States and child advocates are pressing Congress to abandon its troubled efforts to reauthorize children’s health insurance and instead focus on a short-term extension of the program, out of concern that money is running short.

For most of this year, lawmakers have been debating an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, which covers about 6 million children whose families are low-income but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. Democrats want to expand the program by $35 billion over five years, to $60 billion — enough, they say, to cover 10 million children. But they have been opposed by President Bush, who has vetoed one bill, and House Republicans, who have backed Bush and sustained his veto.

Democrats negotiated with House Republicans for two weeks before Thanksgiving, trying to reach agreement on changes to a second bill that would satisfy enough in the minority to override Bush’s veto. But the discussions broke down after Republicans proposed including federal eligibility limits on Medicaid, an idea Democrats strongly oppose.

Now, states and child advocates are worried about running out of money. A continuing resolution that has kept new money flowing into SCHIP at fiscal 2007 levels expires Dec. 14.

“We’ve been working on the broader bill all year long,” said Lisa Shapiro, vice president for health policy at First Focus, a child advocacy group. “Basically, we think they’ve run out of time.”

The Congressional Research Service reported Oct. 25 that 21 states face combined shortfalls of $1.6 billion in their children’s health insurance programs this year. The first of those states will run out of money in March.