Tennessee House Republican Leader Gerald McCormickNASHVILLE - Top Republican House and Senate leaders were at odds today on how to proceed during a Feb. 2 special session where they will consider Gov. Bill Haslam's proposal to use Medicaid funds to provide health coverage to an estimated 200,000 Tennesseans.
House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, stood on the House floor this morning and denounced as a "silly notion" announcement voiced by his Senate Republican counterpart, Mark Norris a day earlier, that the House would act first on the controversial plan.
Norris told Senate Republicans on Thursday that the GOP-dominated chamber would sit back and wait while the House proceeds with a resolution giving a greed light to fellow Republican Haslam's Insure Tennessee program.
"Preposterous is a good word," McCormick told reporters. "I read the press reports this morning that they're suggesting we [House] go all the way through our process and send them a House joint resolution for their consideration.
"It's just silly," McCormick added. "We won't do that. I'm not going to put my members on the spot like that. If they [senators] don't want to do it, they just need to tell us and we'll go about our business and go into regular session. But we're not going to go through an exercise of futility."
Each chamber should have its own resolution and proceed simultaneously, McCormick said.
Read more in Saturday's Times Free Press.