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Committee backs regional behavioral health amendment, reduces $100 million request to $64 million and sets bill aside for later debate
Summary
Senators adopted an amendment to a bill that would fund regional behavioral health capacity; the amendment reduced the originally proposed $100 million set-aside to $64 million and left further action for later in the session.
The committee heard and adopted an amendment presented by Senator Mark Mather that reshaped a proposal for behavioral health capacity into a regional approach and reduced an original $100 million placeholder in the sponsor’s draft to $64 million.
Senator Mather described the amendment as an alternative to constructing a single large state hospital project in Jamestown: rather than a single new state facility, the proposal would provide state funds to help build or adapt regional behavioral health capacity in four larger population centers. He said the figure of $64 million was informed by concrete project proposals, including a reported $16 million proposal from a Bismarck hospital.
Committee members debated operational and policy trade-offs. Supporters argued regional beds keep patients closer to home and reduce trauma associated with long-distance transfers; others warned the policy could spread difficult-to-serve patients across multiple communities and that follow-up discussions are needed on how services would be staffed and paid.
Formal action: the committee adopted the amendment (motion by Senator Mather, second by Senator Davison) and then agreed to set Senate Bill 2096 aside for further work and possible later consideration. No final appropriation or do-pass recommendation was made at the hearing; the committee said it would revisit the bill in committee next week.
Quotations (from hearing): "This is an alternative that we should consider, and that's having regional healthcare delivered for behavioral health," Senator Mather said.
Ending: The amendment passed at committee narrows the sponsor’s funding placeholder to a geographically distributed approach and signals further debate in the coming weeks on costs, staffing and programmatic details.
