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Committee reconsiders LD 63 and approves amendment to fix fiscal transfer language
Summary
The Legislature's Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services reconsidered LD 63 during a budget work session and voted unanimously to report the bill "ought to pass as amended," replacing a transfer instruction in the fiscal note with appropriation language to enable federal matching funds.
The Legislature's Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services reconsidered LD 63 during a work session on the department's portion of the biennial budget and voted unanimously to report the bill "ought to pass as amended." The change removes a transfer instruction in the bill's fiscal note and replaces it with appropriation language intended to allow state funds to be moved within the Department of Health and Human Services so the program can receive federal matching funds.
A staff member from the analysts' office told the committee the fiscal note included a line directing a transfer between general fund accounts within DHHS that is not necessary. The staff member said the same result — making funds available in the medical care payment-to-providers program so federal matching can be claimed — can be achieved by deappropriating funds from the OVH fund and appropriating them to the medical care payment program instead.
After discussion, a member moved to reconsider LD 63. The committee then considered an amendment that struck the original transfer language and inserted an appropriations-and-allocations section consistent with the department's intent for Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs). Representative Kathy Jovner moved that the committee report LD 63 "ought to pass as amended." Representative Michael Lemlin seconded the motion. The committee voted, and the motion carried unanimously.
Committee staff and members noted the bill must be finalized by the reviser's office before it can be issued in final form; a staff speaker said the reviser's office was busy but that staff would seek to expedite the language at the department's request. No statutes or specific statutory citations were referenced during the discussion on the transcript.
The amendment is procedural in form but intended to preserve the state's eligibility to claim federal matching funds for the CCBHC demonstration-state funding mechanism by changing how funds are moved within DHHS rather than directing an intra-agency transfer.
