Sen. Gillibrand to attend SCHIP bill signing at White House

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is expected to be in Washington, D.C. today to attend President Obama's signing ceremony for the SCHIP legislation.

The bill will help provide health care coverage for 275,000 New York children. The program is known as Child Health Plus in New York, and the legislation should bring an extra $90 million into the state to cover the cost of the program, helping address the state's budget deficit.

It also provides basic health care coverage to more than 11 million children in families who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford health insurance.

The SCHIP program currently covers about 7 million children across the country; the new bill is expected to bring an additional 4 million kids into the program, including the 275,000 in New York.

Gillibrand is the only member of Congress to have voted to pass SCHIP in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S .Senate this year.