Medicaid expansion dispute keeps Va. lawmakers from reaching budget deal

By Max Smith
March 8, 2018 | 11:49 AM

WASHINGTON — The dispute over Medicaid expansion in Virginia has resulted in failure to reach a budget deal.

Lawmakers in Richmond have failed to reach an agreement on a spending plan due to the disagreement.

The legislative session was supposed to end this week. This dispute means either the session will need to be extended, or a special session will be called. A special session would have until June 30 to get a budget deal done.

The House included Medicaid expansion in its budget, but the Senate did not. That leaves the Senate budget hundreds of millions short of the House spending plan.

WTOP will update this developing story.

Breaking the silence around suicide: A Virginia mother shares thoughts on prevention

By Kate Ryan
September 1, 2026 | 4:22 AM

September is Suicide Prevention Month, and Betsy Stephenson, an Alexandria, Virginia, resident and a mother who lost her son to suicide, wants people to talk about it. "By not talking about suicide, we are not going to make it go away. In fact, I think that we could inadvertently give it a little more power than it deserves," she told WTOP. One of the things that Stephenson wants families to know is that people who are struggling can appear to be doing well. "You can be very high-functioning as a depressed person or an anxious person," she said. "You can be connected socially. You can be doing well at school or work. You can be making plans, smiling, laughing, engaged, but still be struggling deeply, you know, cosmically, inside."

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