children’s insurance program through next summer. They could then schedule a vote on the issue in September or October, in hopes of inflicting maximum political damage on Republicans just before the 2008 elections.
The bill passed on Thursday by the House, like the one vetoed by Bush, would add $35 billion to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, providing a total of $60 billion over the next five years.
Supporters of the new bill said it addressed all the major concerns that prompted Republicans to oppose the earlier version. The measure, they said, would end coverage of childless adults, ban coverage of illegal immigrants and generally prohibit states from covering children in families with incomes above three times the poverty level — $61,950 for a family of four.
Ms. Pelosi said the restrictions on adults, illegal immigrants and high-income families were clear in the first bill and “are even clearer in the second bill.”
But President Bush said his concerns had not been addressed “in a meaningful way.” He derided the new bill as “more of the same,” and many Republican lawmakers said the changes were insignificant.