Committee approves oversight requirement for GROW‑fund pilot projects in HB181

The Senate Rules Committee gave House Bill 181 a due‑pass recommendation after hearing that the bill would require the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) and the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) to jointly develop accountability and evaluation plans for three‑year pilot programs funded by the state’s GROW fund.

The bill’s sponsor told the committee the requirement would make pilot investments subject to front‑end evaluation planning including goals, expected outputs and outcomes, theory of change, monitoring and an evaluation design sufficient to assess causal impacts. The legislation would require program goals, a plan for monitoring performance, a research‑based rationale, statistical methods and timelines for reporting results.

Supporters said the proposal is essential to determine whether new investments are working and to guide legislative decisions about continuation or scaling. Deputy LFC Director John Courtney attended as an expert and said the measure would help ensure the legislature and DFA receive standardized evaluation information when considering multi‑year pilots.

Senators discussed agency and local implementer coordination and sought assurances that agencies would be partners in developing meaningful, measurable performance indicators; sponsors said DFA and LFC would jointly develop metrics in consultation with implementing agencies.

A motion for a due‑pass recommendation carried with six yes votes. The measure now moves forward with a committee recommendation; the sponsor and deputies said they expect to refine technical details with DFA and LFC as the bill proceeds.