Orrin Hatch, this is on you.

Congressional Republicans are back home gearing up for Thanksgiving celebrations and their eventual return to D.C., where they will attempt to push through their massive tax breaks for the rich. While they're enjoying themselves, millions of families are wondering if their kids will have access to health care next year, and state officials are in a panic. Because while Republicans have been focused on those tax cuts, they've shoved aside the children.

Nevada has requested an extra $11.3 million in federal funding to continue the state's Children’s Health Insurance Program while Congress decides if it will renew funding for the decades-old program. If the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approves the state’s request, it will keep the Nevada Check Up program running through February, according to Chrystal Main, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Services. Without it, the state will run out of funding by the end of the year, and families will need to find health coverage elsewhere. "Nevada Medicaid continues to be hopeful that action will be taken on a more permanent solution before then," Main said via email Monday.

There's no indication yet that the Republican Congress cares enough to do that. The House passed a bill that leadership knew would be rejected by the Senate, one that had poison pills for Medicare and public health programs—stealing the funding from those programs to pay for CHIP. Then Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, who is the Finance Committee chair, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell turned their focus to the tax cuts bill, rather than getting the CHIP bill to the floor and passed. The Senate bill is clean, and doesn't have the poison included in the House bill.

But that doesn't mean Hatch will insist on his bill. It's becoming more and more clear that the Republicans' plan is to try to force Democrats to swallow the bad bill as part their end-of-the-year continuing resolution that will keep government running. Waiting until just before the Christmas break, though, means states are going to have to send letters out to all those parents who depend on CHIP telling them that they might be losing funding. That's not a holiday greeting anyone should be getting.

Jam the phone lines of House and Senate Republicans. Call (202) 224-3121, and tell them to stop holding kids hostage and to pass a clean funding bill for CHIP and community health centers.