CAPITOL LETTERS

Scores of House Democrats today urged repeal of a tighter eligibility and enrollment procedure that the Legislature grafted onto a popular health program for children four years ago.

“It’s just flat the right thing to do,” said freshman Rep. Paula Hightower Pierson, D-Arlington.

She and freshman Rep. Allen Vaught, D-Dallas, knocked off GOP incumbents last fall after pledging to reverse a sharp enrollment decline in the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

But while Democrats picked up six seats in the House last year, they’re still not running the show.

And one of the Republican leaders who has cast himself as a defender of the program for children in working poor families, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, said he favors retention of a requirement that parents apply for the coverage every six months. Until 2003, coverage lasted a year.

“I don’t think most people in Texas have a lot of sympathy for someone that can’t fill out a two-page application every six months,” said Mr. Dewhurst, the Senate’s presiding officer.