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Veterans services proposes temporary nursing pool and warns Build America, Buy America rules delay Boise rebuild funding
Summary
Idaho’s Division of Veteran Services told JFAC it plans a pilot temporary nursing pool to reduce expensive contract nursing and said $43.1 million in federal state‑home grant funding is pending due to Build America, Buy America waiver issues with the VA.
The Idaho Division of Veteran Services asked the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee to approve a personnel shift and one‑time items while describing a federal funding hold‑up for construction of state veterans homes.
Frances Lippett, Legislative Services Office analyst, summarized the division’s staffing and funding situation and the administrator followed with operational detail. Mark Shample, chief administrator for the Division of Veteran Services, described a proposed net transfer of $1.2 million from operating to personnel to establish a pool of 22 temporary benefited state employees who would fill shifts now covered by higher‑cost contract nurses.
Shample said the temporary pool is intended to reduce reliance on contract staffing and lower overall costs. “Because of the staffing challenges with the homes, the division has been relying on state staffing agencies to contract out a substantial portion of that work,” Lippett said; Shample said contracted staff cost roughly three times more than state staff. The division reported a 35% turnover rate among skilled nursing staff in FY2024 and said all four state veterans homes were near capacity.
The division also described a delay in federal funding for capital projects: Lippett said the division received $43,100,000 in federal appropriation for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs state home grant funding to rebuild the Boise veterans home and renovate the Lewiston home. Administrator Shample said the division cannot start the projects because the VA is requiring compliance with the Build America, Buy America Act for federally funded construction; the federal agency has not yet issued a waiver the division says is necessary because some required products are not available from U.S. manufacturers.
Shample told the committee the Build America, Buy America requirement creates a practical barrier: the program is 65% federally funded and 35% state funded, and the division has sought a waiver for the federally funded portion but had not received it by the hearing. He said the single‑bed, single‑bath design the division requested aims to improve infection control, resident privacy and quality of life.
Other FY2026 requests include $120,600 ongoing for IT maintenance and licensing, $588,400 one‑time for a shed and equipment plus a dump truck for a veterans cemetery, $354,700 for replacement items (vehicles, medical equipment, commercial kitchen appliances) and re‑appropriation authority for federal construction grant funding. Lippett said the division’s miscellaneous revenue fund (which includes Medicaid reimbursements) shows a declining balance but that the consolidated analysis overstates the decline because the report uses full appropriations rather than projected expenditures.
Committee members sought additional data on contractor pay premia and the expected pool of temporary nurses that could be recruited. Lippett and Shample said they would provide more detail; Shample said exit interviews indicated many nurses would work on a shift‑by‑shift or part‑time basis if those positions were available and that the proposed 22‑position pilot reflects that recruitment feedback.
No final appropriations were taken during the presentation; the division asked JFAC to consider the nurse‑pool pilot as a cost‑reduction initiative and urged action on the VA waiver to unlock federal construction funds.
