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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Contact: Brian Cook (202) 225-3202
STARK COMMENDS HOUSE FOR OVERWHELMING VOTE TO OVERRIDE MEDICARE BILL VETO
WASHINGTON – Following the overwhelming bipartisan vote of 383-41 to override President Bush’s veto of H.R. 6331, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pete Stark (D-CA) offered the following statement:
“Today’s veto shows a callous disregard for America’s retirees, people with disabilities, and for physicians and other key providers who serve Medicare patients. The President’s decision to gratuitously delay the inevitable spotlights on his steadfast commitment to privatize and dismantle Medicare.
“I thank my colleagues in the House, including all Democrats and more than three-quarters of Republicans present, for voting to override the president’s veto. This bill is not everything many of us wanted and that passed in the CHAMP Act a year ago. But we made bipartisan steps down the road, and we got bipartisan support in the Senate. A vast majority of the House and the Senate have come together, in a way that I have not seen in the past ten or twelve years, to work out a bipartisan agreement to proceed. I hope that is a harbinger of the future.”
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