Mississippi governor on how changes to Medicaid, disaster funding could impact his state

Amna Nawaz:

As Republicans in Congress negotiate the president's policy agenda, including potential cuts and changes to Medicaid, states are preparing for the impacts on their health care programs and their budgets.

That includes Mississippi, where nearly 700,000 residents, more than half of them children, are enrolled in Medicaid.

I discussed that and more with Mississippi's Republican Governor Tate Reeves earlier today.

Governor Reeves, welcome back to the "News Hour." Thanks so much for joining us.

Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS):

Thanks so much for having me on.

Amna Nawaz:

So your state lawmakers just ended a very tough battle in a special session to pass a $7 billion state budget. As part of that, you increased your state Medicaid funding by over 6.5 percent to almost $1 billion total.

Tell us about that. Is any of that in anticipation of potential federal cuts to Medicaid ahead?

Gov. Tate Reeves:

No, actually, the reason that it was increased was — goes back to the pandemic level funding. If you may recall, the Congress made the decision that, when the pandemic was in effect, that our federal match rate actually went from 76.9 percent to 82.9 percent.

So the reduction back to 82.9 percent to 76.9 percent is going to lead to a larger share of our overall Medicaid program being expended by state government, rather than the federal government. So this is something that's been in the making for a couple of years.

And we will probably continue to see increased spending with that program, although I will tell you it's been curtailed because our economy is going so well right now that we're actually seeing fewer and fewer of our citizens dependent upon Medicaid and other government programs.

Amna Nawaz:

So, in all the conversation around those potential cuts, is it safe to say that you don't anticipate anyone of the hundreds of thousands of Medicaid recipients in Mississippi to be impacted by the federal government changes?

Gov. Tate Reeves:

Well, certainly none that are eligible. Mississippi is one of the 10 states in America who have chosen not to expand under Obamacare.

And so many of the work requirements and other things that the federal government is talking about doing, the Congress is talking about doing will have very little or no impact on those states that actually have chosen not to expand under Obamacare.

Amna Nawaz:

There's a saying I'm sure you have heard. If you show me your budget, I will show you your priorities. We noted your budget includes that Medicaid increase, also an increase in funding for your Department of Corrections.

I also saw slight decreases in education, both for K-12 funding and for universities and community colleges. And it's worth pointing out, while a number of other states saw learning loss, Mississippi had a really good story to tell. You made significant gains in standardized reading and math testing for fourth graders. Some people were calling it the Mississippi miracle.

After all of that progress, why cut that funding now?

Gov. Tate Reeves:

Well, we actually have seen an increase in funding for our educational institutions by approximately $800 million over the last four years.

Generally speaking, the $7.135 billion budget that the legislature passed yesterday is basically seeing a year-over-year flat budget. So we're not seeing significant increases in general in very many state agencies. And so our actual K-12 budget was up almost $250 million year-over-year in the current fiscal year. And so to keep that number basically flat makes perfect sense for us.

We have seen incredible results in the classroom. I couldn't be more proud of our teachers, of our students. We have gone, as you know, from 49th in the nation in fourth grade reading to ninth in the nation. We have gone from 50th in fourth grade math to 16th in America in fourth grade math. If you look at the Education Counts numbers, we have gone from 50th overall in education to 30th in America now.

And so we have made tremendous progress. And that's because we have got a lot of dedicated people, teachers, students, parents, and policymakers, that are convinced that we can continue to move up those charts.

Amna Nawaz:

It's fair to say that your state budget could also face some increased pressure when it comes to weather-related disasters ahead.

I know FEMA declared that there were 17 of those in your state over the last five years. And you had to really push to get some of that disaster relief from the federal government approved after devastating tornadoes back in March. And we see now that the White House is looking to further shrink FEMA and that federal funding.

I just want to get your take for that and what that would mean for Mississippi.

Gov. Tate Reeves:

Well, obviously, the president has appointed a commission to look into FEMA funding and how to do that going forward.

I don't know that there's any guarantees that we're going to see less federal funding. I do think there's a pretty strong sense that we're going to see fewer federal employees and give more responsibility and more opportunity and, quite honestly, more freedom for states to run the disasters.

The reality is, if you look at the federal Stafford Act, it's always been contemplated that response to natural disasters are state-managed, locally executed, and federally supported. Obviously, we have more than our fair share of experience when it comes to disaster management. And we think that the Trump administration taking a second look at the way in which FEMA operates makes perfect sense to us.

We were very pleased that the president did approve my disaster declaration. We did have some horrific storms come through our state about two months ago. And, in fact, one of them hit my wife's hometown of Tylertown, Mississippi. And so the federal declaration approved by President Trump last week is going to go a long way towards helping us help those people recover.

Amna Nawaz:

We hope that continued recovery goes well, but I have to ask, in the way of federal support, your state took in over $890 million in FEMA funds for disaster relief. That's since 2017.

Could you afford to shoulder most of that, even all of that on your own, if needed?

Gov. Tate Reeves:

Well, I haven't heard the president or Secretary Noem or anyone involved in the process say that the federal government is not going to be included in the process.

I think what they're looking at is ways in which to streamline, ways in which to give freedom to states, ways in which to support, but to support without the tremendous amount of overhead that is currently being paid at the Emergency Management Agency in Washington, D.C.

And I think you're going to see that this is really a theme across the board. The other side of the aisle believes in centralized decision-making. The Democrats believe that the best decisions are made in Washington, D.C., whereas I believe that best decisions are made by individuals.

And so to give more power to the states, more powers to individuals, certainly, I think you're going to continue to see federal support. The Congress is going to demand that, as well they should. And if we can find a better, more efficient way to operate, then that's what we ought to be looking to do.

The reality is, we have $36 trillion in debt in this country. Doing things exactly the same way that they have always been done, honestly, it's not an option because it's going to destroy our country if we don't get control of our national debt.

Amna Nawaz:

That is Republican Governor from the state of Mississippi Tate Reeves joining us tonight.

Governor Reeves, sir, thank you for your time. We appreciate it.

Gov. Tate Reeves:

Always great to be on. Thank you.