Kansas Senate president ousts Pilcher-Cook as committee chair

Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle has ousted Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook from a committee chairmanship after she tried to force a vote on Medicaid expansion.

Sen. Michael O’Donnell, R-Wichita, has been named interim chair of the Senate Public Health and Welfare committee.

Wagle, R-Wichita, said in a statement that Pilcher-Cook had flouted rules and shown disrespect for the Senate by trying to attach an amendment on Medicaid expansion to an unrelated bill Tuesday.

Loss of the seat prompted Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnee, to send an e-mail to reporters linking Wagle to Obamacare and contending that Wagle was trying “to push conservative principles aside” to further “her own political agenda.”

Wagle rejected those assertions.

The actions stem from a Senate debate Tuesday on a bill that would enable the state to enact step therapy for Medicaid recipients. Pilcher-Cook offered an amendment to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, even though she opposes it. She said voting on the amendment would send a message to the Kansas House, where support for expansion is thought to be stronger than in the Senate.

The Senate Rules Committee determined that the amendment violated the chamber’s rule because it too greatly expanded the scope of the underlying bill.

Pilcher-Cook challenged the ruling, but it was upheld by a vote of the Senate as a whole.

Comparison to Boehner

In her e-mail, Pilcher-Cook wrote: “With special interest groups and Hillary Clinton pushing for this policy change, I felt it was an opportunity to have a debate in the open. … However, the Senate President knew her support for Obamacare expansion would have put her at odds with the vast majority of the Republican caucus and she did not want a recorded vote.”

She compared Wagle to former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican who stepped down from his position in October in the face of increasing resistance from tea party conservatives, and to former Kansas Senate President Steve Morris.

Wagle was elevated to the Senate presidency after Morris lost a primary race in 2012. She had led a conservative coalition that had often feuded with more moderate Republicans led by Morris.

“Just like President Morris and Speaker Boehner, the Senate president will soon learn that power plays of this scale against conservatives do not work,” Pilcher-Cook warned in her statement.

Wagle’s response

Wagle rejected Pilcher-Cook’s characterization of the events. She said Senate rules clearly state “that a member may not amend a bill with items unrelated to the original legislation.”

“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.

“It showed complete disrespect for the body and its rules,” Wagle said. “I hope that Senator Pilcher-Cook’s removal makes that point very clear.”

Wagle also rejected Pilcher-Cook’s contention that she supports the Affordable Care Act. She said the Senate would take up Medicaid expansion soon but would “do so by following the rules of the Senate.”

Wagle has stopped short of endorsing Medicaid expansion, but she has previously said that as a cancer survivor and the mother of a cancer survivor she is open to exploring ways to expand health coverage to more Kansans.

Senator’s history

Pilcher-Cook had clashed with Senate leadership before during her tenure as public health chair.

In 2014, she held a hearing on a bill that would ban surrogacy. The bill was seen as being aimed at same-sex couples but it also sparked backlash from heterosexual couples who were unable to conceive children.

Wagle issued a statement the day of the hearing saying the bill would not be allowed to proceed to the Senate floor, effectively killing it.

Tom Witt, executive director of the gay-rights group Equality Kansas, who had led opposition to the surrogacy bill, said in an e-mail that Pilcher-Cook had used her chairmanship “to satisfy her own ideological agenda.”

“She has publicly berated advocates and activists with whom she disagrees, made last-minute changes to hearing schedules meant to exclude people she dislikes, and insulted witnesses who have appeared before her committee,” Witt said. “We are elated that her reign of unprofessionalism – and outright meanness – has come to an end.”

Pilcher-Cook oversaw the passage of a bill last year that placed numerous new restrictions on welfare recipients. She also held a hearing in 2014 in which a live sonogram was performed at the Capitol on the same day as an anti-abortion rally.

O’Donnell undecided

O’Donnell said he has not decided whether to become the permanent chair of the committee, though Wagle had offered that to him

He is friends with Pilcher-Cook, he said, and he supported the rules challenge along with 14 other senators last week.

“That puts me in an awkward position,” he said, adding that he wants to talk to colleagues before deciding.

He said the chairmanship “wasn’t on my wish list or agenda.”

“I don’t want to be seen as anyone causing a division or anyone that is causing drama,” he said. “We have enough problems in the state right now.”

He amended his words moments later to “a lot of challenges and opportunities.”

Contributing: Stan Finger of The Eagle

This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 1:22 PM with the headline "Kansas Senate president ousts Pilcher-Cook as committee chair."