Minority caucuses to press for two SCHIP provisions
By Mike Soraghan
Posted: 08/12/08 06:50 PM [ET]

If the House brings up children’s healthcare in September, Hispanic, black and Asian members will press Speaker Nancy Pelosi to restore two controversial pro-immigrant measures.

The provisions, ending a five-year waiting period for benefits for legal immigrants and canceling a requirement that participants show proof of citizenship, were dropped last year by Democratic leaders seeking to pick up Republican votes for a veto override. Republicans criticized both measures as overly pro-immigrant.

But before they left for the August break, representatives of the three caucuses, who together call themselves the Tri-Caucus, sent Pelosi (D-Calif.) a letter urging her to include them in any State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill.

“We understand the House may consider a children’s health insurance bill prior to the end of the 110th Congress,â€