Keeping the state’s CHIP program – Children’s Health Insurance Plan – in place for kids and pregnant mothers is at the forefront of concerns in Washington and Colorado. Funding is set to cease for the program at the end of January unless Congress acts quickly to reauthorize it.

Finance Committee chairman and lead author of the GOP tax plan Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said that the federal government no longer has the money to fund CHIP.

“The reason CHIP is having trouble [passing] is because we don’t have money anymore,” Hatch told reporters in Washington. “We just add more and more spending and more and more spending, and you can look at the rest of the bill for the more and more spending.”

The $8 billion program is on the chopping block as the Senate voted the tax plan through in the middle of the night Friday. The plan includes $6 trillion in tax cuts, financed by $4.5 trillion in tax hikes in other areas. But Hatch says CHIP will be spared.

“We’re going to do CHIP, there’s no question about it in my mind,” Hatch said. “It has to be done the right way.

CHIP was passed in 1997 and now covers 9 million children throughout the U.S. It has only lapsed once before, for five days when President George W. Bush struck down reauthorization with his veto pen. Congress approved short-term financing to support the program until CHIP could be reinstated under President Barack Obama in 2009. The program had previously been funded by tobacco taxes, but now that revenue now goes directly to the federal treasury.

Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner say they’re working together to make sure the program stays in place.

“I’ve co-sponsored legislation to reauthorize CHIP funding through 2022, and I’m urging my Senate colleagues to move quickly on this bipartisan issue,” Gardner, a Republican, said. “Sen. Bennet and I have been very vocal about the need to address this, and it appears there’s a path forward to creating long-term certainty for a program that roughly 90,000 Colorado children and pregnant mothers utilize.”

Gardner and Bennet co-sponsored the Keeping Kids’ Insurance Dependable and Secure Act in October, which would transition CHIP to a federal-state partnership and provide additional protections for low-income children. Read the bill by clicking here.

“CHIP is too essential to too many families for us to delay any further,” Bennet, a Democrat, said at the time. “This bill would extend CHIP funding for the next five years, ensuring Colorado’s children and expecting mothers who depend on the program retain access to care. We urge our colleagues to support this legislation and see that it passes for the sake of families across the country.”

Some states, including Colorado, have reserve funding to continue their programs for now, according to the Colorado Center on Law & Policy. But most states report those reserve funds will run out by March, and for several states, even sooner.

The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, the state agency that administers the program, has started mailing notices to CHIP families urging them to start looking for other health insurance coverage in case Congress doesn’t vote to fund the program. The department is also urging Congress to keep CHIP in place, and voters to write their elected representatives.

“The delay is forcing costly contingency planning at the state level and unnecessary anxiety for Colorado families that rely on CHIP,” the department said in a press release. “We strongly oppose further delays on a program that ensures children get a healthy start. Please reach out to your elected representative today and make your concerns known.”

The U.S. Senate could still push an authorization through by the end of the year by hotlining the measure, which is when a bill gets unanimous consent of all 100 members on a voice vote. The Senate could also tack CHIP funding onto another bill such as funding for Medicare extenders or disaster relief.

Progress Now Colorado is urging this state’s members of Congress to “make their donors wait and cover Colorado Kids now” and issued a press release that points directly at Gardner, a move Gardner’s office says isn’t fair since he’s been working to keep the CHIP program in place.

“Cory Gardner is putting the interests of wealthy donors above Colorado kids, refusing to push for Children’s Health Insurance Program funds that have already lapsed while helping Donald Trump cut his own taxes,” said ProgressNow Colorado executive director Ian Silverii. “Earlier this year, Sen. Gardner put his name on legislation that would fund CHIP, but he has done nothing to push for the bill to actually pass.”

“For 90,000 kids in Colorado, time is running out,” said Silverii. “It’s time for Cory Gardner to do more than pay lip service to protecting Colorado’s kids. Reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program before passing any other legislation, especially a tax giveaway to the richest Americans. For once, put Colorado’s kids before Donald Trump’s kids.”