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Senate committee sends bill to limit Health and Welfare policy changes with budget effects out of session
Summary
Senate Health and Welfare senators voted to send House Bill 90 to the Senate floor with a do-pass recommendation; the bill would restrict the Department of Health and Welfare from adopting policy changes with budget implications outside the legislative session without legislative approval.
Senate Health and Welfare senators voted to send House Bill 90 to the Senate floor with a do-pass recommendation after debate over whether the Department of Health and Welfare should be able to make policy changes outside of the legislative session when those changes carry budget implications.
Senator Brian Linney presented House Bill 90, telling the committee the bill prevents the department from making policy decisions with budget implications outside the legislative session without legislative input. Linney cited what he described as a recent example involving Idaho’s childcare program, saying changes made through a State Plan Amendment (SPA) and rule changes resulted in the program being paused and left the program hundreds of millions or tens of millions of dollars in deficit depending on the speaker’s recollection; one speaker in the transcript said the result was "$50,000,000 in the hole," while Senator Linney later said "$15,000,000 in the hole." Linney framed the bill as a response to those events and said the bill is about accountability.
Senator Melissa Wintrow, who said she was on the committee when some of the related rulemaking occurred, said the department had presented estimates to the committee and that the committee supported expanding the program at the time because it would provide services to more people; she cautioned that if the legislature puts all detail into law it might reduce flexibility. Wintrow said she would consider voting for the bill but urged the legislature to weigh potential downsides of restricting agency flexibility.
After brief debate, Senator Keiser moved to send the bill to the floor with a do-pass recommendation; Senator Shippey seconded. The committee voice-voted the motion and recorded no opposition after a technical change to Senator Wintrow’s recorded vote was made at the clerk’s direction.
The bill will go next to the full Senate for further consideration.
