JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Drama erupted at the Mississippi State Capitol on Thursday as lawmakers continued to work on an deal to expand Medicaid for Mississippi’s working poor.

At the conclusion of Tuesday’s first public Medicaid expansion conference negotiations, House Conferee Missy McGee (R-District 102) said she would like to meet again as soon as possible.

There was no meeting on Wednesday, but one was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Thursday. The three House conferees showed up, but their counterparts in the Senate did not.

Thursday’s meeting lasted all of five minutes and was met with disappointment from the House conferees.

“I think we had a really good discussion two days ago that started the conversation between the Senate plan and the House plan. And I really felt like we made some good progress, and that was a good conversation that we had on that day. I was hoping that we would be able to resume that today, but as you can see and as I can see, apparently the Senate conferees are not going to be able to make it today. So, I’m disappointed in that. We know that this is a historic piece of legislation, possibly one of the biggest legislative priorities of the session,” said McGee.

Two of the three Senate conferees, Senators Kevin Blackwell (R-District 19) and Brice Wiggins (R-District 52), were at a separate committee meeting during the Medicaid expansion conference meeting.

In a comment, Blackwell said, “The House asked us to work on a compromise that went up to 138% of FPL. And that is what we are doing. Thus, there is nothing to present to them at the present time. Plus, I had a public health committee to attend.”

Wiggins and the third Senate Conferee Nicole Boyd (R-District 9) did not provide a comment.

No conference meeting has been scheduled at this time for Friday.