BATON ROUGE- State legislators are urging Governor John Bel Edwards to fund a project that would bring an emergency room to North Baton Rouge.

On Monday, legislators met with the governor to discuss plans to open an emergency department a Champion Medical Center by the end of January 2017.

However, Governor Edwards did not agree to fund the project in the regular session.

According to Senator Regina Barrow, the project would be an opportunity to expand health care services at an affordable cost, create new jobs and expand economic development in the North Baton Rouge area.

There has been nearly $40 million invested into the facility at Champion Medical Center without any tax payer support.

Senator Barrow says that she along with others will continue to fight for the project.

"I am disappointed that we are ending this regular session without being able to address the critical health care needs of the citizens of North Baton Rouge," Senator Barrow said.

"There are still viable solutions on the table that we will continue to explore. It is not about what we may want, what we may consider the optimum solution, but what we need and what the hard-working citizens of North Baton Rouge deserve."

In the statement, lawmakers did say that Our Lady of the Lake was considering expanding its urgent care facility on Florida Boulevard to include emergency services. 

News 2 contacted the hospital and a spokesperson released the following statement on the hospital's behalf: “We continue to work with DHH to explore the issue.”