Senator introduces RS to align bureau chiefs with division standards in Department of Health and Welfare; committee prints proposal

On Jan. 22 the Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to print RS 32-014, a legislative recommendation from Sen. Brian Lenny to alter internal staffing oversight in the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

In remarks to the committee, Lenny described the Department of Health and Welfare as “the largest agency in the state with somewhere hovering around 3,000 employees and a $6,000,000,000 budget,” and said the department is organized into divisions and bureaus. Lenny said some bureau chiefs oversee hundreds of employees and multi-million-dollar operations and that current structure gives division heads oversight but not comparable accountability at the bureau chief level.

“For example, the benefit field operations has 418 FTPs where the entire Department of Agriculture has 249,” Lenny said, citing staffing comparisons to justify increased oversight. Lenny said RS 32-014 “aligns bureau staffing with division standards to ensure accountability in the Department of Health and Welfare for Idaho taxpayers.” He said the recommended change would bring bureau supervision into alignment with division standards and cited prior examples raised in committee discussions of where oversight had failed.

Senator Keiser moved to send RS 32-014 to print; Senator Seiderfeld seconded. The committee voted in favor.

Nut graf: The proposed change would require the Department of Health and Welfare to apply division-level standards to bureau chiefs, increasing legislative oversight of managers who supervise large staff and budgets. The RS is at an early stage and will be drafted into bill language for a hearing.

Ending: RS 32-014 will be drafted and scheduled for a future hearing where the department and external stakeholders can testify.