by Dick Hall-Sizemore

Two members of Virginia’s Congressional delegation, Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-2nd District) and Rep. Rob Wittman (R-1st District) seem to be in a bind over how to handle budget decisions coming up later this year in Congress.

As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, they joined ten other Republican members of the House of Representatives in a letter to the Republican House leadership stating their strong support for Medicaid and warning, “We cannot and will not support a final reconciliation bill
that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.” They did say that they supported “targeted reforms to improve program integrity, reduce improper payments, and modernize delivery systems to fix flaws in the program that divert resources away from children, seniors, individuals with disabilities, and pregnant women – those who the program was intended to help.”

However, earlier in the spring both Wittman and Kiggans supported the House budget resolution that would have required an $880 billion cut over 10 years in federal programs under the House Energy and Commerce Committee. As demonstrated in a letter issued by the Congressional Budget Office, it would be impossible to cut that much out of the programs under the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee without substantially cutting Medicaid benefits. The targeted reforms they referred to are not going to produce $880 billion in savings.

It would seem that Wittman and Kiggans first supported legislation that would have resulted in significant Medicaid cuts, but then sent a letter to the House leadership saying that they could not support a final bill that included cuts to Medicaid.