A conference committee on House Bill 1015 adopted an amendment that replaces the term "childcare facility" with "early childhood program" in the bill and changes a related payment schedule from quarterly to monthly, committee members said.

Senator Sean Cleary, who represents District 35 and introduced the change, told the committee the amendment is a technical fix that aligns the bill's language with the state code and with how the Department of Health and Human Services administers similar programs. "It's a technical change, or technical fix, to some childcare funding that we adopted in 10/2012," Cleary said, adding the change does not alter funding levels.

Committee members said the changes were discussed previously in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) budget process but were not incorporated into the bill draft the committee received. The amendment also replaces the word "through" with "2" in one section to clarify the program's age scope for infants and toddlers that committee members described as 0-to-3-year-olds. The department asked for payments to be made monthly instead of quarterly to align administration with other programs, Cleary said.

A committee member asked on the record whether legislative counsel and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) viewed the change as purely technical and appropriate for inclusion in the budget bill; the committee was told it would be acceptable to include the language within the OMB budget bill.

The committee adopted amendment 25.0159.02.7 to House Bill 1015 and then voted to report the bill out as amended. No committee speaker reported any increase in appropriations tied to the amendment during the discussion. The amendment and the subsequent passage, as described by committee members, made only administrative and wording adjustments rather than policy or funding changes.

The changes reflect a correction to how the program is described and how payments are scheduled; committee members said the amendment implements feedback from DHHS and preserves the policy intent discussed earlier in the session.

No effective date or implementation schedule beyond the payment-frequency change was specified during the committee discussion.