Rep. Cole Unaware Of Schedule To Pass Extenders; GOP Views 10-Year CHIP Funding As Nearing Entitlement

House Deputy Majority Whip Tom Cole (R-OK) said he doesn’t know when the House will take up the health care programs and policies collectively called the extenders that were excluded from the temporary government-funding bill that Republicans passed Thursday evening (Jan. 18), and he said Republicans didn’t fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program for a decade, despite leaving billions of dollars in savings on the table, because an extension that long smacks of an entitlement program. CHIP was originally funded...