The setback for McAuliffe (D) — and the long-delayed finalization of the budget — came months into a bitter political standoff between the governor and legislative Republicans over whether to expand government-funded health coverage to 400,000 low-income Virginians under the controversial federal law. The issue has come to define McAuliffe’s young term as governor.
“It has been a very long session, and the good news is we have a budget,” said Del. S. Chris Jones (R-Suffolk), who has been a leader in the fight against Medicaid expansion as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
A key moment came Monday night when Virginia House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) tossed out a critical veto that the governor had hoped would make it easier to expand Medicaid without legislative approval. Three days after McAuliffe had declared that he would defy the legislature by seeking a way to expand the health-care program on his own, Howell outmaneuvered the governor with a procedural move that killed his line-item veto without a vote.
“I am continually surprised and disappointed by the lengths to which Republicans in the House of Delegates will go to prevent their own constituents from getting access to health care,” McAuliffe said in a written statement. “Instead of putting all of my vetoes through the process prescribed by the Constitution of Virginia, House Republicans robbed the voters of their voice by using a procedural gimmick to obstruct the normal legislative process where this veto was concerned.”
