Republican legislators Monday attempted to dig deeper into a decision by Kansas Secretary of Social and Rehabilitation Services Don Jordan to increase funding to a politically connected non-profit organization that provides services to the disabled.

The House Appropriations Committee voted to request a legislative audit of Jordan’s approval of $713,000 in “extraordinary” funding to Community Living Organization, which serves more than 300 people with developmental disabilities, primarily in Johnson and Douglas counties. The chairman of CLO’s board is Kansas Democratic Party Chairman Larry Gates.

Gates and Jordan have denied there was anything wrong in the deal.

House and Senate budget subcommittees have called for a hearing on Wednesday to review the issue.

And Jordan was quizzed for about a half-hour Monday before the Appropriations Committee.

Jordan repeated his assertion that CLO was deserving of the additional funding. CLO was having financial difficulty because of the increased costs associated with clients who were more severely disabled than initially thought, he said.

Jordan said the decision followed several meetings and conversations with Gates and other CLO board members. He said he also spoke with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ staff to keep them informed.

Under questioning from Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman Jason Watkins, R-Wichita, Jordan conceded that many of the state’s 300 community developmental disabled organizations also were having financial problems. And he said that his staff did not review those other ones as they did CLO.

Part of a legislative audit would center on whether CLO “exercised prudence in the way it has spent the state funding it has received.”

The audit also would review CLO’s purchase and development of facilities of Midnight Farms in rural Douglas County, which CLO officials says will be used for a therapeutic horse riding program.