House Conservatives Sink SCHIP 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. AMT: Prospects for Reform and the PAYGO Challenge In the coming weeks, Congress will come to grips with what is arguably the most important tax issue of the year, the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). In the very near future, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) will propose a "patch" to avoid a steep increase in the number of taxpayers liable under the AMT, as well as what he calls "the mother of all tax bills" — his long-awaited measure to repeal the AMT. In the Senate, the picture is more muddled amid rancorous debates in the Finance Committee, where AMT legislation presents the biggest challenge yet to the pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) principles adopted by Congress early this year. Labor-HHS Appropriations to Test Bush Veto Threats Congress is nearly ready to send President Bush the first appropriations bill of the FY 2008 budget cycle — almost one full month overdue. The Senate is scheduled to vote today, Oct. 23, on the $150 billion Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. Once that version is conferenced with the House version (which passed in July 276-140), it will be sent to the president, where it may face a veto.