Big hearing coming up

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee will reconvene on Thursday morning, and its agenda is packed. On the schedule: Reconsidering cuts in the DEQ’s air quality program, reconsidering caps on the Children’s Health Insurance Program and possibly other items in the Medicaid budget, and increasing the budget for pay for acting governors - because Gov. Dirk Kempthorne is gone so much for National Governors Association activities that the replacement pay is running out.