The Senate is preparing to adjourn sine die – ending its session for this year – tonight. One sign that they’re not leaving like the House did to come back in the morning: They’ve ordered pizza.

“They either concur they don’t concur,” Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, said of the House, which still has to decide whether to concur in Senate amendments to the health care bill. Those amendments to HB 644 include directing the state Department of Health & Welfare to apply for a waiver from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to tap federal Medicaid expansion funds as a block grant, to be used to cover the 78,000 Idahoans who make less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level with a new managed-care program.

As for a possible conference committee, Hill said, “We’ve talked about that. That’s probably not an option.” He said, “We’ve discussed it. It’s in their court.”