Senate Finance Committee votes to print bill to add Office of Administrative Hearings to statewide cost-allocation

At a meeting of the Senate Finance Committee (date not specified), members granted unanimous consent to print a bill, routing slip 32436, to give statutory authority to include the Office of Administrative Hearings in the Statewide Cost Allocation Program (SWICAP) and to allow direct billing to the Department of Health and Welfare.

The bill would authorize the Division of Financial Management to estimate and allocate the Office of Administrative Hearings' costs under the SWICAP method. "What this bill does is ensure that we have the statutory authority to move Office of Administrative Hearings into our, we call it our SWICAP model," said Lori Wolf, Administrator, Division of Financial Management.

Wolf told the committee the Office of Administrative Hearings was established in fiscal year 2023 and received initial general-fund appropriations. She said the office has taken on additional work, including cases for the Department of Health and Welfare, and that bringing the office into SWICAP will allow the division to allocate costs to the agencies that use the hearing services.

Committee discussion was brief. The committee's vice chair asked, "what will these costs be just to agencies that utilize the service or spread across?" Wolf replied that the plan "is that it would just be allocated to those agencies who utilize Office of Administrative Hearings," noting staff will develop cost estimates over the next two years under the SWICAP look-back process.

A motion to print the bill was made by the vice chair of the committee and seconded by Senator Cook. The chair asked for unanimous consent to print routing slip 32436; hearing no objections, the committee ordered the routing slip printed. Committee members and staff said the printed bill will return for a full hearing, at which members may ask further questions and examine the cost estimates.

The action does not itself change funding or allocation; DFM will prepare cost estimates beginning in fiscal year 2026, and Wolf said the office would fully move into SWICAP in fiscal year 2028.