House Bill 4, sponsored by Representatives Julia Howard, Harry Warren, Edgar Starnes and Mitchell Setzer, is an economically-responsible solution to this problem that will result in the debt being paid off by mid-2016. House Bill 4 will also stabilize our state unemployment insurance fund, leaving us with $1 billion in reserves to ensure that this problem never happens again.
House Bill 4 was passed out of the House Finance Committee on Thursday morning and we expect the full chamber to pass it and send it to the Senate early next week.
Group homes: Protecting our most vulnerable
The House also took immediate action on providing assistance to group home residents who were in danger of losing their Medicaid-covered personal care services. Because of recent changes to Medicaid eligibility requirements, a number of residents of mental health group homes were in danger of having their benefits cut off at the end of this month. Action taken by the General Assembly on Thursday guaranteed this would not be the case.
House Bill 5, sponsored by Representatives Nelson Dollar and Justin Burr, provides a short-term solution to the group home issue by stipulating that $39.7 million in funds appropriated to the Department of Health and Human Services in last year’s budget will be utilized for group home payments. The House unanimously passed House Bill 5.
This is the right thing to do for these group home residents. While a permanent solution is still needed, by taking swift action so early in the session we have ensured that every group home resident will be protected and their services will continue until such a solution can be reached.

– Rep. Chris Whitmire