President Barack Obama claimed the second major legislative victory of his young administration Wednesday, signing a bill to provide federally-funded healthcare to an estimated 4 million children, CNN reported.
The final version of the new law, which expands the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by roughly $35 billion over the next five years, passed a sharply polarized House of Representatives earlier in the day, with almost every Democrat voting in favor of the expansion and most Republicans opposing it.
Today "we fulfill one of the highest responsibilities that we have - to ensure the health and well-being of our nation's children," Obama said at a White House ceremony.