The moderate Wilson sticks her neck out once again

By Whitney Cheshire

The debate over children’s health insurance shows us that Heather Wilson is still very much Heather Wilson.

Late Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would greatly improve access to health insurance for our country’s poorest kids. It was the latest vote on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), and it went down as most people expected – sort of.

The SCHIP debate

The program to provide health insurance for low-income kids was instituted nationally in 1996 by Republicans. At the time, Wilson, who is now the GOP representative from Albuquerque, was cabinet secretary for the state’s Children, Youth, and Families Department. She helped implement the new program – called Newmexikids – from the ground up.

The federal funding went a long way in providing health care for low-income children who previously had gone without, and Wilson has stood in support of the program ever since.

In July, according to some, House Democrats tried to use SCHIP as a launching pad for a bigger, more nationalized health-care system. Wilson opposed the Democrats’ attempt to raid the Medicare Advantage program for funding, saying 57,000 seniors in New Mexico were in danger of losing their health plans because of it.

At the same time, the Senate passed its own SCHIP bill, which, among other things, refused expanding coverage (in the federal program) and protected coverage for seniors.

Last Friday, Senate and House negotiators took the Senate bill and added in mental health and dental provisions. The result was a bi-partisan bill drafted in part by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and strongly supported by U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.

The compromise SCHIP bill is what passed the House Tuesday. It now heads back to the Senate before being sent to the president.

Here’s what makes this interesting: President Bush has said he’ll veto the legislation. He doesn’t like the bill. Wilson likes it so much that she’s not only voted for it, she’s been a critical part of the debate and an instrumental force in gaining moderate Republican support for it.

Wilson has written letters to her colleagues, lobbied them one-on-one and spoken out publicly in favor of the legislation. She’s publicly called on Bush to support the bill, showing one more time that she’s not afraid to turn up the political fires on the president when she believes she’s right.

As I said above, the debate shows us that Heather is still very much… Heather.

The result of her work?

Wilson was introduced to speak on the bill by the tough-nosed Democratic chairman of the House Energy Committee, U.S. Rep. John Dingell of Michigan. While having someone from the opposing party introduce a speaker isn’t unprecedented, it is certainly significant.

Wilson spoke on the Democrats’ clock, another unusual circumstance for the rancorous Hill. She urged her Republican colleagues to support the bill, and her efforts resulted in the only real surprise of the day – 44 Republicans joined her in voting for the bill, a number far larger than anyone would have guessed earlier in the week.

The SCHIP vote was undoubtedly a political victory for the New Mexico Republican who has fought for better health care for low-income children for a decade.

But will Republicans praise her victory?

Anytime legislators break with their president on policy, they put themselves in a sticky spot. It’s even worse when that legislator goes beyond the vote and actively lobbies and makes gains on a bill opposed by the White House.

Bush and conservative Republicans like U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., are opposed to the SCHIP bill in part because it will raise the tobacco tax and can be seen as another step up the slippery-slope of nationalized health care. But Wilson is on the record for liking the bill because it allows for state flexibility in implementing the federal program. She also says she doesn’t mind the tobacco tax. Like many others, Wilson believes raising the tax might reduce the number of people who smoke and could have the added benefit of lowering health-care costs across the board.

So be it.

Agree or disagree, nobody can argue the fact that Heather Wilson has once again stuck out her neck on an issue in which she believes and is once again standing in direct opposition to President Bush.

I have to admit that I cringed a bit when she made the fight over SCHIP so public, supporting a bill that the president clearly said he would veto. But then I took a deep breath and remembered things like wiretapping, policy differences in Iraq, stem cell research and the atrocities in Abu Ghraib prison.

And I reminded myself that this Republican president, by now, must be used to the moderate congresswoman from New Mexico. Honestly, he probably expected her point of view and opposition long before the debate erupted in the national press.

But I wonder whether the president expected Wilson to be this effective in pulling votes on the SCHIP bill. And for that, without wiretapping of my own, I’ll probably never get an answer.

Cheshire, AKA the Wednesday Morning Quarterback, is a media relations and campaign consultant in Albuquerque. Her column runs every Wednesday. You can learn more about her by clicking here. Contact her at wednesdaymorningqb@comcast.net.