Despite a considerable lobbying campaign by supporters, House Republicans blocked an effort to override President Bush's veto of a five-year, $35 billion funding increase for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that would have provided an additional 4 million uninsured children with health insurance. The final vote was 273-156, which fell 15 votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority. Only two Democrats voted to sustain the veto; the rest were Republicans.

Public debate over government contracting has centered largely on issues of accountability. But recent scholarship on the efficiency of using contractors to deliver government services shows that a broader discussion is warranted. The assumptions about the relative efficiency of government contracts are on shaky ground, and cost measurements show no clear advantage to private contractors. Holes in the Theory

With a federal moratorium on state and local Internet access taxes set to expire on Nov. 1, Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chair Daniel Inouye (D-HI) withdrew a bill on Sept. 27 that would extend the tax moratorium rather than face the likelihood members would approve a Republican-backed permanent moratorium. Inouye said a compromise among those seeking an extension of the moratorium and those proposing a permanent ban had not yet been worked out. There has been no formal action in the House to date, other than a full Small Business Committee hearing on Oct.