Gov. John Bel Edwards’ plan to hire new health department employees for his Medicaid expansion effort was pulled from legislative consideration today as the new governor’s administration works to sell Republicans on the idea.
As The Associated Press reports, the Department of Health and Hospitals wants to add 248 new workers to handle enrollment of the thousands of people expected to qualify for Medicaid under an eligibility expansion.
The joint House and Senate budget committee was scheduled to consider the hiring plan at its first meeting since Edwards took office earlier this month. The vote from the majority Republican committee was expected to be the first test of whether GOP lawmakers will try to create roadblocks for the Democratic governor’s expansion plan.
But instead, the item was removed from the agenda.
Edwards’ chief financial adviser, Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, says the request was delayed because the administration didn’t have enough time to speak with individual committee members about the details of the hiring plan.
The House’s committee members weren’t named until late Thursday, fewer than 24 hours before the meeting.
“We want to have a little more time to explain everything and make sure everybody understands,” Dardenne says, adding the administration expects to ask for approval in February.
Dardenne says the decision to postpone wasn’t a reaction to learning that House Speaker Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia, had packed the House’s budget committee with more than two-thirds GOP members.
“But we obviously are cognizant of what that committee now looks like,” he says.
