photo by: Peter Hancock

Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook

Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, announced late Friday that she has removed Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnee, as chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

The move came after Pilcher-Cook used an unusual parliamentary maneuver on the floor of the Senate to attach a Medicaid expansion amendment onto an unrelated bill.

Pilcher-Cook is an outspoken opponent of the Affordable Care Act. She said she offered the amendment to send a clear message to the House that the Senate had no interest in expanding Medicaid, known in Kansas as KanCare.

But her amendment was ruled out of order, and that prevented the Senate from taking any such vote. So, Pilcher-Cook then offered a motion to overrule that decision of the Rules Committee chairman and called for a vote.

Under rules in both chambers, members are not allowed to offer amendments that are not germane to the subject of the underlying bill. But Pilcher-Cook’s motion to call for a vote put other senators in an awkward position, Wagle said, because voting to uphold overturn the ruling of the Rules Committee chairman could be misinterpreted as a vote for or against Obamacare itself.

The chairman of the Rules Committee, who ruled Pilcher-Cook’s amendment out of order, is Senate Vice President Jeff King, R-Independence, who is under intense pressure to at least allow a vote on Medicaid expansion because the community hospital in his hometown was forced to close in October, in part, hospital officials said, because the state’s refusal to expand Medicaid was cutting off revenues to the hospital.

King is no big fan of Obamacare, but he has said he would consider an expansion plan if it meets certain conditions: that there be a work requirement for able-bodied adults who enroll in the plan, and that it be revenue-neutral for the state.

In response, the Kansas Hospital Association has drafted such a plan, and it is expected to have hearings in the Senate sometime this session. Such a bill would most likely be heard in the Health and Human Services Committee.

“Breaking the rules of the Senate and putting senators unnecessarily in a position of choosing between upholding the rules of the body or being seen as supporting Obamacare is unacceptable for any committee chair,” Wagle said in a statement. “It showed complete disrespect for the body and its rules. I hope that Senator Pilcher-Cook’s removal makes that point very clear.”

Wagle also gave an assurance that there will be a full debate and vote on Medicaid expansion this year, although she said she personally opposes it.

“But so that there can be no question of where the Kansas Senate stands on this issue, the body will take up the question of KanCare expansion under ObamaCare for a vote in the next few weeks,” she said. “It will do so by following the rules of the Senate. Once that vote is taken, I think it will be clear that a majority of the Kansas Senate firmly oppose expansion of KanCare under Obamacare.”

Wagle selected Sen. Michael O’Donnell, R-Wichita, to head the committee on an interim basis.