Daily Brew: January 7, 2019

January 7, 2019

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Today's Brew gets you up to speed on changes at FERC + an update on Medicaid expansion in Maine   Welcome to the Monday, January 7 Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day: Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner died last week Trump's nominee to FCC, a Democrat, confirmed by U.S. Senate New Maine Gov. Janet Mills signs order to expand Medicaid under Question 2 (2017) Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner died last week Kevin McIntyre, a Republican member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), died of cancer on Wednesday. McIntyre joined FERC in December 2017 and served as chair until October 2018. FERC is an independent federal agency responsible for regulating electricity, crude oil, and natural gas that travels between states. The agency also regulates hydroelectric dams and oversees utility mergers. Independent federal agencies operate with some degree of autonomy from the executive branch. These agencies exist outside of the Executive Office of the President and executive departments or have top officials with protections against removal by the president or other officials. FERC is headed by five members appointed by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. After McIntyre’s passing, two Democrats and two Republicans remained at the commission. Commissioner Cheryl A. LaFleur was nominated by Barack Obama in 2010 and confirmed for a second term in 2014. Her term expires in June 2019. The other three commissioners are Donald Trump appointees, but Commissioner Richard Glick was general counsel for the Democrats on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee before joining FERC in 2017. His term expires in June 2022. FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee was confirmed in 2017 for a term that expires in June 2021 and Commissioner Bernard L. McNamee was confirmed in December 2018 for a term that ends in June 2020. Learn more about FERC Trump's nominee to FCC, a Democrat, confirmed by U.S. Senate The U.S. Senate voted last Wednesday to confirm Democrat Geoffrey Starks as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Under federal law, only three of the five FCC commissioners can be from the same political party, so President Trump nominated Starks based on recommendations from Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). The FCC is an independent federal agency formed in 1934 that regulates interstate and international radio, television and other communications. The terms for these commissioners are five-years. Michael O'Rielly, a Republican, is the commissioner with the next expiring term—June 30, 2019. With this recent confirmation, the breakdown is now three Republican commissioners and two Democratic commissioners. Learn more→ New Maine Gov. Janet Mills signs order to expand Medicaid under Question 2 (2017) Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed an order last week to expand Medicaid, known as MaineCare in Maine, citing the approval of Question 2, a ballot initiative, in 2017. Question 2 was the first citizen-initiated measure to expand Medicaid via Obamacare, expanding the program’s coverage to persons under the age of 65 and with incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty line. In 2018, this amounted to an annual income of $16,753 for an individual or $34,638 for a household of four. Under Obamacare, the federal government was to provide 93 percent of funding for expanded coverage in 2019 and 90 percent in 2020 and thereafter. Gov. Mills’ predecessor, Paul LePage (R), said his administration would not file an application with the federal government to expand Medicaid unless the legislature could fund expansion without tax increases or one-time funding mechanisms. In April 2018, several organizations that supported Question 2 sued the governor’s administration in a case that ended up going before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The state Supreme Judicial Court ordered Gov. LePage to submit an expansion plan to the federal government in June 2018. In August, Gov. LePage wrote a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services asking officials to reject the plan that Maine filed to expand Medicaid. In November 2018, the issue was back in court, with a superior court judge ruling that the governor’s actions went against the initiative’s objectives. The judge extended the deadline for implementation to February 1, 2018. In 2018, voters in Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah also approved ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid. Voters in Montana rejected an initiative to re-approve Medicaid expansion with funding from a tobacco tax increase in 2018. As of January 2019, there are several states with the ballot initiative process that have not expanded Medicaid, including Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Florida and Mississippi—two additional states that have not expanded Medicaid—allow initiated constitutional amendments but not initiated statutes. Learn more→