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WASHINGTON — Rep. Heather Wilson is organizing a show of moderate GOP support for a bill to raise federal cigarette taxes to $1 a pack to finance increased subsidies for children's health insurance, despite a threat by President Bush to veto the bill.

The State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, allows 19,000 New Mexico children to get health coverage through New MexiKids, and federal funding is key to the state's plan to expand coverage for the uninsured.

Nationwide, SCHIP covers 6 million children. Majorities in Congress want to add between 3 million and 4 million children to the rolls.

Wilson, an Albuquerque Republican, voted against the House version of the SCHIP bill on Aug. 1. She said at the time that she opposed the House bill only because it also cut payment rates for the private insurance companies that operate Medicare HMO-type plans.

This week, Wilson and 16 other Republican House members sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, asking her to allow a vote on the Senate version of the bill, which did not change the Medicare payments.

"The health of the nation's children is too important to delay," said the letter.

House and Senate negotiators have reportedly agreed to drop the Medicare cuts. But they would keep a Senate provision to raise the federal cigarette tax, now 39 cents a pack, by 61 cents to expand the program by $35 billion over five years.

"The Senate bill makes more sense," Wilson said. "It's a more modest increase and expands SCHIP without the devil's choice the House bill presents."

The bill is opposed by President Bush, who said at a news conference Thursday that he would veto it. "They don't need to raise taxes," Bush said.

Bush proposed a modest $5 billion expansion of SCHIP. He said Congress is expanding the program to include children of moderate-income families.

"I believe this is a step toward federalization of health care," Bush said. "I know that their proposal is beyond the scope of the program, and that's why I'm going to veto the bill."

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Congress should pass a temporary extension of SCHIP, which is due to expire Sept. 30.

But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said the House would vote next week on a bipartisan compromise to expand the program.

"It is long past time that the president realize the American people spoke loudly and clearly last November and want him to work with Congress rather than issue inflexible edicts," Hoyer said.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a Silver City Democrat who helped craft the Senate version of the bill, said, "I'm very disappointed that the president has announced he will veto the SCHIP legislation Congress is now finalizing, in favor of his own extremely paltry proposal.

"We need to be taking dramatic steps toward reducing the skyrocketing uninsured problem in our country, not adding to the problem."

Gov. Bill Richardson criticized Bush's veto threat, saying it shows that Bush is "increasingly out of touch with what's important to America's families."

He noted that in New Mexico SCHIP funding covers children in households with incomes up to $39,036 for a family of three.