When the administration said no to his requests for more money last month, Attorney General Jeff Landry didn’t like the answer, so he took his grievance to the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee last Friday.
“We have two very pressing issues,” Landry told the lawmakers. “One of them concerns an expansion of the Medicaid fraud unit; the other concerns seven laws that you-all passed that have been challenged.”
Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne explained why the requests were rejected. Regarding the Medicaid Fraud Unit, he said, “This request was for fourteen new employees. They would be paid with statutory dedicated money, not State General Fund. It was for 14 new cars, as well.”
And, Dardenne said, Landry wanted to take money from the Department of Health in order to defend the abortion laws.
“They have no money,” he stated, “And the timing of this, in my view, is just not appropriate to bring it before you.”
Senate President John Alario heaved a big sigh, then said, “I think you-all are big guys and big folks and can go work this out.
But Covington Representative John Schroder was seriously aggravated by the entire thing.
“I can’t believe that a state elected official has not sat with the Commissioner to have this conversation before today,” he told Landry.
Commissioner Dardenne responded, “I can assure you, that I don’t have a problem whatsoever talking to Jeff, and I would assume he doesn’t have a problem talking to me.”
But Landry said, “What I would request is to have the chairman maybe appoint a couple of members of this committee as well, to help work on that with us.”
“Do you really need legislators like me to come sit in the room and be the referees?” Schroder said, incredulously. “What I see and smell is just politics. I don’t really care about whether y’all like each other politically or not. The taxpayers of Louisiana want you to do your job.”