A few months ago, I wrote an essay titled Leaving Our Most Vulnerable Children Behind. It was about a budget cut from January 2005 to a relatively small Medicaid program that provides funding for 70,000 troubled, abused or foster children and their families in Minnesota. Back in December 2007, a ruling was finally issued that eliminated the funding as of March 2008.
Given that we’ve all been so terribly disappointed in our federal legislators over these last few years, I wanted to make sure that I publicly gave credit to them for some good news that I heard today.
According to our local Star Tribune Newspaper:
The Senate has voted to delay for one year a new federal Medicaid rule that would cut funding for a program aimed at helping neglected kids, elderly and the mentally ill.
Minnesota lawmakers in both chambers are trying to block the rule, because it could cost the state tens of millions of dollars in aid.
The Senate first approved an amendment to delay the rule – offered by Sens. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. – as part of an Indian health bill about two weeks ago. But the Senate didn’t approve the overall bill until Tuesday.
The House has yet to take up legislation by Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., that would also delay implementation of the rule – which is slated to go into effect next month – for one year.
This doesn’t make up for all the ways they’ve been failing us. And the delay still needs to be passed in the House. But I’ll give credit where credit is due. These vulnerable children and adults are not a voting block that any of them need to appeal to. But damnit…it was the right thing to do and the Senate did it. Thanks!
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I had to live with him as Mayor for 8 years and overall he’s a real sleezbag. But on this, he did the right thing. And I’ll give him my thanks.
Now they just have to find a way to delay it forever.