If it were up to the Kansas House delegation, President Bush’s veto of expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program would have been overridden.

It takes a two-thirds majority to overturn a veto. The Kansas delegation voted 3-1 to override.

U.S. Reps. Nancy Boyda, D-Topeka, Dennis Moore, D-Lenexa, and Jerry Moran, R-Hays, voted to override. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, voted to support Bush’s veto.

Boyda, whose district includes west Lawrence, said support of Bush’s veto was “morally bankrupt.”

“As Congress moves forward, I hope we can get past the partisan shouting match that doomed today’s vote,” Boyda said Thursday. “Nobody in Kansas really cares whether Republicans or Democrats score more political points. They just care whether their kids can see a doctor.”

But Tiahrt said he voted against the SCHIP expansion because the bill extended coverage to adults “without covering all of our low-income children.”

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who had wanted Congress to override the veto, said that after speaking last week with top health officials in the Bush administration, there seemed to be no discussion on what to do after the veto override attempt.

“We have no information from the administration on what their negotiating points are,” Sebelius said.

In Kansas, SCHIP is known as HealthWave and provides low-cost coverage to about 35,000 children.

As far as funding to keep HealthWave going, Sebelius said Kansas has enough funds to maintain the program for four months. She said some other states, which extend SCHIP to more people, face tougher funding problems.