AFP-VA Responds to Gov. Northam’s Call for Special Session

Mar 14, 2018 by AFP

Grassroots group shares governor’s disappointment, urges General Assembly to pass clean budget

RICHMOND, VA – Americans for Prosperity-Virginia (AFP-VA) on Wednesday responded to Governor Northam calling on the General Assembly to reconvene for a special session on April 11^th to complete the Commonwealth’s two-year budget bill. The legislature adjourned its regular session last week without passing a budget after the two chambers reached an impasse over whether to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.

“We share Governor Northam’s disappointment that the General Assembly couldn’t pass a budget, but lawmakers can end the deadlock quickly by passing a clean budget that does not include Medicaid expansion. Continuing with this futile effort to ram Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion into the budget is a bad deal for taxpayers and hurts the vulnerable populations Medicaid was originally designed to help,” said AFP-VA State Director JC Hernandez. “It is unacceptable that our teachers and first responders have to wait for a budget because the House is bent on spreading a failed program to every corner of the Commonwealth. Our activists remain engaged and are committed to educating their neighbors on the Northam-led, House-assisted shutdown over Obamacare and are ready, willing, and able to hold their lawmakers accountable on the issue.”

Background:

AFP-VA and its base of more than 100,000 grassroots activists has been at the forefront of the fight against Medicaid expansion.

Since before the start of the 2018 session, the group has orchestrated a sweeping, multilayered effort to mobilize its activists to engage with lawmakers and coalition partners statewide to urge the General Assembly to reject the Obamacare Medicaid expansion.

AFP-VA has hosted, and plans to host in the coming weeks town halls and tele-town halls with state lawmakers and other conservative thought leaders to drive the message that Medicaid expansion, including the version the state House lawmakers currently support as part of the state budget, is not conservative.

The effort has also included a robust phone banking and radio and digital advertisement campaign that has enabled activists to make thousands of phone calls and send more than 10,000 letters to urge lawmakers to oppose Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.

The group has already scheduled multiple phonebanks and rallies throughout the state in the coming weeks and will continue to plan more until Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is pulled from the budget.