Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoes portions of Virginia budget, prolonging Medicaid standoff

Hat tip, BREAKING: Virginia Gov. McAuliffe to Expand Health Care Coverage in Face of GOP Demagoguery

Gov. Terry McAuliffe vetoes portions of Virginia budget, prolonging Medicaid standoff

Virginia Politics

By Laura Vozzella June 20 at 12:06 PM 

RICHMOND — Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) vetoed portions of the state budget Friday, setting Virginia up for a legal showdown with legislative Republicans who oppose his efforts to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. ... McAuliffe exercised his line-item veto power to strike budget language that Republicans had hoped would block expansion of Medicaid.
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The General Assembly will consider McAuliffe’s action when lawmakers return to Richmond to take up the budget again Monday. Republicans’ majority in the House is large enough to override a veto, but not in the Senate, where they outnumber Democrats by just one.

Republicans have also hinted that they might pursue separate legal action because they consider his veto of an anti-Medicaid amendment unconstitutional.

They note that courts have said that a governor can veto entire budget items, but not portions of those items. Since the language is part of a broader Medicaid budget item, Republicans say it is possible that McAuliffe cannot veto that portion without vetoing the state’s entire Medicaid program.