HELENA, Mont. (NMB) – The Montana House of Representatives voted 61 to 39 to pass a controversial bill to extend Medicaid expansion Friday after a long floor debate.
As Shaylee Ragar with the UM Legislative News Service reports, Representative Ed Buttrey, a Republican from Great Falls, is carrying House Bill 658. It includes new requirements for some recipients to work or complete some form of “community engagement” to continue to receive benefits.
“This is good policy, not just for our most needy, but for all the taxpayers that fund this program in Montana.”
Representative Dennis Lenz, a Republican from Billings, is chair of the House Human Services Committee and says the bill has been rushed.
“We needed to be able to look at this longer.”
A competing bill that would have kept the program as it is was tabled in committee and is likely dead.
The bill must pass a third House vote and move to the Senate before April 1st, or it will die. The body met Saturday to vote again.
