The Chairman of House and Senate interim committees dealing with Medicaid reform say they will take Governor Jay Nixon up on his invitation to meet with them next week, but they want to do it on their own terms.
Representative Jay Barnes (R-Jefferson City), before a hearing by the House Interim Committee on Medicaid Transformation which he chairs, passed out a letter signed by he and Senator Gary Romine (R-Farmington), the chairman of the Senate Interim Committee on Medicaid Reform and Transformation.
The letter thanks Nixon for his offer and say such a public meeting between the executive and legislative branches is “rare,” then outlines the procedures the two chairmen want to follow.
They tell Nixon the meeting will operate as a joint hearing of the two committees to be conducted under guidelines and laws governing such hearings, Barnes and Romine will preside as co-chairmen, Nixon would be the only witness called to testify and would begin the hearing with his opening address to the committee and public to be followed by questions and discussion from committee members, and the hearing would take place in the House Lounge at 10:30 on Tuesday, November 26.
Nixon’s invitation to members of the committees on November 5 asked them to join him on the same day at the same time, but at the Governor’s Office Buildings two blocks from the Capitol and across the street from the Governor’s Mansion.
A request of Nixon’s office for a response to the letter from the chairman has not been responded to by the time this story was posted.
