JFAC reviews Public Health Services budget, department seeks to restore programs cut to one-time funding

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Monday reviewed the Department of Health and Welfare’s Division of Public Health Services budget, focusing on a request to restore programs that were moved from ongoing to one-time funding and on a package of federal grant-driven data modernization and workforce initiatives.

Keith Bybee, division manager for budget policy analysis, told the committee the division’s FY2025 appropriation was $164,020,000 and that the FY2026 governor’s request and agency materials show structural shifts driven by CARES Act and ARPA awards in prior years. “What you’re seeing is the downstream effect of all of the CARES Act and ARPA funds that were going through this program at the time,” Bybee said, describing a move of several programs from ongoing to one-time authority and a resulting “true up” of expenditures to appropriated levels.

The request includes both one-time and ongoing elements. One-time items (listed in the agency request and presented on page 266 of the budget book) total about $8,752,500 and are primarily federal ARPA-related carryovers, the department said. Ongoing restoration requests total roughly $20.8 million on the agency request side; the governor recommended about $21.5 million, including an adjustment for program restorations and a $500,000 general fund initiative for a rural physician incentive program.

Why it matters: Committee members pressed the department on which programs are essential, how federal carryover funding…