CHIP Extended For Six Years In Senate Deal That Ends Government Shutdown

The New York Times: Government Shutdown Ends After 3 Days Of Recriminations
Congress brought an end to a three-day government shutdown on Monday as Senate Democrats buckled under pressure to adopt a short-term spending bill to fund government operations without first addressing the fate of young undocumented immigrants. The House quickly approved the measure — which will fund the government through Feb. 8 and extend funding for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years — and President Trump signed it on Monday night. (Stolberg and Kaplan, 1/22)

The Washington Post: Short-Term Spending Agreement Provides Longer-Term Relief For CHIP
The spending bill that the Senate and House adopted Monday, and that President Trump signed, provides six years of federal money for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a bipartisan creation that furnishes coverage to nearly 9 million children and 375,000 pregnant women. The budget for CHIP, as it is known, ended on Sept. 30 without lawmakers having reauthorized it as they had done several times over its two decades — usually months in advance of the deadline. States, which share responsibility for CHIP, had been running short of federal funds for their programs at different paces. Connecticut became the first to freeze enrollment just before Christmas, and at least five states notified families that they would need to do so soon. Eleven other states were expecting to run out by the end of next month. (Goldstein, 1/22)

Kaiser Health News: CHIP Renewed For Six Years As Congress Votes To Reopen Federal Government
Republicans, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday, “were using the 10 million kids on CHIP, holding them as hostage for the 800,000 kids who were Dreamers. Kids against kids. Innocent kids against innocent kids. That’s no way to operate in this country.” Republicans, however, said it was the opposite — that Democrats were holding CHIP hostage by not voting for the spending bill. “There is no reason for my colleagues to pit their righteous crusade on immigration against their righteous crusade for CHIP,” said Hatch. “This is simply a matter of priorities.” (Rovner, 1/22)

The Hill: Congress Funds Children's Health Program After Four-Month Delay
"This action ends months of anxiety and worry for the hard-working families who rely on CHIP for life-saving health care," said Frederick Isasi, executive director of Families USA, a health care advocacy group in D.C. "States — some of which had already sent notices to families warning of looming CHIP enrollment freezes—can now set about restoring trust that CHIP will be there for kids and their families." (Hellmann, 1/22)

The Associated Press: Deal That Broke Senate Impasse: Kids' Health But No DACA
The agreement [also includes] delays to three taxes under the Obama-era health care law: the medical device tax through 2019, the so-called Cadillac tax on generous employer-paid health care plans through 2021 and a tax on health insurance companies through 2019. (1/22)

Stat: Congress Delays Medical Device Tax For Two Years
Almost no one got everything they wanted out of the Monday deal to reopen the government — except perhaps medical device companies, who managed to fend off an industry-wide excise tax before the first payments were due. The stopgap spending deal that was signed by President Trump on Monday included a two-year delay of the 2.3 percent tax, which was originally included in the Affordable Care Act to help pay for the law’s health insurance subsidies. (Mershon, 1/22)

CQ: Many Health Care Provisions Wait In Limbo For An Omnibus Deal
Lawmakers' focus over the next three weeks will be a long-term spending bill and immigration issues but, as usual in this session, health care issues could creep into the debate. ... But Congress still needs to address a slate of health care issues left over from last year that lawmakers and aides have said could move as part of an omnibus spending bill. (McIntire, 1/22)

Modern Healthcare: New Spending Stopgap Measure Stalls Medicare Extenders, DSH Delay 
Medicare programs known as Medicare extenders, whose funding expired Oct. 1, and community health centers still wait for Congress to fund appropriations. Medicaid disproportionate-share hospitals expect another delay to the cuts in their federal allotments that technically went into effect in fall 2017, but won't hit most hospitals until the summer of 2018. (Luthi, 1/22)

The Washington Post: Shutdown Ends After Democrats Agree To Trust That McConnell Will Allow ‘Dreamer’ Vote
The impact of the shutdown, which began at midnight Friday, was minimal, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal workers unsure of what the week would bring — but stretching into just one workday. Lawmakers agreed to fund the government through Feb. 8 after McConnell (R-Ky.) said he would address the status of young immigrants called “dreamers” who were brought to this country illegally as children. (Sullivan, O'Keefe and Viebeck, 1/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Congress Passes Three-Week Spending Bill To End Shutdown
The agreement will keep the federal government running through Feb. 8, but did little to resolve the underlying policy fights over immigration and government-spending levels and doesn’t preclude a similar shutdown next month. The deal also opened a rift in the Democratic Party between a left flank that wanted to hold out now for an agreement on the young immigrants known as Dreamers and a more centrist group eager to reopen the government and work out a bipartisan compromise. (Peterson, Hook and Andrews, 1/22)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Signs Bill To Reopen Government — For Three Weeks — After Bipartisan Deal
The deal was worked out by a gang of 30 or so senators calling themselves the Common Sense Coalition, which grew in numbers over the weekend during frantic negotiations to end the standoff. Now many lawmakers in both parties are hoping the moderate group will continue to exert its influence to break the logjam, even as a few ideological factions were plotting how to stamp it out. (Mascaro, 1/22)

Politico: Congress Votes To End Shutdown
Coons and King were part of a group of at least two dozen senators who began meeting late last week in the office of Sen. Susan Collins to broker a deal to stave off a shutdown — much like the effort that the Maine Republican led in 2013. To try and keep the peace, Collins wouldn't let any senator in the room talk unless they were holding a "talking stick" — which one aide later said was a Maasai leadership stick that Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) gave Collins a few years ago. At one point, Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee forcefully tossed the stick toward Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia after Warner interrupted him, nearly shattering a glass elephant belonging to Collins, according to two people briefed on the throw. After that incident, Collins suggested using a small rubber ball, and Alexander also brought his own basketball "because it’d be safer than a stick," an aide said. (Kim, Everett and Schor, 1/22)

Denver Post: End Of Shutdown Means 75,000 Colorado Children Keep Their Health Insurance 
On Monday, 114 days after Congress allowed funding for his daughters’ health insurance program lapse, Denver resident TC Bell breathed a sigh of relief. But only a little one. In voting to approve a measure ending the federal government shutdown on Monday, Congress also approved a six-year extension of funding for the national Children’s Health Insurance Program. The program provides health coverage to kids and pregnant women from families that make too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to reasonably afford private coverage. The program in Colorado is known as the Child Health Plan Plus, and it covers nearly 800 pregnant women and more than 75,000 kids here — including Bell’s two little girls. (Ingold, 1/22)