Republican state Rep. Don Hineman on Friday asked legislative leadership to approve an interim committee made up only of House members to study Medicaid expansion.
In a letter sent to the Legislative Coordinating Council, Hineman asked leadership to create a 13-member interim committee that would meet for five days to study Medicaid expansion.
Hineman’s request comes after Kansas News Service reported that there appeared to be a break down in a deal with the Senate to set up a joint interim committee to study Medicaid expansion.
Hineman told reporters that a bloc of moderate Republicans agreed to move ahead with the state budget if a joint interim committee was created with an eye toward running an expansion bill at the start of next session.
The moderate Republicans teamed with Democrats in the closing days of this year’s legislative session to stop the budget until the Senate agreed to debate a Medicaid expansion bill. They backed off after reaching a gentleman’s agreement.
However, KNS reported that Senate leadership claimed it never agreed to a joint committee to study Medicaid expansion. Now, Hineman wants an interim committee for just the House – which already passed a Medicaid expansion bill last session – to study Medicaid expansion.
“It appears that a Senate-only committee will be operating during the interim, so establishing an equivalent entity for the House would allow both chambers to enter the 2020 session better prepared to responsibly consider whatever legislation results from the interim deliberations,” Hineman wrote in a letter obtained by the Sunflower State Journal.
Hineman could not be immediately reached for comment on his letter. It was immediately unclear if it would be considered when the Legislative Coordinating Council meets next week at sine die.
The Senate had bottled up the Medicaid expansion bill for weeks after it passed the House. The Senate’s inaction on the bill, prompted a couple high-profile protests at the Capitol including the unfurling of large banners in the rotunda and the sprinkling of thousands of fliers calling out senators for not moving ahead with expansion.
Democrats tried to pull it out of committee, but fell one vote short getting it out onto the Senate floor. Republican leadership had said it would not work a Medicaid expansion until next year, something that Gov. Laura Kelly criticized as stalling on a measure she said is needed today.
