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Senators seek $1.2 million for hospital maternity services amid reported program closure
Summary
Several amendments would provide $1.2 million to a hospital whose maternity services senators said will close April 30; sponsors proposed drawing the money from animal welfare, higher education and other line items depending on the amendment.
Senators repeatedly raised an amendment allocating $1.2 million to a hospital that senators said is losing its maternity unit on April 30. The sponsor described the proposal as a supplemental allocation to support the hospital’s maternity program.
Senator Kirkmeyer introduced the topic, saying, “everybody's probably heard the Lahana, hospital is losing their maternity department here, April 30. So with that, I'm pulling money, from, department of, animal welfare and and, HCPCS to put $1,200,000 down to that hospital.” Later in the packet Senator Pelton presented a related amendment that also added $1.2 million for the maternity program and described it as drawing on the general fund as a backup if other offsets were not agreed.
Why it matters: Sponsors said the funds would preserve local maternity capacity in the near term. The transcript includes multiple, slightly different spellings and references to the hospital (for example “Lahana” and a later reference to what sounded like “Lehi AHANA Regional Medical Center”); staff and senators asked for clarification and line‑item sourcing during the caucus.
Discussion and status: At caucus, senators described the amendment as either pulling the funds from specific departmental cash lines (for example, the Division of Animal Welfare in the Department of Agriculture and an environmental justice ombudsperson line in CDPHE) or as a general‑fund supplemental if other offsets are not secured. Sponsors did not finalize a vote in caucus and asked staff to confirm the precise source lines and whether proposed transfers would affect ongoing programs or grants.
Ending: Sponsors said they would continue to coordinate with staff to confirm the correct line items and to gather votes prior to formal committee consideration.
