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Finally, We Pass Medicaid Expansion! Virginia Extends Healthcare to 400,000 Virginians! Legislation Brings Hundreds of Millions of Dollars to Virginia Budget And Billions of Dollars to Virginia Economy. A Clear Victory for Empathy and Fiscal Sanity and all because you gave us 15 new Democrats last fall...

Last week, the House of Delegates again passed a budget that included Medicaid Expansion. I was proud to cast my vote one more time for bringing health care to 400,000 Virginians, returning $400 million in Virginians' federal tax dollars to Virginia, and pumping almost $2 billion into Virginia's economy. I'm hopeful that this budget -- combined with the necessary action by the Virginia Senate -- will finally bring Medicaid Expansion to Virginia. We still have more work to do to get it through the Senate, but with some Republican Senators starting to waver, I remain optimistic. I expect to be called back to Richmond sometime in May after the Senate passes its version of the budget, although as of now, we don't know when that will be.

Since we adjourned our session this year without passing a budget, Governor Northam has called us back for a special session to begin Wednesday. The main source of contention between the House and Senate has been Medicaid Expansion, which I remain fully committed to. The House passed a budget, which I voted for, back in February that expanded Medicaid using the nearly half a billion federal dollars that we've been inexplicably refusing for the past four years. But the Senate went the other way and stripped Medicaid Expansion out of their budget.