A legislative panel gave Gov. Rick Scott’s administration approval Wednesday for a $3.4 million grant drawn from the federal Affordable Care Act, the measure backed by President Obama which Florida’s Republican chief executive ridicules regularly.
The Legislative Budget Commission agreed to take the cash to provide home visiting services to at-risk families. But Sens. Joe Negron , R-Stuart, and Don Gaetz , R-Niceville, urged lawmakers to reject the funding, warning that the program’s services were murky and that if federal dollars dry up, the state could be left covering the cost.
“It’s overly intrusive,” Negron said, adding he was wary of what he called the government’s “amorphous assistance.”
Scott and the state’s Republican-led Legislature has drawn national attention for rejecting federal grants aimed at moving nursing home patients back into their homes and providing in-home counseling to families where child abuse was a looming threat. Funding for these services and others were turned down because they stem from the Affordable Care Act — which many in the GOP deride as ObamaCare.
The Legislative Budget Commission, though, went along with the Scott administration’s request to accept this latest round of grant money Wednesday. A Republican majority on the panel endorsed the move, chiefly because rejecting it would have made Florida ineligible for as much as $100 million in future learning and development grants under the federal Race to the top legislation.
House budget chair Denise Grimsley , R-Sebring, said she was offended by the linkage. But she made it clear she didn’t like the program and felt such steps created a dependency for at-risk families.
“We have generations of individuals depending on government,” Grimsley said, adding, “it’s a no-win situation.”
Tags: Affordable Care Act , Rep. Denise Grimsley , Sen. Don Gaetz , Sen. Joe Negron
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 at 7:33 pm and is filed under Barack Obama , legislature , state agencies , state budget . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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