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Committee advances bill moving certain daycare immunization rules from agency rule into statute
Summary
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to send House Bill 290 to the floor with a due-pass recommendation after debate over whether moving existing administrative rules into statute would limit public rulemaking and could force exclusions of children during outbreaks.
Representative Healy presented House Bill 290 to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, saying the bill would move existing public-health rules into statute so the department could not issue temporary rules outside the legislative session. “By doing this, we're putting the control back into the elected officials,” Representative Healy said.
The bill would place several existing rules that had previously been enforced through administrative rulemaking into statute. Key provisions discussed include a section that would allow a licensed daycare facility to exclude a child “not meeting the conditions of this section” until the child is in compliance, and language authorizing the department to randomly select and visit licensed daycare facilities to evaluate compliance and record violations in writing.
Senator Wintrow questioned whether moving rules into statute would reduce opportunities for public input that normally occur during rulemaking. “When we do rulemaking, we have all kinds of public input,” Senator Wintrow said, urging the committee to consider whether the rules carried significant public comment historically. Representative Healy said he did not review the history of public comments for each rule but recalled “little to no comment” on this particular item during previous rule processes and that moving the language into statute would allow the Legislature to revisit the language.
Senator Ziderfeld raised particular concern about the exclusion provision in section 4, asking whether the clause could require children to be excluded during an outbreak “until they come into compliance.” Representative Healy replied that the exclusion language has “always been there” in the rules and that moving it into statute might create an opportunity to reassess whether that language should remain.
Senator Seiderfeld said she would vote no, citing concern about possible unintended consequences of codifying the rules. “I will be voting no on this because I do believe that, there's going to be some unintended consequences down the road,” she said.
After public comment period yielded no speakers, Senator Buerke moved to send House Bill 290 to the floor with a due-pass recommendation; the motion was seconded by Senator Harris. The committee carried the motion; Senators Ziderfeld and Wintrow cast the only recorded nays and the motion proceeded with a due-pass recommendation to the floor.
The bill’s text references existing administrative rules that formerly governed the subject matter; committee members noted the move transfers final authority over these provisions from the executive agency to the Legislature unless subsequently amended through statute or rulemaking processes.
