Florida House Adjourns Abruptly Over Budget Impasse

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BRADENTON, Fla. - In a surprise move, the Florida House of Representatives abruptly ended its session Tuesday afternoon following a lengthy standoff with the Senate over the state budget and Medicaid expansion.

The adjournment left the state without a fiscal 2016 budget, and many bills remain in limbo even though the Senate continued its session.

"At this time, we are at an unfortunate impasse," the House said in a message to the Senate. "Therefore, we believe our best course of action is to conclude our policy business for the 2015 regular legislative session."

Lawmakers had been scheduled to be in session through Friday.

House leaders said they would return to Tallahassee to work on the 2016 budget after reaching agreement on allocations. They gave no indication when that might be.

A long-time legislative observer said that such a situation has not occurred in decades. For many years, the houses of the Republican-controlled Legislature have concurred on most policy issues.

At issue between the chambers for the past several weeks has been a disagreement over how Florida would deal with the loss of billions in federal funds for low-income health coverage received by hospitals.

Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, a vice president at the nonprofit Orlando Health, supports creating the Florida Health Insurance Affordability Exchange, or FHIX, because the federal government said it will no longer give the state a waiver in order to receive federal funding for low-income and uninsured patients.

FHIX still requires approval from the federal government.

Republican Gov. Rick Scott and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, a real estate broker and agribusinessman, oppose Medicaid expansion.

"Nobody won today," Gardiner said during discussion on bills after the House adjourned. "It's an unfortunate turn of events."

Gardiner said the Senate would return on Wednesday to continue deliberations.

The House's sudden end to its session left hanging a bill that would have created a new municipal utility bond program and a major economic development bill that would have expanded the powers of the Florida Development Finance Corp., giving the conduit issuer authority to place special assessments on property tax bills for energy saving retrofits.

The economic development bill also would have ratified votes taken by the board of the FDFC since 2008. The status of the panel has been in flux for months because some board members voted on bond issues for several years without being properly appointed.

Some bills could be reprieved if they are included in the call for a special session on the budget.

On Tuesday, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a lawsuit at the direction of the governor against the Obama administration over the threatened loss of low-income health funding.

"The federal government is trying to do precisely what the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Constitution prohibits it from doing - forcing states to expand Medicaid by threatening to cut off funding for unrelated programs," Bondi said. "We will not tolerate this blatant abuse of power by the federal government."

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