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Senate Finance Committee votes to print bill moving Office of Administrative Hearings into statewide cost-allocation model
Summary
At its first meeting of the year, the Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved printing a bill that would place the Office of Administrative Hearings into the statewide cost-allocation program (SWICAP).
At its first meeting of the year, the Senate Finance Committee unanimously approved printing a bill that would place the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) into the statewide cost-allocation program known as SWICAP, the Division of Financial Management told the committee.
Lori Wolf, administrator for the Division of Financial Management, told the committee the office was established in fiscal year 2023 with general-fund appropriations for initial operations and that the bill would give the division statutory authority to include OAH in the SWICAP model and to charge agencies that use OAH services for their share of costs.
"The Office of Administrative Hearings was established back in fiscal year 23, and they were appropriated general funds for their initial operations," Wolf said. She said the division must begin estimating costs in fiscal year 2026 because SWICAP uses a two-year look-back period and that the office would fully move into the SWICAP model in fiscal year 2028. Wolf also said OAH recently began handling cases for the Department of Health and Welfare and the bill would allow the division to direct-bill that department for those cases.
When a committee member asked whether costs would be charged only to agencies that use OAH or spread more broadly, Wolf said, "The plan is that it would just be allocated to those agencies who utilize Office of Administrative Hearings. And once we have those cost estimates over the next 2 years, it'll help us better understand exactly who is charged."
The committee made a motion to print the bill and approved it by unanimous consent after a second from Senator Cook. The routing slip number was read aloud during the meeting; the transcript records both "323 436" and later "32436" when committee members requested routing slips be printed. Committee staff said the bill will return for a full hearing at a later date.
No formal roll-call vote was recorded in the transcript; the committee proceeded by unanimous consent to print the routing slip and advance the bill to be drafted and scheduled for a future hearing.
