Now that congressional Democrats have a deal on children’s health insurance comes the hard part: turning it into law, despite a president who says he will veto the measure.

The compromise bill to renew and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) seems likely to pass the Senate by a veto-proof majority; an earlier Senate bill (HR 976), which served as the foundation for the compromise, passed 68-31 on Aug. 2. But the politics in the House are trickier, and the upshot is that Democratic leaders do not appear to have the votes to override a veto.

What distresses some supporters is that there does not appear to be any plan for what to do after that. Unless a law is passed in the next week, SCHIP will not have new federal funding after Sept. 30.

“It’s sort of like, ‘Don’t talk to us about that, we’re not there yet,’ ” said Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus, a child advocacy group. “I hope they get to a veto-proof majority, but it’s hard to see 290 votes.”

A veto override in the House requires 290 votes, if all 435 members are present and voting. It requires 67 votes in the Senate.

House and Senate leaders announced the deal Sept. 21, after more than a month of negotiations. It came together after House Democratic leaders made two major concessions: agreeing to an SCHIP expansion in line with what the Senate passed and dropping Medicare provisions in the House-passed bill (HR 3162).

The compromise bill would expand SCHIP by $35 billion over five years, to $60 billion. The expansion would be financed by increased tobacco taxes, including a 61-cent increase in the cigarette tax, to $1 per pack.

The White House reiterated Sept. 21 that Bush would veto the bill. “Once the Democrats finish their political posturing, the president looks forward to working with Congress to pass SCHIP reauthorization legislation he can sign,” Press Secretary Dana Perino said.

Democrats are not yet conceding that they cannot pass the bill into law over the president’s veto. Through both cajoling and outright pressure, House Democrats are attempting to garner more GOP support.

House Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., asked his in-state colleague, Republican Ray LaHood, to help round up GOP votes, a Democratic aide said. LaHood was the only House Republican quoted in a joint press release issued last week by authors of the bill.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, meanwhile, issued press releases Sept. 20 to media in the districts of more than 50 House Republicans, questioning whether the targeted lawmakers would “stand with . . . children, or with President Bush?” In one example, targeting Thelma Drake of Virginia, DCCC communications director Jennifer Crider said: “Rep. Drake is blindly supporting President Bush and tobacco companies at the expense of children’s health care. Virginia’s children deserve better.”

It appears likely that at least 23 Republicans will support the bill: five who voted for the earlier House bill and 17 who signed a letter last week asking Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to put the Senate SCHIP bill to a vote on the House floor. Heather A. Wilson, R-N.M., who organized that letter, said she would support the compromise bill. “I will vote for this bill when it comes to the House floor next week, and I will urge my colleagues to also vote for this bill,” she said.

But House Republican leaders say they are confident they will sustain a veto. They have an easier threshold to meet than Democrats; they need to round up 146 votes in opposition if every Democrat votes “yes,” and the latter is not a sure thing. That allows GOP leaders some freedom to let moderate Republicans and those in contested districts to vote however they please.

Convincing their members to vote against children’s health insurance isn’t all that big a hurdle, contended Antonia Ferrier, a spokeswoman for Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri.

“For most Republicans, we didn’t come to Washington to raise taxes and vastly expand government-run health care,” Ferrier said.

She emphasized that Republicans support insuring poor children but think the bill goes beyond that mission and would lure people out of private insurance into a government program.

Further, she noted that House Republicans were excluded from most negotiations on both the House bill and the compromise and weren’t allowed to offer amendments on the floor when the House bill passed. Presumably, they won’t be allowed to try to amend the compromise bill either.

Republicans could be helped by defections from across the aisle. Democratic leaders expect to lose votes from some tobacco-state colleagues who can’t stomach the tax increase. But other quarters of the party are offended as well.

The National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization, dropped its support for the SCHIP bill on Friday because the compromise would not allow legal immigrant children to enroll in the program.

“Basically, due to partisan politics, the provisions were removed from the final bill,” said Jennifer Ng’andu, a spokeswoman for the group. “We’re going to urge all lawmakers to vote against the bill.”

Democrats might find problems in the Congressional Black Caucus as well. Its members had supported a bill (HR 1688) by Rep. Robert C. Scott, D-Va., that would have turned SCHIP into an entitlement; they’re now faced with a far narrower measure.

“Obviously, there’s some concerns we have to address,” a House Democratic aide said.