The fight over tax reform in Congress is rubbing off on spending, creating partisan rifts that may ending up hurting some of America’s most vulnerable citizens – the children of the working poor.

Congress is caught in a partisan crossfire over where money should come from to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers nine million children and pregnant women in families that make too much money for Medicaid but can’t afford insurance through the marketplace or their employers.

CHIP is jointly funded by the federal government and states, but the feds pick up about 80 percent of the tab. Congress let funding for the program expire on Sept. 30 and if it doesn’t act soon, states will have to consider ending programs that provide coverage.

Read more at The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.