Committee sends measure moving mental‑health and substance‑use program rules into Idaho code to print

Sen. Julie Van Orden, District 30, asked the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on the record to send RS31829 to print. The measure would move three sets of Department of Health and Welfare regulations—children's mental health services, adult mental health services, and substance use disorder services—into Idaho statute rather than leaving them solely in the administrative rule chapter.

Van Orden told the committee the measure "doesn't increase or decrease services to anybody. It only moves existing program regulations into statute so that the legislature would be able to address them, in Idaho code instead of going in through the administrative rule process." She identified one statutory location for children's mental health services as Idaho Code, Title 16, chapter 24, and said the RS would move definitions and eligibility and screening requirements into statute and then repeal the corresponding rule sections effective July 1, the same day the statutory provisions would take effect.

The committee took a motion to send RS31829 to print. Senator Blaylock moved the motion and Senator Lehi seconded it. After brief procedure the committee approved the motion on a voice vote.

Committee members did not debate substantive changes to services during the presentation; Van Orden characterized the measure as a codification/relocation of existing regulatory text rather than a change in program scope or benefits.

The committee record shows RS31829 will proceed to a print hearing for introduction and further consideration.