Temporary Spending Bill to Include Temporary Funding for CHIP
Thank you Dem leaders and all those who shared their stories of how CHIP saves sick children and their families from having to choose between health care and living expenses.
There remain a lot of moving parts in bicameral efforts to provide a stopgap funding bill for federal programs and agencies and avoid a government shutdown, which would otherwise begin at midnight on Friday. But unless things fall apart generally, it does appear that the ultimate bill will include at least $3 billion to keep the Children’s Health Care Program (CHIP) from running out of money in many states for a while, according to the Washington
Examiner’s report on the measure the House is expected to vote on today:
The continuing resolution released early Thursday morning gives CHIP $2.85 billion in new funding through the end of March. It also includes $750 million in new money for community health centers and a special diabetes program that also are short on funds …
Several states have needed redistributed funding from the federal government to keep CHIP programs running, although a majority will start to run out early next year.
Assuming the Senate goes along (and it should, since support for CHIP is stronger in that chamber, and extends to leading Republicans), this action will postpone a chronic battle between House Republicans — who want offsetting cuts to safety-net programs to pay for a five-year CHIP reauthorization — and Senate Republicans less inclined to take the very popular program hostage.
= new reply since forum marked as read
