House Republicans Back Study for Cuts
But Not Cost of Denial on Medicaid Boost

Capitol Inside
May 12, 2021

The Texas House voted on Wednesday night to launch a search for ways to cut spending on Medicaid after killing a bid by Democrats for a study to show how much the state has lost in federal funding from its ongoing failure to expand the health care program for low-income families and individuals.

The House gave tentative approval on an 83-62 vote to legislation that would order an analysis on potential cost-cutting proposals in the state's administration of federal entitlement programs including Medicaid and others known by initials like CHIP, SNAP, TANF and WIC.

House Republicans appeared to reinforce their lack of interest in a Medicaid upgrade with a 77-70 vote that shot down an amendment that would have required a separate but related review of the costs and benefits of the GOP-controlled Legislature's stubborn resistance to expansion.

With GOP State Rep. Candy Noble of Lucas as the chief House sponsor, Senate Bill 1138 would require the Legislative Budget Board to comb the so-called safety net programs for waste and duplicity in a collaborative effort with the Texas Health & Human Services Commission. The study would cover a five-year span that ends September 1.

SB 1138 had sailed through the Senate with unanimous votes in committee and on the chamber floor. Noble had guided the measure through the Human Services Committee last week without a dissenting vote. GOP State Senator Bryan Hughes of Mineola has served as the lead sponsor in the east wing.

But Noble encountered belated resistance that she apparently hadn't anticipated - prompting her to call the debate on the bill off for several hours this afternoon for a chance for her and GOP Speaker Dade Phelan's team to regroup for a defensive that they didn't seem to expect.

Four Republicans and four Democrats broke partisan ranks on the Noble measure that appears to be setting the stage for budget reductions in two years when the GOP hopes to pick up House seats in the 2022 election with a boost from a redistricting plan that the majority party's leaders will draft in a special session this fall.

SB 1138 would take the Legislature in the opposite direction that advocates have envisioned for the state that's forfeited tens of billions of dollars in federal subsidies with the ruling Republicans refusal to tailor the system here to meet the standards set out in the Affordable Care Act. The Republicans haven't sought to justify the expensive decision beyond their collective opposition to Obamacare.

Republican State Reps. Steve Allison of San Antonio, Dan Huberty of Humble, Kyle Kacal of College Station and Lyle Larson of San Antonio voted for the amendment that Democratic State Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston proposed with all of her fellow Democrats on board.

Democratic State Reps. Vikki Goodwin of Austin, Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City, Richard Raymond of Laredo, Ramon Romero of Fort Worth and Erin Zwiener of Driftwood sided with the Republicans on the Noble bill on second reading Wednesday night based on the unofficial vote on the Legislature's web site.

Democratic State Reps. Joe Deshotel of Beaumont, Harold Dutton of Houston, Celia Israel of Austin, Tracy King of Uvalde, Mary González of Clint and Shawn Thierry of Houston joined fellow Democrats Goodwin, Guillen and Raymond with votes of aye on SB 1138 when the House approved the measure on Friday.

Romero and Zwiener both voted against the measure on the third reading vote on Thursday. Zwiener informed the House voting clerk after the vote that she'd intended to oppose tSB 1138 on second reading.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the vast inequities in health care in Texas where there are more people who are uninsured than any other state. The death toll from COVID-19 has been worse along the Texas border where the infection rates have been among the nation's highest as well.