Longview, TX — East Texas lawmakers won appointments Thursday to key legislative committees, including one area representative who will hit the ground running next week as a member of the state budget-writing House Appropriations Committee.

“We underfunded Medicaid last time, and that’s got to be dealt with real quick,” Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, said of a supplemental budget bill that’s needed to shore up the federal/state medical partnership that legislators funded for 18 months instead of 24 months when they met in 2011.

Coming into his sixth term in the Texas House, Hughes had asked Speaker Joe Straus for that committee assignment based on his seniority. Hughes opposed Straus when House members chose the San Antonio Republican to lead the lower chamber in Austin, first as a candidate and then as a supporter of Longview Republican David Simpson for the post.

Simpson bowed out on the first morning of the 83rd Legislative Session this past month, but concern remained that Straus would retaliate in the committee assignments he issued.

Read more from the Longview News-Journal.