JACKSON – Late Monday night, House Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, announced that an agreement had been reached on funding for Medicaid that if passed today would fund the agency for the fiscal year beginning Wednesday.

An agreement for Medicaid -- which provides health care for about 600,000 elderly, disabled and poor, pregnant women and children -- is the primary issue left to be dealt with during the current special session, called by Gov. Haley Barbour, to try to reach an agreement on the state budget before Wednesday.

About 11:05 p.m. Monday, McCoy announced from the House floor that an agreement had been reached and that Barbour would include the issue in the special session agenda.

"We will be ready to go on it in the morning," McCoy said before adjourning the House after what was a long Monday.

For the second day in a row, the Legislature worked until near midnight to beat the clock and pass a budget to prevent the possible shutdown of much of state government.

The $2.5-billion budget to fund public education was among the dozens of appropriations bills passed Monday.

For more on this story, see Tuesday's Daily Journal.