Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard says he never tried to insert language into the state budget to help direct business to a company that had ties to his own.
Hubbard's comments come in the wake of Rep. Greg Wren's resignation and guilty plea Tuesday to an ethics violation.
Wren admitted trying to put language into the state budget to help American Pharmacy Cooperative Inc. of Bessemer get state Medicaid business. Wren's plea agreement says Hubbard supported the language and directed it be added to the budget.
Hubbard acknowledged American Pharmacy Cooperative hired his media company in 2012 to do work in other states — but says he never tried to insert the language into the budget to help the cooperative.
Hubbard says the company never contacted him about the language.