As part of a short-term funding deal to reopen the federal government, Congress approved six years of funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Here are four things to know about the CHIP funding bill.
1. Five-year reauthorization for CHIP expired Sept. 30, one of the rare times the program has failed to garner bipartisan support since its inception in 1997, according to The New York Times.
2. The new six-year reauthorization will provide insurance for nearly 9 million low-income children whose families do not qualify for Medicaid. The program matches state funds with federal financing, though since federal funding expired Sept. 30, states have mostly been running their programs off reserves, according to The Hill.
3. In early December, 16 states said they would run out of money for their CHIP programs by the end of January. On Dec. 21, Congress included $2.85 billion for CHIP as part of a stopgap funding bill. The money was expected to finance state programs though March 31.
4. The Senate Finance Committee passed a five-year CHIP reauthorization in early October, though the measure did not specify how the program would be funded. Leaders in the House Energy and Commerce Committee couldn't agree how to fund their own CHIP reauthorization, with Democrats pushing back against Republican proposals to draw CHIP financing from Medicare and public health funds.