Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon says his administration has identified some additional federal money that could help avoid cuts to a program that provides health benefits to the blind.
Nixon's administration said Wednesday that most of the additional $18 million of federal Medicaid money could be used to restore the blind benefit cuts included in a budget plan passed by the House.
That budget plan would eliminate a $30 million health care program for the blind and replace it with a slimmed-down, $6 million program. Nixon has opposed the cut. But House Republicans say it is necessary to avoid making a cut that Nixon had proposed to public colleges and universities.
Nixon's new budget recommendations will be considered first by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
