As political infighting in Washington, D.C., heats up over a children's heath insurance plan set to expire Sunday, federal and state administrators were on Utah's Capitol Hill talking contingencies Monday.

"We're not sure what to expect or what to tell states to expect," said James Whitfield, a deputy director of intergovernmental affairs with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "We can't know politically but we can set up the lines of communication with the states no matter what happens this week."

The House is scheduled to vote today on whether to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by a greater amount than President Bush wants. The Senate plans to vote Thursday.

Lawmakers say both chambers will pass the bill, which would add $35 billion over five years to the program, allowing 4 million more children to join the 6 million now enrolled. Bush vows to veto it, however, and the House appears unlikely to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the administrative arm for CHIP under Health and Human Services, has scheduled 50 meetings nationwide — one in each state and 48 of them face-to-face — with state CHIP administrators this week. The joint state/federal insurance plan is a safety net for families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but can't afford to buy private insurance for their children.

In Utah, CHIP currently covers 27,001 children. It receives a $4 federal match for each state dollar spent. All state funding — about $10.3 million in the 2006 fiscal year — comes from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement and from families through co-pays and a premium of $30 to $60 every three months. The average cost per child is about $1,500.

Nate Checketts, CHIP director in Utah, told his federal counterparts Monday he is not expecting anything drastically different come Oct. 1, noting that the Utah program could operate for six months and currently has a lower-than-usual enrollment. That puts Utah in "relatively good shape" financially compared to at least 12 other states that have maxed out both their enrollment and their budgets.

"The political pressure is so high, I can't see (Congress or the president) going the next six months without doing something," Checketts said.

A temporary extension of CHIP is an option being discussed in Congress.

President Bush has said renewing the CHIP program would have the net effect of moving millions of children who now have private health insurance into "government-run health care."

It would be just the second piece of legislation Bush has vetoed during his six years in office, said Karen Crompton, executive director of Voices for Utah Children, the state's leading child welfare advocacy group.